Scarred Survivors
by IdiAmeanDada
Summary: In order to get by, we draw our strength from each other.
1. Chapter 1

l

 **SCARRED SURVIVORS**

An Ah! My Goddess story  
A labor of love brought about by a dream.  
Authors: HotelKatz, IdiAmeanDada, Nena Camadera  
Based on the original concept by IdiAmeanDada

The Authors own nothing except any original content and the shirts on their backs.

This story is rated 'M' for coarse language and adult/objectionable themes.

-1-

 _Sometimes being a friend means mastering the art of timing. There is a time for silence. A time to let go and allow people to hurl themselves into their own destiny. And a time to prepare to pick up the pieces when it's all over._ \- Octavia Butler

The goddess Urd sighed as she leaned back in her chair.

"All these terminals, all this power, and I still can't reach Belldandy," she grumbled, spinning her chair around in a manner more befitting a child than an adult. Her purple robes twirled around her, and as they settled once more the dark woman sighed. Ten years had passed since a mortal had made an impossible wish that bound Urd's younger half-sister to the mortal realm. Since then the middle Norn had forbidden any contact with her or the man that was now Belldandy's husband.

Initially, everyone assumed that the wish would be nullified by the Judgement Gate before they could consummate their relationship. Yet while word had reached them that such an act had occurred, there'd been no indication of the Judgment Gate's activation. When Urd had asked her step-mother Ansuz about it, the goddess stated sadly that there was a missing component that was required to trigger the much hated test: love. The mortal bound to the Norn did not love her, and Belldandy did not appear to love him either. Additionally, there was a flutter in the system force that also seemed to be preventing the Judgment Gate from activating.

Since then, the silver haired goddess had been trying to contact Belldandy to get some additional information on the mortal in order to find some loop-hole that would allow her to null the wish. Yet Belldandy never returned any of her calls. Every attempt at contact was met with static, or worse yet, a pre-recorded message from Belldandy dissuading her family from contacting her further.

 _Until now?_ Wondered Urd as she was alerted to a beeping on her terminal. Swiveling the chair to face the screen, the woman hit the answer button, face brightening with the hope that Belldandy had finally seen fit to reply. Looking at a screen she cried, "Belldandy, it—Oh, it's you, Lind." The goddess's voice fell flat. "What do you want?" The Norn deflated, her expression darkening as she glared at the Valkyrie.

The blue haired goddess on the screen scowled at Urd. "I'm here to tell you that if you continue to harass Belldandy, then you will be suspended from your position as Yggdrasil's administrator. If there are further attempts following that, you will have your license suspended as well," Lind warned.

The Norn slammed a fist on the table. "Oh, come off it, Lind! Belldandy is family!" Urd snarled in frustration. "Just because she's bound to some jerk doesn't mean she has to shut us out of her life!"

"Skuld stopped trying two years ago," replied the Valkyrie evenly. "You both should have stopped after you received the cease and desist notification ordering you to halt all attempts at contacting her ten years ago."

"She's family. That's all that matters. I'm not going to stop being a part of her life just because of some stupid mortal's wish. Besides, I honestly think her 'hubby' is bad news," Urd said, her tone darkening with anger.

"If that is the case, then why did he get a wish?" Lind asked.

Urd paused at that, a sudden flash of inspiration striking her, "...Good point. I'll talk to you later. Gotta go check the GRO's client list and stuff."

"Urd, you-" Lind uttered before Urd cut contact.

 _Ten years and no one ever thought to check this?_ Urd began hammering away are her console. Her fingers danced up a storm until she managed to open up Belldandy's client list. Her eyes grew large as she stared at the resulting scroll. The elder Norn had forgotten just how many clients Belldandy had attended in the past. Just as she began to scroll down, one of her security programs began to beep, alerting her to another divinity's attempts to block her.

Fortunately, the nameless deity had nowhere near the experience she did. "Piss off, Bitch." Urd whispered. "I don't screw around where my sisters are involved." Yet the intrusion meant her time was limited, and with a renewed sense of urgency she scrolled through the long list until she found what she needed. Pulling up access logs from that same time period, she cross-referenced them with the timing of the wish.

Urd scowled at the screen. "This can't be right," she muttered. But the data she staring at was irrefutable. Quickly, she pulled a crystal data encoder from between her breasts and slipped it into a receptacle in the console, then began downloading the data she needed into it.

Urd's face went three shades lighter when she heard pounding at her office door. "URD! Open this door immediately!" Lind screamed. The soldier was attempting to gain entry via the locked access panel with one hand while slammed her other fist into the metal door keeping her out. Urd glanced down at the screen again only to see that the download was not finished yet. The progress bar was moving at snail's pace, and Urd didn't have the time to spare when there was a war goddess attempting to break into her office with brute strength.

"Come on you piece of shit!" cursed the silver haired goddess as she smacked the side of the terminal. As if the act of violence had scared the system, the progress bar leapt across the other side of the screen, indicating that that the download was complete. Urd smiled to herself before snatching the data crystal and burying it from whence it came. She logged off just as her office door was kicked open, allowing Lind to march in.

"Urd! I warned you. If you-"

"Alright, alright. I stopped, okay?" Her heart was pounding. Lind looked livid. "Look, I'm leaving so I can go drink my ass off." Urd stood up, raising her hands to show they were empty. "It's not like you'll let me do anything else." She muttered under her breath.

"Where?" Lind demanded. She stood between Urd and the door's threshold, blocking the one physical path out of the private office.

"America, geez." The goddess made a show of running her hand through her hair. "I have a mortal drinking buddy down there. Saved my life once, if you can believe that. Since he's in one of the armed forces there, I might introduce you one day," Urd answered as she surreptitiously glanced at the monitor behind her. "Maybe he can dig out that stick that's shoved so far up your ass and replace it with something you'd enjoy more. But you'll have to stop being a cunt first. Toodles!"

The terminal behind Urd began to glow as she spoke. Before Lind could react, or even retort, the silver-haired goddess dove into the screen and disappeared. "Dammit," cursed the blue haired Valkyrie as she reached up and pressed a gold pendant on her collar. "Access Control, Lind. I need a trace on an unauthorized transport, my location."

" _Acknowledged_ ," came the reply. The seconds stretched on as Lind waited, the soldier impatiently drumming her fingers on the desk in front of her. At last there was a beep indicating her follow-up. " _Lind, Access Control. I'm sorry commander, the hard line was encrypted. There's no way to trace it._ "

Lind did not reply right away. Instead she took in a long, deep breath. "Get me those two new recruits." She stated. "We're going on a training mission." _Urd will NOT interfere with Belldandy or her client._ She heard the affirmative from the Valkyrie in Access Control, and with it released the breath she'd been holding. A golden sheen flitted across her eyes for a brief moment. Right after, the Valkyrie smashed her fist into the terminal screen in front of her, where the monitor shattered into iridescent crystal shards.

XXX

After stepping out of the television store she materialized in, Urd inhaled, taking in the salty air from the nearby ocean. It was later into the night here, and as such the store was closed in light of the night crowds that enjoyed barhopping. Satisfied that no one noticed her departure, the Norn paused in front of the shop's reflective glass to straighten out the black dress she was wearing to blend it. Satisfied with the minor adjustments, the woman winked at her reflection before ducking into an ally. Being in a port city, there was no absence of water. Finding a good-sized puddle that would fit her needs, the goddess glanced around to ensure no one was watching before kneeling down and removing the data crystal from between her breasts.

While water was her youngest sister's travel medium and not hers, Urd could still use it to send and receive messages to the brat. Keeping her voice low, she chanted a spell in the programming language of the gods. A silver orb, its surface shimmering like mercury, formed around the crystal. "Skuld," started the silver haired goddess. "I need you to analyze the information on this data crystal _off line_. I think I have a lead on getting Belldandy back. Send me a text with a summary of what you find when you finish."

The surface of the orb shimmered again, indicating that the message had been recorded. Satisfied, she dropped it into the puddle, watching it disappear from sight. When it vanished, the goddess straightened. Clapping her hands together as if trying to knock off some dust, Urd smiled and exited the ally. Turning to her left, she headed down the street. While it was lined with bars as far as the eye could see, there was one in particular she was looking for. After a short walk, she found it and stepped in, using a quick mind trick that placated the bouncer at the door who was taking the cover for the nightshift.

Military paraphernalia lined the wall of the somewhat nautically themed establishment. It was done in a tasteful way, so as not to look tacky to anyone who stepped in. However, the décor left no doubt in anyone's mind what clientele the owner was targeting. This was definitely a 'squid' bar.

As she waded into the throng of US Navy sailors, she ignored the amorous glances of the men, and the vicious, jealous looks from the women. It wasn't her fault she had caught the eye of the men they were with. She was looking for someone in particular, and she figured she knew where to look.

In the back of the bar, tucked away in a private corner, a group of men sat around a table with a golden emblem that depicted an eagle holding an old fashioned musket in one talon, a trident in another, with an anchor in the middle of it. While most of the sailors in the room were wearing their whites, these men were wearing what only superficially resembled battle dress uniforms. Each one had customized it to some extent to suit their own tastes, regardless of military regulation. After the amount of training and missions these men had gone through, the amount of fucks given for dress code were slim to none and a topic rarely disputed in the open.

Urd looked at each of the men, who have yet to notice her, before spotting her quarry. There were four of them total, each one built like a tank. Her eyes lit up as they came across one man in particular, and with her gaze set on him she strode forward. Unlike the others of the group, he was a Japanese man of average height but muscular build _. He gets bigger every time I see him,_ Urd thought. _His biceps have to be bigger than my skull at this point_. Her eyes looked to his companions and inwardly, she grimaced. _Maybe they should all lay off the protein shakes._

"So, Jank, have you reached the point where you can crush melons with your biceps yet?"

The Japanese man eyed the other man at the table that asked, then flexed his biceps for everyone to marvel at. He kissed one, then the other. "No gai-ko, but I creamed an apple once." Several of the others jeered at the man who asked the question, while another cheered and lifted a pint of beer. The Japanese man smiled at his comrades as he started to sit down, but stopped midway when he saw Urd.

"Hey sailor!" Urd winked at the man, then graced the others with a smile, taking a moment to observe the small group.

Sheila!" One of them, a bearded man with scruffy brown hair, roared a drunken greeting. "We ain't seen your pretty ass in a month a' Sundays! To what do we owe the honors?" That was LCDR McGinness, the commanding officer of the small group. The man spoke with a heavy southern accent, causing his words to slur. "We all thought you'd finally come to yer' senses and stopped affiliating yerself with men of our lowly caliber. Ain't you got some rich boy to swindle?"

Urd batted her eyes at him. "You should know by now I've got a thing for heartbreaking sailors." She purred, and her comment was reciprocated with raucous laughter. She grinned, looking the men over with scrutinizing eyes. _Shoot, McGinness looks like his shirt is going to rip open if puts on another inch of muscle._ Her eyes flicked to the lean black man that sat beside him, this one a Chief Petty Officer. _Jackson looks like he's lost weight in comparison. I wonder if that was before or after his promotion._ The man had been a Petty Officer 1st Class when last she'd seen him.… _When did Sanchez get that scar on his cheek? It looks pretty new_ … Urd surveyed her audience, and then frowned inwardly. _Morrison's gone?_ Her stomach dropped uncomfortably.

HM1 Sanchez, a lean, brown man with a well-groomed mustache, nodded at her, reading her face. "Morrison retired last month. Said he'd had enough a' us cocksuckers an' wanted to raise his babbies before he got blown up anymore." The Hospital Corpsman spoke with just a trace of a Spanish accent. "An IED went off near him when he was riding in a caravan last deployment. Lost some toes and almost lost his leg. He's recovering well though-thinking about going contractor and making some real money as an instructor for them dumbass cadets." He laughed. "We call 'im 'No-toe Joe' now!" The entire group exploded with inebriated laughter, and relieved that the missing man was still alive, Urd joined them, ignoring the small, painful tug at her heart.

 _He's alive. That's all that matters._

"So Sheila, you finally decide you want a taste at what a real man is packen'?" Jackson leaned forward, wagging his eyebrows suggestively and earning a hearty smack from the Asian man next to him.

"Sure." Urd quipped. "Just a shame it ain't coming from you." The goddess retorted. "You're a couple years too young to handle all this woman!" She gestured to herself, and Jackson groaned as the others erupted in a fresh burst of laughter. "And right now, I only see one real man at this table." The Norn sent a sly glance to the lone Japanese man at the table, and her smile grew larger as a fresh, collective groan arose from the table.

"Well, that's my cue, boys." The Japanese man winked at Urd, and then looked to his companions. "I'd love to stay and chat, asshats, but I can't say no to a sexy pair of tits like that!"

"Yeah, fuck you, Morisato!" McGuinness cried, raising his pint in toast.

"Anytime, anywhere bitch!" replied a thirty year old Keiichi Morisato as he stepped around the table and offered his arm to Urd, who happily accepted the gesture before walking away with him.

McGuinness raised a middle finger to Keiichi to let him know how much he was loved. "Come back when you're done with him Sheila! We still need our shot at you!"

"Maybe in your dreams. And tell Morrison he's a fuck-all for leaving me hanging!" Urd cried over her shoulder. "And that he better stay home and be a proper daddy for those twin girls of his!"

Four glasses of beer rose in a cheer of agreement, and laughing, her heart a bit more at ease, Urd allowed GM1 Keiichi Morisato to guide her away.

Everyone at the table knew Urd. Over the past several years the group had grown familiar with her random visits to chat and drink. Why the goddess had a thing for the lone Japanese man in their group, no one knew. No amount of flirting or flexing had changed that, and while the team had come to accept that as a fact of life, knowing that particular tail was out of the game didn't stop them from jeering Morisato or flexing their stuff anytime the Norn made an appearance. She'd gotten to know SEAL Team 12 rather well throughout the years, though no amount of heckling Morisato or investigation had revealed anything about 'Sheila's' origins. What they _did_ know was that the woman had a strange sixth sense when it came to something wrong within the Team, and that on the rare times she didn't whisk her 'boy toy' out from under their noses, the Team was blessed with a strange good fortune that had left the more superstitious ones calling her their 'Lucky Charm'.

The fact that she actually bothered to get to know the gang throughout the years had also scored her some brownie points, especially after they realized they wouldn't scare the woman away with taunts and barbs and the like. She didn't act like the Frog Hog groupies looking to rub off on their fame and fortune. In fact, Urd had her own verbal arsenal for counterattacks, which endeared her to them even more.

None of them, the retired Morrison included, remembered stumbling upon the goddess in Afghanistan several years prior. The team had breached the front of a building believed to hold Taliban insurgents. There'd been a series of explosions from within the deteriorating building over the past several hours, some of which had been picked up via Pred Feed and disseminated down to their section. While McGuinness's team weren't often used for such missions, they'd been nearby, and the intel provided suggested it was a possible IED manufacturing plant or, more probable, a weapons cache filled with explosives. The Team had been the closest respondents nearby, the Predator watching their back Winchester; empty of any kind of support fire and with no other arial players nearby. It was supposed to be a simple collection request for later processing. Yet what they found instead was a blonde demon in a magical duel with the silver haired goddess, and she was losing badly.

Keiichi, who was on point at the time, had fired a short burst of gunfire at the demon in that first engagement, knowing little of what was happening and at that time hoping to force the demon to break contact. His experience in the Middle East had hardened him, and the man had long since learned not to side with a person based off gender or age alone. Not until he could be certain which side was on 'his side'.

That had been his first taste of an engagement where the forces he was up against were of a supernatural nature. The bullets did nothing to the 'man', and Keiichi had looked on in shock when the blonde simply looked back at the one who had shot him and laughed. Urd however, ever the opportunist, used the distraction to her advantage before the demon could attack her saviors, using a spell to seal the demon in Keiichi's wrist watch, a Luminox 3082 that he still wore today.

The group had done their best to care for her after that, as the goddess was showing all the signs of overexertion and dehydration, and that was not counting the injuries she'd sustained in her battle against the demon. They'd treated her to a good ol' fashioned meal of MREs and desert-hot canteen water, with Sanchez patching up her injuries and McGuinness listening to her explanation of what happened.

To say how much any of them believed what even their eyes had seen was anyone's guess; Sanchez was a devote Catholic, Jackson holding a similar Christian Baptist mindset that had left both of them arguing that what they'd witnessed were tricks of the eyes. Morrison, a Senior Chief Petty Officer at that time, had believed her, as had Keiichi, while McGuinnes, back then still a Lieutenant, had sided with neither groups on the issue but instead reasoned that they needed to take Urd back with them for a debrief.

That idea had been a big red flag in Urd's book, as she'd begun arguing against returning with them before going so far as to put up a fight against them At one point, she'd even threatened to blow up Team 12 with her magic, which had in turn caused Keiichi's team to level their weapons on her. One does not threaten a SEAL team in Afghanistan with explosions expecting them to get their demands, the Norn learned that day. Urd was quick to realize that they had called on her bluff, as she was unwilling to injure the men who'd saved her life.

And so instead she chose the next best thing. She wiped their minds.

Using a generic spell taught to all divinities who ever went Earth-Side, Urd used her powers to seal away the memories of the men in the squad. What had once been a room holding a dual between the Heavens and Hells was instead an empty room with a few outdated UXOs that had reacted to the heat of Afghanistan's devastating summer.

Keiichi, however, proved himself to be a problematic character, as he somehow resisted the spell. How was still a mystery to the goddess, and after she'd calmed him down enough to the point where he was no longer leveling his weapon at her, she found herself grateful all the same. Truth was, she hadn't wanted to seal away anyone's memories because of the great service the Team had done for her, and the knowledge that Keiichi seemed smart enough to keep his mouth shut about the incident had boosted her own morale exponentially. After all, it'd been Keiichi who'd been there to distract the demon, a man who had double-crossed her when they were negotiating a contract for his assistance in freeing Belldandy.

In the time since, he'd become an excellent drinking companion, and Urd had made it a point to stop by whenever she was able to check on the Team that she had come to think of as 'Her Boys', doing what she could to help them out when she was certain no men-and no _gods_ -were watching.

"I'm expecting a call, so can we get a corner table?" asked the goddess as Keiichi led her away from the other men.

"Do I look like a fucking busboy?" Keiichi asked as he looked at her sideways in annoyance.

"No, but you can still scare the rats away," Urd replied with a smile.

After a quick search, Keiichi spied an ample sized table in a back corner. A pair of Seamen fresh out of Great Lakes sat at it, however a quick glower sent the two boys packing in a rush. Not bothering to wait for someone to clear the table, Keiichi pulled out one of the seats previously occupied. "So… what brings you here?" Keiichi asked as they both sat down. "I haven't seen you since the 'Deid, and that was over a year ago."

He paused and looked up past Urd's shoulder, then jutted his chin up in greeting. Curious, Urd looked behind her, meeting the inquiring green eyes of a man in his early twenties dressed in a uniform similar to Keiichi's. The patch on his blouse meant he was a SEAL, but his face was soft; there was no edge of experience as there was with Keiichi and the rest of his team. The blonde's eyes widened as they met hers, then moved to Keiichi, "Yo Chief-to-Be, who's the Frog Hog?"

"Your mom." Keiichi retorted before Urd could get a word in. "Now mind your pees and cues and fuck off, Baby Bravo. This one's mine."

A flash of disappointment crossed the man's face, and the blonde opened his mouth as though readying a retort. Then his eyes darted back to Urd, staying there for a long moment before he frowned and turned away, heading back to the table the rest of Team 12 were at.

"Who's the baby?" Urd asked.

"Morrison's replacement, John Braxton." Keiichi grumbled. "Total greenhorn. He arrived a few weeks ago straight off the boat."

"And he's already got a callsign?"

"Yep." Keiichi grinned. "Johnny Bravo. Hair's only just in regs and he can't keep his hands off the ladies."

Urd stared at him blankly. "I don't get it."

Keiichi returned the stare, then pouted. "You suck." He grumbled. "I am so disappointed in you. Anyone else would be laughing their ass off right now. He's named after a cartoon character who always hit on girls and got his ass kicked for it."

"Right…I forgot how time moves down here." Urd chuckled. "Anyways, I needed some time off from work and I know you'll mostly keep your hands to yourself. How's the married life treating you, nowadays?"

The smile Keiichi sent her was bitter-sweet. "Dead and done." He replied. "I..." His jaw clenched, and the man fell silent, glaring a hole into the table. Urd held her silence, having learned early on that rushing the man would cause him to clam up. "There were some...issues I was going through." Keiichi started. "I...my last trip to Iraq, right before things were winding down..." He sighed, looking uncomfortable.

"You don't have to continue if you don't want to." Urd offered. "You could just say things didn't work out between you and Deb and leave it at that."

"But I want to." Keiichi replied. "Urd, you're...different. Different from the guys. I want you to know about this. I _trust_ you."

The words caught the Norn off guard, and with wide eyes Urd could only think of one thing to say. "Continue."

His smile was relieved. "You know how shit keeps piling and piling and piling on you sometimes? Until you can't take it anymore?" At Urd's nod he continued. "Iraq was that for me—well, no, everything that came _after_ Iraq was that point. I guess it finally hit the point where I'd seen too much; that point where you see a man get blown up, watch one too many civs die from some jackass with a vest of IEDs. And then you return and are told to just fit in to what's considered normal around here." He propped his head in his hands, his face dark. "It started with nightmares. Real bad ones, from what Deb said. There'd be nights I'd wake up screaming, and I'd have an episode that left me-" He stopped and sucked in a deep breath. "Deb couldn't take it. Things got real bad in the last couple months for us...I was sleeping on the couch 'cause she'd lock me outta the bedroom. She was scared of me, scared of my anger, scared of me punching walls and getting piss drunk and-" He shook his head. "It took her leaving me to finally bring me to my senses."

"You got yourself some help?" Urd straightened at that, brightening as Keiichi nodded.

"'Bout the best fucking thing I ever did for myself." He grumbled. "They took me off the deployment roster for a good six months. I was visiting mental help three times a week." He grimaced at the memory. "But I can't lie. They stayed true to their word. I was freaked initially 'cause I was afraid they'd bar me from going back in the field. I ain't ready to be some desk jockey working with the 'Chair Force'. I don't think I ever will be. Sitting at a desk staring at papers is boring. I need to stay active, need to keep my hands busy. The Supes knew that though, so they made a deal with some Air Force biggies that had me going out in the field still. Some group a' guys called SERE. Bunch of campers whose only job is to take pilots out into the woods and chase 'em around playing Baddie." This time his smile was fond. "Never thought a bunch a boys like them existed in the Air Force. Had some good times with 'em. Learned a shit ton too."

Urd raised an eyebrow. "No shit?" She asked. "The Air Force does more than sit on their ass and look pretty? News to me. What the hell they end up teaching an old salt like you?"

Keiichi's grin grew sly. "Hang around long enough and maybe you'll find out." He shrugged. "Either way, between them and the therapy, I managed to get past the trauma. The..." He sighed, fingers drumming on the old, scarred hardwood of the table. "Fuck, I hate saying it, but...The PTSD. I've gotten through it thanks to leadership. I just wish I hadn't been such a scared asshole and had the balls to do it sooner. Maybe then I'd still be married."

"I see." Urd leaned back in her chair. It groaned in protest, its cry lost amongst the clamor of the bar's inhabitants. At length she smiled. "Fucking good on you Keiichi. It's not easy buckling down and admitting you need help, especially when you're a motherfucking SEAL that the general public think is some untouchable war god. I'm sorry to hear about Deb, but I'm happier hearing that you didn't let that shit sit and rot inside you like some kind of cancer."

Keiichi fidgeted. "Oy, don't go telling none a' those assholes I opened up to you, hear me?" He threatened. "You rat on me and I'll find a way to make them remember you, I swear to whatever god ain't you."

Urd laughed, recognizing the unspoken request to change topics. "You and what army?" She taunted. "That little shit who replaced Morrison? Does he even know how to hold a weapon?"

"Doubt it." Keiichi reasoned. "Maybe I should just send him your way with a Claymore in hand. Ain't like he'd know which way to point it anyway, and knowing the ol' Rookie-luck, the motherfucker would explode in his hand, decimate half a block, knock you into the next kingdom come, and he'd still manage to walk away with only a minor graze on his hand." He smirked as Urd laughed. "So, sister still won't call you?" Keiichi asked.

"Nope. But nothing I can do," replied the goddess with a sigh, unsurprised that he had asked. In fact, she was counting on it. The man was well aware of the issues between Urd and contacting Belldandy. It was one of her favorite topics to vent about. "Bosses still won't approve any of my messages reaching out to Belldandy, and trying to go through the Japanese government to help her is a bitch and a half," Urd muttered. "Oh! She's foreign!?" The goddess cried, her voice mocking. "Well then how come we don't have any record of her passport? Does she have a working Visa with us? No? So you're saying she's an undocumented alien? How about you give us a description of her and then kindly _fuck off_." She snorted, slumping down in her chair with a dejected sigh. "I just need to unwind."

"Whiskey? My treat," Keiichi asked.

"My hero," Urd answered as she reached across the table and took his hand into hers and squeezed it. She smirked as she added, "Since you're a free man, maybe later we can-"

She was interrupted by the annoying beeping of her phone, causing her to sit up and start rifling through her pockets. "You just had to finish now of all times," she grumbled to herself.

"I'll go get the whiskey," Keiichi whispered, taking the opportunity to leave the table.

Finding the annoying item, the Norn pulled it from her pocket and unlocked it, pulling up the information Skuld had relayed to her. Scrolling through the messages, her eyes bugged out when she read a particular section. "So that's why he was immune to the memory seal," she whispered to herself.

When Keiichi came back, the look she was giving him caused him to pause. The look on her face was predatory, almost as if he was a mouse, and she the cat. It made the hair on the back of his neck rise in alarm, instincts he'd long ago learned to trust putting him on guard. Instead of sitting, he set the drink on the table and slid it across to the goddess. The action was slow and deliberate; calculated, as though the man were waiting to see how the Norn would respond. His eyes never left hers.

"Your parents came from Japan, right?" Urd asked.

"Yes." Keiichi rumbled. He stood at the back of his chair, observing Urd's body language, a small piece of him recalling the various exits from the bar. Warning bells went off in his head. If she tried anything, he wasn't above throwing a chair at her and bolting. Afghanistan may have happened a long time ago, but that didn't change the fact that she'd once threatened to blow him and Team 12 to smithereens with a lightning bolt. "What's that got to do with anything?"

Urd ignored the question, continuing her own interrogation. "Why'd they leave? Wasn't the economy great in Japan back then?" When she saw that Keiichi was still standing, she said, "C'mon, sit down! I'm not going to bite ya!"

"I'll stand, thanks." Keiichi replied, any signs of the jovial sailor from earlier lost behind a stoic mask. "As for why, some bitch with the last name of Aoshima tried to flirt her way into getting a discount from my dad at his glass shop. He had a panic attack because he has this thing about women touching him and… well… To make a long story short, she screwed over my family in the eyes of the public so bad that my parents had to leave Japan. Now will you tell me why you wanted to know?"

"Will you PLEASE sit down?" Urd demanded. Keiichi didn't budge. When he continued to do nothing but observe her, the Norn sighed and put her phone on the table. "Fine, wanna save my sister and get revenge on the family that screwed yours over?"

Keiichi eyed her skeptically. "They're in Japan and we're in Norfolk. Not only that, but-"

"Please, will you just hear me out?" Urd hissed. "Listen, I wouldn't ask you if I thought it wouldn't work." She slammed her hand on the table, causing the brown liquid in the glass to tremble. "You trusted me with what you went through in the years I was gone, and damn it all I can't tell you how much I regret not being there for you, but now _I'm_ trusting you with something that might help save the sister I lost ten _fucking years ago!_ Now will you _please_ , for the love of your team, sit down and listen?"

The woman stared at him with large, desperate eyes. "What if it was one of your sisters," she whispered. "What if one of them had been taken from you for ten years, and you suddenly found out what happened to her. Wouldn't you take every opportunity to save her?"

Keiichi said nothing. His eyes narrowed as he slid back into his chair. "Go on." His hands resting on his forelegs, Urd never saw them clench into a pair of tight fists. "I'm listening."

The goddess leaned forward, placing her elbows on the table as she looked at Keiichi. "Look, you know we aren't allowed to directly interfere with Mortals or my sister's job with granting wishes," Urd said. "But you can. We can get you to Japan and back without anyone being the wiser." The silver haired goddess looked down at her phone and then back at him, indicating that he should have a look.

Keiichi picked it up and stared at the screen. There was a picture of Urd with another woman and a pre-teen girl. Urd looked a bit younger in the picture, wearing a provocative outfit that would have had his parents howling if he'd grown up to be a 'decent man'. The pre-teen, a youth with black hair and pale skin that were at odds with Urd's own complexion smiled at whoever was taking the photo, standing hand-in-hand with another woman-this one a brunette-who looked similar to the pre-teen. _I don't see the resemblance myself, but who am I to judge?_ He thought. The Urd in the picture had an arm around the middle woman, and the siblings all beamed with a light that reminded himself of his own family.

The man's brows furrowed together, his eyes drawn more to the brunette in the picture than the pre-teen. _Urd said her missing sister was around her age._ The woman was nearly as tall as Urd, though her face was kinder, gentle in a manner that was absent from Urd and even the child's youthful face. "She's beautiful," he breathed.

"The brat with the black hair is Skuld and she's the youngest, the big baby. The brunette is Belldandy, the middle sister." Urd leaned ever closer to Keiichi, who was sat staring at the picture, entranced. "Wanna be her knight in shining armor, like in the movies?"

"Yes," replied the mortal without taking his eyes from the screen. Hell, at this point, he'd walk through lava if it meant seeing her face-to-face. The man zoomed in on the photo, grateful it was digital, and his thumb moved to gently touch the photographed woman's face, tracing the angle of her jaw down to her chin. Suddenly it felt hard to breathe. "You're a goddess. My tracks will be covered?"

"Yes, although from the looks of it, you would go even if they weren't," smirked the goddess. _Hook, line, and sinker_. The Norn's expression grew somber. "I'll give you a code to tell her that will make it easy. Seriously, don't even try to reason with her without it. She's a sweetheart, but also a bit of a perfectionist; Belldandy becomes intimately involved with whatever her contract entails, so without any proof or permissions that could null the contract, she will be a little hard to reason with," Urd tipped her head back and downed her shot. She placed it back on the table upside down and then smiled again when she saw Keiichi still staring at the picture of Belldandy. "When you're done eye-fucking my sister, give me back my phone so I can call Skuld for your gear."

"So what's Skuld like?" Keiichi asked, taking one final look at the woman on the screen and committing her face to memory. Even if she wanted nothing else to do with Keiichi after this 'rescue', the SEAL didn't want to forget Belldandy's face. Ever. _I think I finally saw my own piece of heaven. Maybe Jackson was right. Maybe love at first sight really does exist._

Urd leaned back in her chair, tipping it onto its back legs as she braced one leg against the table. "That's a good question." She said evenly. "Don't you guys have a word for a girl who acts like a brat twenty-four seven because she's too insecure to tell you how she really feels?"

"You mean aside from a bitch?" Keiichi sent her a measured look.

"Close, but I mean an actual Japanese word." Urd replied, then muttered, "but a bitch wouldn't be too far off…"

Keiichi shrugged. "The only time I speak Japanese anymore is when I'm back home. My parents still haven't mastered English yet, and they're afraid I'll lose my own mastery at the language if I don't speak it around them." He paused, playing with Urd's finished shot glass. "Like a _Tsundere_ , maybe?"

Urd snapped her fingers. "That's it. Nailed it. That is _exactly_ what she is. A godforsaken _Tsundere_ when it comes to anyone who isn't Belldandy _._ Add to that the fact that she's still butt-hurt that she can't summon her own angel and her dislike for sister-thieving mortals, and..." Urd shrugged, staring at her phone before bringing up the number roster that held her sibling's number. "I hope you're ready for this. Try not to let her first impression get to you too much." She placed the phone to her ear. Skuld picked up after the first ring. "Hey, techno-wizard. I've got a guy here who is going to help us get around the blockade on Belldandy. What did- …Yes, he's a mortal."

"...$#% ^"

Keiichi, a mortal with no true comprehension of the language of the gods, didn't understand what was said, but the voice over the phone had screamed it so loud that even _he_ could hear the venom in the word. He flinched as Urd pulled the phone away from her ear, the words that followed a mixture of the strange language from before and English with the heavy accent of one who did not care for it. Some of it he even understood, to include several insults directed at humanity in general. A part of him even bristled at the unbridled rage, and he stared at Urd in stunned shock, hoping, _praying_ that this was some sort of fucked-up joke on Urd's account. Yet Urd only shrugged an apology before putting the phone back to her ear. "Skuld…Skuld… _Skuld_. SKULD! Shut up for a minute, will you? I need to know what you found in the data I sent you."

The silver-haired goddess nodded several times. Now that Skuld had calmed down, it was impossible for Keiichi to gain an inkling of what was being said, and the man leaned forward in interest, gesturing to first the phone, then to himself. Urd held up one finger. _Wait a minute._ Most of the conclusions Skuld made were similar to Urd's own, but she needed to have a second opinion to help validate the information for fact. "Wait a sec, let me put you on speaker, my friend needs to hear this."

Urd placed the phone on the table in front of them. They heard a heavy sigh before the person on the other line began to talk. This time it was all in English, with whatever accent Keiichi had heard initially vanishing. " _Ten years ago, a wish was supposed to be granted to one Keiichi Morisato_."

The SEAL's ears perked up at his own name. He looked at Urd in surprise before mouthing ' _What the fuck?'_ to the goddess. Urd placed a finger to her lips and pointed towards the phone. Baffled at the sudden turn of events, Keiichi ran a hand through his hair before propping his chin on his other hand. He stared at the phone with large, brown eyes.

" _From what I can tell, there appears to have been a clerical error when his parents moved from Japan to America and no one corrected it_ ," reported Skuld. " _Instead, some douche-nozzle by the name of Toshiyuki Aoshima got it instead. But the crazy part is that it looks like the system force is still working to get this Keiichi guy his wish!_ "

There was a pause, then Skuld asked, _"So, how are we going to spring big sis?"_

Urd smiled and leaned towards the phone. "Well, that's where I have an ace up my sleeve. Skuld, I would like you to meet Gunner's Mate First Class Keiichi Morisato, Navy SEAL, and creamer of apples."

The mortal groaned. "You fucking heard that?" He whispered, glaring daggers at Urd. The Norn's grin was evil. Sighing to himself, he leaned towards the phone. "How you doing _Tsundere_?"

The silence that followed dragged on for a full, tense minute before it shattered with Skuld's own greeting. Keiichi was unimpressed. " _WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN YOU IGNORANT SACK OF-"_

Urd snatched the phone up and turned off the speaker, bringing it to her ear in a single, fluid motion that spoke of years of practice. "Skuld! Listen! He's agreed to help us!" Another rant emerged from the other end, again forcing Urd to remove the phone from her ear. This time she turned down the volume, denying Keiichi another opportunity to eavesdrop. After a moment, Skuld's vocal protest died down. "Are you finished?"

The goddess listened for another long moment, this time nodding on occasion. Keiichi watched in silence, examining the expressions that danced across the woman's face. If her reaction was anything to judge, this was a common occurrence coming from Skuld. Five more minutes passed before Urd covered the phone, "When we do get to Bell, Skuld wants to know what wish you'll ask from her."

A pair of bushy brows shot up in surprise. "You mean I still get a wish?" asked the stunned mortal. When Urd nodded in the affirmative, he leaned back, propping one arm up along the spine of his chair. His face was thoughtful. A wish from a goddess… "And it can be anything?" Keiichi asked. "Anything at all?" At Urd's nod, again the SEAL fell silent. _A wish from…Belldandy? Is that it?_ And it could be anything he wanted…

A variety of thoughts danced through his head. _I could ask for her to stay with me forever._ He thought, and then laughed at his own ignorant thought. By the sound of it, this poor woman had already been forced into a wish with a 'douche-nozzel', as so claimed by Skuld. And while, admittedly, the younger goddess appeared to hold a heavy bias towards mortals in general, Keiichi didn't think being insulted by a divine entity equated to a good person. _I could ask her to spend the night with me._ He thought wistfully. Hell, he'd be happy with a single thread of hair from Belldandy if he knew it was hers. _Or maybe just a kiss._ Damn…he had it _bad_ for her. _Bad boy. You should be wishing for another chance with Deb, not hooking up with some poor chick who doesn't even know you._

 _Or,_ another part of him whispered, some dark little piece of him that whispered from where he'd locked it up years ago, _you could leave her the hell alone and stop acting like a fucking creeper. Stop acting like That Motherfucker and instead wish for—_

He sucked in a deep breath, closing his eyes meditatively. The image that danced behind his eyelids was not something he figured a man with a wish from a goddess should fantasize himself with. _I don't care what they say. I shouldn't have a wish. But if I have to, then…_

His mind was drawn to the past. To the time he'd graduated from Great Lakes Recruit Training Command as a lowly Seaman and the first time he had greeted his family in his dress blues after his pass in review. He'd been allowed the weekend with them before he was to report back for A School, and so he'd taken that opportunity to enjoy every moment of it with his family, in particular Aiko, who had gone through a rather traumatic event while he was away. He'd taken the family on a small tour around the base, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for his father who was a closet military fanatic, followed by shopping at the Navy Exchange for his sisters and mother—at Keiichi's expense, of course.

He hadn't really minded at the time; hell, he felt like a fucking millionaire after seeing the numbers in his bank account after the first couple of paychecks that had been gathering untouched while he trained. Admittedly, times were a little hard for the Morisato family. Glassblowing didn't make the same amount of cash as it did in Japan-not without a good reputation and better standing among the richer crowds, and his father Keima had neither. Takano, his mother, was pregnant with another Morisato on the way, and Megumi was looking into possible college tuitions that would help cover the expense of schooling. Adding to that the greencards that had their own renewal fee, and the citizenship status Keima was fighting for and, well…money didn't go into entertainment. Anything not going to a bill went straight into savings, where only Keima had access to funds.

Keiichi ended up spending a couple hundred bucks that day-mostly towards future baby supplies for the little one to come since it was rather unexpected (the idea that his parents still did _THAT_ causes him to shudder to this day). But probably the favorite things he bought were the stuffed bears dressed as sailors as presents for Megumi, who got the one wearing dress whites, and Aiko, who got the one wearing cracker-jack blues. They were meant as tokens for them to remember him by while he was gone.

Now, the memory that came forward was of one purchase in particular. A DVD of the Disney movie _Aladdin_ , which had been and still was Aiko's favorite movie. He'd asked his family for some alone time with his baby sister, and they had watched it together on Keiichi's new computer back at the hotel. The one character that had stuck out to him the most had been the Genie.

" _Mister Aladdin sir_

 _What will your pleasure be?_

 _Let me take your order, jot it down_

 _You ain't never had a friend like me_

 _No no no!"_

 _What would you wish for, Belldandy?_ In his mind's eye Genie was replaced with Belldandy, Aladdin with himself, and he was replaying one of the scenes in his head. He watched Belldandy hang from a hammock suspended from two trees, the two of them sitting in a small desert oasis with a magic carpet and a monkey named Urd.

" _Me?" Belldandy asked._ _"No one's ever asked me that before. Well, in my case, ah, forget it."_

 _Keiichi straightened._ " _What? No, tell me."_

 _The goddess was silent for a moment before uttering one word: "Freedom."_

 _Keiichi looked at the goddess in horror. "You're a prisoner?"_

 _Belldandy shrugged._ _"It's all part-and-parcel, the whole goddess gig. Phee-nomenal cosmic powers! Douche-nozzel master I can't do anything about."_

 _Keiichi continued to stare at the woman, his brows furrowed with worry. "Belldandy, that's terrible."_

 _The goddess's expression grew wistful as she sat up. "But, oh-to be free. Not have to go 'Poof! What do you need? Poof! What do you need? Poof! What do you need?' To be my own master, such a thing would be greater than all the magic and all the treasures in all the world!" Dejectedly, she fell back onto the hammock. "But what am I talking about, here? Let's get real here. It's not gonna happen. Belldandy, wake up and smell the hot tea."_

 _Keiichi's gaze grew perturbed. "Why not?"_

 _The Norn sighed. "The only way I get outta this is if my master wishes me out. So you can guess the changes of that happening."_

The image in his head darkened, the skies above twisting from the peace of that night to red haze that had accompanied Jafar's wishes. His mind replaced the animated sorcerer with a faceless man, one who he knew only by name, and that one Toshiyuki Aoshima. What kind of horrors could an undeserving man force upon a goddess like her? The truth was, he didn't _want_ to know. What he did know was—

"I guess I'd wish for Belldandy's heart's desire to be granted." He opened his eyes and met Urd's inquiring gaze. The look on his face was one of calm resolve. "No fooling. It sounds like she's going through her own shit because of a stupid clerical error. I'm a goddamned SEAL. We earn our lot in life. If there's something we want we work for it. Fuck your wish." _I may not be an astronaut, but that doesn't mean I can't save Jeannie._

Urd smiled before she uncovered her phone. "You hear that, Skuld? He'll be leaving the wish up to Bell's heart."

"...!"

"Right. I'll call you when we're ready to gear up," Urd replied. After a moment, she hung up and looked at Keiichi with a smirk. "You won some brownie points with Skuld for that one. That's a first in my book. So…" The Norn scrolled through her phone. "If all goes well, I will formally introduce you to my sister."

Keiichi grinned as she flashed him an image of Belldandy dressed in a white bikini. _I dream of 'Dandy,_ he thought, and couldn't help but imagine the woman in the image swaying within his arms, dancing to some beat only they were privy to. The smile melted away as reality hit once more. "Why me," he asked plainly. "I mean, any of the other men in Team 12 would do the same thing, I know it."

"Obviously you remember that I couldn't seal your memories," said Urd as she stowed her phone, once more leaning in towards the mortal. "Do you recall just a moment ago Skuld mentioning that the system force was still trying to get you your wish?"

When Keiichi nodded, she continued. "Well, that explains everything," she said. "The system force is a control mechanism for ensuring that wishes work out properly. If there is anything that threatens the wish, it will act to remove that threat. It's been bugging me for a long time as to why I couldn't seal your memories, but now I think that it was the system force that prevented it since you needed to remember me in order for us to reach the point we're at now." She sighed and slumped in her seat. "Hell, it probably brought us together in the first place!"

Keiichi leaned back and whistled. "So you mean I was destined for this?"

The silver haired goddess nodded. "In effect, yes."

* * *

 **A/N: Thank you for reading the first chapter of Scarred Survivors. As you can probably tell, this is not your run of the mill Ah! My Goddess story. The basic concept of this came to me in a dream a couple of years ago. Basically, in it, I was speaking to Keiichi as he was getting ready to go on a Commando style attack to save Belldandy. Being a Navy vet, I immediately equated that to him being a SEAL. I posted in the "Story Ideas" forum on the Goddess Relief Office web site, and it garnered a bunch of discussion. But after a while, it was dropped.**

 **That is until HotelKatz came to me and asked me to use it in his "What If" collection of short stories. The draft he gave me was good, way better than what I had been thinking. I showed it the Nena Camadera, who had also showed interest in, and after about a week of going back and forth with her about this and that, this first chapter took form. It is heavily based on Katz's original, but we wanted to expand on it outside of the "What-If' premise, so we are publishing our version outside. If you have already read Chapter 55 - Something Completely Different, then you might know SOME of what is going to happen, but there is much you do not, as you may have already seen in this chapter.**

 **If you have not read any of HotelKatz's 'Ah! my goddess: What if' stories, then I highly recommend you do so. Many of the stories are very thought provoking. My favorite up until now is the "What if Hild won the Angel Biter Incident" series. You can probably guess which one is my favorite now. HAHA.**

 **I am trying to create a forum for discussion on this site. As if this instant, I have not seen it show up yet in the Forum lists, but that may just be lag. When is does show, it should be until the Anime- Oh! My Goddess section, and is named Scarred Survivors. Drop by and say hi! (After you leave a review!)**


	2. Chapter 2

-2-

Belldandy waited at her terminal in pensive silence, where an old fashioned and ornate rotary telephone rested in front of her. She bit her lip in anticipation. It was finally time.

Part of her job at the Goddess Relief Office, in addition to the granting of wishes to those who had earned Heaven's Grace, was to assist in evaluating those that met the conditions that qualified for a wish. It was a long, at times dull process, spending hours on end observing the individuals in question and evaluating their worthiness for a wish. What were their strengths of character? What were their vices? Did they have redeemable qualities in conjunction with those vices? It was a process that, on a mortal level, could take years to expand upon given how a person developed based on the situations they encountered throughout their life.

One person may seem irrevocable one year, yet in the following month may experience an event that cast them in so much shade to as be more worthy of a Demon's Contract. Another might hold a good many vices based off poor life choices or unfair circumstances, yet still manage to shine like a diamond in the rough as a potential candidate. Regardless, each one had to be documented and recorded, compared and contrasted. Those with the highest number of contraindications and warnings had been cast out, and now, at last, Belldandy had what she believed to be her top three. One in particular had caught her interest more than the others, however, and his time was drawing near.

Fidgeting with more giddiness than what normally accompanied a meeting with a candidate, Belldandy looked back to the document on her screen, reviewing the individual's case file one more time to help pass the seconds for her, hours for him, leading up to the call. It was a pointless act, she knew; Belldandy had a photographic memory, and even without it she'd dedicated herself to memorizing every exact detail about this one person. This one was different from the others. This one was _special_.

From the time she'd received his file after passing the pre-screening process, she'd become enamored not only by his purity of heart, but also his selfless spirit. Through her time watching him, it had almost felt as if she'd been a part of his life, laughing with him in his joy, crying with him in his despair, and even growing upset when he was wronged in such a way as to bring out his temper, rare though it was.

Gleefully, she spun in her chair as she recalled certain parts of his life she had memorized. How easily he'd adapted to life in his new country in spite of the hardships on his parents. How he had helped his younger sister learn to ride a bike. His baby sister's birth and he'd been the first in line to help his mother care of her. The tight bond that fostered between him and the youngling and the patience displayed with her from infancy all the way through the time that he left for his training in the military. Belldandy had actually shed a tear with the little nine year old girl when she'd been forced to say goodbye to her big brother, standing side-by-side with a big sister that was openly crying and a mother that stood stoically while holding back the same.

And then had come the trials with his training. Belldandy shuddered when she recalled the events. The training had been loathsome to an outsider such as she; harassment and punishments that changed the wide-eyed boy she'd watch grow up into a disciplined sailor. Incidents devised by instructors and even his fellow trainees handled with a strange grace and dignity that seemed so out of character in such an environment, she could only compare it to how some of the mortal Saints might have handled it in his stead.

And then tragedy. A blow to his family that so horrified her that the Norn feared it would destroy him from the inside out, destroying his chance at a wish. Yet instead of letting the incident and the aftermath tear him down, he used it to fuel his determination. After finishing his initial training, he went to an 'A' school to learn his craft, graduating at the top of his class. So good was he that he was singled out for special training that set him amongst the elite.

The GRO was well aware of the type of disruption it could cause the mortal if a deity appeared to him during such an interval time in his life, and so instead the man's scheduled wish was postponed, delayed until a time arrived where there was a lower chance of disrupting his life. Now, after a two year delay, that time had finally arrived. To say that Belldandy was excited was to say that lava was merely hot; a vast understatement detailing the goddess' current mood.

The goddess jumped when the phone rang. Bouncing in her chair with a large, exuberant smile on her face, the Norn released a whoop of joy. Several coworkers looked up from their own stations at the sound, several with raised eyebrows, an occasional scowl of annoyance, but more with large smiles on their faces. Belldandy's joy was infectious, and even the more grouchy deities around her held amused smirks as they watched her. She was blind to their attention. Squirming in her chair, a child once more, Belldandy leaned over to look at her terminal, as was her habit when calls came in. She chanted his name under her breath in excited anticipation.

As the second ring was heard, she located the name of the client.

"Toshiyuki Aoshima?"

She stared at the name, then leaned back and rubbed her eyes. No…no, that wasn't who she was hoping it'd be… Her hands dropping to her desk, the Norn leaned forward and read the name on the screen once more, wondering if perhaps her eyes were deceiving her. Yet the name did not change as she so hoped, and frowning, she looked at the phone. It wasn't the call she'd wanted to take, but at the same time it was not unusual for clients to be transferred to another GRO representative if the goddess with their case file was out on an assignment.

Disgruntled, the goddess pulled up a quick IM box containing the various GRO consultants. _Does anyone know who has the case file on one Toshiyuki Aoshima?_ She typed. The phone at her desk continued on its second ring-time always slowed for the client in question when they managed to reach the GRO, that way the case worker could ensure they had the proper information on the candidate on point. Someone would have this person's file on hand, or would know which goddess was away and had forwarded it to Belldandy. She just hoped that her call, THE call, wouldn't come while she was away.

 _IA15: Isn't that one of Titania's files? What's his case number?_

 _LR22: It's not Titania's-she's been out sick all week and I was the one to disseminate the extra files. Toshiyuki Aoshima never showed up._

Belldandy frowned as she read the texts, then re-examined the name on the screen.

 _BY02: I don't see a case number with his name. Is there a glitch in the system?_

 _SL03: You tell us, Belldandy. You're sister's a debugger for Yggdrassil, isn't she? Are you sure his number isn't there? It should be in the upper right hand portion of the screen._

 _HL19: Girl, lay off Belldandy. You forget who trained you?_

 _***HL19 SLAPPED SL03 WITH A TUNA***_

 _***SL03 SLAPPED HL19 WITH A TUNA***_

Belldandy looked at the case in front of her once more. Sure enough the number on the screen was flickering from _0000000000000_ to _8888888888888_ in a mad flurry. The Norn sighed. _I bet Skuld's reading manga again. The bugs are getting out of control._ Disappointment flashed across her face, and again she typed a message into the IM: _Could someone just tell me who has Toshiyuki Aoshima's case file? I'll reach out to the debuggers and see if they can fix the error with the case number, but until then I really, really need his case file. I'm expecting my own client soon, and I don't want to miss him._

 _SA03: Ooooh! Belldandy found herself a MAN! ;)_

 _***HL19 SLAPPED SA03 WITH A TUNA***_

The goddess flushed at the message, then shook her head in disdain. The Chat was getting out of hand now, and she'd worked at the GRO long enough to know that when someone started slapping people with Tuna, all productivity went down the drain. Soon there'd be a mountain of dots in the room from the more bored goddesses, and following that the entire IM system was liable to crash, forcing everyone to restart the program.

 _I'll just call Urd and have her run a diagnostic on Yggdrasil. She's better at handling Skuld than I am when it comes to motivating her to work._ Even when that motivation often came in the form of a screaming match between her two sisters. Sighing to herself, the goddess reached for a secondary phone closer to her person, this one more modern and with a digital display screen. She was half-way to dialing Urd's office when the GRO Client Line rang a third time, causing the goddess to pause.

… _I could just take care of it._ She thought to herself, one thumb hovering over the digital pad that would connect her to Yggdrasil's Administrative Office. _Just hurry and be done with it rather than running circles like this._ Several goddesses were absent from her shop at the moment-one home sick, another on maternity leave, another still on leave in Vanaheim. At this point, this Aoshima character could be anyone's client. _If he managed to reach the GRO line, that means he's someone's client. Someone who went through all the necessary_ _prerequisites_ _and was viewed in the eyes of a deity as worthy of a wish._ The goddess chewed on her lower lip in thought. _If I hurry and take care of Mr. Aoshima, that will clear me up for him. And since we can only take care of one client at a time, I don't want him to accidentally be forwarded to someone else because of a harmless glitch._

Sighing to herself, the goddess put down her phone, where the illuminated screen darkened with inactivity. Instead she reached for the antique phone, picking it up and falling into the standard script that came with each call. "You have reached the Goddess Relief Office. We will be there in just a moment to grant your access request!"

XXX

Standing on a balcony, looking out at the morning sky, the Goddess Belldandy shuddered as the events of that fateful day replayed in her mind. To say that the past ten years had been a living hell would be the understatement of all eternity in her eyes. The things she did for him, the things he made her do, both in public and… elsewhere. Her fingers dug into the balcony railing, grabbing the wooden ledge with such force that the polished wood began to splinter under the pressure.

 _I am Belldandy._ She thought to herself, watching the pink sunrise as the first signs of dawn peeked over the mountain. _I am a goddess First Class, and I hold power no mortal can wield over me._ The morning mantra had begun. _I am the diamond covered in filth, and though I lie in shit, it cannot tarnish my person. For diamond is unbreakable, and where filth feeds the earth the earth creates the diamond. And though the diamond is surrounded by filth, the filth will fall with the rain from the heavens, and the sun's rays shall let it shine once more. All this I know to be true, for I am of the highest graces whose rays burn through what is illusion._

She swallowed. The goddess had been repeating that mantra for ten years now, and with each passing day she could feel the strength it imparted on her drain bit by bit. The words were losing their affect on her or she was losing faith in herself; she couldn't tell which, and was disheartened to find that she didn't care one way or the other. _This place is killing me._ It was a sickening thought. One that would have horrified the Belldandy of her younger years. _The innocent one._ She thought. _The naive one._ That part of her had died within the first night under this thrice-cursed roof. When she'd gained her first true insight into what sort of a wretch she'd be indentured to. _No...not indentured._ She corrected, _Enslaved. The ground this hell is built upon has more freedom than I, for at least it may be cast aside and carried off under trodden feet._

Regardless, the one glowing spark in her life that she still held on to was beginning to dim after ten years of this place. And even though it would probably never be realized, she would continue to endure the things that she was forced to do. Things that after all this time might have caused a lesser goddess to shut down and sublimate into the ether. Her memories of him would continue to sustain her for as long as was needed. _He would not back down, remember. He would not give in. He would resist, in whatever little way he was able to, and as such so must you._ The voice sounded strangely like Urd's, who'd always watched out for her in their childhood. _Just like he does with his sisters._

"Belldandy! Get your scrawny ass back in here!" screamed Aoshima from inside the bedroom she shared with him. "You have work to do!"

She flinched at his voice. _Yggdrasil grant me strength._ The goddess turned back to the door. Her stomach churned with anxiety. Her teeth grinding, jaw clenched so tight it creaked as the woman left the balcony. "Yes, Master." _Remember, even the smallest resistance counts for a victory. Take each moment of his anger as a win for yourself. You have eternity. He has years. Whittle him away until there's nothing left._

 _Until there's_ nothing _left._

XXX

After last night's revelation and because they wanted to free Belldandy under the cover of night, Keiichi and Urd turned in early that evening. Japan was ahead of Norfolk, Virginia by a good thirteen hours, so what was day in one half of the world would be night in the other. A good rest and a clear head were going to be essential to diminish any possible fuckups, and after a long night of drinking and crazy revelations, Keiichi had neither. The duo shacked up together in a small motel room close to base rather than risk a drive back to Keiichi's place, which was a good thirty minutes from Norfolk. Before Urd's appearance the plan had been that Bravo, their DD for the night, was going to drive him back. Urd had also never been to Keiichi's house. The motel was a simpler, safer solution, and it wouldn't be the first time he'd slept at a Motel 8 after a heavy night of drinking.

After turning in the room key, the goddess and the Navy SEAL stood outside on the curb of the road enjoying the gentle warmth that came with the morning sun. Urd had been a godsend, having brought with her some sort of magical hangover cure that had saved him the painful results of last night's drinking. Without a trip back to his house, Keiichi was stuck with what he'd worn last night, and stood dressed in his BDU pants and combat boots. His blouse was off, draped over one shoulder. The tan t-shirt beneath held a logo on the back commemorating Operation Iraqi Freedom. The man glanced down at his watch. Sometimes, when he set an alarm on it, the resulting jingle sounded more like a horrified scream than a digital tone. It's what had woken him up at 8am, and damned if he hadn't found himself back in Iraq for a brief moment after that shit. Now the watch hands claimed it was close to nine in the morning, which meant it was going on ten in the evening in Japan.

Beside him Urd, dressed in jeans so tight they might as well have been painted on her with a matching tight black halter top, stretched her arms to the sky. The shirt rose with her arms, and Keiichi caught a flash of caramel skin. He stared, uncaring if she noticed or not. "I still think we should have gotten the single king, not the two doubles," the silver haired goddess remarked as she crossed her arms underneath her bosom. "I mean come on! All those years of you pretending to chase me while I pretended to play hard to get, then you pucker up like a clam after seeing one picture of my sister just when you're free and I'm ready to put out!"

"What can I say," replied the dark haired man with a smirk. "I've got a thing for damsels in distress more than witches dressed like bitches."

Urd smirked and leaned in towards him, shaking her shoulders playfully. "Oh, hissss, buuurn. That hurt. That hurt right here." Using her middle finger, the goddess snags the collar of her halter and pulls it down, nearly exposing her ample breasts to the man.

"Are you done yet?" deadpanned Keiichi when she didn't stop after a few moments.

"Not yet," she said as she touched her cheek with the index finger of her opposite hand while giving him a seductive look. Keiichi just rolled his eyes and gave an apologetic look to an elderly couple who were walking by. Finally, in a very exaggerated fashion, Urd made like she was stuffing her breasts back into the halter top that was barely holding her back to begin with. "There, all done."

"Thank god," replied the mortal service man.

"You're welcome." Flipping a lock of her silver hair out of her face, Urd winked at Keiichi as she brought her phone up to her ear. "We're ready to gear up the mortal."

As Urd flipped her phone closed, a white, featureless utility van drove into view, coming around the corner at high speed. As it approached them, the tires squealed as the driver suddenly hit the breaks, causing the lumbering van to drift into the opposing lanes. A number of cars skidded to a stop, their own tires smoking while others swerved out of the way of the reckless vehicle, blaring their horns at the careless driver. By luck or skill it managed to skid to a stop right in front of them.

"Shoulda figured she was going to be fast," muttered Urd in annoyance.

"That's gotta be one of the stupidest goddamned things I've ever seen." Keiichi growled, perturbed at the reckless endangerment of so many other people. "The hell is the driver? Twelve? Drunk? A drunk twelve year old?"

"Easy cowboy." Urd chided gently. "It only looked scary. Skuld's pretty calculated when it comes to machines."

"Then you both underestimate how unpredictable and stupid a bunch of scared 'mortals' are behind two tons of steel." Keiichi retorted.

The back of the van swung open and a black haired woman in a red and white dress poked her head out. She was young, looking anywhere from her late teens to early twenties. With a scowl she jumped out and glared at Urd for a moment before turning to Keiichi. The stranger sneered as she looked him up and down. "Oh my god Urd, you enlisted the help of a gorilla? What's he going to do, crush melons with his biceps and throw feces at Aoshima?"

Keiichi glared at the younger goddess before turning to his companion. "You never told me you had a poodle," said the dark haired man as he chucked a thumb towards Skuld. "I hope you brought a muzzle for that thing."

Urd pinched her nose with a heavy sigh. "This is going to be fun," she muttered. The Norn hoped this wasn't going to set the tone for the rest of the trip. Sure, she and Keiichi bickered all the time, but it was all in good fun and harmless. There was a bite behind this bark though, and Skuld had a bad habit of taking things too personally. And with Keiichi the type of man who never backed down from a fight…

"Well, come on, get in!" Skuld snapped, gesturing at the duo. "The faster we do this, the quicker we get rid of him and the happier I'll be!"

"Oh heaven forbid the Almighty One be unhappy." Keiichi rolled his eyes and looked at Urd, who shrugged before climbing inside the back of the van. Disliking the situation but seeing no other choice, he followed. "Fucking Pedobear this shit." He grumbled. "Ought'a paint 'FREE CANDY' on the side of the fucking van." The vehicle's interior was somehow larger than what was depicted on the outside. Impossibly large. The interior had to stretch out close to fifty feet. "Oh great. It's a fucking TARDIS." There were rows and rows of various robots, vehicles, armors, and weapons. "With its own internal armory. Who the fuck does this girl think she is? The Master?"

"I bet you're impressed, huh?" asked Skuld, her arms crossed across her chest. A smug smile spread across her face. "Being able to fit entire buildings inside of small spaces like this?"

"Dr. Who did it better," Keiichi answered nonchalantly. "You're no Time Lord, that's for sure." He paused, then narrowed his eyes at Urd. "…Right? No 'Wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey shit, right? _Right?_ "

Urd just smiled.

Skuld glared at him. "Who the hell-" She paused, then seemed to think better of it. Scowling, the younger goddess looked between Keiichi and Urd, her face dark with suspicion. "You know what, never mind, let's just get you ready." The black haired goddess walked over to one of the armors hanging on the racks. The material looked rubbery and elastic, more like a wetsuit than any sort of armor the SEAL was familiar with. Something about it struck a familiar chord in him, and for a reason he could not explain Keiichi thought of a post-apocalyptic videogame Megumi had introduced him to while on leave. Skuld gestured to it, "Thanks to my mods, it'll make you more-or-less immune to small arms. It'll also cover you in a stealth cloak, one strong enough to hide from even a goddess first class like my Big Sis; at least until you get within twenty feet or so." She grabbed it and tossed it at Urd, who caught it with a bored expression on her face. "He's yours, so I'm leaving the measurements to you Urd."

Keiichi opened his mouth to protest, but Skuld was already moving further down the armory line, this time stopping in front of a weapons display. Planting her hands on her hips, she observed the array of guns, swords, polearms, an enormous hammer, something that looked suspiciously like a lightsaber, and various other equipment, some of such a strange and alien nature that Keiichi could only guess at their use. "Great…and now the TARDIS is invaded by the MIB." Keiichi grumbled beneath his breath. "What's she going to do, hand me a Cricket and call it a day?"

At this point, Skuld's fingers began to curl up into fists. She made a show of running one hand through her long, black hair in a manner the SEAL had seen Urd do on multiple occasions, and as he'd half-expected, when the long tendrils fell free of her grasp the Norn was flipping him off. _Maybe these two are sisters after all,_ he thought in amusement, and stole a glance at Urd. Urd smirked back, and Keiichi snorted and shrugged his shoulders.

After a moment, Skuld finally withdrew one weapon in particular. To Keiichi's disappointment, it looked somewhat…feminine, shall we say, well…okay, so it looked like a motherfucking hair dryer. She turned and offered it to Keiichi. "This is a Plasma Coil," she introduced. "It fires a concentrated ball of plasma energy at whatever you're aiming at, however because of the lethality behind its initial design—and taking your own barbaric personality into account—I've deemed it necessary to put the 'child's lock' on it to ensure you don't accidentally kill anyone. So instead, what you're going to do is point the open end towards the bad guys," she gestured to the plasma coil's barrel, "and pull the metal thingy here called a trigger." Again she pointed, and Keiichi sent her a flat look. "It's designed to knock out whoever's hit by it for a couple hours with no residual damage. It's simple to work, so even a dumb ape like you can figure it out."

"You know what this reminds me of?" Keiichi asked, picking up the weapon and observing it with an ease that spoke of long experience. It felt too light in his hands. Like a plastic toy rather than a weapon designed by a goddess. He missed the comforting weight of the standard-issue M9 from his various deployments. "This reminds me of one of those guns off of that _Ratchet and Clank_ game." He frowned, bringing it up and looking down the sites. "You know what, no, I take it back." He said with a frown. "This _is_ one of the guns off _Ratchet and Clank_. I know it is because my _twelve year old_ brother uses it all the time." He placed a heavy amount of emphasis on the number 'twelve' then lowered the weapon and looked between Urd and Skuld. "I thought you called the Poodle a Tech-Wiz!" He cried in disdain. "You didn't tell me she had all the creative ingenuity of a twelve year old copying her favorite game-gun." He pointed towards the rubber-like armor that was now draped off Urd's shoulder. "And that? Is that some kind of Fallout armor?" He taunted. "I bet it is. Like Chinese Stealth Armor or something. Shit, they aught to sue you for copyright infringement."

Keiichi placed the weapon on a shelf in distaste. He didn't like the fact that there was no safety mechanism on it, nor could he tell if it was loaded or not. Hell, if he couldn't disassemble and reassemble a weapon in the span of sixty seconds, it was something he didn't want to touch. Not until he'd at least put several hundred rounds of whatever caliber munition through the barrel.

"Y-You, you—" Skuld flushed in embarrassment and rage, her face darkening into a deep rose that left Keiichi wondering if she'd pop a blood vessel. "Screw you dickhead!" She snarled, at a loss at any other kind of retort.

Keiichi gave Skuld a sour look. Urd leaned in towards the mortal and whispered in his ear. "This will help you look good in Belldandy's eyes." She gestured towards the gun. "She hates killing."

"So how do I reload it?" he asked immediately, a little more receptive this time.

"As long as you're wearing my armor, you won't need to," Skuld huffed. "The armor will transform the electrical pulses your body naturally produces into a form of energy the plasma coil can use. It'll regenerate ammo every five seconds."

"Great..." Keiichi drawled. "So it'll give me some kinda cancer instead?" Keiichi stared at the gun and armor. "Y'know, If I'd known it'd be cancer that took me out, I'd a drunk a lot more Coke Zero." _That suit looks stupid-skin tight. How the hell is a wetsuit supposed to stop bullets?_ He looked at Urd. "Why can't you just build a robot or go see Belldandy yourself?"

"Because Belldandy is blocking us, probably through magic or because her higher-ups are blocking us. You're our little loophole," Urd replied. Keiichi looked at Skuld, and with a dour look on her face she nodded as well.

"Kinda' sounds contrived, but what the hell. I'm game," Keiichi replied.

Skuld snapped her fingers. A bright light appeared underneath Keiichi and he was lifted up into the air. "What the hell?!" The mortal began to struggle, only to freeze when he caught sight of the plasma coil he'd set down earlier in Skuld's hands. The woman was pointing the weapon right at him. His eyes widened in dawning horror as the sight, and a shiver raced down his spine. "Urd," His eyes didn't dare leave the plasma coil, the hair dryer which had looked so harmless, so useless, so _childish_ , a moment before. "Tell her to put the gun down. I don't want my head looking like a crushed melon."

Skuld ignored the jab, narrowing her eyes at the man. "Let me make this crystal clear for you, _mortal_." She uttered the word like a curse, all traces of niceties absent from her face. "You had better keep your end of the bargain or I will make your life a living hell for the rest of your pathetically short-"

Skuld's rant was interrupted by Urd. With a strength that belied her slim frame, in one fluid motion the darker goddess snagged Skuld by the collar of her dress and threw her down the armory hallway. Whatever spell holding Keiichi hostage was broken, and the man plummeted to the floor with a grunt, too startled by what he'd just witnessed to react. Skuld rolled to a halt a good fifteen feet away, the weapon she'd been aiming at Keiichi well out of her grasp. Urd advanced on her with a stride that bordered on menacing, kicking the plasma coil away from her sister without as second glance. Dazed, Skuld moved to stand, looking up at her older sister with an enraged glare. "What the hell, Urd!"

"We both want Belldandy free," Urd's voice was tight with something Keiichi had never heard coming from the goddess before: anger. "I know you're pissed. I know you're upset. You think you're the only person who cares for Belldandy? She's my sister too." The woman stooped and grabbed Skuld by her shoulders, picking her up-again with that inhuman strength-and shoving Skuld against a glass panel that held a display of advanced-looking weapons behind it. "You think the past ten years haven't been hard on me, either? You think I don't want to rip Japan apart and _destroy_ this guy?!" The goddess was raising her voice now, and Skuld flinched. "What the hell do you think is stopping me?!" Urd snapped. "There are _rules,_ Skuld. Get that through your stubborn ass-brain now. There are rules we need to follow. Rules we cannot break because of our position. We _need_ Keiichi if we're going to rescue Belldandy. These two are fucking _destined_ to be together-you saw the report, you've met the man yourself, and you know how the demons-blessed System Force works."

She fell quiet, and for a long moment a tense silence fell upon the vehicle. Keiichi recognized it as the calm before a storm, a match about to be lit near a gas line, and held his silence. Whatever happened next, he would not be the one to ignite it. Urd's breath was so deep and rapid he could hear it; could even see the flair of her nostrils as the silver-haired goddess fought for some semblance of control. Skuld's eyes were wide, and in comparison to her sister, the SEAL doubted she was even allowing herself a breath, she looked so scared. Then slowly, Urd's hold on Skuld slackened, and the younger woman slid down the glass pane she'd been pinned against. It took a moment for Keiichi to realize Skuld's feet weren't touching the ground.

"Furthermore," Urd started, and her face scrunched up in a snarl. It was gone so fast that Keiichi was certain he'd imagined it. " _Furthermore_ ," The goddess tried again, "Keiichi Morisato is one of my closest friends. I don't care if you're prejudiced against humans. I don't care if you think they should all rot in a hole for all eternity for whatever shit this Aoshima fuck is doing to Belldandy. Hell, you can even speak your mind if it makes you feel better—but I will not-" She swallowed visibly. "I will _not_ allow you to threaten him. Not Keiichi. Not his family. Not his team. Do you understand."

Skuld said nothing, and for that Keiichi couldn't blame her. The woman looked shell shocked.

" _Do you understand?!"_ Urd roared, and this time Skuld flinched.

"I get it!" She cried, "I understand, okay? No more threats! I get it!"

Some of the anger seeped out of Urd's face, and with a strained sigh the goddess released her. Skuld retreated further down the armory's hallway towards the front of the vehicle, putting ample distance between herself and Urd. The young woman was trembling, holding back tears. "I just want to get Big Sister back, okay?!" She cried, before turning and storming off.

All at once the anger vanished from Urd's person, and the woman slumped against the wall she'd pinned Skuld to not a moment prior. Keiichi, sensing the storm's passing, rolled to his feet and approached Urd. "…I do too." The woman muttered, her face hidden behind one hand.

Keiichi eyed her. He'd never seen this side of Urd before. He'd seen the Injured Urd from back in Afghanistan, Teasing Urd as they'd become drinking buddies, Sullen Urd whenever her sister was brought up and the many, many faces of Drunk Urd. But Protective Urd? _Angry_ Urd? Oh, Angry Urd was new.

Angry Urd was scary.

"So…" Keiichi started. "That was new."

"M' Sorry." The goddess didn't lower her hand. "Stressed." She peeked between her fingers at him. "…Scared."

Keiichi raised a dark, bushy eyebrow. "Coulda fooled me." He said. "If I'd known I was walking into another one of your fights, I'd have bought a Rolex beforehand." He raised his left arm, where the LUMINOX glinted against the artificial light within the van. "Demon on one arm, a goddess on the other." He joked. "And with their powers combined, I might actually have a conscience telling me that I'm in way over my head and that no piece a tail is worth the family drama I just witnessed." He shrugged. "Either that or I'll have two pairs of screams to act as my daily alarm."

He earned a snort from Urd, and the goddess dropped her hand to her side.

"Oh, she's worth it, alright." Straightening, the silver-haired woman moved to Keiichi's side. Using a quick spell to recall a picture of Belldandy, she wrapped a free arm around his waist as she stepped behind him. "She's not just a piece of tail," Urd whispered, embracing him in a one-armed hug. Her free hand trailed up to his chest, while the other held out the picture for Keiichi to observe. The goddess leaned into him, taking strength in the solidness of his form. She felt tired, sick from the negative emotions and bad memories brought on by her argument with Skuld. The Norn sighed, propping her chin on his shoulder. Urd was taller than him by several inches, yet Keiichi had never seemed to care about that, nor mind her oftentimes intimate proximity. For that she was grateful. "She's probably the finest piece of ass in all of heaven, Keiichi. The kindest woman you could ever hope to meet in this world or the next. And it's literally her destiny to be yours, if you can handle a stupid, immature, overgrown child and a crazy witch dressed like a bitch for a little longer."

Keiichi took the photo and examined it. Urd's hand fell to join its sibling around his waist. Not going any lower, not teasing, but resting in a loose embrace. His own hand dropped to hers, and he squeezed it in a show of comradery. In the picture he was holding, Belldandy was wearing a white spaghetti strap dress that revealed all of her curves, but still left plenty to the imagination. She was smiling brightly, holding a sun hat with both hands in front of her.

"I took this while we were taking a day off at one of the beaches back home," the silver-haired woman's voice was soft, mournful even. "There was no way for me to know it'd be that last one I'd get to take of her. She received the call to go down to grant Aoshima's wish the next day."

Keiichi nodded in understanding. Having three younger siblings himself, he empathized with how much it pained Urd to know her younger sister was in trouble. Especially the favorite. "Don't worry, I'll get her back," he told her, determination in his voice. _Especially for the favorite._ He thought.

"My hero." Urd's smile was warm, and for a brief moment the embrace tightened as she kissed the back of his neck.

XXX

In the city of Nekomi, outside of Tokyo, Japan, there was a mansion. It rested at the peak of a steep hill, built upon the foundation of what had once been a deteriorating Buddhist temple. Those who passed it-them the very few- saw only the highest peaks of the mansion roof, for a ten-foot stone wall obscured the rest of the view. Yet for what little those few onlookers did see was a palace of pure splendor. A modern-day _Yamajiro_ constructed for a self-proclaimed _Daimyo,_ with it's long, sloping walls and _Sotogata-_ styled levels. The roofs were tiled and brown, with triangular windows that glowed with a gentle electric lighting. For those rare individuals who were allowed past the armed guards that patrolled the mansion grounds, even more could be seen: Rustic rock walls lined the first floor, with more contemporary stucco for the floors above. Beside it was a more modest building which served as the original residence for the monks who'd once lived and worked here. Now it served as the guards' residence.

The residence was quiet this late at night; most of those present were day-shifters, trying to get a good rest for the morning shift that started at five, while the other inhabitants were night-shifters breaking for food. Only two occupants were awake and active in the shack, and both of them were in the dining room, prepping and chatting as they fixed themselves a quick meal of salted fish, rice, and pickled vegetables.

Which meant the living room next door was empty.

It was a small room; designed more like a break room with its various bar stools, chairs, and lone leather couch instead of a living room. A large, seventy-two inch television was suspended from one wall. Its screen danced with images from a news network that a previous denizen had been watching before leaving for a shift, and the volume was a dull roar that served more as background noise more than anything else.

It was as the news station was reporting on a natural disaster in Thailand that the picture began to distort, rippling like disturbed water. The voices emerging from the soundbox grew deep and harsh, and the screen began to glow and boil and warp, the strange bubbles conjoining into one huge bubble that took up the center of the screen. It seeped from the screen like a drop of mercury, before gravity took hold and tore the unnatural droplet from the television. All at once a human body formed from the drop, and as though the action came second nature it tucked into a roll, coming up a few feet from the screen in a fighting stance.

The figure looked around, peering through the orange visor of his suit. Behind him, the flatscreen's light dimmed, the voices raising to return to their natural pitch as the magic that had allowed the transport faded from sight. "Alright, I'm in." Keiichi said, the voice emerging from the suit metallic and genderless. "Doesn't look like anyone's around."

Several miles away, in downtown Nekomi a large radio tower rested. Within its upper scaffolding, two women sat, various pieces of electronic equipment scattered about them in disarray. Skuld had changed into a pair of loose-fitting cargo pants and a dark red halter top. her hair was tied up in a pony tail, and the young woman leaned over a slim laptop, typing commands in a flurry into the program she was observing. "Okay, I've got a layout of the facility on screen." She said, speaking into one of the headsets granting her Comms with the SEAL. "You screwed up already Urd." She accused, casting a glare to her older sister. "Magilla spawned in the guard shack instead of HQ."

 _"The fuck you just call me_ , _Quiche Lorraine?"_

"Oh, I'm sorry," she retorted. "Did I stutter?"

"Both of you save it for later!" Urd snapped, sending a pointed look to Skuld. "It's time to man up and shut up. We've got a sister to save." The woman sat suspended on one of the metal pillars of the tower, her gaze southbound towards the hilltop she'd teleported Keiichi to. "The guard shack was intentional-most of the guards are working so it'll be easier to infiltrate without drawing too much attention. Last thing we need is me teleporting you into some executive office that has a trigger button and half a dozen armed guards waiting to swarm you, Jank."

 _"I could take 'em."_ It sounded like Keiichi was joking, but the comms made it difficult to tell.

"Don't get cocky." Urd warned, adjusting her own headset in an effort to make it more comfortable. "Save that shit for the after party. Something about this whole thing feels off to me. I don't like it."

Skuld scowled up at her. "Don't tell me you're getting cold feet now. This was your idea, don't forget.

"As if." The goddess directed a violet glare down to her sister. "I'm just saying proceed with caution. We aren't out of the woods until Belldandy is on the other side of the planet."

 _"Roger Wilco, Sheila."_ The small buzz of static that indicated his own headset was active fell silent, switching to the more passive 'receive only' mode. The goddess redirected her attention towards Keiichi's position and closed her eyes. Several minutes passed, and when she opened them once more she looked down to Skuld. "Alright, I've masked our magical signature from any active interfaces." She said. "That should keep us from drawing any unnecessary attention. Everything good on your end?"

Skuld frowned, reviewing the various pieces of hardware around her. "For the most part..." She muttered. Urd raised an eyebrow in question, but Skuld was too focused to notice. "There's something really weird about this area, Urd." The Norn pursed her lips, then placed her laptop off to one side in favor of another piece of equipment. "I don't know if your spell was actually necessary, Sis." She murmured, and this time both of Urd's brows shot up in surprise.

"What do you mean?" She asked.

"Well..." The woman's brows furrowed together in concentration. "According to the readings I'm getting, there was already a dampening spell put in place. It's passive, just like the spell you worked, but I've also got a counter-dampening shield in the works to help detect any magical frequency changes that might indicate someone trying to break your spell." Now she looked up, her face tinted with concern. "Urd, Belldandy doesn't know dampening spells..." She said, "I don't think we're alone..."

Urd chewed her lower lip in thought, a thumb beating a restless tempo against the steel beam she sat on. "It's...probably just the higher ups," she decided. "They know we've been looking everywhere for Belldandy, so they probably laid a spoofer on her location to hide her in case we figured out what country she was in."

Skuld looked unconvinced. "And if it's not?" She inquired. "What if it's-"

A sudden ringing from one of the electronic pieces caught the attention of both the sisters, and with a curse Skuld reached for it, her face pinching in aggravation. "Oh great." She growled, then looked at Urd, that accusing look once more on her face. "I thought you said you placed a dampening spell on the area!"

Urd looked at her with a start. "Hey now, I did! And that layered on top of the one _you_ already claimed was in place! What is it? What's going on?"

The younger Norn glowered at her sister, than turned back to the little machine in hand. "I bet you triggered something when you laid out that spell." She growled.

"Bullshit." Urd retorted. "What do you see?"

The goddess lifted up the equipment for Urd to see, and reaching down the silver haired Norn grabbed it. Three large blips of light displayed on the screen, heading north towards their position. A symbology Urd didn't recognize was displayed around each light, and Urd glared down at her sister. "Skuld, I'm not a technical genius like you. What are you showing me?"

The woman smacked her forehead with an audible growl. "Those are Valkyries you dunce!" She snapped. "Three of them, one of them with a big enough signature to account for a Fighting Wing! What the hell did you do, Urd?!"

Urd paled considerably, her mouth forming into an 'O' of surprise. "FUCK!" The goddess snarled, and then hopped down from her post. "Fucking Lind sticking her Nidhogg-blessed nose where it doesn't fucking belong—"

"You've got _Lind_ on your tail?!" Skuld jumped away from her sister as though she were poison. "Freaken 'Golden Eye' She-Bitch Herself?" She stared at Urd in dawning horror. "Urd _what the fuck did you do?!"_

"Never mind that!" She snapped. "Can we still relay comms to Keiichi away from the tower?"

"Well yeah, it's got a range of thirty two point six miles but-"

"Then stow what you don't need and get ready." Urd announced. The woman tossed the machine back down to Skuld, who caught it with a dismayed shout. "We're running interference for Keiichi."

* * *

 **Comments of a Madwoman: Shit's about to get real next chapter. We aren't pulling any punches here, so get ready for some harsh realities and some ugly truths. There's a reason this story has a mature rating, and you'll see some of those reasons in the upcoming chapters.**


	3. Chapter 3

l

 **A/N: A reminder to all that this story is rated M for a reason.**

-3-

"Everything okay out there?" Keiichi's voice came out a whisper. There was a volume control setting for the helmet's voice box located near the left part of his visor, and upon emerging from the television-fuck he wasn't looking forward to _that_ return trip-he'd turned it off to prevent unwanted attention. Now though, after he'd readjusted the mode from 'receive only' to 'Comms up', some of the dialogue he was hearing was making him nervous. "Who's Lind?"

 _"I'll tell you later. Might be going silent for a while. You memorized the blueprints for the building, right?"_

Beneath his helmet Keiichi frowned. "Yes." He replied. "I may not know the finer details, but I can find my way around." One of the things that had been drilled into his head during his training had been layout memorization, and he'd gone over the layout of Aoshima's building several times with Urd and Skuld to ensure he didn't get lost. Speed and silence were key for this mission's success, and despite how advanced his loaned gear was, Keiichi wasn't about to trust his life to the unfamiliar equipment. "Sheila, what's going on out there?"

 _"Urd fucked up big this time."_ Skuld's voice bordered on the edge of panic. _"Oh Yggdrasil, we are in so much fucking shit!"_

 _"Calm down Skuld."_ Urd didn't sound too happy herself. _"It's just a little hiccup in our plans."_

 _"A hiccup?!"_ Skuld screamed in his ear, letting loose a peal of feedback that made Keiichi flinch. " _No, a hiccup is you sending a mortal to do a goddess's job. This is a fucking train wreck in the works, and we're sitting first class on Death Railway!"_

 _"Stop being a pain, Blaine."_ Urd retorted. _"Listen, Jank. Skuld's gizmos say there are two active bodies in the building you're in, so keep your guard up. I don't know how much help we'll be able to provide you now, but I'll relay what I can when I'm not getting my ass kicked, okay?"_

Keiichi grimaced. "Roger that Sheila. Should I reroute our rendezvous or do you want me to find some place to hunker down after meeting the objective?"

 _"It's too soon to tell, Jank."_ Urd replied. _"Stay flexible, and if we're lucky, this whole situation will resolve itself once you pass on the code._

The Navy SEAL set his jaw as he crept towards the living room's threshold. "Roger, Sheila. Keep your wits about you, Jank over and out." The man once more turned off his voice box, then turned down the receiving comm as low as he dared. He could still hear Skuld cursing at Urd, but it was slight; little more than background noise in the back of his head.

The man sighed to himself, wishing his team was with him. A SEAL's greatest strength lied not in the personal abilities of one man but in the cohesion of his unit, and Keiichi had never liked the concept of a one man army. If not for the literal goddesses on his side, he'd have been a doomed man from the start. People like Jason Borne and John Matrix were fictional for a reason, and now, without even Urd or the yipping poodle to relay information, Keiichi was on his own. No comrades to watch his back. No one to provide cover fire if he walked into a room full of armed guards. No one to drag him to safety in case he was injured.

"Shit just got real." His voice was tight and a little warped within his helmet, and the man grit his teeth. "C'mon Shithead. This ain't no time to pussy up. You got a goddess to rescue." Steeling himself, the man peered into the adjoining hallway, grimacing at the light that so illuminated it. _I stick out like a sore thumb. How the hell is this 'stealth armor' supposed to hide me when everything's so bright? Dumbass acted like this shit would work anywhere so long as they weren't within twenty feet of me. Maybe it was 'stealth' like those high-tech planes the Air Force liked to fap to. But those things were against radar, not people._ _That bitch better not have screwed me over._

"Aye Dai-chan." Keiichi stiffened as a deep voice, marred with a thick Sendai accent, filled the hallway. "I've finally achieved da max level of manliness!" The Navy SEAL cursed his luck as he backpedaled into the living room once more as two forms turned into the hallway. Like the hallway, everything in the living room was illuminated, giving off too much light for any corner area to have shadows he could use for cover.

 _If I was a smaller man, I could have hidden behind the fucking couch and they'd be none the wiser._ Keiichi scowled, then pressed himself up against the wall near the threshold. _At least I can still get the jump on them._

"Have you finally crushed a melon with your biceps alone, Den-Chan?" Another voice, this one high and grating, rose up in the hallway, and Keiichi paused as he readied himself.

"I have my dear friend," Den-chan claimed. "And I must say, it is an incredible feat. Nut'in like crushing apples!"

" _Oh you motherfucker_ ," cursed Keiichi under his breath as the door started to open.

A man walked through the door, and for a brief moment Keiichi's eyes boggled as he stared up at the guard. _That's not a man._ Keiichi thought, _that's a fucking mountain!_ As a Navy SEAL, Keiichi was no stranger to gyms. Every military base had a gym of some type rigged together to ensure those stationed could stay in shape, and so he was no stranger to some of the more massive muscular men who frequented them. Hell, Team 12 was a walking example of that, and he'd seen men twice the size of McGuinness, who was accepted as the largest, strongest, most terrifying motherfucker in their unit. Yet this guy made McGuinness look like a runt with muscle atrophy. _Urd never told me Thor was fucking Asian!_

"Eh?" The man paused, noticing the stranger near the door. "Da' fuck? Araki, dat you?" The man moved into the room, still staring, and a second man followed, this one even taller than the mountain with long, slick backed blonde hair that reminded Keiichi of Bravo. "Yo, not cool Man. It's too late for dat cosplay shit. Go to fucken be-" Keiichi brought his foot up and smashed it down on Den-chan's knee. The man released a nerve-rattling howl and crumpled to the floor, rolling to his side and cradling his injury.

"Den-Chan!" The blonde cried, the horror on his face obscured by a black pair of Rei Bands. The man was dressed like his friend in a pair of matching grey suits, their blazer's sleeves rolled up to their elbows with matching loose, black ties. Keiichi looked around, recognizing a pair of empty holsters resting in a docker's clutch on the man's side. Fortune had caught them on break, and Keiichi didn't plan to let them stay up long enough to locate whatever weapons fit into those holsters. Guns may have been illegal in Japan, but that didn't prevent those with the right money and enemies from obtaining them.

"The fuck is wrong with you, man?" The blonde guard came at Keiichi with a haymaker. The SEAL back peddled, avoiding the wild attack with ease before launching a boot into the man's chin. Dazed, the tall man stumbled back, clutching his face with a groan. The dark haired man advanced, gaining ground before planting his fist into the blonde's midsection, just below the sternum. The blonde doubled over with a pained wheeze, where he was met with a vicious uppercut that sent him to the ground, out cold.

Before Keiichi could breathe a sigh of relief, a pair of thick arms wrapped around his torso, pinning the SEAL's arms to his sides. He was picked up into the air and squeezed like an anaconda would its next meal. "I'll crush you like a melon!" the huge man roared, "I'll teach ya to mess wit-" The Mountain was back on his feet somehow, despite his one shattered kneecap, yet for Keiichi it was of no consequence. It just meant another weak spot to capitalize on. Den-chan lifted him in the air, preparing to slam him into the ground. Yet as soon as gravity began to pull him down the SEAL lashed out, kicking back at just the right moment to once more smash the larger man's kneecaps with his boots.

The goliath released him and fell to his side with a roar. Keiichi darted forward, putting space between the two of them, then wheeled around to face his opponent, ready to counter in case the guard somehow managed to get up a secondtime. The man stopped however when he saw that the giant was in no condition to go on. Instead the man laid where he'd fallen, clutching his knees and trembling with silent agony. At Keiichi's approach, the big man looked up at him, his face inquisitive and confused beneath the pain that scarred his face. "Who are you?"

Without answering, Keiichi slammed his fist into the big man's jaw. "A ghost." His opponents dispatched, the SEAL moved to the doors and glanced down the hallway. The ruckus had not caught any of the other guard's attention, much to his surprise. "I'm thousands of miles from home, I'm wearing something from a video game, and it's night out," Keiichi muttered with a sigh. _Might as well be wearing sunglasses and driving Illinois Nazis off bridges, this shit is so unbelievable._

"... _Hit it!_ ," For a moment's Urd's voice rose up in his ear, and the man paused, checking to see if he'd somehow left the transceiver on. It was off though, just as he'd left it earlier. Shaking his head at the strange coincidence, her turned up the mic just as Urd spoke up once more. " _Jank, Shelia. Everything alright on your end?"_

"Yeah, I just got jumped by Mount Fuji and his younger brother The Doberman. How the fuck do you think I feel?"

" _Well fuck me for being_ _concerned!"_ retorted the silver haired goddess. " _Won't happen again, I swear. I'll just leave you the fuck alone while you're bleeding out on the floor."_

Keiichi smirked at Urd's sarcastic tone. At least some things didn't change. "You good on your end?"

 _"We'll see."_ Urd said. She sounded stressed. _"We're expecting first contact in five mike. It's a shame you're too busy to take a gander. We'll be lighting up the sky like the Aurora Borealis in Alaska."_

"Sounds like quite the show."Turning his attention to the unconscious men, Keiichi moved to the blonde and grabbed him by the collar, pulling him farther into the room and dragging him to the couch.

 _"It'll be something, I'll tell you that. Not necessarily a good 'thing' either."_

"You going to tell me who Lind is now?" He went back and grabbed the giant, but as he'd half-expected the man had too much dead weight for him to move by himself. He'd have to leave him as is and hope whoever found them later thought they'd passed out in a drunken stupor.

 _"Nope."_ Urd replied _. "You worry about you. I'll worry about me."_

Keiichi sighed and rolled his eyes. "Whatever you say, Sheila. It's your call."

" _Yes,"_ That uncomfortable tone had returned to her voice. " _It is…."_

" _Urd, quit talking to your boy toy and help me with this thing!"_ Skuld's spiteful tone snapped over the line, and Keiichi flinched.

Keiichi grit his teeth. "I swear to god, if you don't but a muzzle on that thing—"

" _I know, I know!"_ Urd cried. _"Get busy rescuing Belldandy and we'll keep Lind and her posse distracted."_

The man released a sigh. "Fine." He grumbled. "Fine, I'll let you know if anything shows up, okay?" His hand moved to his helmet, finger grazing the volume button on the voice box. "…Be careful Urd."

" _I wi—"_ The Comm cut out, released a peal of feedback, and then went silent.

"Sheila?" Keiichi called out, testing his transceiver and turning the volume up. "Sheila, Jank, do you read me?" Nothing. Cursing, the man tore off the helmet, examining the side of the visor before doing a hard reset of the voice box, something Skuld had shown him and instructed him to do in emergencies. The lights dictating the receiving activity died and then returned, and with a grimace on his face that spoke more of worry, the SEAL put the helmet on his head and tried again. "Sheila, Jank, how do you copy?" Still nothing. "Sheila, Jank." And nothing still. "Urd?"

Only the silence of a broken comm met his ear.

"…Fucking Hell."

Sighing to himself, the man shook his head. "Alright, Urd's a big girl and that sister of hers is as mean as a platoon of marines in a dry county. Get out of here and find Belldandy."

XXX

The receiver on Urd's mic went flat, and the Norn paused mid-sentence. "Jank?" She tapped her headset, knowing intuitively that the SEAL was out of range, yet hopeful none the less. "Jank, Sheila, do you copy?" Silence met her ear, and the woman pursed her lips, looking south towards where Keiichi was.

She dark-skinned woman looked down at Skuld. "What happen?" she demanded, "The comms are dead."

Skuld didn't even grace Urd with a look. "Don't know, don't care," she said. The woman kneeled at her work station, breaking down the various pieces of sensitive and delicate equipment she'd brought with her. "Gotta worry about Valkyries now because _somebody_ ," she sent an accusing look up at Urd, "didn't mention she was on a Fighting Wing's shitlist." The younger Norn growled in anger, one fist slamming into a metal support beam with enough force to cause it to warp. "I swear to Yggdrasil Urd, if I get fucking sealed because you decided to pick a fight with the wrong goddess, I will spend the rest of eternity making your life a living hell!" she snarled.

Urd frowned and dropped down to her sister's location. "It's not going to come to that," she said. "No one's getting sealed." She moved to kneel beside her sister, placing her hands on the younger Norn's shoulders. "We're here to get Belldandy back." The silver haired goddess caught and held Skuld's eyes-a shade of brown of such a strange tint that they almost held a red hue to them. "We aren't leaving this place until we get Belldandy back. And come hell or high water, she's coming home with us. If that means holding off a few Valkyries so a mortal can reach her and make a wish, then so be it; that's a chance worth taking." She pursed her lips, observing her sister and the fear so evident on Skuld's face. Not even the prospect of reuniting with Belldandy seemed to reach the poor girl, and for that, Urd couldn't blame her. _The reputation the Valkyries-the Fighting Wings especially-precedes their capabilities. But how to explain that to Skuld?_

 _How would Keiichi motivate Team 12?_ A small voice inquired, and at that she paused. The woman licked her lips. "They're _Valkyries_ Skuld, not a police force." Her voice came out low and slow, yet confident. The Norn forced a smile across her face. "Half the techniques they know they aren't authorized to use against civilians like us. We aren't demons, and a hefty chunk of their magic comes in the form of anti-demon wards; stuff designed to go null against gods like us." The woman smirked, feeling her own confidence growing as Skuld grew thoughtful, taking Urd's words into consideration. "Besides, if it's only one Fighting Wing, I'll bet you the other two are weak in comparison. If not in magic than in experience, with Lind serving as the main course to cow us into submission. These fools think they're going up against a couple of regular idiots who don't know their elbows from their assholes. They don't realize they're going up against the Norns themselves."

Skuld's expression grew pensive. "That still doesn't account for Lind though." She argued. "You and I both know her magic is shit. But for her that doesn't matter, given she's got all the finesse of a bull in a China shop." The woman shook her head. "She'll _crush_ us, Urd. Who needs magic or fancy techniques when you can punch your opponent's head right off their shoulders? So what if the other two can't do shit—if that's really the case here—it won't matter, because so long as _they_ keep us distracted, Lind will still get the better of us."

"Which is why I'll need your help with this one," Urd replied, her smile lengthening. "I need you to focus on both of those Valkyries. Leave Lind to me."

Skuld's face darkened with suspicion. "Leave Lind to— Urd, what the hell you are planning?!"

Urd released her grip on Skuld's shoulders. "In all honesty? I've got nothing planned." Skuld's eyes boggled, and Urd held up her hands. "No, really," she insisted. "This time I've got no ace up my sleeve, no game plan, not even a fire escape for if things go wrong."

The elder goddess flashed her sister a smile; a wild, reckless smile that did little to put Skuld's nerves at ease. The woman's violet eyes were alight with a strange type of wickedness Skuld had only seen on one or two occasions, and those of a vengeful nature. "No plots, no plans, no games," Urd said. "I have only one goal in mind Skuld."

"I plan on beating the ever-loving shit out of that woman."

The goddess cracked her knuckles, and to Skuld it seemed as though a subtle shift had overcome her sister in that moment. The woman she'd known all her life, that annoying older sister who loved to tease her and bait her, nag her and comfort her, was gone. The person in its place was a stranger; one she almost did not recognize as Urd. _It's the one that threw me up against a wall,_ Skuld thought, eyeing her sister in sudden wariness. _The dangerous one. The Scary One._

 _The Demon._

The goddess stiffened at the thought, and all at once a new energy signature rose into her sixth sense; that invisible feeling that let Skuld know that another entity, another goddess-three, in fact-had entered the area. She stared at Urd, uncertain and afraid, apprehensive of what was to come.

Yet Urd's attention was already drawn west, where three figures were growing larger as they drew near. "Urd!" they heard one of them cry. Urd immediately identified it as Lind's voice. "I know you're here! Show yourself, Black Wing!"

Skuld stiffened at the taunt, sucking in a sharp breath as the aura around Urd sparked with violet magic. She sent a side-long glance towards her sister. "Oh boy." The expression that adorned her face was borderline murderous. She stepped away from her sister, her sensitive equipment forgotten in the wake of the volatile magic that danced across Urd's body. "Shouldn't have done that," she muttered. "Should not have done that, Lind you stupid fool."

"Oh... that motherfucker is going _down_." Urd hissed. "Imma beat her ass so far into the ground she'll think she's in Niflheim." The goddess launched herself into the air, and Skuld watched her go with growing dismay. "Bring it you One-Winged half-soul!" She snarled, and was met with a blast of energy that missed her by a foot-a warning shot.

"Fuck me, these two are going to kill each other," Skuld muttered, and with heavy reluctance she followed her sister to meet the oncoming Valkyries.

XXX

Listening once more for any signs of fresh guards, the Keiichi crept into the hallway, feeling exposed and vulnerable as he rushed from the living room and through a traditionalized kitchen that included an antiquated water hand pump. A pair of wooden sliding doors rested near the kitchen, and peering out a nearby window the man came to the conclusion that he'd reached the back door. Cracking it open, he peered outside.

"Looks like the back of the main residence," he muttered, taking a moment to observe the multistory building and the guards patrolling it. "Backyard entrance leading inside…not really lit up, looks like the party's retired upstairs…" He craned his head up, eyes narrowing as he caught sight of a well-dressed, lanky man making his way back inside from where he'd stood on the third floor balcony. "Wonder if that was the man of the hour himself?" he grumbled.

A strange chirp echoed within the helmet, and Keiichi watched with a start as wire skeleton formed over the building, obstructing his vision through the visor. "What the fuck?!" The man stared at it, frozen, as the diagram completed itself, then shrunk, disconnected from the main section of the visor, and floated off from the physical building and into the upper right of his helmet's HUD. It turned slightly, and a door that he'd not noticed in his initial examination of the blueprints was indicated by a flashing cursor. The building turned once more, and with dawning realization the man saw his current location on the mini map, identified by a lone white dot.

"That motherfucker," he breathed, watching as the dot flashed and turned green. _Can't pull any creativity out of her ass but hot damn does she know how to flatter through imitation._ He grinned to himself. "Fine, a videogame she wants, a videogame she gets. Someone get me a fucking box. We're going in Solid."

He slipped out the back door, taking care to shut it behind him before making his way around the side of the building. The lighting in the area left few areas for him to hide in, and so Keiichi was forced to watch and time the guards carefully, seeking out some kind of pattern within their bored patrol before acting. One of the areas was near a statue of an elephant, its trunk raised and curled as though blaring in triumph. Another was composed of a long, well-manicured row of bushes. They stood only three feet off the ground, and Keiichi was forced to high-crawl parallel to them, stilling whenever a patrol grew to close.

None of them saw him, though all of them were armed and alert, and Keiichi wondered if that wasn't in part due to his armor. The larger part of him still doubted it; these guys, despite the suits, were nothing more than guns-for-hire. Ones who'd played the same song and dance night after night that the job was no longer so much surveillance as it was moving around to stay awake. As he crouched down near a large and ancient _bonsai_ , he eyed the guards, waiting for the opportune moment to dash across the yard to a shadowed area near the entrance flashing on his HUD. The man pursed his lips. Wait for it…wait for it… _wait for it…._

Both guards turned away from him. The SEAL bolted along the wall, almost diving into the shadowed archway of the doorway.

"HEY!" someone shouted behind him, and Keiichi stiffened, his hand going to the plasma coil strapped to his leg. Heart racing, he buried himself within the shadow produced by the external lighting, peering as far as he dared from his section of cover.

"WHAT?" another guard yelled from across the compound. The dark haired man looked in the general direction of the voice, but saw no one. He clutched his weapon tight with one hand, ready to fight his way out if necessary.

"Did you see that? It looked like a black cat, but it was huge!"

"The hell you smoking, man?"

"Nothing." There came a pause, followed by a softer, "Nevermind."

Keiichi waited with baited breath a moment more, watching from the shadows for any signs of either guards drawing near. When he was certain neither party was approaching him, the man breathed a sigh of relief. Slowly he inched towards the door, half-expecting it to be locked. It wasn't, and the main door opened without a sound. Withdrawing a collapsible spy rod from one of the pockets built into the suit, the commando lengthened it and slipped it through the door's crack, using the small mirror on the end to check for incoming personnel.

Just inside he made out a small kitchen. A maid stood in front of a counter, preparing a marinade for several pieces of chicken before covering them and placing them in a fridge. Keiichi watched as she finished, wiped down the countertops, and left. Putting his mirror away, he opened the door and slipped inside. Recalling the planned route he'd discussed over the blueprints, the man passed through to the other side, pausing at the threshold to check the hall.

A guard stood just outside a door leading up a spiral staircase. The maid was there as well, blocked from entry by the man as he tried to proposition her. Keiichi frowned at the scene, then shook his head in disdain as he aimed his hair dryer (he refused to call it anything other than what it looked like) at the pair and fired.

A wave of energy shot forth and enveloped his targets. He didn't even hear the expulsion it was so quiet. It struck the duo straight on, and for a moment both the maid and the guard convulsed before dropping to the ground without a word. Double-checking to ensure no one else was in the area, Keiichi moved forward and through the door. He bound up the stairs two at a time until he reached the top level.

Here things were more illuminated; the lights warmed the surrounding _Nara_ Oak walls with a gentle glow, and with it brought to mind Keiichi's many deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. _It really is no different, is it?_ A part of him asked. _You come to a foreign country, you gain intel on the person you're to snatch up in the black of night, and you raid someone's home for the individual in question._

 _This isn't an Al Qai'da or Taliban affiliate._ He told that voice. _This is a rescue._

 _No different…_ That part of him sighed. _No different at all…_

The SEAL continued down the hallway, pushing the thoughts as far from his mind as possible and once more wishing his team or even Urd was there to watch his back. There were no guards along this route though, and he supposed for that he should have felt grateful. Instead it made him antsy and restless, tensing at every little creak and groan the wooden mansion made, as was its nature. At one point, he began to hear noises coming from one of the adjoining rooms, and it gave him pause. Leaning towards the wooden frame, he brought an ear up to listen.

"I'm telling ya boss, this is one of that bitch's best performances," said someone. Though the door muffled the voice, to Keiichi it sounded low and grating, a deep, harsh warble that came from a chain smoker.

"Well, let me see it then," replied a second one. This one was of a higher, smoother pitch that reminded Keiichi of a swab and debonair millionaire in spite of the eagerness of his tone.

His curiosity piqued, Keiichi cracked open the door just enough to slip his spy mirror in to investigate. It appeared to be a movie editing studio. DVD and Blue-Ray disks littered a bench along a wall with multiple displays at two foot intervals. In the middle was a much larger television which was being observed by two men. One, who was sitting down at a control panel, was a short, fat man with a balding head of grey hair. The second stood behind the first. The man was adorned in an expensive white suit, his black hair slicked back in a stylish manner that would have left Megumi, Keiichi's younger sister by two years, swooning had she seen him on the streets. He squinted at the screen through a pair of rimless glasses, his face hungry for the images displayed on the screen. The smaller screens were off this late at night, but the larger, center screen was blue. As Keiichi watched, the older man slipped a DVD into one of the players.

Glancing around, Keiichi strained his ears for any noises that indicated someone was approaching. Yet the hallways remained dead and empty. Emboldened, he cracked open the door a little more so he could get a better view.

" _How old are you?"_

Keiichi's blood ran cold. On the screen was a small child. She was wearing nothing more than a white t-shirt that rode up the child's waist and clung tightly to her slim frame. It looked two sizes too small, and the white panties she wore, the only other article of clothing on her, looked too small as well. The youth looked down at the ground then back to the camera, hugging herself as she stood in a large, empty room. She bit her lip. " _I'm nine years old."_

The Navy SEAL felt his blood pressure rise as he watched. For a moment, the child on screen vanished, and in its place was another little girl, one who stared up at him in a mixture of hope and fear, as behind her a familiar shadow fell upon her. Aiko had been the youngest sibling in his family at the time, born after they'd moved to the States a seemingly lifetime ago. She was close to graduating college now, but back then...back then, she'd only been nine.

Nine. Just like this one. Nine years old when he'd learn about the assault, and from a man who'd helped Keiichi learn English when the Morisato's had first settled down in San Francisco. A man who'd helped Keima start his business in glassblowing, a man who'd helped Takano navigate the grocery stores with all their English aisles and the impatient clerks who'd tap their fingers as she dug out the right amount of change, a man who'd been like an uncle to him, but whom Megumi had confessed she'd always been nervous around. Nine years old when he'd picked Aiko up from school one day...and had taken her back home with him.

It had happened while Keiichi was away at boot camp, and the Navy hadn't allowed him any leave time to go back home and be with her. He'd been just another cog in the machine back then, a pipeliner getting pushed through the system regardless of whatever incidents happened back home, or perhaps because of that incident. Megumi had claimed they'd found him guilty during a rare phone call back home, yet by then the damage had been done. There had been no closure for Aiko.

There had been no closure for himself.

The man jerked his head away from the screen, feeling his heart pulsing behind his eyelids. He didn't want to see his sister up there anymore than he wanted to see some child being victimized by whatever atrocities were about to play out before him. His jaw clenched painfully. _This motherfucker's lucky I'm just here for Belldandy._ He thought. _I'd fucking...I'd...I—_ The pulse grew louder in his ears, drowning out any more of the child's words, and Keiichi realized he was panting-no, hyperventilating-with the onset of something he'd not experienced in over a year: an anxiety attack. _No. Not now. Not like this. Come on, Morisato, pull through this. You've got people relying on you!_ Urgently he focused on his breathing, counting the seconds between inhale and exhale in a slow, deliberate manner. It was an exercise technique he'd learned from his therapist.

 _My name is Keiichi Morisato._ He told himself. He could feel himself shaking in rage, and gritting his teeth, he continued. _I am thirty years old. I am in Japan, rescuing a goddess from an evil fuck who—_ His heart began to race once more, and Keiichi's eyes squeezed shut as he tried again. _I am hidden. I am safe. No one can see me because of the technology provided by the equipment I wear. I have the jump on my opponents, and they will be at my mercy for better or for worse,_ he told himself, still taking the long, slow deliberate breaths.

 _I will find Belldandy and we will return to Urd. They will go home and so will I. I will_ not _get drunk off my ass, for I refuse to keep alcohol in my house. Drinking is a social activity, not an escape. I will call Aiko and tell her that I love her, and that she's the best damned sister I've ever had and that I'm proud of her. She will tell me her school grades and I will tease her that they aren't good enough for a visit to Virginia, and in the end she'll drive up from North Carolina and see me for Summer Break before Keigo flies in from California. I'll take her water skiing and hang gliding, because Takano told us not to._ His heart was calming down now, and the dangerous edge of the anxiety attack had abated.

" _Really! So when was your birthday_?"

" _Today_ ," whimpered the little girl.

He gasped as the words reached his ears, and suddenly he couldn't breathe. The anxiety attack renewed its efforts with fresh vigor, and spots began to dance across his vision, trembling and pulsing to the rapid beat of his heart. _Don't focus on the words Keiichi. Don't focus on what's happening on that screen. It's poison, it'll kill you, and it'll make you rot just like Iraq. Keep your wits about you._ He couldn't calm down. God damn it, he couldn't calm down and he couldn't breathe and couldn't—The man tore his helmet off and sucked in a deep breath, uncaring if anyone noticed him now. _Don't focus on their words, it's all Japanese and you only speak that at home and they've got a weird accent so who knows what's being said, just don't focus don't focus_ don't focus _—_

He dared a second look at the screen, taking note of the child's features. The little girl was Caucasian, with long, black hair that hung down to her waist. His little sister was gone. Yet an air of familiarity remained. That certainty that he knew the child, that he'd seen her before, haunted the depths of Keiichi's mind. _That's because after this is over and done with her ghost is going to stay with you._ A dark piece of him spoke up, the one he always associated with Iraq, with Aiko, with all the missions that ended in disappointment or in failure. _You're here for one person alone, and it isn't that girl, Morisato. You'll free that woman but leave the kid, because what happens here ain't none of your business, ain't none of your concern, and as soon as you get emotionally involved you've damned yourself and everyone involved. Just like Fida._

 _Except this isn't like Fida. This isn't a ghost,_ the SEAL told himself. _I've seen that girl's face before. I know it._ One of Keiichi's many talents was that he literally never forgot a face, which had saved his life a time or two out in the field. But where? He wracked his brain as he tried to remember where he had seen this face before.

" _So what do you want for your birthday?"_

The girl hesitated, staring with reluctance at the camera pointed in her face. Even from where he kneeled, the SEAL could see the girl's lower lip quivering with unspent terror. The camera zoomed in on her face, and flinching, the girl relented. " _I...I want to become a woman_."

Keiichi jumped as a scratching noise arose from beneath him, and looked down, afraid something had given him away. Instead he found his hands curled into tight, painful fists. Four furrows, each about an inch in length were gorged into the polished wood floor. The man uncurled his left hand. Splinters covered the gloved fingertips. He observed it, then the two men in the room before them. "I'm going to kill him." The words came out in a soft, calm manner filled with no small amount of surprise, "I'm going to kill him and ensure he never so much as looks at a child again."

All at once the anxiety attack fled him, and in its wake came a surreal, overwhelming calm. His senses felt heightened, and a part of him recognized it as the adrenaline working its way through his system, pumping him full of that Feel Good Juice that always kicked in during a heated firefight ( _or a non-combative extract_ , his mind whispered). He could smell the expensive cologne in the air, hear the hitch in Glass's breathing as he grew excited, watched as the man's movements seemed to slow down to snail's crawl.

Keiichi crept into the room. He pocketed the spyglass.

He withdrew his knife.

The man closed the door behind him. It made not a sound, and neither man looked his way, their eyes glued to the screen before them. Keiichi crept closer, his senses so focused on the men before him he missed the moving shadow behind him. Closer now, and closer still, his eyes never leaving the spectacled man before him. He drew his arms up, the blade pointed out and away from Keiichi, directed towards the man before him. Was he deaf? Were they both deaf? He and the old man at his side? They were like pigs; large and fat and slow in the head, fed and sheltered until they were ready to be butchered.

 _And I'm that butcher._ Keiichi thought, his mind distant, disconnected from his body as it worked forward. Everything was slipping into autopilot now, his body moving with a stealth instilled in him throughout all his years of service. _I'm the butcher, coming down to slaughter some pigs for an evening meal. Gotta make it quick though, Butcherman. Don't want them to stiffen up from terror. It makes the meat go bad._

An image on screen caught his eye; a flash of blue eyes wet with tears as a large, heavyset man walked on camera, and all at once Keiichi realized where he'd seen the girl on screen before. _Belldandy. She looks just like—she's got Belldandy's eyes._ The revelation made him pause as a fresh lump of horror arose in his throat, and with it Keiichi came to a shocking conclusion. _The hair's wrong, but the age…Urd said Belldandy went missing ten years ago…and that girl, she's…_

A disgust so strong it was nauseating twisted his stomach into a knot, and a new, fresh fit of rage surged through him. _Is that Belldandy's daughter? Is that-is that Urd's niece?_ A red haze enveloped his vision, and unaware of what he was doing he straightened, now no longer even attempting stealth in this new frenzy of wrath. Hate and loathing manifested in his being, and all thoughts of reason were lost as the scene on the monitor grew more graphic. His senses were lost to him as the scene continued to play out on screen, the two men before him watching with a sickening sort of fascination and desire.

"Fuck this, man!" The man in the white suit released an abrupt shout, startling the large man at his side. "It's late and I've got the real thing waiting for me to bang in my bedroom. Let's pick this back up in the morning."

 _I've got the real thing waiting for me to bang in my bedroom._ The words echoed and bounced within Keiichi's mind. _The real thing...in my bedroom...In my bedroom...in my bed..._ The SEAL's lips peeled back in a snarl, and unbidden images arose in his mind. Images of a little girl, adorned in nothing but a sheet, cowering in a bed as the man before him opened the door to the chambers. Of the look of hunger that graced the man's face, darkening it into something monstrous, and the child which did nothing but tremble at his approach.

 _"It's...a...s.e.c.r.e.t..."_ A voice from another life arose in his mind, his voice a whispering sing-song as he spoke with another little girl of a similar age. _"Between you...and...me... Just...a...s.p.e.c.i.a.l. game we play..."_

"But boss!" pleaded the portly man. "You haven't seen the best part! This is some fucking prize-winning shit right here!"

The smaller man glared at his companion, his face filled with a desperate _need_ , an _urgency_ that betrayed his inner thoughts. "No buts," He snapped. "Get out."

 _"Just...a...s.p.e.c.i.a.l...s.e.c.r.e.t. game. For...the..two...of...us. A.i.k.o. and...S.t.-"_

"Fine," The man stood with a sigh, one that did little to hide his resentfulness.

Keiichi was waiting for him when he turned.

The man's eyes widened in a manner that would have been comedic had Keiichi not been so furious. Adrenaline still rushing through his veins, the SEAL watched as the man froze mid step, his expression changing from irritation to surprise and from surprise to fear as his eyes fell upon the large combat knife in Keiichi's hand. His mouth parted in shock, then dropped in terror, yet before he could get so much as a squeal out, Keiichi was upon him.

His body worked with a mind of its own, his brain so blinded with thoughts of the past, thoughts of Aiko, thoughts of That Man, that it obscured the world around him, leaving Keiichi in a haze of poisonous red. Keiichi no longer saw the monitors, no longer saw the girl on screen nor even the two men before him.

There were only pigs to slaughter.

His left arm launched out past the portly's man's neck, where it wrapped around the back of his head and drew him forward. The large man, more startled than anything else, was too shocked by Keiichi's sudden appearance to do little other than stumble forward into Keiichi's range. Without a word, the SEAL drove his weapon into the man's chest, burying the knife in to the hilt before carving down with a hearty shove. The man howled, his hands wrapping around Keiichi's right arm with the desperation of they dying, yet it was all for naught; what little strength the man would have had was already fading as Keiichi removed the blade, bringing with it the man's entrails from where he'd carved out his gut.

The man collapsed with a gurgled moan that was pitiful to behold, and without a second glance Keiichi stepped over him, his eyes already focused on his next opponent.

Somewhere, off in the farthest reaches of his mind, Keiichi thought he heard a feminine giggle. _Kill him,_ a voice egged him on. _Kill him kill him kill him! Kill him for the child! Kill him for the woman! Kill him kill him_ kill him!

Before him, the man in the white suit, the man in glasses, _the man with a_ _hard on for what was on screen_ , turned to stare at Keiichi in shock. He screamed in horror as his larger companion collapsed, and then wild, brown eyes darted back to Keiichi. "Wh-who are you?!" His voice came out in a high-pitched shriek. "How did-how did you get in here?!" The man pressed himself back against the monitors, his hands flailing about behind him in a panic.

Keiichi said nothing, however, advancing on the man with the slow, vicious intent of a predator that had at last run down its prey. The combat knife gleamed red in the glow of the fluorescent lights, slick and dripping with its last victim's life-water. "Stop!" the man cried. "What do you want from me? Is it money? Did someone pay you?" He was grasping for straws that did not exist, desperate to delay the inevitable through either distraction until help arrived or to find some sort of monetary value he could use to buy this terrible apparition off. "I can pay you double what they paid you—no triple!" His hands scrambled across the control panel behind him, knocking on random switches and pressing twice as many buttons, and then all at once all the screens were on, each monitor depicting another gruesome scene of the girl in some horrible position, with some horrible man, and screaming and crying and pleading for relief.

The sight was enough to stop the SEAL in his tracks, and Keiichi almost dropped his weapon in the gross horror that engulfed him. It was paralyzing, and his prey forgotten, Keiichi's eyes instead roamed from one screen to the next, taking in each and every image and feeling his hate, his loathing, grow ever stronger for the man before him.

He never saw the gun until it was too late.

His instincts saved him from the first shot, throwing Keiichi to the left as the report went off. The munition ricocheted somewhere farther off, and the SEAL once more turned his attention to the man in the suit. He was panting, a large, single-barreled six-shooter gripped in both hands. It trembled with his anxiety, yet Keiichi had no doubt that at this close a range, even a blind man had a chance of hitting him.

"Who sent you?!" the man screamed. "Was it that bitch of a cousin of mine? Sayoko? Did she put you up to this?!" Keiichi said nothing. "The fucker never could stand me, you know that? Rich bitch she was, always jealous of my fortune, always jealous of my greater success!" He let loose a wild laugh that was borderline hysteric, and Keiichi took a slow step towards him. The man stopped laughing. "Back up!" he screamed. The SEAL didn't move. "I said back the fuck up! Do it now before I turn your head into swiss cheese! And drop the fucking knife!"

Behind the Man in White, the images continued to play out on screen, the voices of children crying out in pain echoing throughout the editing studio. Keiichi's jaw clenched, and he glowered at his opponent, too angry to speak, too angry to scream, too angry to even think. The Man in White shook his head. "Don't fuck with me asswipe," he warned. "Drop it now. Toshiyuki Aoshima doesn't fuck around. When I say do something, _fucking do it!"_ He fired off another shot, and this one went wild.

Keiichi didn't let the opportunity go to waste. With a roar that bordered on primal he charged the man, zigzagging towards his opponent as Aoshima fired first one shot, then another. The wood floor near his left foot exploded in a hail of splinters. He felt something else tear into his right cheek, setting it aflame. "No-no, stay back!" Aoshima cried. "Stay back you motherfucker! _Get the fuck away from me!_ " The fifth shot didn't even come close, and Keiichi brought his knife up, ready to end it all in a single strike.

It was the sixth and final shot that took him down.

This close, he should have seen it coming— _would_ have seen it coming had he been in his right mind, had the rest of his team been there to support him, hell, had Urd been on Comms screaming at him to pay attention. Yet he wasn't in his right mind and he was alone, a hostage to his own emotions and a victim to luck's misfortune. He had one thought: _Morisato, you stupid fuck,_ and then the bullet hit him square in the chest, the force behind it enough to send him falling backwards with a pained howl.

He landed on the ground hard, clutching his chest as he fought to breathe. Before him Aoshima let loose a peal of joy. "Yeah!" He roared. "Take that you ugly fuck! Nobody fucks around with Toshiyuki Aoshima, _nobody!"_

The Man in White discarded the spent handgun. Stuffing his hands in his pockets, a wide, arrogant smile on his face, the man walked over to the fallen SEAL. "That bitch never could stand me, you know?" He said, "She always hated the way I treated women; never liked the way I smacked them around." He shrugged, looking down at the man, a wild, frenzied look on his face. "Is it _my_ fault they don't listen? Am _I_ to blame when they're too stupid to understand?" Another bought of nerve-wracking laughter. "Nobody understands...nobody _fucking_ understands, Man! And you? You're just the latest dumbfuck that needed a good slapping." The man paused, looking down at where the knife had fallen a small distance away from Keiichi. He bent and retrieved it, shaking off the residual wet blood on the blade. It splattered across his white suit. Aoshima didn't notice. "Face it, you're just another bitch too dumb to follow orders."

He paused next to Keiichi, who'd stopped moving, and observed him with a frown. "Stupid shit. Thinking you can get the best of me with a fucking knife. Didn't anyone ever tell you not to bring a knife to a gun fight?" The frown deepened and the man pursed his lips, examining the new body. Something was wrong. "Wait...why isn't there any-"

A foot lashed out, smashing into Aoshima's shin with enough force to send him to the ground, and then Keiichi was on top of him. "You sick fuck." He whispered, and punched him hard across the face. Aoshima cried out in pain. _"You're_ the little shit that's holding Belldandy hostage?" He smashed his fist again into the man's face, and with it came the satisfying crunch of Aoshima's nose breaking. "The same perverted shit that rapes little girls?" He straddled the man and placed a knee on Aoshima's crotch. The man released a broken scream as he rested his weight on the knee. "What's her name?"

"W-what?" Aoshima's voice had risen in pitch, a sweet mixture of pain and panic that was almost musical. "I don't-"

Keiichi grabbed the man by the collar, pulling him up before slamming him back into the wood. "The little girl you roach!" Aoshima's head smashed into the floor, bounced, and Keiichi spied a small trickle of blood from where it began to stain the polished wood. The SEAL didn't care. He grabbed the man by his lower jaw and forced him to look at the screen. "The little girl, the nine year old, Belldandy's daughter, what's her name? Is she yours? Is that you're kid you're fucking in whatever shithole you sleep in?"

Aoshima whimpered beneath him, instigating a fresh wave of wrath. " _Answer me!"_ He roared.

"I-I don't, she's not-I don't know who-what are you," The man dissolved into a blubbering mess, answering none of Keiichi's questions. Keiichi pressed more of his weight down on Aoshima's groin, and then held him down as the man tried to fight him off. He screamed and sobbed, begging for relief, for mercy, for his life. " _Please!"_ He cried. "I'll do anything, anything you want! I-I'll leave the girl alone! I'll leave Belldandy alone! I'll stop, I swear I will, I'll-I'll even make you a mulberry pie if you want! Just-Just, _oh god help me! I just want to live!"_

Keiichi observed the man. "I want you to die." He whispered, the words coming out cold and without emotion. His hands moved around Aoshima's head. "This is too kind a death for a sick pervert like you, but I've still got a woman to rescue." He paused, drinking in the rapid fear within Aoshima's eyes. "And a girl, too. At least some of us will have closure knowing you'll never touch a soul again."

A sigh emerged behind him, giving the SEAL pause. "Oh mulberries, will you please get on with it already?" He froze at the voice, then turned as a new form emerged from the shadows cast by the room. "Goodness, I even took my time interfering, and still you waste it by not killing him?" the woman tittered, planting her hands on her hips. "Truly, Morisato-san, you must be the worst Navy SEAL I've ever seen."

"H-H-Haa-" Aoshima panted, and Keiichi released his grip from where he'd been about to break the man's neck. Instead, on guard, he redirected his focus towards the stranger.

Another time, another day, Keiichi would have called the blonde woman 'beautiful'. She observed him with amused blue eyes, dressed in an outfit that would have looked more at home in a Gothic mansion somewhere in Germany rather than a Japanese Playboy's penthouse. The dress she wore was green, short in the front, revealing a pair of shapely legs adorned in mid-calf high heels, before lengthening towards the back. A metal, studded choker wrapped around her neck, and on each arm was a nasty pair of matching wristbands, the studs ending in long, dangerous looking spikes.

"Help me!" Aoshima shrieked. Keiichi punched him again, this time in the right temple. The man went out without another word.

Again the stranger tittered, this time shaking her head. "Now, now, that simply will not do. I must insist that you leave my client alone."

"You're client?" Keiichi narrowed his eyes at the woman, this time examining the strange, red marking that adorned her cheeks and brow like a series of targets. Something in him went cold at the sight. _Red, not blue._ He'd seen markings like that before. _Red not blue. Not a goddess but something else. Something else. Not a god but a—_

"Oh yes, Aoshima-kun and myself have a contract," replied the blonde as she took a step forward. "And since you took your sweet time trying to kill him, he's called me for aid, which means that now I _have_ to intervene. A pity. Things would have gone so much smoother if you'd just _murdered_ the wretch." She exuded confidence, which put Keiichi on edge. She sauntered over towards the exit, white heels clicking on the wood as she placed herself between Keiichi and the only exit from the room.

His watch chose that moment to release a scream, and Keiichi went rigid. His eyes widened in recognition, and his mouth parted in shock. In a slow, deliberate manner Keiichi rose to his feet, his eyes never leaving the demon before him. "...Who are you? How do you know my name?"

The woman smiled at him, blue eyes dancing with malevolent glee. "Oh, how I know you is of no concern here," cooed the blonde. She stood a little taller as a menacing smile formed on her lips. "And as for a name, you may call me Hagall."

* * *

 **A/N: I would say that we have surely deviated from HotelKatz's WhatIf story now. :) When I gave Nena the first draft of the last part of this chapter, her response was "Well that got dark in a hurry!" The goal was to show Aoshima in the worst possible light, and I think we did that magnificently.**

 **Up until this point, we have been writing ahead of the publishing. That changes now. Some of what happens in the next chapter has not been completely fleshed out yet. We know the what, just not the how. So we may take a little longer to publish CH04. I am also not 100% sure if we will finish this in the next chapter or in CH05. That's to be determined.**

 **Rest assured, though; we are already working on the "AfterStory" as well.**


	4. Chapter 4

l

-4-

"Kara, status report." Despite the fact that the Valkyries were flying close to the speed of sound, Lind's voice traveled with ease, reaching the young green haired woman that flanked her left shoulder. They'd entered Japan less than an hour ago, traveling via Gate to the planet after word had come their way from an Earth-side ISR platform that Skuld's position was moving east.

They'd been tracking the woman since she'd descended on her own, and the youngest Norn had shown no indication that she'd noticed what the locals had claimed to be a UFO trailing her position from close to 70,000 feet in the 'd been tracking the woman since she'd descended on her own, and the youngest Norn had shown no indication that she'd noticed what the locals had claimed to be a UFO trailing her position from close to 70,000 feet in the sky.

Now though, as they'd suspected, Skuld's position had changed as soon as she'd met her eldest sister. They'd both teleported over six thousand nautical miles away, and as soon as they'd reappeared in Tokyo, Japan, their position had been locked and tracked, allowing for Lind and her small unit to move in for an intercept.

"We're inside the exclusion zone at this time, Ma'am." Kara was a young Valkyrie, one fresh from training and who'd yet to get her feet wet. Her and Chrono both. Apprehending the Norns before they could further disrupt Belldandy's operations in Japan would benefit them both with a good chunk of experience that could later be applied to Demon transgressions.

 _Besides,_ Lind further reasoned, _one of the Norns is half-way to becoming a demon as is. Might as well set the girls up with baby steps before some incident spawns that destroys the armistice and we return to war._ "Chrono, do you have eyes on?"

"Negative." Chrono was a bit older than Kara, a goddess who was closer to Lind's age despite the fact that she'd been added to their ranks a couple months ago. The brunette had once been a part of the Administrative Sector in Yggdrasil before deciding her current job was unsatisfying and requesting a transfer to the more warrior-esque units. That left Lind with some doubts about her given that she'd never seen combat up close. But there had been a time where she worked under Urd, and for that the new Valkyrie was valuable.

Plus she wasn't an arrogant little shit like Kara, who was _begging_ for a lesson in discipline.

"There's a ward on the area," Chrono continued as she narrowed her blue eyes. "It's got to have a radius of at least thirty nautical miles." She grimaced at the implication. "Ma'am, unless they decide to show themselves, it'll be difficult to find them."

"Aye, say true." It was all information Lind had concluded earlier, but she needed to test out her troops capabilities. "We'll have to try and draw them out."

"Why not flush them out?" Lind wasn't certain if Kara was joking or not. "You know, cause a bit of destruction, see if we can get lucky with some of the bigger spells with either a massive AOE or a cluster spell to help cover a larger range."

Lind grit her teeth at the suggestion, groaning internally at the younger goddess's recklessness. "Kara, I swear to the heavens, I will have you cleaning sandstone until it shines like a diamond if you ever suggest something so reckless and stupid again." She sucked in a deep breath. Kara was a very hot-blooded young Valkyrie who was eager to prove herself, and had yet to get it through her inexperienced brain that being a Valkyrie wasn't all about destruction and dancing on corpses. "We aren't in a battlefield. We're in a city filled with hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians. Pray tell, what do you think will happen if we start destroying everything we come across?"

She could hear the shrug in Kara's voice. "They're just mortals. Dime a dozen. They'll repopulate soon enough. I mean, come on, they breed like rabbits!"

 _This little shit._ Two of the three Valkyries thought.

Lind scowled. "We aren't destroying anything. The times we were authorized to pull stunts like that have long passed. Humanity has reached the point where their definition of magic can no longer be used to explain a demons-blessed meteorite raining down upon a city with a large population and destroying half a nation. Especially when they've got their eyes to the sky at all times and are _looking_ for giant meteorites that could destroy a nation."

"But-"

Lind snapped her head around and glared at the younger woman. "Kara, if you say one more blasted thing I will send you back home with my left boot shoved so far up your ass that when Squadron Commander asks why you're back, the first thing out of your mouth will be 'moo'."

 _That_ seemed to shut the girl up, and oh, what a fine mood Lind was in now. She sucked in a breath through her teeth. _I'll deal with her later. I still have one goddess in particular to meet who's been pissing me off for the better half of ten years now, and it's about time I confronted her on her actions._ "Chrono, Kara, you're responsible for apprehending Norn Skuld," she ordered. "She's not much of a fighter, so she shouldn't be too difficult for the two of you. Chrono, you're in charge. Kara, if I so much as hear a peep out of you throughout the rest of this mission, I will personally hand you your ass on a platter side-by-side with Norn Urd, where you can regal her with tales of destruction from within the realms of the unconscious. Is that understood?"

"Aye, Sa-"

"The correct response to that is silence, Kara."

This time the goddess said not a word, and Chrono stared at the lead Valkyrie in apprehension. "After we apprehend Norn Skuld, do you want us to aid you against Norn Urd?"

"Negative." Lind replied as a fleck of gold glittered across her vision. "Urd's mine." The words came out a growl, and Chrono wisely fell silent.

"Urd!" The blue haired Valkyrie roared. "I know you're here! Show yourself, Black Wing!"

Chrono's eyes bulged at the jibe, and she glanced to Kara, who's jaw had fallen open in shock. "Did she just-" The brunette shut her mouth with a snap when Lind turned to glare at her. When the piercing blue eyes of the war goddess turned away again, and the goddess shared a look with her green haired comrade. Insults were one thing, but Lind had just called out Urd's _angel_. There were certain things that were considered taboo in a fight, especially amongst gods, and calling out specific mutations on a deity's 'other-half', on a deity's _soul_ , was one of them.

As such, when a figure all at once rose to meet them from somewhere far below, it came with no surprise to find that the individual in question was Urd, armed with her own verbal ammunition as well. "Bring it you One-Winged Half-Soul!" the goddess snarled, and Lind stiffened before firing off a blast of concentrated magic. The shot missed her by a foot, yet it seemed to instigate the goddess across from them, as Urd launched herself towards the flight of three.

"Skuld's coming up behind her. Move out!" Lind ordered. As instructed earlier the trio separated, the younger Valkyries diving towards Skuld while Lind squared herself off against Urd. The woman summoned her poleax from where it was stored in an interdimensional portal, then charged to meet the goddess head on. _Time to take you down at last,_ she thought.

At about five feet from Urd, Lind pivoted in the air, spinning in a tight circle before bringing her axe down in a vertical swing on the darker goddess. The momentum achieved brought with it a power difficult to emulate in the air, and it was through sheer reflex that Urd did not lose her head in the resulting attack. _Can't hold back with this one,_ Lind reminded herself, pivoting to her left as a ball of violet plasma surged past her. _Rumors say they barred her from First Class because her strength at Second Class was already unnaturally high._ The Valkyrie slid beneath a hand coated in electricity, and then launched the butt end of her axe into Urd's gut. The woman dropped several feet, buckled over and trembled in pain.

 _So...kind of like you?_ A small, timid voice echoed in the back of Lind's mind, and the tone was just-so-slightly different from that of her angel as to make Lind pause.

 _Spear Mint?_ She asked, _Is that-_

 _EYES FRONT VALKYRIE!_ Spear Mint roared, and through reflex Lind brought her arm up, shielding her face from Urd's elbow. She let the force behind the blow send her back, providing distance between the two of them. She dropped back into a fighting stance, her halberd raised and ready. _Sweet Mother of all that's Holy does she have some sort of spike on her elbow?_ It felt like her arm had been punctured with the way it throbbed, yet a quick glance showed she wasn't bleeding, nor that Urd was armed with anything that could pass for a weapon.

The Valkyrie narrowed her eyes, then dipped her axe down and up, bringing it up in a diagonal slash that forced Urd to retreat once more. Now the Valkyrie was on her, falling into a series of cuts and slashes that forced Urd to retreat, backing her up and into the sky, where a heavy cloud deck formed with the night's rain. _Get her in the clouds and take her out when she loses sight of you. Make the battle quick and decisive. She can't sense me with the spoofer active which means I'll have the advantage; use her own magic against her and then drag her ba-_

As if sensing the woman's intentions, Urd ducked under a horizontal swing and then came forward, stepping into Lind's guard and launching an elbow up towards the Valkyrie's chin. Lind tilted her face up and to the right at an angle, and Urd clipped the corner of her jaw instead, bringing with it enough pain to startle the warrior. Again, she used her polearm to place distance between them, yet Lind could already tell that it wouldn't work a third time. Urd was adapting to her strategy at a faster rate then she'd expected. The goddess was now no longer allowing Lind to push her back into the clouds and was keeping herself close, making it difficult to use the halberd with it's longer range. It was forcing Lind back, down to earth and away from the cover of clouds.

She jabbed at the woman with the pike at the end of the pole, and this time Urd _grabbed_ it. "Urd Bolt," she growled, and before Lind could retaliate a current of violet electricity traversed the length of her weapon, traveling up Lind's arms and biting into her body. The Valkyrie released the weapon with a shout, and Urd yanked it away from her, throwing it to the ground below with such force that it glowed.

Distracted, Urd never saw Lind step into _her_ guard until it was too late. The Valkyrie grabbed the woman's right arm and twisted, causing Urd to release a howl of pain. "Didn't anyone ever tell you," Lind hissed, "that you _never_ take a weapon from a Valkyrie?" Without releasing her hold on the goddess, Lind spun in the air, forcing Urd to follow lest her arm be wrenched from its socket. Her face met Lind's leg as she came down, followed by a secondary kick that landed square in Urd's back, sending the goddess sprawling to the ground.

Lind followed her down, and the goddess caught herself twenty feet above an empty intersection, a pair of wings snapping out behind her and providing enough drag to stop her fall. One of the wings was barely visible in the evening's darkness, and Lind narrowed her eyes. _So there's truth to the rumors after all,_ she thought, diving to meet the goddess as Urd turned and sped off, her speed increased with the new appendages on her back. _I wonder if that means the other rumors are true as well..._ Calling her own angel for aid, Lind threw herself after the goddess, intent on running her down. She'd seen blood on Urd's face from where her kick had landed, and despite the loss of her weapon it filled Lind with new confidence. To spill first blood was to claim the first victory, and Lind had always preferred hand-to-hand over any other form of combat. _I'll run her down and run her ragged,_ she thought, as a flicker of gold flashed across her irises. _She can't outrun a Valkyrie._

And so it was that Urd began a new game of cat and mouse, leaving her younger sister to fend off two additional opponents.

XXX

"Ah fuck."

Skuld's eyes darted between her two opponents, her stomach a knot of unease. The green haired Valkyrie, Kara, smiled at her from where she held a bo staff. "This doesn't look too hard. I mean, she's basically just a civilian, right Chrono?"

Chrono didn't respond, her own hand's empty of any weapon that Skuld could see, and that made her nervous. Valkyries were twice as dangerous unarmed than they were armed, and the popular belief was that they delighted in combat and destruction. _And here I am, the lucky fool with two to entertain and no sister for back up._ She sighed internally. _I can't trust Urd with anything, can I?_

Kara smirked, her face arrogant as she caught a glance of Urd's departure. "Looks like your big sister ain't too tough." She crowed. "But then, that's only to be expected when you're a black-blooded cur."

Skuld went ridged. "…Say again?" She asked.

Chrono eyed the woman, then glanced back to Kara, whose smile grew wider. The older woman motioned for the younger woman to stop, quit, desist, _shut up_ , yet the Valkyrie paid her no mind. "Oh come on, I'm sure you've heard the rumors too. That tainted devil of a woman wasn't even _considered_ for a First-Class license because she's so defiled. I mean, come on. She's a _bastard_. Not even Niflheim wanted her so she got dumped in Asgard because even her mother was embarrassed to have her around." Seeing the glare from Skuld, Kara smirked and continued. "I mean, sure, she's the Daitenkacho's daughter and all, but everyone knows that the best parts of her ended up as stains on a mattress."

Skuld sucked in a deep breath, and then the anger fled her features as she released it. This did not put Chrono at ease. On the contrary, is made her more anxious. "You know, I was actually having a good day, too," Skuld murmured. She sounded disappointed. "I get to hang out with Urd…met a man who might actually be a decent representation of humanity…and finally, _finally,_ get to try to free my Big Sister." As she spoke, Skuld counted off with her fingers. When she finished, some of the anger returned, but a little different this time. Whereas before she was just angry in general, now it was more specific and targeted.

And it promised pain to whomever was in the crosshairs.

"And now you had to just... ruin the ride." She sighed, then reached into her pocket and withdrew a small black device the size of a cell phone. She tapped it in various locations, and the box popped upon, revealing it to be a container of some sort. Small beads that resembled pearls rested inside, and as she spoke Skuld withdrew several of them, rolling them within the folds of her palm gently. "You two appeared, and in reality, I guess I don't even mind that…but then you," she looked at Kara, with a determined, dangerous expression, "had to go and open your big trap."

The hand with the tiny pearls closed into a fist, and as Chrono watched one-by-one the pearls appeared between the forefinger and the thumb, where Skuld began to flick them about without care. "You should know something about me," she continued. _One. Two. Three. Four._ "I like getting into arguments with people. I like debating with folks. It heats up my blood. It gets my brain thinking. It inspires creativity in me." _Six. Seven. Eight. Nine._ "People always assume I have a short temper as a resultt; that any little thing will set me off."

 _Twelve. Thirteen. Fourteen. Fifteen._

"But hey, let me tell you something, Lady, let me tell you something _Ma'am_ ," The title came out mocking, and Skuld let the final pearl, this one number twenty, dance across her knuckles like a trick coin. "There's actually only a couple of things that really, honestly, _truly_ piss me off like no-fucking-tomorrow." She rolled the final pearl between her index finger and thumb, her eyes never leaving Kara's. "And it's two things, really." The woman flicked the final pearl into the night sky, and Chrono watched as it vanished, right along with the other nineteen pearls; they were too small for her to see and too numerous to track.

"The first thing is people messing with my family. That includes dipshits like this Aoshima-fuck who stole my sister from me ten years ago." The woman snapped her fingers, and around the three of them a series of stars began to glow. They were tiny. About the size of a pearl. "If this Morisato guy Urd's got so much faith in doesn't do it…if _Urd_ doesn't…then when Belldandy is freed, I will personally hunt him down, strip him of every ounce of flesh he's worth, and let him hang from a balcony for the crows to peck at while his soul lies imprisoned in his body."

There were twenty stars in all. Twenty tiny little stars that glowed with an light so intense they illuminated the surrounding area. Chrono could almost feel the heat radiating off of them. "The second thing I cannot stand….that I _will not_ tolerate, are people who insult my family." Skuld's eyes narrowed. "In particular my sisters." Her voice dropped an octave, and suddenly Chrono was cold, so cold, so _very, very_ cold. " _Especially_ Urd." The stars began to pulse with a luminescent light, and Chrono was reminded of a white dwarf, the stars all tiny suns that had reached their terminal mass and were at the end of their long lives. She shivered uncontrollably. This wasn't _right_ , this wasn't _natural_ , this was wrong, wrong, _wrong_ , but she didn't know the hows or the whys or the what-have-yous. "Urd may be a bitch, but she's _my_ bitch," Skuld continued. "She may have all the brains of an overripe melon, but she's _my_ melon-brained idiot sister."

Chrono shared a look with Kara, who looked uncertain in the presence of the pearl-stars. "Uh..." Kara uttered. "Maybe you should rephrase that first part..."

"Maybe you should shut the hell up and apologize," Skuld replied, cutting her off. The calm had yet to leave her voice, and again Chrono shivered, wishing more and more that she was fighting by Lind's side. Lind at least was safe. But this... Skuld was showing signs she was even more a Wildcard than Urd, and that was a frightening concept to find herself up against. Especially with a Valkyrie like _Kara_ as her only backup.

"Yeah...no." Without warning Kara lashed out with her bow staff, and all at once the white dwarf stars reacted, their glow enhancing to the point of blinding before forming a wall between Skuld and Kara's choice of weapon. The round, metal end released a hollow warble as it landed, a noise so strange and so alien that it left both Valkyries nauseous. Then the metal that engulfed the wood shattered, and Kara released a yelp. "What the hell?"

Skuld bequeathed them both an unpleasent, cool smile. " _Etiru._ " Her arms stretched out in front of her and the goddess spread her fingers, and the two warriors watched with wide, uncertain eyes as the twenty tiny white dwarfs moved to her hands, two to each finger and creating the illusion of a pair of burning white gloves. The woman dipped into an unfamiliar fighting stance, and sensing the imminent battle at hand, the Valkyries followed, Kara spinning her staff to the other end as Chrono dropped into a fighting stance of her own.

"Kara." The younger Valkyrie looked at her comrade. "If we end up getting our asses kicked because you decided to open you mouth and insult a Norn, I will lock you up in a latrine so soiled demons won't even touch it and have you lick the goddamned walls clean."

Just for a moment the tip of Kara's staff dropped. The woman glanced at Chrono in horror. "Bullshit," she hissed. "We're the same rank. You don't have-"

" _Belu_!" Skuld snarled. She sent a punch towards Kara, and the Valkyrie looked to her in a mixture of surprise and confusion, batting at the younger woman's fist. The range difference between them was large enough that the punch wouldn't have even reached Kara where she stood. Yet, that was before ten of the glowing pearls shot from Skuld's hand and soared at the green haired woman. They traveled in a straight, neat line, one behind the other, and Kara swatted at them with her staff in the hopes of disrupting their path. Then the pearls tore through the hardened, magically enhanced weapon like it was paper, and Kara threw herself to the ground as the alien weapons sailed past her head.

Chrono stared at the broken weapon with wide eyes. "Oh...fuck." Then watched as the tiny line of pearls, still in their neat little train, traveled back to Skuld.

" _Etiru._ " The glowing orbs returned to Skuld's hand. Her smile grew malicious. "Now," She said, eyes sparkling as Kara got to her feet. The Valkyrie was shaking. "About that apology..."

Chrono stepped a couple of feet away from Kara, blue eyes darting between her and Skuld. "I just want to say," she began, "That I worked under Urd before my time a a Valkyrie and I hold no feelings either for or against her."

Kara's head snapped towards Chrono. "You bitch!"

" _Belu."_ The Valkyrie dodged to the left with a yelp as once more a chain of the glowing orbs shot towards her. Yet as soon as the orbs left Skuld's hand, Chrono lashed out with a roundhouse kick, her right leg moving so fast it seemed to blur. Skuld's eyes widened, and she cried out as well. _"Adapu!"_ The woman brought her arms out in front of her, and the beads on her opposing hand shot out as Chrono's foot came towards her, spreading into a wall.

The Valkyrie reeled as her foot collided with the pearls, and she stumbled back, gritting her teeth against the pain that hummed through her leg. It felt like her foot had bounced off an iceberg, throbbing and pulsing as a deep numbness seeped into the bone. With another command of " _Etiru,_ " the orbs returned to their stationary position on Skuld's hands, and the Norn narrowed her eyes.

"Idiots, the both of you." She murmured, and with a squeeze of her fist the orbs grew brighter. "Who the hell do you think taught me how to fight?"

XXX

 _That's a fucking demon._ Keiichi's heart began to jackhammer in his ribcage as he stared at the woman before him with wide eyes. _Oh…oh fuck._ All at once he was back in Afghanistan, armed with an M4 and firing off a burst of gunfire at a blonde man who was using some sort of strange weaponry against a woman who looked to be on her last leg. Of how a short burst of gunfire had struck the man but did nothing aside from draw his attention. Of the sudden, horrid realization that Keiichi had screwed up in that exact moment, as the man's red eyes-literal, glowing red eyes-had met his and how the blonde had laughed then, and Keiichi had started fearing for his life. There was something in that gaze…something evil in that look which had chilled Keiichi to the bone back then, had paralyzed him, had made that primitive lizard brain of his scream in terror over what he was facing.

Now, that same lizard began to rouse once more, and Keiichi broke out into a cold sweat. _I don't have Urd to back me up now._ Urd had said nothing of a demon. Keiichi doubted he'd have even agreed if she'd mentioned there was a demon. Yet here one stood before him, as real and as chilling as the midnight air. _I don't even have the Poodle,_ he thought. _Hell, at this point, I'd even take Baby Bravo for backup._ But he was all alone. All alone in a video editing studio, with screams and cries emerging in a cacophony of voices from the speakers, a dead man lying near the editing station, an unconscious sick fuck, and a demon who had her own role to play in this whole ordeal.

"Indeed," Hagall purred. "You're all alone… you've been abandoned by any you would call 'dear', and without even a weapon to defend yourself against." The demon took a step forward. Keiichi stepped back and to the left. "Poor, poor Keiichi-kun." The man stiffened. Only his sister's called him by that name. He allowed _only_ his sisters to call him by that name. To hear the Japanese honorific coming from a demon formed a knot in his gut, and the man grit his teeth as he felt a bead of sweat trickle down his temple.

Hagall paused as she took another step, then tilted her head to the left, looking down the length of her nose at him. The smile she sent him was arrogant, haunting, and above all, terrible. "Oh?" She murmured. "What's this? Is the big bad ghost afraid of something?" She sauntered towards him, and Keiichi backed up, edging towards the left as he retreated. "But what?" She continued. "Surely not the men in this room; one lies dead and the other may as well be. Not what's on the screens, despite the visible…" Her eyes darted to the monitors behind him, then back to Keiichi, "…talent so portrayed by the actors."

 _She's got that same evil glint the other one had._ Keiichi thought. _Urd, where the hell are you?_ Where the hell was Belldandy, for that matter? Had she been sealed by this demon? Could gods be sealed like demons? _I don't know how to break a seal, if that's the case. I don't even know where I'd look for her._

"Oh, I assure you, Belldandy still walks as a free goddess," Hagall spoke again. "It…would be no _fun_ if I was to merely seal her. We can do that by the way—seal gods. It's part of an old armistice agreement between our two people." The woman continued her advance, her heels clicking on the tiled floor. Keiichi continued to edge to the left, watching as, step by step, the two of them began to circle.

"You read minds." Keiichi stated.

"Oh my. A mortal who speaks the obvious?" One of Hagall's brows rose in mirth, and she released a sharp, amused laugh. "You are a _sharp one,_ aren't you?" Keiichi flinched. "I assure you, Keiichi- _kun_ , I can do much more than that." She paused, blue eyes glittering with malice. "I wonder... should I show you?" She inquired. "Your deepest fears, your buried griefs. Tell me, what is it that so frightens Keiichi Morisato? If I were to look under your bed, what monsters would I find? Would their faces be men?" Her eyes bore into his, and Keiichi felt the hair rise on the nape of his neck, evoking a shudder that traversed the length of his spine. "Or children?"

For a moment, and just for a moment, Keiichi thought he saw someone from the corner of his eye. A boy, perhaps around five, with tan skin and black hair. The man wrenched his gaze from the demon's, his heart clenching in his chest. "Fida?!" Yet it was an illusion, a trick of the eye, and the child he thought he'd seen vanished like so many other ghosts from his past.

Hagall's laughter was cruel. "My, you certainly have a thing for children, don't you?" Keiichi looked back at the woman. "So many children, so much misfortune...you truly were born beneath an unlucky star, weren't you?" The demon snickered, and Keiichi felt a ball of hate build atop his fear. "And to think, you curse all you meet with such a wretched demise-"

"You shut your goddamned mouth right now." Keiichi's voice came out low and commanding, his anger overriding the instinct that even now screamed in his ear- _flee! Flee! There's a fox in the chicken coop and it's coming for you! Run! Scream! Get away!_ Instead he drew the plasma coil from its holster, which even now felt too light in his hands. _I've been scared plenty of times in the past._ He reminded himself, and Hagall's grin grew larger. _This time's no different._ He thought. _I'll just nail her and run. Nail her and run, that's all I got to do. Just hit her once and-_

He fired, and his shot was true. It struck Hagall straight in the chest. Seizing his chance, man bolted for the room's exit, uninterested in the weapon's effectiveness. _Now_ he let his instinct override him, _now_ he let the panic engulf his mind _, now_ he-

Hagall appeared in the door's threshold, looking none the worse for wear. "And tell me," she purred, "What were you going to do when you realized that little toy didn't work on me?"

Without thinking Keiichi threw the would-be hair dryer at the demon, all other thoughts having fled his mind in the resulting panic. Hagall caught it without effort and crushed it with one hand, her eyes never leaving his. The amusement had left her face, though, and Keiichi knew all at once that she was done toying with him. "I'd say it's high time you introduced me to your monsters, Keiichi Morisato." He ran towards her, intent on barreling into her if need be, when the ground opened up beneath him.

And Keiichi Morisato found himself falling. Falling into a chasm so deep, so black, so impenetrable, he feared he would go insane. And as the chasm closed in around him, as Hagall's voice echoed through the darkness, a part of Keiichi wondered if he'd gone mad already.

XXX

Gunfire.

Someone was firing at the ECP.

Screams broke through the many TCNs, and panic seized the locals like a madness. All at once they were flocking to the ECP's gate, pushing and shoving and yelling and screaming as they fought to get through, fought to get onto base, fought for shelter from the bullets spraying towards the MPs without discretion.

He remembers cursings and how Jackson is by him like magic, how he looks right and there is McGuinness, screaming orders as behind them Iraqi soldiers ran for cover. None of them are armed. "Morisato, you're on point!" McGuiness screamed in his ear. "Jackson, you cover him!"

He remembers asking about the civilians, but not McGuinness's response. He's at the ECP instead, taking shelter behind a cement barricade and firing at men, at women, at anyone armed and firing on the ECP. He catches glimpses that live on to haunt his dreams: the look of surprise on one man's face as he takes three rounds in the chest. The terror on a woman's as she's mowed down in the crossfire. The burning eyes of another man as he targets an MP.

The man looked down the red sights of his weapon, pulling the trigger as the tiny red dot landed on the torso of first one man, then drifted to another as he picked up his fallen companion's weapon. Their aim was poor and wild, their weapons the old, mass-produced AK's that'd been lying around since the Iran-Iraq war, uncleaned and uncared for and jamming without cause. There are screams on his side of the barrier, he doesn't look, hears someone scream for a medic, hears Sanchez's voice further off. They all sound distant and dreamlike, unreal and fantasmal in this horrid reality that exists between his sights. _("You know what happens next, don't you?" Hagall asks, and yes, now he recognizes the voice and he knows what's about to happen and he's scared and shaking, shaking because of what's about to enter his line of sight, shaking because of what he's about to do—)_

There he was. It was Fida alright. (" _You pulled the trigger as soon as you saw him, didn't you?" Hagall persists. "You didn't think, you just acted, and it was only as his body flopped to the ground that you realized what you did. You createn. MURDERER.")_ He recognized the boy's bowl-cut hair, recognized the bright red t-shirt he wore, and his finger-

 _"No."_ He breathed. "That's not what happened." He stopped himself. _Forced_ himself to stop, his finger just starting to squeeze the trigger. "I knew it was him immediately."

 _("And still you murdered him." Hagall wasn't even trying to hide herself now.)_ The bullets were flying, deafening the air around him and yet somehow none of them struck Fida, who was racing towards the ECP in a dead run. (" _The only bullets meant for him were from your gun, remember?"_ )

Keiichi shook his head, his eyes wide. "No, that's not how it went." He repeated. "It was—"

 _("You saw him and pulled the trigger. You reacted without thinking and a child died for your crime. Like a perfect little soldier without thought for anyone else.")_ Time froze, and Keiichi found Fida in his scope, the child's dark eyes wide with fear and panic. The boy looked close to crying. Hagall appeared next to him. She wrapped an arm around the boy's shoulders and smiled at Keiichi, locking eyes with him as she had before. The look on her face was one of contempt. (" _But then again I suppose that's all you are. A Gun under contract. A paid killer. A professional murderer. You deal in death and business is good, is it not?")_

Why hadn't anyone else fired at the boy? Why had, of all the people present that day, he'd been ignored by soldiers and insurgents and civilians alike? Why had no one else seen him?

 _("You know the answer to that.")_ He felt a pair of hands, as gentle as a breeze, graze across his arms, felt hot breath on his neck and felt his hair stand in object terror. (" _You were the only one_ looking _for him that day... Children have always remained invisible on the battlefield, for they are the participants no one wants to acknowledge.")_

He closed his eyes, yet still found no relief. The scene behind his eyelids was even worse; that of Fida's everlasting survival, where Keiichi didn't fire upon the boy, where the youth reached him at the ECP and how Keiichi, too relieved to see him safe and sound, did not notice the strange, bulky shape to his person nor the wires sticking out of his shirt.

"And that's why I pulled the trigger," he said outloud. "It wasn't out of cruelty. It wasn't for murder or because I just 'reacted'. I know what I saw. I had to do it, for the safety of the base."

 _("But there was nothing in his shirt.")_ Hagall's words caused Keiichi to grit his teeth as the image changed, once more showing Fida's body dropping to the ground. (" _He recognized you and was running for help. You, who used to toss him candy from convoys. You, who helped patch his wounds after an IED exploded outside his village walls. You, who would hand him MREs and clothing and bottled water as a sign of good faith towards the populace. He knew you by name, Keiichi Morisato, and so he ran to you, fearless of the bullets, fearless of the soldiers, fearless of the men who were his own people. He ran to you and you betrayed him, shot a five year old boy down like a dog in the street.")_

There was a clatter, and some small part of Keiichi was aware that he'd dropped his weapon. He didn't care. "Get out of my head!" he screamed as he tore his helmet off. A bullet whizzed past his ear. He didn't notice. "What the fuck are you trying to do to me?!"

"Jank, what the fu-" Jackson was next to him, staring at him with wide, startled eyes, only to topple over a moment later from where a bullet tore off his jaw. Blood and bone sprayed the sky, and Keiichi stared, paralyzed, as the man collapsed without another word.

 _No,_ He'd been bullshitting with the real Jackson not even twelve hours ago. _No, this isn't what happened, this isn't right,_ he all around him Keiichi was seeing more and more discrepancies with his memories. Americans were dropping like flies. The two MPs who'd been manning the gate were both down, one bleeding out and the other dead. _They both left that fight alive. One was grazed in the arm and another was saved by his helmet._ Sanchez was running towards them, a medic to the end, and was blown away when an RPG crashed into his position. _There weren't any RPGs! They only had AKs! They only had small arms!_ He watched in open horror as a leg sailed through the air. Was that Sanchez? Or one of the MPs? He clutched his head, shaking it in disbelief. "This isn't what happened, this isn't what happened, this isn't _what happened!"_ He was screaming now, and the air was filled with the sound of gunfire. Laughter and gunfire and screams and smoke and— _Fida._

He looked back across the barrier, and there was the boy, his eyes dead-set on Keiichi and his expression still terrified. He reached the ECP without so much as a graze, and to Keiichi's eyes it seemed almost as though the boy's skin was translucent, revealing the skeleton beneath. "Keichi!" The boy had never learned how to say his name properly, and it wrenched at Keiichi's heart. " _Keichi!_ Please help me!"

 _I can't move._ Keiichi thought, his eyes traversing Fida's face. They boy repeated himself. "Keichi, please help me. Keichi, please help me, Keichi, please help me." It was one of the few bits of English he'd taught the boy. _In case he ever found himself in danger. Run to an American and say 'please help me' and they'll take care of you._ God, he'd spent a fucking _hour_ going over that phrase with him. And now... now... Keiichi's throat locked in despair as he spied what he'd already known: A series of black wires that poked through the collar of his shirt. The man grit his teeth.

 _He'll blow you and everyone near you up if you don't stop him._ That was the voice of cold, hard logic, _you know it's true, just as it was back then._ It was the voice of training, the voice of steel that had gotten him through so many firefights alive. _This isn't real, remember? You know exactly how everything happened, you went over it more times than you care to remember. You wrote it down. You spoke it aloud. You looked back and asked yourself, 'if I had any control over it, what would I have done differently?' And the answer was always no. There was nothing you could have done that wouldn't have gotten you shot, your team shot, of caused some sort of breach in the ECP that would have led to more deaths. Now shut your eyes tight, Morisato, 'cause it's time to start_ visualizing _. Stop thinking about the bullshit that never happened and start thinking about what you_ want _to happen._

He can feel Hagall digging through his mind now, her fingers like worms burrowing through a fresh, hot corpse. Block her with steel, he tells himself, block her with something she can't penetrate, something she won't expect. Something she has no defense against.

But what?

What would stop her in her tracks? What would catch her so off guard that he'd break through this nightmare she was forcing him to live through? What? _What?_

And then it came to him.

 _Always look on the bright side of life._

He can sense Hagall pause, can almost feel her eyes widen in new curiosity.

 _And so he showed her._

XXX

"Oh? What's this?"

In another world, from another perspective, Hagall paused in curiosity, her physical eyes drawn to the collapsed form of Keiichi Morisato before her as her mental eyes were drawn to something else. She'd been toying with him, prolonging his suffering as she was due a good laugh, and his misery had its own special flavor to it that she found particularly appealing.

He'd fought her, of course; they always did, but never before had any of them succeeded. But then again...they'd also never attempted whatever it was the SEAL was attempting now. A smile carved its way upon her face, and the woman cocked her head back, eyeing the fallen man in amusement. "I suppose I have the time to humor you," she murmured, speaking not to the body before her but to the spirit imprisoned within. "Tell me, fool-man, why should I look on the bright side of life?"

The spirit bequeathed her an image, and with it a pair of golden brows shot up in surprise. An image of crucified men, hanging suspended and alive ten feet above the ground. The air shimmered with heat, the men flayed alive and naked aside from a dirty-white loincloth. Religion? She scoffed. The man before her never struck her as the religious type. How fitting that he should turn to faith while his mind was slowly being undone, unwound, stripped of all its mortal sanity before he either killed himself on the blows his conscious thought were there or she killed him herself, and she'd never been the type to soil her hands in death.

Blue eyes narrowed, and her mind's eye focused on one of the faces projected to her, finding not Jesus or a Saint or some other figure, but Keiichi himself. Beside him was another man, the dark-skinned man she had heard referred to as Jackson. "Is this you and your team?" Hagall inquired, her curiosity peaked. "All of you on crosses?" The woman released a sharp bark of laughter. "And tell me, what is this supposed to symbolize? A return to Jesus?"

And then the singing began. _Oh Nidhog, the singing._

 _Keiichi looked up to the sky and smiled, his body shiny with sweat from either the pain of the nails in his hands and feet or the heat of the midday sun. He imagined Hagall's eyes in the sky; Hagall in place of a god, Hagall in place of Urd or Belldandy and he couldn't help but smile. Oh this was going to be a riot, oh this was his only chance, so he might as well put on a damned good show._

 _"_ _Some things in life are bad,_

 _They can really make you mad,_

 _Other things just make you swear and curse._

 _When you're chewing on life's gristle_

 _Don't grumble, give a whistle!_

 _And this'll help things turn out for the best..._

 _And...always look on the bright side of life..."_

Keiichi whistled a happy little tune, and Hagall stared at him, dumbstruck, as the man continued.

 _"Always look on the light side of life..."_

 _More whistling. Why was he whistling? Why was he singing? Why was Keiichi Morisato nailed to a cross and singing and whistling as even his team stared at him in confusion?!_

 _"If life seems jolly rotten_

 _There's something you've forgotten_

 _And that's to laugh and smile and dance and sing._

 _When you're feeling in the dumps_

 _Don't be silly chumps_

 _Just purse your lips and whistle - that's the thing._

 _And...always look on the bright side of life..."_

 _Now the other members of the team were whistling, singing along in a grand symphony of insanity, and Hagall was at it's mercy, trying to make rhyme or reason of the strange scene playing out before her._

 _"Always look on the light side of life..."_

Oh Nidhogg, everyone was singing now. And they were British! Why were they British!? No one on Team 12 was from Britain, and the reports she'd read on them claimed that McGuinness was Irish! Why were they all singing and whistling in British accents?! Keiichi Morisato had never even visited Great Britain, yet there he was, singing his disgustingly cheerful little heart out and Hagall; Didn't. Know. Why!

From the ground a series of figures emerged, and for a moment Hagall hoped it was whatever monster had been intended to end this disastrous affair. Instead her mouth dropped, and a noise like a squeak arose in her throat. ( _"H-Hild-Sama?"_ ) But that was impossible, because Keiichi Morisato had never met Hild, had never seen Hild, did not even know that a woman of such grand and terrifying power existed in his own puny comprehension of the greater universe and all it's mysteries. Yet there she stood. Three of them, in fact, arm in arm and all wearing matching outfits of an oil-tin cap and a fake carrot nose, dressed in some terrible get-up as if someone was trying to pass her off for a witch. They were dancing with ducks and coconuts carried by swallows-African or European, Hagall couldn't tell-and Nidhog bless it none of it...NONE OF IT MADE ANY SENSE!

 _"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!"_

XXX

Keiichicame to with a gasp and a shudder, for a moment not recognizing where he was. A part of him was still in Afghanistan, another piece nailed to a cross, and it took him a second to realize that he was back in the video editing room, lying where he'd collapsed near the door's entryway. Hagall was kneeling before him, her hands buried in her hair and a look of perturbed horror on her face. "Why are they singing?" She whispered, her voice so quiet that Keiichi almost missed it. "Why are they _whistling?!"_ The demon's eyes were glazed and distant, and after a moment's hesitation Keiichi dared himself to wave a hand before her face. The woman didn't notice.

 _Always look on the bright side of life, Hagall._ Keiichi thought, looking around his surroundings before easing himself past the demon. A hefty portion of his mind was still devoted to visualizing the scene that even now played out in his head, and now he'd added a series of Skulds juggling holy hand grenades and white rabbits to the scene as well. They were dancing around the Witch-Urd's with wide, insane smiles on their faces, as the Witch-Urds continued their own dance, heaving first one leg, then the other into the air. All of them were singing. All of them were whistling.

He crept past the mesmerized demon, being careful not to touch her, and into the adjacent hallway where he grabbed his discarded helmet. He didn't put it on. Not yet. Instead, his mind still filled with images of crucified men, witches with ducks, and holy grenades used to take out white rabbits, Keiichi headed down the hallway and did what any sane, reasonable, person in his unique situation would do.

He ran for his fucking life.

 _I need to find Belldandy and get the hell out of Dodge._ He pressed himself up the staircase and into the hallway on the next floor. There was no way to know Hagall's range of telepathy, nor how close she needed to be for her to spring some kind of 'mind-trap' on him, and Keiichi didn't want to stick around and find out. In his mind _Monty Python_ continued to play out it's humorous songs, now looping in his head like an ear-worm, filled his thoughts. He let it. _It worked in Dreamcatcher, fuck, it might work here._ True, Hagal wasn't some sort of parasitic alien that passed intestinal shit-weasels to her victims—at least, Keiichi hoped not—but she still seemed able to pick up on local thoughts pretty easily.

 _So let the earworm act like a jammer and keep the under-thoughts quiet beneath._ As an afterthought he put on his helmet, hoping that Skuld's stealth suit worked against demons as well as she claimed it did against gods. _If it does, I will straight up kiss her for it._ The idea that a stealth suit and an earworm were the only defenses he had against a demon with ungoldy telepathic powers did not do much to place his mind at ease, but right now it was the only thing he had. If it kept Hagall off his back until he found Belldandy, than so be it. _Code 23 09 1988._ That was what he had to pass on to Belldandy when he found her- _if_ he found her. It sounded like a date of some sort. He wondered about it's significance.

 _You'll have all the time in the world to ponder the mysteries of the universe later._ He reminded himself. _Find Belldandy, pass her the code, and get the hell out of here._ The third floor was empty of guards, and for that Keiichi was grateful. It seemed that whoever he'd knocked out on the first floor was the only other guard in the facility, and not looking a gift horse in the mouth Keiichi took full advantage of it. In a rush he went from one room to another, crashing the traditional sliding-style doors open with a force that spoke of great urgency. Most of the rooms were empty, though Keiichi still beheld them with distaste. Some had beds. Some had chairs. Some had...bindings. All had cameras. He recognized some of them as studio rooms from the video's he'd witnessed, cleaned and sanitized as they awaited their next chunk of action. Keiichi's stomach rolled. _I have never in my life wanted so badly to burn a place to the ground._ He thought. The man continued to the next floor.

He'd been wrong. There were other guards here, as made evident by the lone man who stood outside a larger room with twin doors. Like the guards he'd seen before, this one was dressed in a gray suit; one that hid the concealed holster while still presenting a professional appearance. The SEAL observed him for less than a minute before rushing him. _If Belldandy is anywhere, it's got to be here._ He told himself. _Either that or the girl..._ Regardless he'd take either one and continue searching for the other. No one needed to live in house of demons and monsters.

The guard went down with little effort. He'd not been expecting any intruders, and certainly not intruders of the black stealth suit variety. The man had done little other than stare in the stupid surprise of a cow receiving a killing blow to the head, and likewise he too fell without a sound. Keiichi dragged his body away from the door, wanting a quick escape for his retreat.

He paid for it with a blow to the side of such force he was sent sailing down to the other end of the hallway. He collided with a wall hard enough to splinter the wood. The man gasped and clutched his side, the rising pain so strong that the SEAL feared he'd broken a rib or two. His vision swimming, the man looked up, finding a woman storming towards him. " _Shit._ " It was Hagall.

"That," The woman hissed as she drew near. "Was a foolish move." The man blinked and shook his head, his eyes tearing up and blurring the demon as she approached. "A clever one, I'll admit, but foolish none the less." Her eyes narrowed. They were glowing red. "It will not happen again. This time you die."

Fear got Keiichi to his feet, and the SEAL bolted down the corner hallway, following the long, rectangular perimeter that made up the fourth floor's hallways. Hagall appeared as he rounded the second corner, and sliding so hard his shoes squeaked Keiichi turned and ran the other way. _This is stupid, she's got me pegged._ It hurt to breathe and his injured side was burning like no tomorrow. Fuck, he hoped that wasn't a sign he'd punctured a lung. _I'll round another corner and she'll be there._

Sure enough there she was, a sneer on her face as soon as he turned the next corner. The demon lunged at him, and he threw himself to the side, slamming again into the wood before making off down the hallway once more. He heard a growl in his ear. It didn't sound human. His instincts drove him to duck, and a chunk of the wood on his right side exploded in wood shards, leaving a hole the size of his head in its wake.

He thought he heard a scream come from the room on the other side of the wall, yet between the pounding in his ears and his own rasping breaths, Keiichi couldn't be certain. _Move move move move!_ He didn't so much as run now as he did stumble forward, and he could sense more than see Hagall stalking after him, and it made the hair on the nape of his neck stand on end. She wasn't even bothering to run at this point. _Find Belldandy. Pass her the code. 23 09 1988. Code 23 09 1988. Pass it to Belldandy. Need to find her and-_

He stumbled forward, felt something sharp bite into his right leg, and roared in pain. _Have I been shot?! Does she have a gun?_ But that didn't make sense. Skuld said the suit was bullet proof, right? And why would a demon need a gun? _Ignore it asshole! Get to Belldandy! Find Belldandy before she—_

He stumbled back into the main hallway where knocked out guard laid. The door had opened, and Keiichi saw a woman kneeling down beside the unconscious man. She was wrapped in a sheet and nothing else, her long, almond hair cascading down her back and across her shoulders in long, thick locks. He froze, taking in the gentle curve of her back, the rise of her shoulder blades as she examined the man before her, the sweet glow of skin the color of fresh cream. For a moment everything else: the pain, the fear, the danger he was in, fled his mind as the woman rose. She turned to look at him, and Keiichi's heart skipped a beat as her blue eyes gazed towards his.

"You." She narrowed those eyes his way. Keiichi felt his heart seize. "You're the one who injured the guard, aren't you?" She examined him, looking him up and down. "And that, that'sone of my sister's suits. Skuld sent you, did she not?"

Keiichi didn't reply at once, just stared awkwardly at her, dumbstruck. "You're beautiful," he finally blurted out instead. Somewhere in the depths of his mind where reason still dwelt, a piece of him cursed and smashed a melon with a giant hammer.

Belldandy frowned. "You did not answer my question." She stated, then paused, observing him with critical eyes. "Take off your helmet. I would see the face of the man my sister would involve in my affairs."

It was an order. Not a request but an order. Of course he followed through with it. At this point, he would walk through a bonfire naked if she asked. As he removed the helmet a brief thought, _Hagall_ , passed through his mind, but it was quickly suppressed. He dropped his headgear on the floor, and he saw Belldandy's eyes widen in shock, in surprise, in such terrified disbelief that she was left frozen. Then it changed to such unbridled joy that she looked straight up divine. He felt himself grin, felt it widen into a smile, a genuine, honest smile the likes of which he'd not felt since before Debra had walked out on him. _I found you,_ he thought. _I finally found Jeanie. This nightmare's almost over._

There was a tapping from behind which alerted him someone at the other opposite end of the hallway. Tentatively, Keiichi broke his gaze from Belldandy and turned to see what it was.

Christ on a donkey, why couldn't it have been Aoshima?

Hagall met his gaze, her expression no longer upset as it once was but still vicious. She had a smile, calculated and malicious, so wide and so large on her face that it looked like it would split it in two. _The code. Say the goddamned code asshole!_ Yet already he could feel himself falling back into that deep pit, back into that wretched void, even as he was falling forward. His peripheral vision caught a sheet falling, caught a hint of breast, and a piece of him even though he felt something catch him before the mind-trap sprang on him. "Code 23 09 1988" He heard himself mutter.

And then Keiichi Morisato surrendered himself to his next nightmare.

* * *

 **A/N: So we did actually get this chapter done on the same schedule as before. Good on us, right? Well... Chapter 5 is no where near as complete as the others were at this point, so I doubt we will get it out by next weekend. What little we have is pretty good, though. Urd and Skuld are both badasses.**

 **Also, I feel the need to warn you now, chapter 5 will involve some disturbing imagery. Hagall is not playing anymore. **


	5. Chapter 5

-5-

Skuld brought her hands up, her fingers spread and chin tucked as she observed the two women across from her with heated eyes. The _Anzu Kibaltu_ , a weapon of her own invention, rested in the 'cover' position between each finger, creating a glow like a pair of heated boxing gloves. _Too bad I ain't a boxer_. Skuld thought. She grinned, watching from the corner of one eyes as the unarmed brown-haired Valkyrie, Chrono, edged into her blind spot. That was fine. Let her go. Right now she wanted nothing more than to pound this green-haired bitch into the ground, and Skuld was confident she could at least defend against the other's attack until the main source of her anger was out of the picture.

Across from her Kara grinned as well. It appeared strained and nervous. "What's with that stance?" she taunted, "How do you expect to fight like that? You look like you want to run away."

Skuld said nothing, and the _Kibaltu_ pulsed against her fingers. _"Adapu,"_ she uttered, and refused to flinch as a fist entered her peripheral vision. The _Kibaltu_ on her right hand fled to block the attack, and just as quickly Chrono retreated, hissing in pain. " _Belu!" s_ he instructed, and pushed her left hand out once more, sending the remaining pearls flying. Kara surprised her, however, by ducking under the weapon as it whipped out in a chain, countering with an uppercut as she moved into the Norn's guard.

 _Oh ho, bitch, I've been waiting for this._ The smile never left her face, and the woman angled her head to one side, taking a glancing blow from the strike as she twisted, brought her right elbow up at an angle, and then brought it down with increased momentum.

It was a strike meant for the eyes, but Kara shifted just enough to nail the Valkyrie in the front of her head. Both woman fell back, and with a shout of _Adapu_ Skuld brought her weapons back into the shield position. Her elbow was thrumming in pain, and though Kara was bleeding from where she'd been struck, she smiled with fresh vigor. "Lind throws Valkyries harder than you throw elbows," he taunted. "If that's the extent of your abilities, we'll whittle you down in no time."

An attack came at Skuld's back as Chrono once more tested her defense, and again half the _Kibaltu_ reacted, surging behind her to ward off the blow before Skuld could defend herself. As soon as the weapon broke in half Kara was on the move again, this time with a right hook of such speed that Skuld flinched. The _Kibaltu_ reacted once more, yet this time it seemed neither Kara nor Chrono were through with her. As soon as the weapons reacted, both Valkyries moved in for a secondary counter, using the momentum generated upon deflection to evade the weapon's second shielding attempt. Kara came at Skuld from the front with a secondary left hook, and behind her Chrono lashed out with a high kick.

The Norn blocked the punch, bringing her right elbow up to cover her head, yet the kick caught her by surprise, sending her down as Chrono's heel struck her in the back. The Norn cried out in pain, and Kara came forward with a kick of her own, her knee planting itself squarely in Skuld's gut. The goddess heaved in pain, and smiling, the blood leaking down her face giving her a malevolent appearance, Kara grabbed Skuld's head and smashed the opposing knee into it.

Skuld saw stars, and for a moment everything darkened as unconsciousness threatened to overtake her. The Norn dropped like a sack of bricks, yet with a growl the goddess roused herself, twisting in the sky to look up at Kara as she fell. " _Belu!"_ She snarled, bending the _Kibaltu_ to her will with all her might as she extended her magic upwards. The weapon followed her magic's path, and a chain of beads wrapped themselves around Kara's ankle. With a roar that was equal parts rage and determination, Skuld spun in the air, allowing the chain to wrap around her person as Kara was torn from the sky. She felt her magic close in around her in a tight coil, and the _Kibaltu_ followed, sending the green haired Valkyrie into a dangerous corkscrew before finally releasing the woman at terminal velocity.

The warrior was launched with such force it was staggering, the resulting impact with the ground narrowly avoiding a large tower which still glowed with internal busy bodies. The earth shook from the resulting shockwave generated by the impact, and nearby car alarms began to screech as the locals cried out in confusion. Kara did not get up from where she crashed.

Skuld spat in the Valkyrie's general direction. _And stay down, you sodden excuse for a Valkyrie._ The Norn felt sick. Her back hurt from where Chrono had kicked her and her face felt like someone had smashed a mallet into it. She looked up and her neck cracked in pain. _Still one more to go._ She could feel her face starting to swell. Oh...if Urd didn't have Belldandy dangling from her arms as she ran from the pits of hell itself after Skuld was finished, she was going to personally blast her older sister with the Mini Nuke Launcher that was still in R  &D. _Dear sister of mine, you owe me more than your weight in ice cream when this is over._

 _"Adahu."_ Crap, her face was swelling so much she couldn't annunciate properly. The _Anzu Kibaltu_ glowed for a brief moment around her, and then fell dormant once more,perhaps recognizing her voice but unable to distinguish her commands. "Shi." She tried to curse and failed at even that. Her body throbbing with pain, the Norn rose up into the sky once more.

Chrono was waiting for her. "You're hardier than you look." She confessed, looking the Norn up and down with a soft frown.

"The both of you fight like honorless bitches." Skuld retorted. The words came out slurred.

The Valkyrie raised an eyebrow. "We fight like Valkyries." She corrected. "Demons have no honor, and thus we can spare none for our opponents." Chrono looked uncomfortable. "I don't want to fight you, Norn. We're a military unit, not a police force."

"Well you could have fooled me!" Skuld snarked. "Why else would the higher up send a Yggdrasil-blessed _Fighting Wing_ after a pair of Norns?! All we want to do is get our sister back, _in case that wasn't clear!"_

Chrono at least had the decency to flinch. "We're under orders to bring you back," she said. The words sounded like an excuse when voiced aloud, and the Valkyrie grimaced. "Listen, I don't know why _we_ were sent to bring you in. I may _never_ know why we were sent to retrieve you," she reasoned. "Yet whoever is calling the shots on this is well above our paygrade, and if there's one thing I've come to learn it's to trust those higher ups." She settled once more into the fighting stance so infamous to all Valkyries, and Skuld tensed, falling into her own stance as well, that open-handed stance that Urd had started drilling into her head almost five years ago. "As such, I will give you one last chance, Norn Skuld. Surrender now."

And Skuld, youngest of the Norns and perhaps the most vicious, smiled and jutted her chin out. "Come get some."

XXX

 _Draw her away_. The goddess used the reflective sheens of the various skyscrapers they passed to watch Lind. Her heart felt like a caged animal beating against the walls of her ribs. _This isn't a fight you can win, so draw her away._ Was that her angel or her own voice she was hearing? There was reason to it; moreso than she'd had at the initial start of her fight, where anger had clouded her judgment. That spoke more for World of Elegance than herself. Whereas she tended to go the way of emotion, her Other Half balanced her out through logic, and now, as a new strategy began to manifest within the Norn's mind, Urd paid close attention to what it was the angel was trying to communicate to her.

 _If you can get her to the hilltop...if you can expose this Aoshima guy for the bastard he is...maybe, just maybe you can get Lind over to your side. A_ vain thought, but the alternative was much worse. Lind had too much experience for Urd to match when it came to fighting. And while Urd had learned a couple new tricks in the time since her rescue by Team 12, they did not place her anywhere near on the same level as Lind. _Doesn't matter, go for Plan B. Find out what Aoshima is hiding and reveal it. Justify your reasoning in such a manner that even Lind would be forced to buckle down and agree that something is wrong._

The alternative, such as fighting Lind in a one on one fight, was worse. Actions that forced Valkyrie interference were frowned upon in Asgard, and for them to send a Fighting Wing like Lind was a bad sign for Urd. _It's either this or Skuld and I get sealed for half a century for relinquished obstruction of a wish._ The thought chilled her to the bone. While the threat of her own sealment was something Urd would scoff at, the knowledge that Skuld could be punished as an accomplice was not a thought she cherished. Add to that the fact that Belldandy would be forced to spend even more years with Aoshima, and...

The woman grit her teeth, catching a warm draft of wind that pushed her into a vertical climb. Lind followed a moment later. _Lind only has that one wing on her...Elegance has a much broader wingspan as well... I should be able to stay ahead of her so long she doesn't pull some trick of her own._

 _Just don't force me into a dogfight._ Elegance whispered in her ear. _I'm not some small kestrel or falcon that can maneuver on a dime. I can soar all night long because I was built for it, but if that Valkyrie gets the drop on us, I'll be useless to you._

Urd grunted in agreement, a part of her certain that Lind was plotting for just such a scenario. It seemed like something the Valkyrie would do, and if it meant bringing Urd into the range of her fists, than the blue-haired woman would be all for it. _She'll wait until we're out of the city first. Where there's a smaller risk of collateral damage and where there's no reflective surface I can use to track her._ Urd judged, watching the mirrored glass windows of skyscrapers reflect the Valkyrie on her tail. _But it will need to be soon. She'll have to act before I get too close to Belldandy, otherwise we both risk interrupting whatever 'wish' was given to Aoshima, and that's not something Lind will tolerate._ The goddess pursed her lips, eyes thoughtful. _It'll have to be right outside the city. Some place near the base of the hill Aoshima's mansion is located on._ Okay. That was fine. That was good. But then how to counter it? Not a dogfight, for certain; World of Elegance had already spoken against that, and it'd be unwise to ignore the request of her Other Half.

Yet wouldn't that be what Lind wanted? A dogfight where she could outmaneuver Urd and overwhelm the Norn into submission? _So keep her on the ground...you've practiced with Keiichi enough to know how to work the moves, you might as well put them into play, right? Lock up her joints, send her down, and then get the soaring advantage until you get to the mansion._

It was a poor plan with a high chance of failure. Yet Urd still had a few tricks up her sleeve that she was confident Lind would find hard to counter. Valkyries weren't taught mortal defense techniques unless it was as a hobby for the goddess in question, and Lind seemed the type dedicated to her own craft over learning something most deities would consider an inferior art. But if she could use it where Lind least expected it, attack her, pin her in such a way that the Valkyrie couldn't fight back without external aid...

Yes, yes it might work. She' have to be fast and she'd need to be perfect, but there was a chance it could work against the woman. _You better be certain,_ a part of her warned, _you're already at the city's outskirts._ And indeed, now that she paused to look around her, she was. The last skyscraper had been over a mile behind them, and that one small in comparison to the great business obelisks that so punctured the evening sky like terrible fangs.

Instead they'd entered the sparser residential district, the suburban areas of the many families that worked in the city. Here most of the buildings were two stories tall, with larger apartments spreading both out and up for several more stories in almost random locations. The roads narrowed and the sidewalks were almost nonexistent here, with sparse, random fields holding everything from gardens of flowers to home gardens of a seasonal harvest. The smog of the city had dissipated and most of the streets were empty of residents; most either at home for the night, at a night school, or in the first stages of closing shop for the evening before taking the trains back home. Most of the houses were still bright with activity, and the artificial light created a gentle yellow glow that hid the stars in the night sky.

The woman glanced behind her, unsurprised to find Lind still on her tail, neither gaining nor losing ground. The Valkyrie seemed content to pursue her for the moment, lending truth to Urd's initial assumption that Lind wanted to minimize collateral damage. _But this is Japan._ She reminded herself, _it can go from a goddamned city to forest in a matter of minutes._ Which was the case with Nekomi, in particular around the more mountainous regions.

Speaking of...

The hill Aoshima's mansion on was in sight now, and at it's peak was a yellow glow that spoke of life. A thermal draft sent her high into the sky, and she road it as high as it would take her. Beneath her the suburban landscape faded away, and in its place came dense forest and sheer cliffs, a road curving along hill's outskirts that rested abandoned by any wayside travelers. Clouds, cool and pregnant with the rain they bore, buffeted her body, dampening her clothes and skin just to the point of being notable and unpleasant.

 _Here._ Elegance's wings curved back, and Urd leaned back with them, flipping into a dive that left her meeting Lind's surprised eyes just as the Norn's wings folded against her body, descending like a great roc that had spied its prey below it. Lind's own wing snapped back, and the Valkyrie just avoided a head-on collision with the Norn. Urd lashed out with a kick in passing, the foot dancing with electricity, and at that same moment Lind likewise threw a punch towards her torso. Urd twisted to avoid it, yet still felt something connect, while Lind folded a leg of her own against her torso to block the oncoming strike. The blow struck her mid-thigh, and the resulting electrical discharge raced up the Valkyrie's own damp outfit to deal a more destructive blow.

Lind recoiled, and Urd dropped down to the mansion below. The Norn's chest burned as though she'd been cut with a knife, and that from a glancing blow from one of Lind's punches. She clutched the area with a grimace, did her best to ignore the pain, and focused on the looming landscape below her. She could see the mansion now in all it's glory, see the multi-storied tiled rooftops, each floor holding a longer ceiling than the one above it, and angled herself towards the third floor. The woman sensed a presence come up behind her as some tiny piece of her began to scream, and then Lind crashed into her with a roar that was nerve-rattling.

A mass of flailing limbs and fluttering wings, Valkyrie and Norn collided through the third story roof and onto a bed. The bed sagged, groaned, and broke, and Lind tore herself free only to deliver a secondary blow, diving at Urd with such force that the wooden floor cracked, splintered, and then collapsed, sending a Norn, a Valkyrie, and a destroyed bed tumbling into the room beneath. This time there was nothing to soften the fall, nor enough force to destroy the floor even more. Instead, Urd, with a snarl on her face that was at once both desperate and vicious, fought against Lind's grip. She writhed and squirmed beneath the stronger woman, tucking into a ball to protect her groin and stomach as various blows rained down upon her form.

Shielding her face as best she could, Urd brought her legs up, hooking Lind's leading leg with her own and planting her other firmly against the woman's thigh. Leaning forward, she wrapped a hand around the back of the warrior's knee, pulling first forward with the hooked leg and then shoving forward with the opposing foot. In a manner faster than the Valkyrie could follow she found her balance lost and herself on her back. Urd followed her down, and before Lind could so much as think about what was happening Urd was on top of her, knees digging into the Valkyries sides as she sank her weight on the Valkyrie's pelvis. The Norn crossed her arms and leaned forward, and Lind felt fingers slip past her neck and into her collar, reaching all the way behind her where they formed a fist. It's sibling moved to the opposite shoulder and then Lind watched as Urd leaned down into her.

There was an arm against her throat, cutting off her air, and Lind thrashed, bucking her hips and throwing a hook at Urd's head. Yet the goddess had her pinned with such efficiency it was scary: she rolled with the buck but was not unbalanced, and the blows came weak from the angle Urd was leaning into her at. Spots began to blossom within her vision, and the next blow came weaker, not so much a strike so much as it was grasping for freedom, clawing at the arms and hands and fingers that so cut off her air and finding instead an iron clamp with no give.

 _What in the nine worlds is this?!_ Her mind screamed, or perhaps that was Spear Mint, confused and perhaps even a little afraid by this strange turn of events. What devilry had the Norn learned in the past ten years that allowed her to produce such an action? And on the _ground?_

Valkyries were warriors, yes, but more importantly they were warriors of the _sky_. Their arts and magics were all based around the concept of air combat, where they could dodge and outmaneuver their opponents. To be forced to the ground was something allowed only under dire circumstances, and that was where the use of a physical weapon became imperative to survival. Yet to fall to the ground like some lowly beast, to roll around on the ground like a pig in a mud patch was just. Not. Done. Not even _demons_ lowered themselves to such filthy standards, and yet here was a goddess who'd not only brought her down, but had pinned her and was _choking her out!_

She could hear her pulse thumping in her ears now, drowning out the world around her. Her vision began to darken and her strength fled her limbs, and with effort Lind fought to stay conscious. There was no way in all the Worlds that she'd allow herself to fall to a _Norn_ of all things. _Won't matter if she halts the blood flow to your brain,_ Spear Mint reasoned.

And that was when Urd froze and looked up.

Teetering on the edge of unconscious, Lind watched with growing confusion as something caught the woman's eye. She watched the Norn's eyes widen and the pupils dilate, and all at once Urd straightened, Lind forgotten as whatever she saw captured Urd's attention in its entirety. The hands loosened their grip on Lind's shoulder and collar, and the woman on top of her leaned back, shoulders slack as a look of dawning horror emerged on her face. Her eyes roamed up and down, to the left and to the right, and as Lind sucked in a ragged breath she began to wonder what such eldritch horror rested behind her.

Whatever it was didn't seem to be a physical threat to her, and thus Lind categorized it as secondary to the woman on top of her. With a grimace, the Valkyrie lurched forward, grabbed the hem of Urd's collar, and heaved with all her might to the right. Urd didn't even offer a challenge, wasn't even aware of what Lind was _doing._ With her eyes still glued to whatever was behind Lind, Urd was tossed off the Valkyrie's body. She landed in a sprawl beside the woman in white, yet again did nothing beyond orienting herself in a position where she could view whatever had so mystified her.

 _Something is wrong..._ Again, a voice that sounded just a bit different from Spear Mint whispered in her mind, causing Lind to pause from where she'd been about to roll to her feet. _Don't you hear it? Someone's screaming..._

And indeed, now that it had been brought to her attention, someone _was_ screaming. Many someones, in fact. Crying too, and they were all coming from behind her. The Valkyrie shivered and felt a lump form in her throat, and again that strange Not-Spear Mint spoke again. _They sound like... children._

 _Don't do it Lind._ Spear Mint warned. _We have a mission to complete. Subdue the Norn first and then you'll have all the time in the world to see whatever atrocities these barbarians are doing down here. Focus, Lind._ The warrior looked down at Urd. The goddess was pale, her face slack with shock. She reached for the woman, ignoring the strange, almost-angel's words telling her to look up, see what Urd was staring at, to stop, Stop, STOP!

A hand grabbed Urd by the arm, and Lind hoisted the goddess to her feet, only to stumble when the Norn showed no inclination towards supporting her own weight. Lind grit her teeth, and with a growl hoisted the goddess up forcefully. Urd whimpered, and with it came a word, a name, that gave Lind pause.

" _Belldandy..."_

Lind stared at the goddess in bemusement, and in the back of her mind Spear Mint and the Not-Angel began screaming with renewed ferocity, arguing with each other like a pair of siblings until she could make no rhyme or reason of her own thoughts. And then one voice, that stranger in her head, that voice who was not Spear Mint but held a eerie semblance to it, rose up in a roar. _Look! Turn around damn you! For the sake of those you lost LOOK!_

And so Lind Looked. Lind Looked for the sake of those who'd been lost, as directed. Lind Looked and Lind Saw, and what Lind Saw made her eyes widen, made her lose her breath, and, perhaps most important of all, left her in shock. All at once she Saw why Urd had fought for ten years to find her sister. She Saw, and she Understood, and the shock, the horror, the indomitable _rage_ she felt was made all the worse by a new kindling of emotions; ones she'd not felt in ages and ones that hurt her enough to almost be a physical blow. Shame _. Guilt._

The Valkyrie ran both her hands through her hair. She felt hot and clammy, horrified and disgusted. "She was right." Lind heard herself whisper. She couldn't take her eyes off the screens...the many, _many_ screens. "She's-" Oh _Yggdrasil_ , were they _all_ Belldandy? All those girls? She swallowed and tasted bile, or perhaps it was copper, and shook her head slowly. "This isn't-how could anyone-" _Why? Why_ in Yggdrasil's roots would she allow herself to fall to such a state? How could a man-a _mortal_ -treat her so...so...

A high keen rose to her right, and with effort Lind tore her eyes from the screen, looking down at the goddess at her side. The expression on Urd's face was one Lind had seen before; one she'd _worn_ before in another place, in another time: one of such complete and utter despair that it bordered on the edge of destructive. _Destroy the screens._ The two voices in her head- Spear Mint and The Stranger- spoke in unison. _Don't force her to watch anymore. Destroy it. Destroy it all and end it now. We shouldn't be seeing this. Not us. Not Urd.._

She almost didn't feel her body move in response, almost didn't see the golden sheen that came across her vision. One moment she was staring at Urd and the next she was destroying the screens, howling her own rage, her own grief, her own shame that she'd not taken the time to listen to the Norn, to question her orders, to be forced to come down to this miserable shithole and stumble upon _this!_ A fist slammed into one monitor. A kick took out three more. She let her emotions (Yggdrasil be blessed, she'd not felt like this in eons, was this what true emotion felt like?) fuel her magic and fired blast upon blast of non-elemental bursts without cause, destroying not only the video screen monitors but the surrounding wall as well, leaving nothing but a smoldering pile of circuits in its wake. She destroyed the speakers, destroyed the consoles, destroyed any and every scrap of technology she could find until only shredded metal and torn wires remained, and those all less than an inch in length.

Lind stood trembling in the aftermath, panting to the point where her throat ached, and the Valkyrie looked back at Urd. The woman hadn't moved from her spot, and at this point Lind would have been more surprised if she had. Taking a deep breath through her nose, the Valkyrie walked over to Urd and kneeled down beside the Norn. "Let's get you out of here." She muttered, not without kindness as she draped Urd's arm around her shoulder. The Valkyrie rose slowly, ensuring the Norn had her feet beneath her, before heading towards the exit.

Urd buried her face in her free hand. It was shaking. "Ten years." She sounded dazed. "I can't—how will she forgive me?"

Lind said nothing. Her words would hold little weight now. She sighed, and almost, _almost_ missed the soft, painful groan that arose behind the two of them. Almost.

The Valkyrie paused, and Urd leaned into her, her complexion pallid and distressed. Looking over her shoulder, the blue-haired goddess looked back towards the ruined wall. Her brows rose in surprise as one of the men in the room rolled onto his side. After seeing one corpse that looked like it'd been gutted, she'd assumed the other one dead as well, and hadn't given him much attention. Not with the blood that had already been on his white outfit.

Now however the Valkyrie turned to better observe him, and Urd stumbled along beside her, grunting but putting up no word of protest. The man in white had somehow escaped most of the damage done to the room, either by the fight between Norn and Valkyrie or by the resulting destruction of the video studio wall. He rolled onto his knees, clutching his stomach with a grimace and coughing wetly. The man spat, then looked around with a dark, wary glower. When his eyes fell upon the two woman, he groaned again, and his head hit the wooden floor with a gentle _thunk_.

"There's more of you?!" His voice was a shrill shriek, and Lind flinched at the undue hostility in his voice. "And who are you two? The black fucker's entourage of whores?" He hissed in a breath, then leaned back on his legs into a kneeling position. "Mulberries, you freaks are crawling out of the woodworks, aren't you?"

Urd let her hand drop at the sound of his voice, and her head rose as she too came to observe the stranger. The man in white paused, looking between the two women and the rest of the room. " _You."_ Urd breathed. "You're the cause of all this..."

The man didn't hear her, and Lind looked down at the goddess in renewed concern. The tone Urd spoke with was one the Valkyrie had never heard before, and after close to seven years of watching and harassing the woman for reaching out to Belldandy, Lind had long ago grown familiar with the great many personas that made up Urd.

"Mullberries." The Man in White repeated, looking around once more before throwing his hands up in frustration. "I said ' _Mulberries_ '!" He cried, and when still nothing happened the man cursed and stumbled to his feet. "Can't find any good help these days," he grumbled. "Stupid bitch is slacking on the job."

Urd tore herself from Lind's grip. The Valkyrie offered little resistance. "Aoshima..." she growled, and then in a louder voice, "And this stupid bitch wouldn't happen to be my sister, would it?"

Aoshima started, then made a show of brushing off his sleeves as though he was attempting to hide behind the 'swab and debonare' mask of success. "I wasn't aware that Hagall had a sister!" he announced, and Urd paused, her eyes narrowing. "...Or perhaps you're Belldandy's sister?" he asked, looking the woman up and down appraisingly. "The both of you? You've got the blue tats like her."

"Who is Ha-" Lind stopped mid-question as Urd strode towards him, no longer shocked but livid, her gaze bright with fury. A strange aura engulfed her, and as Lind watched a strange, horrible sense of (fear) unease overtook her. _That's not an aura,_ Spear Mint was distressed. _That's the absence of an aura. That's a_ void _engulfing her._ And indeed, it was a thing without color or definition, a presence, a concept, that appeared to devour everything within its immediate vicinity. _What is she—oh Yggdrasil, no._

All at once she realized what Urd was doing, and she raced forward, spurned on by Spear Mint's warnings; _No! She can't! She'll level this whole building!_ "Urd!" Yet already she could see the negative aura, the void, devour Urd's form, consuming bit-by-bit the vassal that so housed the true being within. _Oh no, oh heavens, oh Yggdrasil this is bad_. They weren't _allowed_ to reveal their True Selves on a lesser dimensional plane. It went at odds with the dimensional rules of that plane and created paradoxes because the Rules that created the Law of the Land were broken and impossibilities that the lower dimension could not fathom were brought to reality.

Yet there it was, more and more coming into existence: a eldritch beast, a creature of such unfathomable complexity that Aoshima screamed as his eyes met its gaze and his mind tried to make sense of what he saw. For what he saw was a creature beyond his scope of imagination, an entity of such unnatural complexity that his eyes bulged in their sockets. Blood trickled down from his nose, and the man brought his hands to his head, pulling out fistfulls of matted, black hair by the roots. He did not so much step back as he did collapse before the being, and then Lind was in front of him, grabbing the man by the collar and knocking him out before his brain could devolve into further mush.

She tossed him to the far side of the room, standing before the eldritch creature and barring it from further advancement. "Urd, don't do this!" She roared. "Change back, for the love of your Kin, _change back!"_ Yet instead a presence engulfed her form, a being seen not with the physical eyes of her third-dimensional form but of her True Eyes; something she sensed more than saw, and what she sensed was _anger._ Anger in the purest sense of the word, and oh, what a terrible, heated feeling it was, like the hot plasma of a sun, scalding everything it came across. It closed around her, threatened to engulf her, and it was enough to scare Lind, for as she was now surely it'd be enough to destroy her. "Spear Mint!" She roared, and her angel was quick to respond, emerging from her like an ethereal ghost.

She felt a presence wrap around her, felt ( _fangs and talons and claws)_ it lift her, and then she was sent flying, colliding through the wall and into the adjoining hallway. The Valkyrie grunted, coughed, and rolled to her feet, her heart racing with adrenaline. Urd had already forgotten her, was once more making her way towards Aoshima, and without thought Lind raced back into the room, propelled forward with the aid of her angel. "Urd!" She screamed, and her vision danced with flecks of gold. "This is your last chance! Stop _now!_ "

Yet Urd was beyond her words, her world narrowed to one thing and one thing only and that was Aoshima, collapsed and unconscious and ignorant of whatever fate awaited him at Urd's ( _claws fangs talons)_ hands. Lind collided with the deity, felt eyes ( _so many eyes, all around, all staring, glaring, piercing the veil and looking into her core)_ bore into her, and lashed out with a punch, a kick, a strike that might cause harm. Yet Urd's new state of being was one which both existed and did not, and limited to her own third dimensional body Linds assault did nothing; would do nothing unless she too cast aside her current form for that of her higher self, and the Law of the Land was already bending towards the point of breaking just adapting to Urd's presence. It would collapse if she abandoned her current body, she knew, and this world, this _universe_ , threatened to splinter with any further prodding.

But what could she _do?_

Something whipped into her back and knocked her to the ground, and then the pressure was on top of her, digging her into the floor until the wood began to splinter around her. She released a shout, and Spear Mint lashed out, perhaps the closest thing Lind had at that moment to her higher-dimensional self. The one-winged angel lashed out, and through the additional sense granted by her angel Lind sensed her strike a pair of eyes _(one of many, many others),_ heard the resulting snarl of pain, and felt the pressure abate a bit. The Valkyrie tried to rise to her feet, sensed jaws snapping at Spear Mint and something that might have been a foot dig its talons into Lind's body.

She cried out, more in concern for her angel than herself, and then the stranger in her head rose up: _Call me!_ It screamed. _I can help! I can fight, but you need to let me out!_ She winced at the mental barrage. _Please! She'll destroy everything if we don't calm her down! There's another way and I know how but you have to let me out! Summon me!_

 _And just who are you?!_ Lind screamed back, yet even as the demand formed in her head the answer arose in her mind. Oh...she knew _exactly_ who this was.

 _Please, hurry!_ And with a new roar Lind's back arched. A name came to her mind and exited her throat.

"Cool Mint! Come forth!"

Her heart racing she turned to watch with anticipation, with terror, with exhilaration as The Stranger who she'd always known, the Twin Within Her Soul, emerged in an onslaught of feathers.

Cool Mint collided with the presence on Lind's back with enough force to off-balance it, and the Valkyrie was quick to escape, scrambling from beneath Urd's grip like a mouse from a cat. She sensed rather than heard Urd's confusion—the deity was beyond physical words now—and moved to distract the entity. The eyes she sensed-by Yggdrasil there were so many eyes-darted around the room, looking at Spear Mint, staring at Cool Mint, glancing at Lind and demanding _why why WHY!?_

Words came to her mind-Cool Mint's words, not Spear Mint's, not her own thoughts, and her eyes burning like golden suns Lind stood tall and rigid; a white Sentinel before an otherworldly entity within a palace created at the whims of a man more fitting a demon's contract than a goddess's blessing. "Now's the time Urd!" She bellowed, and the walls trembled with her roar. "Now you decide: Are you a goddess or a demon?"

She felt the presence recoil, felt it twist and writhe in anger, yet as Cool Mint had predicted Urd was hesitant to attack. "You have unleashed your True Self, Urd. Despite the Law of the Land laid forth by the Elder Gods, you have disrupted the interdimensional rules, and all over a _mortal!" s_ he snarled. "Are you so willing to lower yourself to such base emotions like a demon?" She forced a sharp bark of laughter from her throat and felt the air vibrate in a deep growl. "And to think, I was starting to respect you as a goddess... it seems the rumors _are_ true. You're nothing but a wolf in a goat's pelt."

 _You need to appeal to her angel. Her angel is the only thing that can stop her at this point._ Again, Cool Mint's words, not hers. At this point, even with the ethereal golden aura granted by the Golden Eye state, Lind was no match for Urd in her current form; would never be unless her current body was cast aside, but Urd didn't know that. At least Lind hoped not. If she did, than the Valkyrie was a very dead goddess. _Is insulting her even a good idea?_ Her mind screamed. _Does reverse psychology even work on deities like Urd?!_

Well, she was about to find out one way or another.

A roar reverberated throughout Lind's third dimensional body and all the way into her True Self, and the essence that made up Urd surrounded her in its entirety. She felt a thrill of fear (a thrill, an honest-to-Yggdrassil _thrill!_ Was this what true terror felt like?!) and Lind swallowed. "Looks like I'm at your mercy now." She hissed, looking around and meeting the non-eyes that watched her with such imploring rage. "So what the fuck are you, Urd?"

A growl, a hiss, the sensation of hot, moist breath upon her body.

And Urd provided her answer.

XXX

An inky blackness surrounding him, Keiichi felt himself falling more than he saw.

Falling…

Falling…

Falling…

And then even that was gone. It had been said that gravity never kills, only the sudden stop at the end. Yet the sensation he was experiencing, a familiar one he had felt so many times after committing the ultimate unnatural act of jumping out of a perfectly good airplane, was simply not there anymore.

Yet he still could not see.

Was he standing up? Was he upside down? There was no way to tell. The feeling was disconcerting, and might have sent a lesser man into hysterics. Yet he drew upon his experience to keep his wits about him. Years of training in water had prepared him for what to do in a situation like this.

And then there was a light. A small pinprick of light that appeared to be far off, although that may have been more of a trick on his mind since there was no reference for him to say how far it was. The light gathered and stretched, growing from a pin and into a ball, from a ball into a blimp and further still; growing and gathering until it illuminated the area around him. Just as he made notice of the floor below, his feet touched down.

Keiichi stood and looked around him. He began to recognize that he was in some sort of room, although he still could not tell where. Somehow, though, it looked familiar. A memory long past, a house long forgotten maybe? The sights, the _smells_ dredged up feelings of youth, of childhood, of trips overseas and the outlandish people with their many shapes and sizes and colors. He noted the bed and the dresser first; _a corner of the dresser is missing from where it was carved smooth with a knife._ He looked at the back corner of the dresser and found he was right. A closet was on the wall opposite the dresser- _mothballs,_ he thought-and finally the door that exited the room. _Large, heavy wood. Like the front door substituted a bedroom door._ He glanced around, trying to spurn his memory but in the end failed. No memory approached him, yet neither could he shake the feeling of déjà vu.

A noise outside the room caused his instincts to kick in. Quickly and silently, he darted towards the door and pressed himself against the wall just outside the frame. The door was closed, yet he still caught movement coming from the light emanating from underneath. Whoever or whatever it was passed on down the way. He heard another door open, and then close.

He looked around again. The familiarity of the house was getting to him a little. He wracked his brain as he tried to remember, yet still it remained just out of his reach. Curiosity getting the better of him, Keiichi reached out, grasped the door handle and turned it. The door opened with ease and, much to his surprise, was silent. The hallway outside was brightly illuminated, and framed pictures lined the walls.

One in particular caught his attention. He crept out into the hallway to get a better look. What he saw nearly made his heart stop. It was a family portrait: a Japanese man along with his wife and two kids. He Immediately recognized the slim, stern face of his father Keima. Next to him was Takano, large and heavy with the final term of pregnancy. His younger sister Megumi and Keiichi himself, the both of them still children, stood in front with large, beaming smiles on their faces. Yet it was not his family that caused his heart to seize, no. Not the children, not his mother nor his father... It was the man flanking his mother on the other side.

That most hated man. The man that ruined his sister's life.

A door opened and that man stepped out, the sound of a toilet flushing behind him. He was wearing just boxers and a T-shirt. Keiichi froze, yet the man paid him no heed as he turned and walked away from him. Hatred welled up within the Navy SEAL, yet he was fixed in place over the shocking revelation of where he was. That most hated of men was once a close family friend of the Morisatos. When Keiichi was young, he and Megumi had stayed over many times when the families got together and Keima had had a little too much drink to drive home. Megumi had told him many times that there was something a little off about that man. Something that made her nervous, or uncomfortable, or even down-right scared. She would never sleep alone in this house, preferring to bed either with Keiichi and later, their mother.

Her instincts had probably saved her.

Keiichi watched as the man stopped towards another door and began to open it. "Aiko, are you awake?" he asked, and Keiichi tensed up when he heard an affirmative response from the room's occupant.

 _Send him away!_ he thought to himself. He tried to speak but found himself mute. He tried to shout, to scream, to even open his mouth, yet his throat, his mouth, refused to respond to his demands. A desperate urgency welling inside him, Keiichi tried to move, to interrupt what was about to happen, but it was as if his feet were glued in place, as though someone had driven needles into his pressure points and was holding him up by chains. He couldn't speak, he couldn't move; he could only _watch._

"Can I come in for a moment?" asked the man. "I need to talk to you about something."

Again came the affirmative, and the man pushed his way into the room. As he closed the door behind him, he looked down the hallway as if to ensure the coast was clear. When he did this, he finally made eye contact with Keiichi. A sinister smile formed on his face, then he closed the door.

"No!" yelled Keiichi. He jerked forward, and this time his feet moved, which caused him to stumble and almost fall in his mad dash to get to the room Aiko was in. When he reached the entrance, he turned the knob and nearly wrenched the door off its hinges as he threw it open. There, sitting on the edge of the bed Aiko was in, the man sat. Keiichi yelled again, this time for the man to stop.

He knew that the sound had most likely reached its intended audience, he heard it himself this time. But the man did not even flinch, did not even register that he had heard it. He tried again, this time appealing to his small sister, who was sitting up now on the bed next to that most hated of men. She also did not register his presence.

Frustrated, Keiichi started to step towards them. If he could not get through to them with his voice, he could certainly stop it physically. He took one, and then two steps. When his foot touched the ground, something bit into the back of his left ankle. Undaunted, he took another step, only for the same thing to happen, this time causing the Navy SEAL to fall on the floor.

Keiichi looked back and saw what had happened. Two metal hooks attached to chains were piercing his flesh through the meat of his ankle above his heel and behind the Achilles tendon. He eyed it in horror as the pain grew more potent, and then with renewed ferocity he returned his gaze to the bed and lurched forward. The pain was crippling, yet he ignored it; had to ignore it, for Aiko was _right there_ , Aiko _needed_ him, and ankles be damned he was going to fucking save her, was going to rip Him a new one, was going to make sure his sister was safe and secure at whatever cost to his own body.

Ignoring the pain it was causing him, the Navy SEAL tried to pull himself free in spite of the damage it would cause him to do so. Muscle tore, sinews ripped through the weak flesh near the ankle and the top of his foot. Nerves tore, tendons gave, and blood pooled around the chains that held him in place. He might not be able to walk after this, but he knew how to incapacitate anyone with his hands alone, had been trained to handle all but the most skilled in self-defense techniques, and this man was no different; He'd have a hard time with Keiichi as well.

Yet his bindings did not budge in spite of his efforts. Looking up, he could see that the man was now caressing Aiko's back. "NO! DON'T TOUCH HER, DON'T YOU _FUCKING_ TOUCH HER YOU BASTARD!" he roared, but again, no acknowledgement was made, nobody heard him, and his threat fell on deaf ears.

Putting even greater effort into freeing himself, Keiichi felt a satisfying rip as first his left, and then the right Achilles tendons gave way, freeing himself from his bonds. The pain was incredible, like two balls of white lightning that seared him from his feet and up into the back of his eyes. But he'd experienced worse in the past, and Aiko needed him, so he pushed it to the side and began to crawl on his hands and knees towards the bed. In just a few strides he was nearly on them, ready to kill the man if it meant getting him away from his sister.

As he came up to his knees, he cocked his hand back to take a swing when he felt something reach out and grab it. Pain shot down his arm and he called out. Another hook had pierced through his arm, just below the wrist and between the radius and ulna. Before he could react, the same thing happened on the other hand.

Immediately, he was jerked back and away from the bed, and he screamed. Screamed long and screamed loud. Screamed until his throat was raw and then screamed harder still. He was dragged back against the wall near the door and then pulled up off the ground and suspended there. He howled in pain, and red flooded his vision. When he was finally able to observe what was going on, he immediately regretted it. The man had gotten Aiko out of her pajamas, and had laid her down. He was holding himself above her now, naked, his manhood throbbing in anticipation.

It was then that the man paused and looked at Keiichi. Blue eyes flickered in the light, and Keiichi recognized them. They were Hagall's eyes, for the man he knew did not have blue eyes. "No!" he yelled.

( _Is this how it really happened? Or is this how you imagine it went?)_

The voice in his head was mockingly condescending. "NO!" Keiichi yelled again. "This isn't real!"

( _It's real enough for you!_ )

The man turned his attention back to Aiko. As Keiichi yelled and fought against the imagery invading his mind, his screams were drowned out by those of his sister.

XXX

Belldandy watched the light fade in his eyes and knew he was gone even before he fell forward. A spark of alarm traveled through her, and with a small gasp she darted forward, catching Him, The Man She'd Waited For, Keiichi Morisato, before he fell to the ground. The thin sheet that was wrapped around her body slid from her form, yet if she noticed she cared not. The Man, this horrible, wonderful man who'd made her wait, who she should have met over ten years ago, was more important.

She caught him with ease, felt his hot breath on her bare breasts and felt her skin break into goosebumps. _He's real._ A piece of her mind whispered. _This is no dream. He's real._ _He came. Somehow, through the will of my sisters or by the Ultimate Force itself, we have finally met._ His body was limp in her arms, and she kneeled, hoping to ease the burden on his person. Already his eyes were rolling back in their sockets, and she watched as a nightmare played out across his face, one that contorted his expression to one of rage, one of hate, and overall one of despair.

A red shade was seeping into his own personal aura, and she recognized it at once to be demonic in nature. _Oh you poor man. You poor fool._ She mourned. The man began to stir in her grip, then began to writhe, began to scream, began to howl with such gut-wrenching horror that she flinched. A demon's aura...a demon...she'd had suspicions, yes, but had never been confronted by it. Had never discovered evidence illuding towards its presence. Not until now. Carefully she laid him down to rest beside Akishima, the guard he'd knocked out earlier, and rose to her feet. _I must find the demon who's captured him in a glamour if I'm to save him._ She turned to observe her surroundings, finding herself alone aside from the two men at her feet.

She straightened, uncaring of her nudity, and addressed the hallway. "You've revealed yourself with the magic you've used against this man, Demon," Belldandy announced, and her voice thundered throughout the floor, echoing in every shape and every shadow and every object. "You'd do well to reveal yourself now before I'm forced to hunt you down myself."

It was a challenge; direct and to the point, and one that would force the demon to respond. For she'd disseminated the challenge to all things upon the floor, and if the demon did not display itself willingly than the spirits she'd befriended in the past ten years would do it for her: every grain of wood, every mote of dust, every chair, every window, every bed and blanket and plank that built this forsaken palace, this accursed prison, would direct her towards the creature instead. She'd called upon the light. she'd called upon the shadows. She'd called upon the very color that made the world what it was and now she waited.

She did not wait long.

"My, my, it seems the Master hasn't kicked all the teeth out of his beaten dog yet." The voice came from behind her, and Belldandy turned towards its source, unsurprised by the woman who stood behind her. "To think that there's still some bark in the old bitch still."

Belldandy said nothing, instead observing the woman with cool blue eyes. "I suppose this validates my suspicions then," the goddess murmured. "There was a demonic element involved."

The woman's gold brows shot up in mock surprise. "And her brains haven't turned to mush!" the demon exclaimed. "Imagine that! Do wonders never cease? I suppose next you'll show a hint of whatever fang was not kicked from your ugly snout?"

The Norn did not respond to the taunts and jabs. She'd grown jaded to words long ago. Instead she held her silence, staring at the woman with a stoic expression. _Then I'd been right to warn the others away._ She'd come to the conclusion well enough on her own. Ten years was a long time to think, observe, and reflect. _This demon managed to hide herself from me for ten years. If Urd or Skuld had somehow attempted to breach the facility, then the risk of them being ambushed was indeed a real threat._ And with her a prisoner to Aoshima's whims, it was doubtful she'd have been able to do anything to aid them had they indeed been caught in some sort of trap or seal. _That does not explain why she bothered to hide herself for so long though..._ Belldandy tried to reason. _What would be the purpose to it? What did she have to gain by keeping herself hidden?_

It didn't matter now. Nothing mattered right now other than saving Keiichi from whatever glamour this demon had caught him in. "Release the mortal."

The demon eyed her, a long, leisurely smile spreading across her face. "Now why would I go and do such a _silly_ thing like that?" She purred. "It's so much more fun watching his squirm. Would you like to know what he's seeing? His mind is surprisingly dark for a man who somehow managed to weasel into Heaven's 'Make a Wish' foundation." She scoffed, blue eyes narrowing. "Why, he even murdered a man not fifteen minutes ago! Can you believe it? A murderer... aren't those banned from consideration in your little charity organization? 'Harm not thy neighbor' or some other such nonsense?"

Belldandy's eyes darted to the men on the ground, then to the woman before her. "Some of the better company I've kept in the past ten years has been amongst murderers and thieves." She admitted. "For this man, I would be willing to make an exception. Now I won't ask you again: Release the mortal, Demon, and I might overlook your presence here."

"And I suppose next you'll tell me what a generous god you are?" The woman purred. "Let's just say I was to ignore your little...let us say, 'request'. What then? Do you honestly believe you can fight me? You, who is bound to the mortal coils by a simple man?" The smile on her face widened, "A mortal that you cannot even defend yourself against? Tell me, shall I call him now? Call your master and have him... shall we say, 'discipline' you as he's so fond of doing?"

Belldandy frowned. "I warn you demon, my threats are never idle." Her voice was quiet, a mote above a whisper. "If you do not release him from your power than I shall do it by force." It was the last word Belldandy spoke before charging forwards without warning. The demon chuckled as Belldandy met and held the blonde woman's gaze.

"We shall see." The woman murmured as her eyes, cruel and malignant, began glowing with an unearthly light. "We shall see."

* * *

 **A/N: Another step closer. We had every intention of ending the arc in this chapter, but that just didn't happen. When we hit 12K words, I was like "Yeah, we need to step back and start another." So here you go with the dreaded QUAD Cliffhanger! Skuld v. Chrono, Lind v. Urd's true self, Keiichi and his vision, and finally, Belldandy v. Hagall. We are just evil like that, you know?**

 **We are hoping to get the final chapter of this arc done before the end of the week. Nena will be heading away for 2 weeks, and she has doubts on what her internet access is going to look like. Hopefully the next chapter does not seem rushed as a result. We are trying to avoid that. Once we get the last chapter of this arc completed, we will also probably settle into a more leisurely update pace with the rest of the story. We have 5 story arcs planned so far, most of which will be single chapter oneshot/slice of life stories like the manga. There are more to come after that as well.**

 **And I apologize if the warnings seem superfluous. Its my paranoia talking there.**

 **As for the code, 09 22 1988, as you may have surmised, it is the first date of publication for the Oh! My Goddess manga. We also used it in Ah! My Star Trek. As for what it means in this story, I won't say just yet.**


	6. Chapter 6

-6-

Chrono advanced on Skuld's position, flying high and diving towards her. It was as the two of them were about to collide in another clash of violence that the unthinkable happened.

A phone rang.

Chrono pulled up three feet from the Norn, and Skuld flinched, ignoring the ringing in her pocket as the Valkyrie in front of her held two fingers to her ears. "Ma'am?" Skuld gawked at the queer action of her opponent, before recalling that Valkyries wore magic-based transceivers in their ears for long-distance communication. Her phone continued to ring as she watched the warrior with wary eyes. "What?" Chrono pulled back a distance, eyes growing wide in surprise. She glanced towards the Norn, then down towards where Skuld had laid Kara out in the ground. "A de-Ma'am, are you certain?" The phone kept ringing. "I...yes Ma'am, of course." She looked at Skuld in bemusement. "Ah...Lind...Lind wants you to answer your phone."

Skuld stared at the Valkyrie blankly. "Say what?" Chrono shrugged and shook her head, for the moment appearing as baffled as Skuld herself. "...You aren't going to sucker punch me if I pick up the phone, are you?" She narrowed her eyes at the Valkyrie, and Chrono shook her head.

"I...Lind said the fight is over. She wants us to head towards the mansion your sister is at." The Valkyrie replied. "I have new orders not to engage you further. There are more pressing concerns at hand. Answer your phone, Norn."

Still eyeing the Valkyrie with mistrust, Skuld dug a hand into her pocket, grateful for the durability spell she'd made the habit of placing on all her possessions. Pressing the green phone icon on the touch screen, she brought the phone to her ear. "Hello?"

" _Skuld."_ It was Urd. She sounded exhausted. " _The fight's over. Get down here so we can find Belldandy."_

Skuld's eyes widened, then narrowed. "Are you sure?" she asked. "You aren't being...you know..."

" _I'm not being coerced."_ Urd assured her. _"We have a bigger problem on our hands."_

Skuld frowned, her expression pensive. "How so?"

 _"Skuld..."_ Urd paused over the phone, and the Norn bit her lip, her gut wrenching with apprehension. _"Aoshima was in league with a demon. I'm worried it might be after her right now."_

The Norn's eyes widened at the revelation, and she felt a pick of ice stab into her heart at the announcement. She looked at Chrono, no longer with suspicion but with worry, and found a determined expression on the Valkyrie's _face . the_ "We'll be there as fast as we can," she announced, watching as Chrono nodded in agreement.

" _Hurry."_ That was all Urd said before the line went silent.

Skuld pocketed her phone once more, then looked at Chrono. "Go on ahead," the Valkyrie said. "I need to retrieve Kara and ensure she's fit for another fight."

Skuld nodded, her face grim. "Right." Without another word, the goddess turned south, calling upon all the magic she could muster to propel herself forth as fast as possible.

XXX

" _Code 23 09 1988"_

 _The moment she reached out to catch the man in black as he fell, Belldandy accessed her connection to Yggdrasil for the first time in many years. Her form, which resembled a writhing mass of energy ribbons folding and unfolding upon itself, approached a disc in the middle of a central chamber of light. As it settled there, the form coalesced into her more recognizable third dimentional form; that of an almond haired beauty. For the first time since the day of the wish, she was wearing her standard goddess uniform._

 _Standing tall, she looked up to the light. Her sigils flashed, and a beam emerged from them and shot straight back up the column._

"Code 23 09 1988 accepted, access granted."

 _The voice was neither male nor female, nor of one person. It sounded as if all the voices in the heavens were speaking to her all at once. As she stared into the light, a bright ball formed and began to fall to her. It slowed as it approached. She reached out with both hands and grasped it. When she made contact, it pulsed, and a voice spoke._

"Belldandy _." It was Skuld's voice, but not Skuld's voice all at the same time. "_ The contents of this data sphere contain information pertaining to your current contract. Everything should be clear to you once you have processed and analyzed it. _"_

 _Through her contact with the sphere, Belldandy sent to it the commands necessary to start the download. In it she saw data cross-referenced with multiple logs, including those from GRO and from Central Dogma._

 _In the few seconds it took her to catch the falling man, she knew._

 _And she understood._

XXX

Belldandy's fist smashed into the demon's nose.

A flash of surprise passed across the woman's face a moment before she fell back, clutching her nose and snarling in pain. Belldandy paused once more, staring at the demon with a stony expression. "That was a warning shot," she explained. "I will not be so gentle if you do not comply with my demands. _Release Keiichi Morisato now_."

Tears beading out of the corners of the demon's eyes, the look she sent Belldandy was one of fury. "You'll bury his corpse before I release him," she hissed.

And Belldandy inclined her head. "Very well," she said with a sigh. "The hard way then. I suppose if my sisters were here they would say this was good for me." The goddess stepped forward, cracking her knuckles one finger at a time and watching carefully as the demon grew tense. "I've ten years of pent-up aggression I've not been able to release, demon. I'll purify myself of those feelings upon your body."

The color drained from the woman's face, and without another word the demon teleported out of the hallway. "Typical." Belldandy muttered, then looked down at Keiichi. The man was panting, his mouth parted in a mute scream of acute horror. She kneeled at his side and ran a hand through his hair. "Stay strong for me," she whispered. "You've waited ten years...hold out for just a bit longer. I'll be back for you."

With that she, too teleported outside the building, and as she appeared within the night sky the windows all along the second floor of the mansion exploded outwards. A hail of glass rained down upon the patrons below, and shouts that seemed far and somehow meaningless filtered up to the goddess's ears. The Norn felt an overwhelming presence of something ( _fangsclawstalons)_ emerge below her,and then she placed it off to one side. She scanned the air around her and found her target easily enough, the demon's own attention caught as she too sensed whatever rested beneath them emerge into being.

Belldandy flew to meet her, and guided on silent, invisible wings she swooped down on her opponent, diving without a word and colliding with a foot armed with talons of compressed, pressurized air. The claws tore through the woman's green dress like it was paper, and the demon shrieked, recoiling away from the goddess as Belldandy dropped, caught herself, and vanished in a gust of wind. She reappeared behind the demon, eyes flashing, and launched a spinning kick into the demon's side. The woman was flung from her with a pained shout, where her magic abandoned her as her focus was interrupted.

Yet the Norn was far from finished with her. Oh no, not Belldandy. Not with this demon, who somehow, _somehow_ had hacked into Yggdrasil and managed to insert a sleeper agent like Aoshima into _her_ rosters and imprison _her_ to his side for the past ten years. _Let my anger be justified and let it seep from by bones._ The demon caught herself, her eyes wide and no longer confident but panicked. She looked around her, her actions skittish and frantic like that of a prey-beast which had learned that the creature it'd trode upon had been a tiger in the bush.

And like that metaphorical tiger Belldandy appeared without warning, pouncing, striking, slashing, and wounding. A snarl lit her face with malicious intent, and a piece of her, some small, insignificant piece of her, felt a tinge of pity towards the woman who had so spurned her ire. Despite having managed the impossible, it was clear that the limits of the demon's combat experience had already been reached, as she was floundering to stay afloat in wave after wave of affronts.

The majority of the goddess, however, was too vastly upset with what she'd gone through the last ten years...the last ten years because of a _demon's interference_ , to bother with such thoughts or feelings. Belldandy was, in that moment, the embodiment of vengeance.

The woman lashed out with an elbow who's point drove itself into the demon's temple. The woman cried out and teleported a small distance away. Without pause the Norn summoned a magical bow, the arrows pure, elemental magic that sparked from being enhanced by her rage. She fired three of them off in quick succession, one right after the other, and it was all the blonde could do to duck and weave and avoid the deadly magic.

Once more Belldandy vanished in a gust of wind, only to appear in front of the demon, her expression one of such stony fury that it created the illusion of a terrible calm. She slammed her palm up into the woman's chin with such force she flew up in an arch. Another swift teleport left her at the peak of the woman's climb. With a scream that was primal, the goddess brought her hands together above her head and then brought them down in a single large swing. The appendages glowed with a light so blue it bordered on white, and the resulting impact left the demon streaking through the sky and into the mansion floor that served as Aoshima's personal quarters.

The demon crashed in the center of the room, just missing the bed that Belldandy had been resting in minutes prior. Belldandy came down on top of her a moment later, and the demon rolled, escaping the kick that was meant for her gut. Deep furrows carved into the wood where the blonde's torso had been, and the woman scrambled back. Her breath coming out in sharp, ragged gasps, the demon rolled to her feet and stumbled backwards against a wall, eyes wide. "Why isn't my magic working against you?" Her voice was hoarse from screaming. "Why aren't you on the floor in a coma!?"

Belldandy answered none of her questions. "Release Keiichi Morisato from the glamor _now_." She ordered. "I'm done asking." She stalked towards the demon, eyes glittering like hard sapphires in the light of the room.

"No." The demon was stubborn, she'd grant her that. "I refuse. You can't kill me-the armistice agreement prevents deaths on either side."

"And you appear to be under that grand illusion that I want you dead," Belldandy replied, her voice the calm of still water within the eye of a hurricane. "I don't. I have no desire to kill you...but if you believe that will grant you some form of mercy from me, you are sorely mistaken. I've witnessed very few acts of mercy in ten long years, so I've none to spare for one such as you." An orb of magic appeared in her hands, glowing with an arcane light.

The demon stared at the magic with wide, terrified eyes, and once more Belldandy lashed out, hurling the divine energy towards the woman. Yet it seemed the blonde had at least one more trick up her sleeve, as she charged Belldandy as soon as the magic left her hand. The woman dodged wildly, screaming in terror as she rushed forward. Through more luck than skill she managed to avoid the attack, and then she was upon the goddess, her strikes the frantic blows of a cornered animal.

Belldandy grimaced, shielding herself as best as she could from the wild, unpredictable strikes. With a roar, the demon charged forward causing the two combatants crashed through a wall and into the hallway once more. The duo fell, Belldandy atop the demon, and slammed into the floor a short distance from where Keiichi and the guard, Akishima, were laid out. The Norn caught movement from the corner of one eye and rolled away from the two men, planting a foot in the demon's gut and propelling her in the opposite direction of the two mortals. The blonde rolled to the far end of the hallway with a shout, and panting, Belldandy crawled back to her feet.

She felt worn and out of shape; the past ten years had not allowed her the freedom to exercise either her body or her magic, and now it was beginning to take its toll on her. Her lungs were beginning to burn, her breaths coming out more and more in harsh, labored gasps. Soon she'd be running on little besides the fumes of her rage. That was a risk because emotion could only grant her so much borrowed strength. Belldandy glanced over her shoulder, checking on the two men behind her to ensure they were both safe. Keiichi groaned but otherwise made no movement, and the guard was still out. She grimaced at the sight of them. _Need to get back outside. I won't risk their lives._

Sucking in a deep breath, the Norn once more sprinted forward, only this time the demon was ready for her. The woman crouched low upon the deity's approach, smashing into the Norn's lower legs with all her might and sending the goddess over her shoulder and crashing face-first into the floor. Belldandy grunted as her face kissed the ground, and as she tried to rise once more something came crashing down upon her skull. Again she grunted, her vision growing bright with stars, and whatever crashed into her rose and smashed into her skull again, repeating over and over until her sight began to darken. Somewhere off in the distance the Norn thought she heard a woman screaming at her, but it was hard to make out the words between the rapid drumming of her heart.

With a shriek she brought her hands up, catching whatever was so pummeling her with both hands and finding a high heeled shoe to be the source. She buried her fingers into the shoe, grasping it as tightly as her strength would allow, and wrenched herself upwards with all her might. A fresh scream arose from the demon as Belldandy unbalanced her, and with a snarl Belldandy brought a knee up into the woman's gut as she fell forward. The blonde hit the ground with a gasp, and with whatever strength remained within her Belldandy spun and hurled the demon through a window.

The goddess leaned forward with a wince, resting her hands on her knees as she felt something slick trickle down the back of her neck. _She made me bleed_. _I'll have to return the favor some how._ Biting her lower lip, the goddess straightened and moved to follow the demon back outside, when a voice, low and whispery, caught her ear.

"...W-wait..."

She paused and looked back down the hallway, eyes widening as they fell upon Keiichi Morisato. The man was awake somehow, his eyes blurry and out of focus but looking directly at her. "There's a way..." he gasped. Blood was pouring freely from his nose, leaving a tiny puddle of red on the floor from where it dribbled from either nostril. "S-Saturate her mind..." He tried to rise and failed, and Belldandy rushed towards him, kneeling down at his side. "She hears thoughts..." the man continued. "I can help..." He bowed his head, a deep-sated pain aging his face by decades. "I'll fucking _wreck_ her shit." He hissed.

Belldandy rose to her feet. "Be ready."

And Keiichi Morisato looked up at her and smiled, though blood still poured from his nose and his face contorted with so much pain he looked like a stranger. A blood vessel had popped in his right eye, painting the white a gruesome red. "I was born ready." He whispered.

XXX

 _I'm a lumberjack and I'm okay._

 _I sleep all night and I work all day._

Belldandy emerged from the broken window, a blast of concentrated air propelling her forward. She observed her surroundings carefully, searching for the demon that had been the source of her misery for the past ten years of her long, eternal life. The Norn found her easily enough; the demon was floating a good forty feet above the mansion, chest heaving as she fought to catch her breath. _Had she the sense to her she'd have run while I was distracted...unless she can't because she's bound by a contract..._ Another possibility, though one she'd have to entertain _after_ she'd worn the demon down; preferably before the woman wore _her_ down.

 _She's a lumberjack and she's okay._

 _She sleeps all night and she works all day._

The Norn pursed her lips and rose to meet her opponent. The demon appeared distracted, though by what was anyone's guess. She heard the woman mutter one word, "Mounties?" Before shaking herself, blinking owlishly at Belldandy and looking around. It almost seemed like the demon had forgotten where she was at.

 _I cut down trees. I eat my lunch._

 _I go to the lavatory._

 _On Wednesdays I go shoppin'_

 _And have buttered scones for tea._

The goddess spun in the air, using the momentum garnished to aid her strike, and backhanded the demon across the face. The woman recoiled, eyes bright with surprise before retaliating with a scream of her own. "I tire of this!" She thrust a spiked heel forward, and the goddess backpeddled, keeping herself out of range of the blonde's leg. Her head throbbed as she recalled the spike of that heel coming down on her earlier, and Belldandy was quick to decide that she did not want such a stiletto coming near any other piece of her body. Especially with no clothes on. "That man! Is he the cause of this as well?" She demanded, and Belldandy gloured at her in silence. "Answer me!" She roared. "What am I singing? Why is he envisioning me in _plaid_?"

 _She cuts down trees. She eats her lunch._

 _She goes to the lavatory._

 _On Wednesdays she goes shoppin'_

 _And has buttered scones for tea._

 _She's a lumberjack and she's okay_

 _She sleeps all night and she works all day._

"That man..." She growled, and again Belldandy watched as her eyes grew unfocused and distant, as some peculiar thought pulled her away to some other world. Seizing the opportunity, the Norn lashed out once more, this time with a high kick that came down upon the blonde's head. There was a terrible crack, and the demon dropped like a sack of bricks, falling to the world below with such force that the earth cratered around her from where she impacted. Shouts from the guards below rose in surprise and alarm, and quickly the goddess descended, hoping to end the madness before it could continue further.

 _I cut down trees. I fish and hunt._

 _I get crunk at the gym._

 _I put on my man's clothing_

 _And bar hop all while gloating._

The demon was out cold by the time Belldandy descended. Out cold and surrounded by the guards patrolling the midnight shift. Several of them let out a shout as she touched the ground, and several of them rushed forward, their faces wide with open concern. "Belldandy-Sama?!" one of them cried, and she recognized the voice as Yamagi, the leader of Night Shift. The woman looked at him and nodded in recognition, and the man, a scruffy, middle-aged individual with a deep scar crossing one cheek, paused. "Kaneda! Get your ass over here!" He roared, and a tall man in his early twenties rushed to his side. He flushed a bright red as his eyes happened upon Belldandy's state of being, and quickly he averted his eyes. "What are ya' doin' nitwit!" Yamagi bellowed. "Don't jus' stand there! Give The Lady your jacket!"

"Oh! Right, sorry!" Kaneda fumbled with his jacket, and as he did Belldandy moved to better inspect the crater and the unconscious demon within. Several of the guards moved with her, gathering around her in a nervous half circle as they peered at the woman within.

"Back up, Gentlemen." Belldandy's voice held a note of warning despite the level of calm, and sharing uncomfortable gazes they did as ordered. Someone touched her elbow, and the Norn looked back, finding Kaneda offering his gray blazer to her. His face was red and embarrassed, and he stole nervous glances at the deity from the corner of one eye. The goddess took it with a nod of thanks and slipped it on. The blazer was warm; hot almost in the Spring night, and fell down to her thighs.

"What is she?" someone asked. Belldandy identified it as a youth named Migatsi, a highschool dropout who'd never held a gun in his life until Aoshima had offered him a job. "She a goddess like you, Boss Lady?"

"No." Belldandy announced. "And I'd prefer you don't confuse one such as her with my ilk again, Migatsi-kun. She's a demon...one who I suspect may be in league with Aoshima-san."

There was a rustle of uncomfortable murmurs from her audience, and Belldandy pursed her lips. What to do now, though? She didn't have the proper means to bind a demon, but she needed to ensure Keiichi Morisato and Akishima were okay. Her eyes drifted up, and there her lips tugged into a frown. There was also the matter of that presence she'd felt earlier...the one of _(fangsclawsteeth)_ a tenth dimensional being unleashing its presence on the third plane. It was gone now, but Belldandy had no doubt that whatever it was, _whoever_ it was, they were still here, perhaps watching, perhaps searching the mansion for either the goddess or the demon that had fallen to the outside courtyard.

 _Prioritize._ The guards were waiting for instruction, dancing with nervous anticipation as they eyed the unconscious demon still in the crater. "Yamagi-san, have two of your most seasoned men head to the second floor. Observe anything you see there but do not engage anyone you come across. There are more like this demon in the mansion and I doubt they hold any kind of discretion towards mortal lives. Have them report back what they see. I also need a small group to go to the fourth floor. Akishima was knocked out in a bit of friendly fire by a man attempting to rescue me. They're both up there and the man in black is _not_ to be harmed. If he feels threatened, pass him this code: 23 09 1988. Tell him I've promised his safety. If he remains yet unconvinced, do not attempt to coerce him. Leave him be and I'll retrieve him myself..." The goddess scowled, once more looking down at the demon, the woman whose name she did not even know. "...as soon as I figure out what to do with you." She muttered.

"Yes, Ma'am." Yamagi replied, then hesitated before speaking once more. "And...if we fine Aoshima-San...what would you have us do?"

The woman's jaw clenched, and her expression darkened. "If he still lives...than I will deal with him. We have much to discuss, my 'husband' and I."

Another wave of uneasy looks swept through the crowd and with it came an apprehensive murmur; one that spoke of distress and concern over what had yet to pass. Then Yamagi took over, shouting names and orders that sent the gathering into a wild disperse. Belldandy listened with one ear as the men rushed to do as instructed, her main focus resting on the woman at her feet. It sounded like she was singing.

"…'m a lumberjack...'m okay..."

"Big Sister!" The voice caused Belldandy to stiffen, her eyes widening in surprise as she rose to search for the owner in question. The woman's mouth parted in surprise when they came upon Skuld, grown well past the youth she'd last seen and into a young woman the Norn almost didn't recognize. The goddess descended several feet away from her, ignorant of the guards who stopped to watch from a distance. "Sis?" Was it really Skuld? Goodness, she was almost as tall as Belldandy herself! "Belldandy? Is it..." The dark haired woman bit her lip, her eyes bright in a mixtures of fear and hope.

"It's me Skuld." Belldandy said softly, and was taken by surprise when the younger woman rushed towards her with a whoop and a shout, engulfing her in a bear hug of such might that Belldandy was lifted off her feet. Her throat locked, and her eyes began to burn as her sister rocked her back and forth, a strange mixture of sobs and laughter emerging from her younger sister's form. _I will not cry here._ She ordered herself. _I will not cry until I know all is safe. Not until this demon is sorted out and Aoshima is out of my life._ But a hug? Yes, she could allow herself that much. With a sigh, she returned the embrace, though her eyes remained fixated on the demon below her.

The two sisters separated after a moment, and Skuld held her out at arms length. There were tears in her eyes. "I suppose I'm to thank you for sending my knight in black armor to rescue me?" Belldandy asked, and Skuld released a weak little laugh before embracing her once more. "Is Urd with you too?"

Skuld nodded when they parted a second time. "Yeah." She dug in a pocket and pulled out a phone. "I think she's already here-her and Lind both."

"Lind..." Her brows furrowed together, yet while the name was familiar, no face came to mind. "I'm not sure I'm familiar with this person."

"She's a Valkyrie," Skuld clarified. "She was assigned to watch Urd when Urd wouldn't stop trying to contact you." She paused and bit her lower lip. "She was trying to reach you for ten years, you know. Wouldn't stop, even when more authoritative action was threatened against her...she- _we_ never stopped looking for you." Her expression grew worried. "Ah, that's right! Belldandy, Urd said there's a demon involved in all this!" she exclaimed, "You don't have to stay with Aoshima! Keiichi is still entitled to a wish and I think that this demon is the reason you got saddled with him in the first place! The wish is null and void! But we need to find this demon and get it under control before—"

Belldandy pointed, and Skuld looked down. "...before...ah..." She trailed off, taking a moment to stare at the unconscious woman at their feet. "...well now." She looked up at Belldandy and planted her hands on her hips, a bubble of laughter gushing from her lips. "Ha! Well ah, how about that wish then?"

"This Valkyrie..." Belldandy murmured, her gaze inquisitive. "Do you know if she was assigned to Urd under the perchance that there was a demon involved with my wish?"

Skuld sobered at once, and the young woman frowned, face thoughtful. "...I don't know." She replied. "She's been heckling Urd to leave you alone for years now, and only really got involved when we discovered that the wish meant for Keiichi was stolen by Aoshima." She pursed her lips. "Urd said the Ultimate Force might have brought Keiichi to her as a means to correct that error, but I don't know just how much of it Lind was aware of up until this point...if I were to guess though, I'd say she was as much in the dark as the rest of us."

"Yet someone had the foresight to assign her to Urd knowing she would reach out to me...perhaps even suspecting that there were demonic involvement with Aoshima as well," Belldandy murmured, then shook her head. "I would speak with this Valkyrie when she appears." The Norn said, directing her gaze to Skuld. "You say she is here already?"

Skuld nodded, and from above their heads came a panicked shout. _Daisuke_ , she thought to herself, immediately recognizing the voice. She looked up and watched with a small frown as several figures leapt from the second floor. Belldandy recognized Urd immediately, though for a reason that illuded her the Norn's eyes had difficulty focusing on any part of the woman's form. It gave her a headache, and some small piece of her could not shake the feeling that she was seeing _(clawsfangsteeth)_ more than was actually there. _Was Urd the one who...?_ She looked exhausted and ill at ease beside the uniformed woman who could only be Lind at her side. The both of them looked rather haggard, she noted, and a second glance towards Skuld showed a similar disheveled appearance Belldandy had not noticed immediately. _Have they been...fighting over me?_ Just what lengths had her siblings gone to in order to reach her?

Lind held a guard by the collar of his blazer, Urd with one of her own, and as the duo landed they released their charges, who all but ran for their lives as soon as they were released. The men didn't slow down until they placed Belldandy safely between themselves and the women, waiting and watching with nervous anticipation over what these new strangers might do. Neither goddess paid them any mind. Instead, Lind made her way towards the two sisters, Urd following a moment later. The elder Norn met her gaze for only a moment, and the look on her face was enough to make Belldandy's heart freeze.

 _She knows._ Belldandy went white. How. _How?_ How did she—Did that mean that the Valkyrie also—oh heavens no, oh Yggdrasil please no, no, they weren't supposed to know about that, no, never, _never_ know about that! What was she going to-how could she explain—A bubble of panic rose in her chest, and the goddess grimaced as the two deities drew near. She wanted to run, all of a sudden. She wanted to run and hide someplace where Urd and Lind couldn't find her, couldn't see her, couldn't _judge_ her for whatever shameful position she'd been forced into.

"Big Sister?" Her head whipped towards Skuld, eyes wide, and Skuld started. "Hey, are you alright? Belldandy, what's wrong?"

Belldandy didn't respond. How could she? How could she explain to Skuld the-the _atrocities_ she'd conducted in the past ten years? Acts so horrible, so _vile_ , that they would be deemed more fitting a demon than a goddess of her status? _They'll think I did it willingly._ She feared. _They'll accuse me and then abandon me, leave me here in this accursed hell because they'll think I deserve it, that I want it._ Her heart began to beat rapidly against her ribs, and her breath came in small, quick breaths.

There was another voice, a softer one, that denied such thoughts, that told her she was panicking, that tried to soothe her and ease her mind, yet it's voice had grown softer and softer as they years had waned, and now, as before, it could not project itself with enough strength to be heard.

Urd must have seen something on her face though, for all at once she was before Belldandy, wrapping her in an embrace so tight it grew difficult to breathe. "Oh Yggdrasil, Belldandy." She heard her sister whisper. "By the Great Tree's roots...fucking hell, I'm sorry Bell. I'm so fucking sorry."

Was she crying? Why was she apologizing? _Oh Yggdrasil, please stop._ The Norn grit her teeth, and the desire to struggle, to fight, to turn and _run_ grew ever stronger. _Please stop apologizing. I'm the one responsible. I should be apologizing._ She could feel her own eyes burning now, could feel tears threatening to fall, and in desperate futility she fought against them. _I will not cry. Not here, not now. There are more important matters at stake, I will not cry._ Yet the tears ignored her, and a choked sob rose in her throat, betraying her thoughts, her emotions. _No. No no nononono! The guards are watching! Aoshima's still here, the demon still needs to be dealt with, stop crying!_

She felt another body press into her, saw Skuld's dark hair as her sister moved in to join, and felt her will cave, felt her strength flee her body, and then felt Urd and Skuld gently lower her to the ground, neither of them parting from her side. "You're safe now. We won't let him hurt you ever again." That was Skuld. "We're going _home,_ Sis. This nightmare is over."

Belldandy ground her teeth so hard she felt her jaw pop. "The demon," she tried, "She's still-"

Urd interrupted her. "Lind will deal with it. Don't worry about her."

"But-"

"Hush, Belldandy." Urd's voice was gentle but firm. "You've done enough. Let us handle the rest." She squeezed her, then loosened her embrace.

The Norn stared forward blankly for a moment, not certain if her mind was fully processing what her sisters were telling her. Then she closed her eyes and leaned into her sisters. _This is a dream._ She thought. _I'll wake up and they'll be gone and I'll be back in Aoshima's bed._ She shuddered, sucked in a gasping breath, and felt another painful lump rise in her chest. Her siblings held their peace, no longer voicing words of comfort but letting their actions speak for them; two pillars of support as Belldandy cried herself hoarse for the first time in ten years as a free woman.

When the sobs finally ceased...when the there were no more tears that could be shed...it was then, and only then that Urd separated herself from Belldandy. She felt the older woman squeeze her shoulder, and looked up, watching as Urd parted from their small circle of siblings in favor of Lind. The two began speaking in hushed tones, and Belldandy could not stop the immediate response to tense. The chances were just as high that they were speaking of her as they were the demon, and even after the imminent reassurance that 'everything would be okay', she could not shake the voice of paranoia that sang sick hymns in her ear. _They'll suspend your license at the very least..._ It whispered, _at least until they validate the necessity of demoting you._

The voice sounded too much like Aoshima to hold any real faith in, yet it was a persistent voice, and like an insistent mosquito it buzzed in her ear. _And then what? Why, you'll never see That Man you waited ten years for, that very man you held out for just to meet, whom you_ did _meet by some strange turn of fate and who you may yet never meet again if that Valkyrie decides to take you away..._ She tried to push the thoughts out of her head, tried to silence the nagging little voice, and failed on both accounts. _And if you would fight? Well then...you've just given them an excuse to seal you away, just like that demon you knocked out. And why not?_ In her mind Aoshima's voice laughed. _You're no different from her, are you? Admit it, you're just like that demon lying on the ground. No different. No different at all..._

 _"_ ly...Belldandy! _"_ She jumped, finding Skuld staring at her with worried eyes. "Are you going to be alright?"

 _No. I won't be 'alright' for a long while yet, Skuld._ Belldandy thought. "Given time," she responded instead, and with effort moved to stand. Skuld helped her up. By now, the adrenaline and emotion that had so fueled her battle had faded, and the Norn could feel the onset of fatigue in the way her body throbbed and her lungs burned. She also did not approve of the way her body trembled; an after-effect of the adrenaline in her system.

"-'s Hagall? Looks like a demon to me." Straining her ears allowed her to catch the last bit of Urd's conversation with the Valkyrie, and Belldandy welcomed the relief the words brought.

 _See._ She told the voice in her mind. Yet the Aoshima in her head did little but laugh, and Belldandy chose to redirect her attention to her elder sister and the Valkyrie.

"Chrono has the capability to Seal the demon." The Valkyrie replied, "We'll have to wait for her arrival."

"Chrono?" Urd spoke a little louder than intended, and Skuld raised her head in interest as well. "Wait, Little Chrono? Tiny thing who's afraid of cats? Has a thing for martial arts?"

The Valkyrie blinked at her, then gave a slight nod, and Urd released a short bark of laughter. It sounded strained. "Son of a bitch, didn't expect her to make it." The woman ran a hand through her hair. "To think we'd meet up like this..." The Norn looked around, taking in the curious looks from the other goddesses. "Chrono used to work under me," she explained. "Used to talk about wanting to go White all the time. Good to hear she made rank."

Skuld huffed. "Good to see at least _some_ Valkyries are respectful." Belldandy and the others looked at her, and the middle Norn started when her younger sister spat on the ground in distaste. "Had to put that green-haired shi-" Her eyes darted to Belldandy, and the woman quickly rephrased her words "... _brat_ thought she could get away with petty insults." She sniffed in disdain. "I put her in her place."

The Valkyrie, Lind, frowned. "I'll speak with her."

"No need." Skuld shrugged. "I beat her ass into the _ground_." She puffed out her chest proudly, and Urd had to look away to hide her grin. "Why do you think Chrono isn't here yet? She's busy scraping what's left of that fool off the tarmac."

Belldandy's head whipped to Skuld so fast her neck twinged painfully. "You _what?"_

Skuld's eyes widened. "Shit." She announced, and Belldandy's eyes grew wider. "Wait, fuck! I mean, sorry, ah, you didn't hear that! Forget I said anything!" Belldandy's expression of shock did not fade. "Urd? A little help?"

"Hey! Look who it is!" Urd announced, a wide and very strained smile on her face. "Looks like poor Keiichi managed to crawl his way down the stairs to join us!"

Belldandy's heart caught in her throat, and the goddess wheeled to face the compound, her stomach all at once filled with nervous butterflies. The man was stumbling out the door, the guards Akira and Koji eyeing him in mistrust. Koji was supporting the unconscious Akishima, and Belldandy was startled to see Akira dragging an unconscious Naoki as well, with one of the maids, Sachi, sharing a similar state and being carried by Keiichi. The small group of three looked less than thrilled with each others presence, with the guards shooting accusing glares towards the man whenever he so much as turned his head towards them. Keiichi met their gazes with a scowl of his own, but the three weren't snapping or attacking each other. Everyone seemed aware that there was more at stake than the distrust that arose from two groups who'd been enemies not five minutes prior.

The tension eased somewhat as they left the mansion. Keiichi's face lit up when he saw Urd, and the goddess waved him over towards their group. He glanced towards Belldandy, and the fluttering in her stomach increased even more when he smiled at her. The middle Norn looked away, feeling hot and uncomfortable and instead caught the eye of one of the guards who'd stopped to watch the entire fiasco a small distance away. Thinking fast, she gestured and pointed towards the Japanese-American and the maid. He caught her meaning easily enough and trotted towards the group, speaking with the Navy SEAL. The man looked from the guard to Belldandy, and at her nod he handed the unconscious maid over, freeing the SEAL to join the rest of their party. When he started towards them, he appeared to be limping.

By the time he joined the rest of the deities, the man's face had dissolved into a tight grimace. Urd was the first to speak up. "You okay, Jank?"

"Peachy," he grunted. "Just gotta walk it off. Feels like someone shoved a bunch of icepicks through my feet." A trail of crusted blood was still on his lip, and his eyes had dark shadows under them, as though he'd not had a proper night's rest in days.

"Not gonna lie Jank, you look like you just crawled out of a devil's ass."

Skuld broke into laughter, and once more Belldandy found herself staring at her sisters in shock. "Urd!"

The older woman flinched and sent a half-grin to her sister. "I'm not apologizing," she proclaimed.

Keiichi snorted. "Hey Sheila, I think you promised me something if I saved your sister, right?"

Wait, a promise? Belldandy looked between Keiichi and Urd in sudden alarm. These two had worked out some kind agreement in order to rescue her? What? _What?!_ All at once the joy fled Belldandy's being, and she watched in a sudden tense detachment as Keiichi drew near. _Was one of them coerced somehow?_ But that didn't make sense! Keiichi Morisato was a good man! And her sister was—well her sister had _some_ standards...but still!

Urd placed a hand in the small of Belldandy's back and gently guided her forward. She sent a look towards her sister that said; _What are you doing?!_ Urd grinned back. "Belldandy? Allow me to introduce you to Gunner's Mate First Class Keiichi "Jank" Morisato, Navy Seal and hobbyist of motorcycles and apple crushing."

Keiichi flinched. "You aren't going to let that go, are you."

"Careful Belldandy," Skuld called. "Magilla looks like he's moving to melon crushing next. Best make sure the idiot doesn't mistake your head for a honeydew."

"Fuck you, Poodle."

Belldandy stared at the two with open horror, and Urd, smiling, continued. "Keiichi, let me introduce you to my little sister, Belldandy Tyrsdotter, Norn of the Present, favored daughter of the Daitenkaicho, Speed Fiend and, if I'm correct in my assumptions, the only woman I know to beat the everloving shit out of a demon buck-ass naked."

"Urd!" cried Belldandy, positively scandalized by the revelation and the language being tossed about. She flushed a bright red, realized that her sister was right, and felt the flush deepen as she buried her face in her hands. "Oh goodness...this is no way for a goddess to behave."

Keiichi smirked. "I don't see a problem with it myself. Take's some big brass ba-" He paused and looked at his audience, which consisted of nothing but women, and then rephrased his statement. "Takes a lot of courage to fight anyone without a scrap of clothes on."

The middle Norn missed the smug look on her sister's face. "So, is Keiichi still up for a wish?"

 _Aoshima._ Belldandy stiffened. "Ah...yes, that is indeed true." The words came out in a slow, thoughtful manner. "However there is still Toshiyuki Aoshima to worry about..." She trailed off as she caught the somber expression that appeared on Lind's face.

"Don't worry about him." Urd's voice was quiet, and Belldandy looked up at her sister, concerned by the elder Norn's tone. "Seriously Bell. Don't even think about him. He won't touch you ever again."

Belldandy stared at Urd, searching her face. "...is he dead?"

Urd didn't answer.

"Either way it doesn't matter," Skuld announced, and after a long moment, when still Urd gave nothing away, Belldandy turned to her younger sister. "That code I gave Keiichi would have nulled the wish even if he was alive and screaming right beside us. When you interfaced with Yggdrasil to receive the data download I set up for you, it also kicked off a program-a worm rather-that I inserted into the system to correct what was put in that granted that asswi... I mean what was put in that granted Aoshima the wish." She stared at Belldandy and smiled. "You're a free goddess, Belldandy."

Then Skuld cast a glare off to Keiichi. "Provided this jerk-off doesn't do anything stupid like say 'I want a goddess like you to stay by my side forever.'"

 _A free goddess._ The words almost didn't sound real echoing in her head, and she stared at Keiichi, her mind trying to wrap itself around the idea that she was free, that there was no more Aoshima, and that she could finally _leave_ this demon's-blessed place.

Her eyes drifted from one person to another: From Keiichi to Lind, who watched her with solemn eyes. From Lind to Skuld, who gave her a reassuring smile. From Skuld to Urd, whose own expression was encouraging, but still somehow appeared strained in the evening lights of the mansion. From Urd to Keiichi, who met her eyes and waited, his gaze never trailing down but holding steadfast on her face in what she came to realize was a stubborn respect of her own privacy. "This isn't a dream?" She found her voice soft and hesitant all at once. "Aoshima is done with, and the demon...?" Her eyes darted to the woman and then to the Valkyrie, Lind.

Lind inclined her head. "The demon will not interfere." Her eyes rose above Belldandy's head. "I see Chrono now. We'll seal her while you attend to your own business." Without further comment she left the small gathering, pausing only long enough to glance at Urd. The two shared a meaningful look, and then Lind continued forward, moving off to meet Chrono, who landed a short distance away with a young, green haired deity who's head swayed with unconsciousness.

"Keiichi," Urd uttered, and Belldandy glanced back to the man in question, who's face was twisted in a grimace. He was massaging his right wrist as if it pained him, but he stopped when Belldandy glanced at him. Instead he shifted to fold his arms across his chest, looking all at once uncomfortable with his surroundings.

"Yeah, I know Urd." His voice came out as a growl as he sent the woman a glare, but it vanished once he shifted his gaze back to Belldandy. "So I'm supposed to get a wish, right? Even after everything you've been through? After all the shit I've done in the last ten years, somehow I still qualify for a fuc-" Belldandy flinched. "- _Freaking_ wish?"

It was Belldandy's turn to grimace. With how Keiichi phrased it, it sounded as though neither of them were fit to either give or receive a wish. _He's probably not too far from the truth, either._ Belldandy mused, and nodded her agreement. "Yes. You do still qualify for a wish, Keiichi Morisato. A wish from _me_ as well, given that it appears that no other goddess was given your case file while I was gone."

Keiichi nodded, observing her carefully, and all at once Belldandy wondered what she looked like to him: her, a goddess, beaten and bruised and naked aside from the blazer a guard had given her. A goddess who'd been in servitude to a wretch of a man, an unknowing prisoner of mortal and demon alike, and who now stood before him telling him that he was entitled a wish. Truly, what a pitiful sight she must have appeared to him. "Are you okay with this?" he asked. "You don't want to take a breather? Go home, shower in your own place, let your folks know you're okay, punch someone in the face for the fuckup that got you down here?"

The questions caught her by surprise, and Belldandy's mouth parted in shock. She tried to reply but the words were caught on her tongue, leaving her with an expression that must have been hilarious to behold, for Skuld looked away and Keiichi had to fight back a smile. "I-" She _what?_ She'd been waiting ten years to meet this man, rough around the edges though he was, and now he was standing here saying his wish could _wait_? Well _she_ sure as hell couldn't. Not after already waiting ten ungodly years as it were.

The woman blinked and shook her head. "It's fine," she claimed. "I...This is fine."

The man nodded, entirely unconvinced. "I don't want it."

Belldandy stared. "...What?"

"You heard me." Keiichi said. "I don't want your wish. You use it."

Belldandy gaped at him. _Oh you wonderful fool._ She thought. "That...that isn't how a wish works though."

"Hurry up, Magilla!" Skuld grumbled from behind Keiichi, and the SEAL shot the woman a glare.

He looked back at Belldandy. "Listen," he said. "I'm a Navy SEAL. I work for a living, and my work is a healthy amount of grey bordering black. I ain't a good Christian boy and I'm no Saint, and if I want something, I work for it. But I'm no charity case, Belldandy. I don't want your wish."

"But that's..." Belldandy shook her head, baffled, and Skuld elbowed Keiichi in the side. Keiichi sent her another dirty look.

"Okay," he growled, though it appeared he was growling more at Skuld than Belldandy. "I'll spell it out for you then: I wish for a goddess such as yourself, Belldandy, to grant herself the wish owed to me." He scowled at Skuld, who only then leaned back with a huff of her own. "Satisfied?" He asked before turning back to Belldandy. His brows knotted together in concern. "Are you okay with that? You're allowed to grant that kind of wish, right?"

Belldandy stared at him, mouth agape and frozen, uncertain of how to respond. _I love this man,_ she found herself thinking, and with a cry that was half sob, half joy, the Norn threw herself at Keiichi. He caught her with ease, his grip firm but gentle _(not bruising, not painful)_ and her arms snaked around his neck. This _had_ to be a dream. She brought her mouth to his in a kiss that was almost bruising, felt his sharp inhale of surprise and felt him respond in turn, pressing back, pressing into her, and stealing her breath _(she'd have given it freely. By Yggdrasil's three roots she'd have given it all if he'd asked)_ as he wrapped his arms around her. _This has to be a dream. This_ is _a dream, but I don't care anymore. Let me dream, let me never wake up, let this become my new reality._ Tears were pouring down her cheeks and she didn't care, by Yggdrasil she didn't care; she could cry, she could love, she could _feel_ again.

 _I wish to stay with this man forever._

And somewhere, on another plane, in another dimension, Yggdrasil heard the request of a man, heard the wish of a goddess, and responded in turn.

Skuld made a face at the blatant display of affection, and after a minute, became impatient. "Okay...you can stop... any minute now... you can stop," she grumbled. Urd drifted over to stand by her side, swinging an arm across her younger sister's shoulders. "Seriously, not to be a buzz kill-"

"You're totally being a buzz kill." Urd whispered.

Skuld scowled. "-but you two should separate. You know, before any kind of wish suddenly...oh...well, there you go." From their observation point the two Norns watched as their middle sister's sigils began to glow. The man and the goddess remained oblivious, and Skuld gestured to them with an arm. "There. See? _See?_ Belldandy's gonna be the buzz kill now when she rips Magilla's head off verifying whatever wish was made. You gonna do something or what?" She looked at Urd. "I thought _you_ were the one who liked that muscle-brained idiot."

Urd rolled her eyes as Belldandy's sigils grew brighter. "I guess your right." She observed the duo for a second more. Any longer and the sigils would grow to the point of blinding. "You know, even without the wish it'd probably be a good idea to stop them. The two look like they're getting ready to shag right here in the courtyard."

Skuld slapped a palm across her eyes and forehead. "Urd I swear to Yggdrasil!" she snarled, and Urd laughed.

"Alright, alright, I'm going!" She tossed over he shoulder as she approached the duo, an idea already forming on how to seperate the two of them before the wish dissolved Keiichi's head into an assembly of atoms. The woman popped up next to them, wrapped her arms around both of them, and leaned in close. "Wanna make this a threesome?" Her voice was deep and sensual. Urd watched as the two froze. In unison, both their heards turned to stare at her with wide eyes before they jerked, separating with a shout.

"Urd!" Two voices rose in a roaring chorus of rage, and as the duo glare, the goddess Urd dipped in and grabbed Keiichi's arm, dragging him back just as a beam of intense blinding blue engulfed Belldandy. A shockwave exploded through the courtyard, destroying windows, knocking down bushes and weak trees, and rocking the mansion's foundation. Fresh cries rose through the courtyard, and Keiichi's was one of them as he lost his balance, caught only by Urd who still held a firm grip on his arm. If not for her, he would have been blown back from the blast.

Instead the man stared in open horror as Belldandy began to rise off her feet like a woman possessed, her body limp and head tilted back to the sky in a manner that almost hurt to watch. "Urd what the fuck is going on?!" he cried, his voice almost drowned out by a low groan, one of such unfathomable force it could only be described as 'abysmal'.

Urd inclined her head and smiled at him. Her face was wild with excitement. "Bell made a wish." She had to shout to be heard. "It's being validated by the World Tree, Yggdrasil!"

And it was at that point, that crucial moment where a wish was granted, that the world went black.

The courtyard lights went out. The mansion's internal lights wicked out. The stars and the moon dimmed and darkened into nonexistance. The light Belldandy produced, blue-white and burning, dissipated into nothingness. There was no glow from the city at the base of the hill, no flash of light from a firefly. Utter darkness so complete that Keiichi feared he'd gone blind. It engulfed him and it made his heart quicken with fear. "Urd?" he called. He could still hear the whirling wind produced by Belldandy, could still feel Urd's hand latched onto his arm...but he could also feel the hooks that had burrowed into his hands and feet when he'd fought through his nightmare. He could feel the shrapnel he'd taken from an IED explosion in Afghanistan shred into his leg. He even felt the vicious throb from where a dog had bitten him at the tender age of eight, and oh, Lordy there was so much more.

 _There's a monster in the dark._ He found himself thinking, and felt the hair along the nape of his neck rise in primitive terror. _Please no. Please don't be another demon._ That ol' reptile in his brain that woke up whenever he was confronted by one was awake again, awake and _screaming_ and oh _lord_ what happened to the lights? "Urd? Urd?!" He called in alarm. "Urd, please tell me this is part of a wish, _please_." _It's not and you know it._ The lizard hissed in his brain. _This ain't natural. This ain't right and it's got about as much to do with the divine as finding Jesus on a piece of burnt toast_.

He felt Urd's grip on him tighten to the point of painful; was she afraid as well or was it something else? And then she spoke. "I'm with you Keiichi." She wasn't shouting. She didn't need to shout anymore because the noise was dying down. The whirlwind that had been buffeting his face was dissipating, but the darkness _wouldn't leave_. "I'm here. We all are."

"Urd?" That was Skuld. She sounded worried as well. "This isn't part of the wish, right? Belldandy didn't just wish us into seven years of eternal darkness, right?"

Urd gave an uneasy laugh. "It's not Belldandy. This is demon magic. I can almost taste it. Skuld, come to my voice, get near me. Right now there's safety in numbers, and I want to be ready in case whoever's responsible for this attacks us."

"But what about Belldandy?" Skuld sounded closer now, and Keiichi grunted as a body stumbled into him. Skuld grunted, and he reached out with his free hand to steady the woman, finding the Norn grasping onto his offered arm in a vice-like grip.

"Move towards her." Urd instructed. "Depending on the strength of the wish, the verification might have knocked her out. She's not speaking up, so we need to try and surround her to make sure nothing gets to her while she's down. Move slowly-I don't want to accidentally step on the poor thing."

There was a shout off to Keiichi's left from a voice he didn't recognize, followed by a curse from the solemn woman in white he'd seen. A grunt, someone crying out in pain, and then light, as though someone had flipped on the light switch of the universe after accidentally bumping it off.

Keiichi flinched at the sudden light, and Skuld released her grip on his arm, moving towards a form that lay collapsed on the ground. It was Belldandy, and feeling his own heart leap in his throat he moved towards her as well, pausing only when Urd released her grip on him before heading a different direction. "Urd?"

The woman waved him off. "Bell's fine, though trust me, you'll be the first thing she wants to see when she wakes up. I need to check on Lind." He paused to watch her head off, then observed the uniformed woman from where she sat in a crater, a grimace on her face as she nursed her head. The other woman, the new one who'd wore a matching uniform, was sprawled unconscious at her feet.

Hagall was gone.

He felt a lump of unease rise in his throat as Urd kneeled to speak with the blue-haired woman, and swallowing it he turned back to the remaining Norns. Skuld scowled at his approach. "Looks like we're stuck with you now," she grumbled.

He looked at her queerly, but the woman didn't explain further.

The man kneeled down beside the goddess, who'd curled into the large blazer with such effectiveness that it draped across her person like a blanket. Her breathing was soft and gentle in the easy rhythm of sleep, and her expression was serine. Her eyes fluttered, and the woman murmured listlessly, her face knitting in a scowl before opening her eyes with visible reluctance. Keiichi smiled a half-grin at her, and the woman froze, eyes widening and body tensing as she saw what he could only guess was someone else. Then she blinked, and gradual recognition dawned in her eyes, the tension melting from her body with an open sigh of relief. "It's _not_ a dream," she breathed. A smile, large and brilliant, spread across her features, and Belldandy picked herself up, swaying a bit until Skuld caught her arm.

Keiichi smiled as well. "Good, I'm glad." He meant it. "Bit surprised you're still here though. Would have thought you'd have wished to get the hell out a' dodge as fast as possible."

Skuld gave out a forced laugh. "Yeah, about that..."

"What do you mean?" Keiichi looked between the two sisters in growing concern, and watched as Belldandy's eyes widened and her face pinkened with a growing flush.

"You might want to grab Urd for this one," Skuld continued. "I...think she'll need to hear it as well." Something rather interesting had caught her eye on the ground, he noted, and the young woman bit her lip and fell silent.

Keiichi stared at them a moment more. "Yeah..." he drawled. "Alright. Sure...I'll humor you this time." Turning, he wandered back towards the uniformed woman and Urd. The blue haired woman was going over another woman dressed in a similar outfit. She'd moved the brunette onto her back, elevating her head with what looked to be some sort of white cape. _Looks like SABC transgresses dimensions,_ he thought. "She okay?"

"Concussion," the woman stated. "Nothing bad; the strike was more luck than skill." She glanced up at him. "You're a soldier."

"Fuck you, I'm a SEAL." Keiichi's response came before he could stop it, yet rather than be insulted the woman smirked.

"I'm a Valkyrie." She paused, staring at him appraisingly. "You remember that and I won't call you a soldier, SEAL." The deity moved to prop up her companions feet, placing them together and bending them at the knee. "Some other day we'll have to shoot the shit. Urd's drifted off towards the bushes." He stared at her, one eyebrow raised, and the woman snorted. "She's not taking a piss, if that's what you're asking." Her expression darkened for a moment. "She's calling someone. Who I don't know-nor do I think I _want_ to know. Go harass her so we can leave this shithole."

Keiichi stared at the woman. _Of all the places to find a kindred spirit._ "What's your name, Valkyrie?"

"Lind," she replied. "We don't speak our rank outside the wire."

The SEAL nodded. "Gunner's Mate First Class Keiichi Morisato," he replied. "Though most call me 'Jank' more often then not."

Another snort. "You'll have to tell me how you earned your callsign some day." He nodded, feeling a smirk of his own pulling at the corner of his mouth before heading off after Urd. "Morisato." He paused, looking back at the Valkyrie. "You saw it too, right?"

He paused and pursed his lips. He'd seen quite a bit more than he'd ever hoped to this night, and most of it he wanted to forget as soon as he returned home. "Saw what?"

The woman stared at him with impassive eyes. "Don't bullshit me. You know what I'm talking about."

Keiichi held his silence, and Lind frowned. "They were all her, you know." She jerked her head back to Belldandy. "Each and every one of them." He stilled at her comment, and it took all his self-discipline not to turn and look back at Belldandy. "Our form is what we make of it when we're on a lesser plane. We can appear as man or woman, young or old. An adult...or a child." She examined his face, eyes no longer passive but scrutinizing. "I saw them too." Her voice was dropped into a low whisper, "...and so did Urd."

The SEAL felt himself turn white with renewed rage. "All of..." His voice came out tight, and his hand trembling, her grabbed his wrist, recalling the pain of the hooks as they held him to a wall, recalled That Man on top of his sister, and the blank, dead look in her eyes as He held her down with His weight alone, thrusting into her like a mad, rutting beast. The SEAL ground his teeth until his jaw ached, and the man sucked in a shuddering breath. _One, two, three..._ he reached five and held his breath, counted again and released it slowly, sucking in one slow, meditative breath at a time by a five-count. It was slow, but he felt himself come into control of his emotions again, and it was only when Keiichi was certain that he wouldn't explode at the woman before him that he spoke again. "Why are you telling me this?"

"Because you made a wish," Lind replied. "And now you must deal with everything that comes with it." The words were foreboding, but Keiichi held his peace, allowing the Valkyrie to finish. "Belldandy is not the woman you think she is. Not any more. Not after... _that._ She needs to heel...and I think as a fellow warrior, you understand that not all wounds born in combat are physical. Give her time and give her patience...but don't also forget that both you and Urd saw those videos. Speak with Urd over what you witnessed and let the poison bleed out. You'll need it and Urd will too." She pursed her lips into a tight, thin line. "Urd _especially_."

 _It's real enough for you!_ Hagall's sing-song voice rang again in his head, and Keiichi looked away with a shudder. "I'll keep it in mind." He sucked in another long, drawn out breath, and when he released it the SEAL felt more in control. "What about you?" he asked. "And if I hear one fucking word of 'I'll be fine', I'm going to drop kick your ass."

"I'd like to see you try," Lind retorted. "And I'll be around. I need to keep an eye on Urd."

Keiichi raised a brow in question, but Lind said nothing further. Sensing that their conversation had come to an end, the man sighed and moved on, leaving the Valkyrie in peace. _Even more shit to worry over._ The new information worried him, and Lind's words did little to put his mind at ease. _I feel like I might have bitten off more than I can chew with this one._

A familiar voice met his ears, and Keiichi paused as he rounded a corner. Urd's back was towards him, her phone pressed against her ear. She was speaking in a low, tight voice, and the words sounded strange and alien to his ears. _Like whatever Skuld said, but different somehow._ There was something vicious about whatever language Urd was speaking, but he did recognize one word. One word that stood out to his ears over everything else. _Hagall._ He froze and studied the woman's back, taking in her body language as he tried to guess at whatever she was talking about. Her tone did little for him as well; it wasn't the same sing-song language so common in English, nor the more monotone words that came with Japanese. The entire thing just sounded... _angry_ somehow. But was that Urd or the language?

He coughed loud enough to make his presence known and Urd paused, looking over her shoulder sharply. The woman wore a glare that could peel paint with It's intensity, but it vanished as soon as she realized who'd interrupted her. She raised a single finger, _one moment_ , and then turned back to her phone. "Listen, I've gotta go." She was speaking English now, and that accent that had given her the nickname 'Sheila' was back in full force. "Look into it for me and tell me what you find. Yeah. Later." She turned the phone off and pocketed the device, then turned to Keiichi.

"Who was that?" he asked. "And what language were you speaking?" Later a thought would occur to him. A small one of little significance, yet one he found curious all the same. And that thought was this: Why didn't Skuld or Belldandy speak with a similar accent?

"Your mom and Aboriginal," Urd retorted. To Keiichi it translated to, 'Go fuck yourself' and 'None of your damn business.' He decided to let the matter drop, for now. "Belldandy okay?"

"She's fine," Keiichi said. "Skuld says there's something you need to hear." He paused, Lind's words still fresh on his mind. "Are _you_ okay?"

"Been better, Keiichi." Urd looked stressed. "Been better. Soon as we get this shithole behind us I'll be fine."

 _'I'll be fine.' Where haven't I heard that before?_ He didn't press the subject though. There'd be time enough for that later. "Cool, let's go before the poodle starts biting ankles."

Skuld was waiting impatiently for them by the time they returned. Belldandy eyed them both in similar concern. "About time you two showed up," she snapped. "Geez, it's like you want to draw this out even longer or something! Don't you want to go home?"

"Well fuck me for facing a goddamned demon all by my lonesome!" Keiichi retorted. Belldandy flinched. The SEAL winced. "Sorry." He muttered.

"Neither of you better start," Urd warned. "Belldandy, what was your wish?"

All at once the goddess flushed, her face turning a bright pink that reminded Keiichi of bubblegum. "I...um..." She glanced at Keiichi, then to the ground bashfully. "I-I wished...I asked to stay by your side." She hesitated and bit her lip. "Forever."

"Oh." _Oh shit._ Keiichi could think of nothing further to say. He stared at the woman before her with shocked, bemused eyes, watching as Belldandy shuffled self-consciously.

A hand slapped down on his shoulder, and the man jumped, finding Urd leaning in with a large smile on her face. "So!" she cried. "How do you feel about in-laws?"

"Urd, that is _so_ not funny!" Skuld snapped, and Urd let out a bark of laughter.

Keiichi laughed too, but it was a nervous laugh, an uncomfortable laugh. _You made your bed, now sleep in it._ It sounded like Lind's voice. _I am so...so boned._ For one thought, one worry, returned to him over and over again: _How the fuck do I explain_ this _away?_

Belldandy smiled at him, and despite his own grievances Keiichi smiled back, feeling his heart flutter in his chest. Boned, screwed, or any other combination of the sort, Keiichi Morisato was about to find out. Whether he liked it or not, whether he was ready or not, he was about to find out.

He just hoped he'd survive the experience.

* * *

 **A/N: And that closes this arc out. Hope you enjoyed it! Next up? The day after. The next couple of chapters will be more day in the life stuff.**


	7. Chapter 7 - What Happens Now?

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 **"What Happens Now?"**  
 _"In all those movies, all you ever see is the hero riding off into the sunset with the girl he just saved. No one ever_ _mentions_ _what happens the day after. Let me tell you_ _something; It_ _sucks."  
\- Goddess Second Class __Urd_ _._

-7-

Sitting at the end of a cul-de-sac, framed on either side by Virginia pine and black oak trees, was an unassuming house. It sat quite far back on the property, which bordered on a large, wooded, undeveloped forest where a plethora of wildlife thrived. The residence itself was brown, with tan trim. Multiple windows decorated the exterior, with two garage doors at the end of a long, concrete driveway.

Inside, the home was laid out in a split-ranch design, with a set of stairs that connected the upper bedrooms to the lower living room and kitchen. Unlike most houses in the area, this one also sported a basement. Another set of stairs that led to the basement and garage rested next to those leading up.

The house was sparsely furnished and decorated, with only a single chair with a TV tray table next to it facing a wall-mounted flat screen television. There were a couple of light areas on the walls where pictures might once have hung. The kitchen was completely bereft of any furnishings, save for a grey card table and single chair that acted as the dining set.

An annoying, high-pitched beeping drifted down from the upper area. Inside the master bedroom, a hand reached out from a full-sized bed and turned off the offending alarm clock, which sat on one of the mates of the TV tray table in the living room that had been repurposed as a nightstand. Keiichi Morisato grumbled to himself as he sat up on the edge of the bed. Still half-asleep he glanced over at the formerly annoying device, where it read six thirty. For the Navy SEAL, this was sleeping in on Sunday.

Stretching to get his blood moving, Keiichi stood and yawned. The morning routine had begun for him; first up was a jog around the neighborhood. He slipped into a blue pair of shorts and a white shirt with an anchor on the back. The shirt was lined with reflective tape to make him more visible to motorists that come up behind him on the road.

When he stepped onto his front porch, he smiled and took in a breath of the cool fresh air. As usual, there was a mild pine scent that emanated from the trees around him. This was one of the few things he missed whenever he was on deployment. Nothing quite beat the crisp, sharp smell of evergreens when the desert smelled of nothing but heat and, depending on the location, sewage. Nodding to himself, he stretched his legs out and jogged in place for a moment to get his legs warmed up for his morning run. When he was satisfied that he was ready, he set out alone, as none of the other members of SEAL Team 12 lived in the surrounding area.

Just under an hour and a little over seven miles later, he arrived back at his home. Sweat dripping from his brow in spite of the cool spring morning, he entered his home and headed up the stairs to his bathroom where he started a shower. When he was done, he wrapped the towel he used to dry himself around his waist and started to brush his teeth.

A grumble from his stomach told him he needed to get some sustenance in him after his morning jog. He knew that there was some milk in the refrigerator, and some protein powder in the cupboard. Thinking nothing of it, he exited his bathroom, crossed his bedroom to the hall, and headed down to the lower level. Toothbrush still in his mouth, he reached the bottom of the stairs and started towards the kitchen.

And froze in his tracks.

Standing at the counter that came out of the wall and separated the dining area from the kitchen was a familiar, silver haired goddess. In front of her was Keiichi's portable griddle, and it had bacon sizzling away on one side and several eggs frying on the other. The deity, who was wearing a blue and white cutoff shirt that showed a generous portion of her midriff, looked up at the Navy SEAL and smiled.

"Breakfast AND a show? I think I'm going to like it here!"

Keiichi turned and ran so fast back up the stairs behind him that he was gone before the towel he had around him hit the ground.

XXX

The slamming of a door caused Belldandy to wake with a start. She scrunched her eyes and sobbed lightly as the nightmare she was having, one where she was reliving a particularly brutal beating at the hands of her 'husband', faded into the background. Reaching up, she covered her face with her hands as she swallowed the whimper at the edge of her throat, desperate to hold back the additional tears that were threatening to gush forth.

Before the nightmare, she'd had such a pleasant dream. In it, a knight in black shining armor had come to her rescue along with her two sisters and a trio of valkyries. They had whisked her away from the opulent almost-castle that she had helped her 'husband' erect. It was tall and gaudy, and was definitely an attempt by him to compensate for something, although what that was she would never say.

They had taken her to a small cottage in another land, where she had to reprogram herself in order to speak the local language. There, they had a small party, just herself, her sisters, and her knight in shining armor.

But no dream could ever last, and now she was back in her nightmare.

Or was she? There was something different, something not right. She opened her eyes as she realized what that something was. Gone were the red satin sheets that her husband so preferred over silk or cotton. So slippery were they that when he fucked her (she refused to ever acknowledge that they made love), they slid around the bed as if on an ice skating rink.

She turned over onto her back and rose up into a sitting position. Not only were the sheets not satin, but they were also white. As she looked around, she realized she was also no longer in the enormous king sized bed she had grown accustomed to. Instead the mattress she was on was barely large enough to accommodate herself, let alone two (or more). A quick glance around the room confirmed that she was also not in 'their' bedroom anymore.

 _It actually happened!_ Belldandy nearly whooped with joy at the revelation that it had all not been a dream. The rescue, the fight with the demon, coming to Keiichi's...

 _To Keiichi's house,_ she thought to herself as a feeling of warmth overtook her. She brought her knees up to her chest and hugged them then in joy, then threw her hands up and fell back into the bed. She reached around and grabbed one of the pillows and pulled it into a hug. It smelled stale and dusty and she loved it for that reason alone. None of it was Aoshima's. It was His bed. His pillow. His sheets. His room. His house. Belldandy delighted in the sensation of the lumpy bed, the hard pillow, and the scratchy sheets.

" _Worthless_."

The word rang in her mind like a church bell. It rattled to and fro until nearly all of the good feelings that had come to her were gone. She recognized it as that vague voice that sounded almost like her now ex-husband. It had been silent since they had come to Keiichi's home. She had hoped that it would leave her in peace.

Apparently not.

 _"What did you think would happen? That he would bring you home and take you into his bed?"_

Belldandy tightened her grip on the pillow she was hugging. "No, I had no such expectation," she whispered to herself.

 _"But that's what you want, isn't it. Because that's what you did before. Admit it; you enjoyed every..."_

 _"Single..."_

 _"Minute of it!"_

"No!" The goddess thought she had saw something, some glimmer that looked like her ex-husband. She turned and hurled her pillow at it, only for nothing to be there when it impacted on the wall and fell to the floor with a plop. "I am the Goddess Belldandy!" she announced to the room. "And I will no longer suffer the likes of you, Toshiyuki Aoshima, for our contract and sham of a marriage is null and void!"

" _Whore_."

Belldandy seethed in anger. "I will show you," she said as she got up out of bed. Summoning a light blue and white kimono as her dress, she strode to the door, almost tripping over Skuld, who was completely passed out on a futon on the floor. She paused as her hand grasped the doorknob. "I will make him love me for who I am and what I can do, not for whatever prowess in bed you may think I have." That said, she jerked the door open and turned right, heading down into the lower level.

She saw Urd in the kitchen using a spatula to remove a fried egg from a griddle she was using. Even from where she was standing, the almond haired goddess could tell the eggs were overcooked. Oh no. This would not do. This would not do at all.

As Belldandy approached, her older sister looked up. "Oh, good morning Bell... WOW! What's the occasion?" she asked, referring to the blue kimono.

The almond haired goddess ignored the comment. She stopped on the opposite side of the counter from Urd and stared down at what she was fixing. "What is this?"

"Umm, breakfast?" asked Urd rhetorically.

Belldandy shook her head. "No no no, this cannot be," she said as she rounded the corner of the counter. She immediately went to the fridge, opened it, and began rifling through the contents. In truth, there was not much there. But she was able to find a few leftover eggs that Urd had not ruined (in her opinion) along with some ham that was sliced thin, probably for sandwiches. If she could find some lemon juice and possibly some English muffins or, in a pinch, bread she could toast, she could make a much more fitting breakfast for Keiichi. "My new master needs a proper breakfast," she said as she turned away from the fridge with the ingredients in hand.

"Master!?" exclaimed Urd, who followed it up with a bark of laughter. She stared at her younger sister in disbelief. "Oh honey, you don't know him very well yet, do you?"

"No," Belldandy admitted. "But with this meal I plan to remedy that." She placed her ingredients on the counter and went to the stove. However, when she tried to turn the heating elements on, nothing happened. _Curse my luck_ , she thought as she turned back to Urd. Now she knew why the electric griddle was being used. No matter. "Sister, I would ask that you please step aside."

Urd, reached out to Belldandy and tried to put a hand on her shoulder. The goddess shied away from her sister and instead tried to muscle past. The silver haired goddess held her ground. "There's no need, Bell. Keiichi is not your master, and I am making breakfast this morning. Go sit down and relax."

"But this is my job," pleaded Belldandy. "You don't understand. I must be the one to do this for him. I _need_ to do this."

Urd's eyes flashed with anger. Anger towards her or anger towards Aoshima? "Maybe in that hellhole you were living in, but not here."

"Urd, step aside," said Belldandy, her own level of frustration rising. Why can't she understand what's at stake here? Doesn't she realize what will happen if I don't—

"No."

"Now!" demanded the blue eyed goddess. There was a red haze forming in the periphery of her vision.

Urd scoffed. "And what will you do if I don-"

"Holy Wind Press!"

As Belldandy waved her arms, a blast of wind slammed into Urd, picking her up and smashing her through the sliding glass doors that led to the backyard before she even had time to react. Glass shards flew everywhere, covering the floor. The silver haired goddess did not stop there though; she crashed through the railing on Keiichi's back porch and into the forest beyond.

With a grimace the elder goddess picked herself up, more surprised than hurt, and from within the house a cry of, "What the fuck was that?"

Panting, Belldandy glared at the new hole, her expression torn between anger and terror over what she'd done. A pair of feet came thundering down the stairs, and from the kitchen's threshold Keiichi emerged, dressed in little aside from a pair of blue jeans. He gaped at the hole in his kitchen, "The hell?" He then looked at Belldandy with wide, disbelieving eyes.

All at once Belldandy was afraid. _He's angry now, look what you did he's going to strike you for that you shouldn't have done that why did you do it why didn't you just let Urd_ —Her mind was racing a mile a minute, and the goddess flinched under the man's gaze. "I was trying to make breakfast." She whispered, her eyes wide with acute horror. "I was just- I wanted to make- and she was trying- she doesn't understand what will-" The goddess began hyperventilating, the onset of a panic attack grabbing hold of her as the Norn clutched her head, fingers digging into her hair and scraping against her scalp. The goddess grit her teeth, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry I'll fix it, it won't happen again, please—"

Recognizing what was happening, Keiichi reached for her, his own eyes wide with worry. Belldandy flinched at his touch, crying out as though he'd injured her, and just as quickly Keiichi pulled away, recognizing the sheer terror that his touch brought. "I'm sorry!" she cried, and in it the SEAL heard the despair of a woman well-versed in abuse. "I didn't mean-it was an accident!"

"Belldandy." Keiichi kept his voice low and calm. "Belldandy, look at me, look at me please." Frantic blue eyes met his, and he nodded at her, smiled at her encouragingly. "It's okay, you're okay." He glanced outside the shattered doorway Belldandy had produced with Urd, finding the woman in questions approaching slowly, not angry but perturbed. She paused when he shook his head and motioned her back.

"Look, even Urd is okay." He pointed to the woman, and Belldandy followed his finger, her face wide with open confusion and terror. "See?" Belldandy looked back at him, and Keiichi nodded, trying to coax a similar motion out of the Norn. "Everything is good, everything is fine. No one is hurt. No one is going to be hurt." He kept his voice low and calm, continuing to nod until Belldandy began to mimic him, granting him a small head bob of her own.

He smiled, knowing he was getting through to her now. "Good. See? You're fine too. Now I want you to do something for me." A fresh wave of fear spread across Belldandy face, and Keiichi did his best to ignore it. "Don't worry, it's nothing bad. I just want you to focus on what's around you. Find something and focus on it—not me, not the hole in the wall, not Urd, but something else. Can you do that for me?"

Another uncertain nod came from Belldandy, and he smiled, not touching her but gesturing around them. Belldandy followed the direction of his hand, her expression still anxious, and then focused on a cheap battery-operated clock head bought from the NEX on base after Debra had moved on. "Good, what are you focusing on?" He kept his voice positive and gentle, watching as Belldandy's eyes roved the clock face.

"The clock," she said.

"Good. Now describe it to me in as much detail as possible," Keiichi said. "Tell me its color, describe the hands and the surface and what you think their textures might feel like. Look at the numbers and the lines—are they black or are they blue? Take your time and tell me everything you can about it, okay?"

Belldandy glanced back at him, and again he could see the confusion on her face— _you want me to what?_ —Yet he continued to nod encouragingly at her, and biting her lip the goddess returned her attention to the clock face. "It's plastic," she started, and again sent him a quick look. He nodded once more in encouragement.

"Think of it like a game," he suggested. "The game is simple: You describe everything about the object in question, no matter how insignificant the detail may seem. You win when you can't think of any other way to describe the object. You lose if your mind starts to drift away from it, okay?"

Belldandy stared at him for a moment longer, and then her mouth dropped into a determined frown. The Norn turned her attention back to the clock. "It's circular in shape. There's a small scruff mark on the black plastic rim from where it might have rubbed against the wall. The numbers are twelve, three, six, and nine, with larger lines acting as place markers for the additional numbers on the clock." She pursed her lips, this time turning to fully face the clock. "There are secondary lines fifty percent smaller than the hour lines that make up the minutes. All the markings on the clock are painted on, and the one in the twelve has a mark where the paint didn't fully apply. It's near the very base of it, which makes it hard to notice."

"Good, good, what else?" Keiichi asked, bobbing his head in approval. He risked a glance back outside the hole, and Urd sent him an imploring gaze. The man jerked his head, his eyes darting to Belldandy, and catching his meaning the goddess slowly approached, picking her way through the debris and back into the house. She slipped past the two of them unnoticed, moving to stand near a cabinet where she wasn't immediately visible thanks to the counter's position in the kitchen.

Belldandy never noticed her older sister's entrance because her concentration was too heavily centered on the clock. That was good, it was what Keiichi wanted, because if her mind was occupied with the clock and everything about it then it couldn't break into a panic, couldn't jump to conclusions, and could safely wind itself down to a more logical level. "The clock hands are plastic as well, black like the numbers and letters. They look a bit like popsicle sticks…black, plastic popsicle sticks."

"Do they make a sound when they minute hand moves?"

Belldandy fell silent for a moment, observing the clock with a patience that had been absent earlier, and when the minute hand ticked down, Belldandy nodded. "They make a small tick, but that's all. Everything looks smooth to the touch, except for the scruff mark, which might have a noticeable indent."

"What do you think it smells like?"

"Plastic," Belldandy said. "Plastic and…possibly cardboard, from the box it came in?" She inquired. "Despite the scruff, it still looks new."

"And why is that?" Keiichi continued, drawing out the exercise as long as he could.

"There's no dust on it. It's still shiny-it's not dull with age yet." She glanced at him with a small frown, no longer on the edge of a nervous breakdown but calm once more. "That's all I can think to tell you." She said. "Unless you want me to tell you what it tastes like, too."

Keiichi chuckled. "You don't have to go that far." He said. "Save that for food. How do you feel?"

Belldandy opened her mouth to reply, and there she left it hanging open, her eyes widening in surprise as she looked from first Keiichi, then to the hole in the wall, and finally searching the kitchen until she spotted Urd, who lifted a hand in an easy greeting. She closed her mouth, where it once more fell into a frown, her brows scrunched together in confusion when it became apparent that the world was not ending, Keiichi was not attacking her, and Urd was not attempting to prolong their fight as they would have in their earlier childhood. "I…" She paused and looked back at Keiichi with newfound appreciation. "How did you do that?"

The dark haired man shrugged. "It's something I learned from mental health," he said. "There was a time…" He trailed off, chewing over how to speak of his own PTSD with the goddess. "There was a time not too long ago I suffered from some pretty bad panic attacks myself. They were pretty debilitating. I couldn't think, couldn't move, and I'd get wound up over the smallest slight against me." He shook his head, recalling that dark time in his life with a small frown. "It was bad. Then some folks showed me some exercises to help keep myself under control—they showed me how to get ahold of my emotions and how to calm myself down."

"And you saw the same thing in me," Belldandy surmised, and Keiichi nodded.

"Well…you did kind of destroy the porch door." He tried to pass it off as a joke, and knew it failed when Belldandy flinched.

"I can fix that!" she said hurriedly, and Keiichi raised his hands.

"Hey, easy now. We can worry about that later," he said, his tone no different from before; still the same soft, easy, gentle voice he'd used since coming upon the goddess. "Now, how about you go sit down and relax a bit?" he said. "Let Urd and me take care of things here. How about you go and get cleaned up?"

"But—" Belldandy looked between Keiichi and Urd, her eyes questioning. "I need to make you breakfast!"

Yet already Keiichi was shaking his head. "You don't need to do anything for me," he replied with a reassuring voice. "I'm not Aoshima, Belldandy. I'm not some slave driver that expects breakfast hot and ready with a clean pair of white slippers every morning. I don't want that, okay? Do you remember what I told you the other night?"

"I'm free to do as I may," she recalled immediately. "I-but-" She looked at Urd for help, her eyes begging, yet Urd just shrugged and stared, content to watch what was unfolding before her.

At length Belldandy sighed and bowed her head. "I—thank you." She began a deep, formal bow to Keiichi, and then paused when she realized what she was doing and straightened abruptly. "Thank you." This time she inclined her head instead, and Keiichi nodded as well.

"Whenever you're starting to feel out of control, stop and focus on something that isn't connected with whatever's scaring you, okay?"

Belldandy nodded again, then bit her lip, looking over at Urd. With some reluctance, she approached the woman, stopping a short distance away from her. "I apologize," she said. "I jumped to conclusions rather than listening to you, and…" She pursed her lips, but didn't find the courage to meet her sister's gaze.

Urd sighed, and then pulled Belldandy into a tight hug. "You're safe now," she said, and to Belldandy it sounded like the fifth time the goddess had made that statement. "Yggdrasil's roots Bell, I love you but some time your head is thicker than a melon. No one here is going to hurt you, okay?"

"You're not mad?" Belldandy squeaked, angered that her voice would so betray her.

"Silly girl, when have I ever stayed mad at you for longer than five minutes?" Urd asked, and then kissed the top of Belldandy's forehead before releasing her. "Go wake up Skuld." She offered. "Or better yet, go take a bath. I will see what I can scavenge off the griddle."

Belldandy turned to eye the offending item with one accusing blue eye. By now the eggs Urd had been attempting to remove were black and burnt and unappealing, the bacon tiny black slivers of something that was once edible. "You'll kill us all," she muttered. "This is how you get revenge on me, isn't it?"

"Maybe." Urd replied, then smiled. "But at least you got to see Keiichi in his boxers!" She motioned her head at the mortal in question, and Belldandy's cheeks burned red when she realized his state of undress. As if realizing it himself, Keiichi again quickly exited the room. Urd let out a bark of laughter.

"Now get moving. We got a long day ahead of us."

XXX

Keiichi sighed as he returned to his bedroom yet again, listening to the footsteps downstairs with half an ear. Twice now he had appeared in front of the goddesses with nearly nothing on, the first time to Urd, and the second time to Belldnady. Now the man was alone once more, his thoughts disquiet and his nerves spent. "Fucking hell," he muttered, plopping down on the edge of the bed that replaced the one that he and Debra had. The man leaned forward, propping both his elbows on his knees and burying his face in his hands. He sucked in a deep breath before releasing it in a shuddering sigh. Was this a taste of things to come? Him with a goddess suffering her own sort of posttraumatic stress from her extended time with a mortal? He squeezed his eyes shut, and despite his greatest efforts the events of last night returned to him: the videos, the mind traps, Aoshima and his demon bitch. The man frowned. Aiko and Belldandy…Aiko…

The SEAL leaned forward and snagged his jeans from the floor and dug into the pocket, withdrawing his cellphone from where he automatically stuffed it per habit. He stared at the smartphones black screen, then turned it on, taking a moment to note the three missed calls in his notifications. They were all from McGuiness, and the man made a mental note to call his OIC later that day. For the moment he had other concerns, and digging through his list of contacts Keiichi pulled up one number in particular, dialed it, and pressed the phone to his ear.

The phone on the other end rang three times, and then a sleepy voice met his ear. "Morning, Aiko. How you doing?"

He listened the half-slurred response on the other end, allowing a smile to spread across his features as his baby sister proceeded to curse him out. "You sound hung over," he said. "And here I thought you were busy studying for another test!" The man closed his eyes and laid back in the bed, sucking in a deep, reassuring breath as his sister's tired voice drowned out the world around him. As he'd instructed Belldandy not five minutes prior, the man focused on Aiko and Aiko only, ignoring everything in the immediate vicinity with such success that he never noticed Skuld appear in his bedroom doorway, fury in her eyes.

"Good, glad to know you're succeeding at juggling college schoolwork with college parties. You being a good wingman for your buddies down there?" He nodded slowly at Aiko's response. "And you ain't taking shit from no one, right? Just like I told you?" Another positive response, and Keiichi sighed in open relief.

" _What's wrong, Kei?"_

Keiichi opened his eyes, staring up at the ceiling. "Nothing's wrong," he assured her, although it was somewhat of a lie. "I just…just been thinking is all. Had some nightmare that, well, you know how it goes. Just needed to hear a friendly voice." He snorted as he listened to Aiko's deadpan response. "As if I'd open up to any a' these assholes down here," he growled half-heartedly, and then fell silent, drumming his fingers on the bed.

"I love you Aiko," he said suddenly. "You're the best damn sister I have, you hear me?" He heard the confusion in his sister's voice, heard the sudden worry that accompanied it and was quick to reassure her. "No, no. It's not that-just…I'm proud of you. You know that, right? You've come a long way from the little girl I knew when I left for Basic." He snorted and smirked, and behind him Skuld watched him a moment longer before slipping away without a word, leaving the man in peace.

"Yeah, of course you can….yeah, I'm better. I'll talk to you later, okay? Love you too. Bye."

XXX

Urd, so it seemed, was not the same incompetent cook Belldandy had last seen some ten years ago. Somewhere during that time, the Elder Norn had taken a basic cooking class, and the remaining eggs and bacon, while not perfect, we're edible. By the time Belldandy came down from the shower, this time dressed in a long, conservative brown dress that fell to her ankles, Skuld was up and Keiichi had put on a black polo shirt and jeans. The glass doors and wooden railing that had been collateral during the brief skirmish with Urd were repaired, and Belldandy saw not a single shard of glass that might hint at their quick fight.

Skuld was leaning against the countertop, a paper plate with two eggs and a slice of bacon in hand. "Okay, seriously, what the hell?" she griped. "The bathroom I can understand to an extent, what with you being the only person actually living here, but where the hell is all your furniture? I've seen dingy hotel rooms that are less spartan that this place!" She jabbed her plastic fork at Keiichi, sending an accusing look to the SEAL, who'd forgone the eggs and bacon in favor or a protein shake to ensure there were enough food for the Norns. The woman lifted her paper plate as an example. "See this?" she demanded. "This is for parties. This isn't supposed to be your standard for living. And there's no food in the house!"

Keiichi sent her a look, then moved to a pantry. "I have food." He grumbled, then opened the wooden cabinet, displaying a small mountain of canned fruit, three large containers of protein powder, and rectangular, brown plastic bags.

Urd sauntered over in curiosity. "Keiichi, those are MREs." She sent the man a disbelieving look. "Don't tell me you've been living off these bricks since Debra left."

Keiichi winced and looked away. "Well…no-they're for emergency rations, but—"

Urd sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose. Skuld gestured to the man with a scowl. "See!?"

Belldandy stared at them both in curiosity. "What are MREs?"

"Shit," Urd replied off-handedly. Keiichi glared at her as the woman stepped past him and grabbed a can of creamed corn out of the cupboard. "Keiichi, do you even eat this stuff?" She examined the can, flipping it upside down to find the expiration date. "…This expired in January."

"It's still good!" Keiichi insisted. "And yes I eat that stuff!"

"January of last year." Urd stared at him in disbelief. "And name one time you've ever touched a spoon full of creamed corn."

Keiichi fell silent, and Skuld released an exaggerated moan. "Oh Yggdrasil, Keiichi get your shit together."

Urd tossed the can into the trashcan next to the fridge. "How long has it been since you and Deb split?"

Belldandy looked at the two with renewed interest. "Deb?" she asked. "Who's that?"

"Okay, okay, I get it!" Keiichi cried. "We'll go shopping today, alright?" He ran a hand through his hair. "Christ, you guys are worse than my parents." He stomped past Urd and towards the kitchen sink, turning on the water and proceeding to busy himself cleaning his shake bottle. Urd followed him back to the griddle, and when she passed Skuld the two sisters fist-bumped.

"Who's Deb?" Belldandy repeated, taking the offered plate of eggs and bacon with a pointed glance towards Urd.

"Debra Johansson," Urd replied. "Debra Morisato now, right? She's Keiichi's ex-wife."

"Debra Johansson?" Belldandy parroted. The name sounded somewhat familiar, but she couldn't place where she'd heard it before. "Wait, Keiichi was married? When was this?"

"Oh, I'd say about…what was it Keiichi, six years ago?"

"We were married seven years ago and split over a year ago," Keiichi corrected. "She got the furniture and let me keep the house. I've been deployed and TDY so much that new furniture never really became a priority."

Urd looked at Belldandy and gestured to the man in a ' _see what I deal with?_ ' manner.

"Up yours too, Urd," Keiichi said without looking up. Urd snickered before preparing her own plate.

"When are we going shopping?" Skuld persisted.

"How about after everyone's done eating," Keiichi growled, and Skuld relented, an amused smile on her face that she sent to Belldandy.

While the Middle Norn disapproved of her sister's behavior, she understood the message Skuld was trying to get across easily enough. He's not going to explode over something insignificant, that look said. He doesn't mind being teased. She nodded, though did not return the smile, and proceeded to finish the eggs and bacon on her plate. The Norn grimaced at the taste. Keiichi, it seemed, didn't even bother with such basic concepts as seasonings most days, and so the resulting breakfast was bland and unappealing on top of being made by Urd.

Making a mental note to herself to grab seasonings during their outing, Belldandy quickly consumed what was left of her meal. It was only when she was finished that the realization hit her: I ate a meal that wasn't prepared by a maid or my own hand. And it wasn't even that good. For too long she'd eaten meals designed to appeal to the pallet; five star meals prepared by international chefs designed to illuminate the wealth and power of the one paying for the meal. The goddess stared down at her paper plate and plastic fork, then moved to dispose of it in the trash bin she'd seen Skuld use a moment prior. _The food is bland. I sleep on a lumpy bed. The soaps are cheap and designed for men on a budget and there's no furniture in the house. I make mistakes, yet no one yells at me._ Her heart fluttered in her chest, and an unexpected wave of joy filled her person. Is this what freedom is?

She watched Keiichi stuff his shake bottle into a drying rack, noting the soap suds that still covered the rim. He was bickering over something inane with Skuld, and Urd was watching the exchange in amusement as she all but devoured her own meal. If someone had told her yesterday that Freedom would be defined by bland food and a lack of furniture, she'd have laughed in their face. Yet the proof was all around her, and some of the disbelief that even now haunted her began to ease, began to fade, and the possibility that there was no going back, that Aoshima was a finished chapter in her book, became just a mite bit more probable.

I think I could grow to love this freedom. She thought to herself.

XXX

Keiichi owned two vehicles. One was a 2013 Chevy Silverado, and the other, more precious item in his possession was a junker of a motorcycle that might have been a Harley at some point in its long life. The Harley was unfit for three goddesses to ride in for obvious reasons, and so instead the group of four climbed into the Silverado, Keiichi and Belldandy up front with Urd and Skuld playing a game of rock paper scissor for who got the seat with the most leg space behind Belldandy. Skuld won that round, and grumbling, Urd climbed in behind Keiichi, who had a bad habit of leaning his seat back and taking up more room the necessary.

Together, the group headed into town. The base was a good hour or so away, and the Commissary there tended to open later on Sundays anyway, so the small team instead headed to one of the local Safeways in town. Keiichi, living in one of the more remote areas of Virginia, lived fifteen minutes away from even that, and so the trip was spent with Urd and Skuld bickering in the back seat and Keiichi and Belldandy ignoring them. "What kind of food do you like?" Keiichi asked, broaching the subject as Belldandy stared out the window, admiring the various scenery that was so like, and yet so unlike Japan.

She jumped at his question, then stared at him in confusion as though wondering if perhaps he'd asked one of her sisters. When it became apparent he was indeed talking to Belldandy, the Norn shrugged. "I have no preference." She said, and turned back to the window, ending the conversation as quickly as it'd started. Keiichi eyed her from the corner of his eye, and even Urd's and Skuld's bickering died down a bit, yet Belldandy said nothing more.

There was a bit more success in the market. "Keiichi, we're going to go and grab some lady items for the bathroom." Urd grabbed a red shopping basket as Keiichi grabbed a larger cart. "For the love of whatever you deem holy, please grab something from the produce section." She sent him a threatening look. "If I come back and find nothing but canned items in that cart, Skuld's going to be your battle buddy."

"Hey!" Skuld yelped. "Why am I being punished?"

"Because you get shit done, Skuld," Urd replied affectionately. "Now let's get going."

"It better not be a bunch of makeup and shit!" Keiichi called as the Norns retreated. "I ain't paying for none of that crap!"

Urd laughed and flipped him off, and Belldandy cast a worried glance over her shoulder as her two sisters dragged her off. Keiichi smiled to let her know he was joking.

Belldandy didn't return the smile.

XXX

"Finally, I can get something that isn't Bear glove Fist or Autumn Irish Coffee or something equally stupid," Skuld grumbled with a huff, looking down the rows of bathing products in interest.

"You don't want to smell like a lumberjack, Skuld?" Urd teased, and Belldandy stiffened before looking at the two women.

"I'm a lumberjack and I'm okay," Belldandy said without thought, and Urd looked back at her with a grin.

"I sleep all night and I work all day," Urd sang. "I didn't know you were a fan of Monty Python, Bell." The goddess raised a silver brow. "You'll get along just fine with Keiichi. He loves that stuff."

Who? Belldandy sent a questioning look to her sister, but Urd missed it. She shrugged it off for another time. "What does Keiichi use again?"

Urd shrugged. "Standard Head and Shoulders and Irish Spring, last I checked." She looked at Belldandy in question. "What's up?"

The goddess shook her head. "Nothing," she replied. "But…I think I'll just use whatever he's using," she said, eyeing the various beauty products with a doubtful eye. "It…Aoshima had a love for perfumes…perfumes and colognes and anything that smelled like flowers." She said nothing more on the subject, but the trepidation on her face did not vanish.

Skuld and Urd shared a look. Urd raised an eyebrow. Skuld frowned, then sighed. "Fine," she grumbled. "I'll go around smelling like pine needles and wood chips if it makes her happy."

Urd grinned.

Later Keiichi was very confused.

XXX

They were returning home when Keiichi got a phone call from his OIC. The truck bed was loaded with enough groceries to last him three weeks if he was still living alone. Other materials included separate towels and washclothes, a strange amount of male-based soaps and shampoos, and a cheap dinnerware set to finally, finally, replace the porcelain and silverware that Debra had taken with her.

Keiichi grabbed his phone from where it rested in a cup holder. "Morisato speaking." He announced, and Belldandy glanced towards him with wide eyes. He sent her a half-smile to let her know everything was okay, inwardly wincing. The tone he used when he was all business tended to be a little more serious than his normal tone. To anyone who didn't know him, it could come across as a bit intimidating.

 _"Morisato you fuckwagon, why the hell haven't you been answering your goddamned phone?!"_ Lieutenant Commander McGuiness roared on the other end. Keiichi felt a small piece of him die, and on the other end his boss continued his rant. _"Ah been tryin' tah contact you for the past twenty-seven hours ye lowly piece a' cow shite."_ Oh shit. Oh, he was in so much shit. The only time McGuiness let his accent shine was when he was seriously pissed off. " _Ah choo ahlright?"_ He demanded. _"Where the bloody hell are you, ye cunt?"_

"I'm fine!" Keiichi cried. "Seriously, I'm fine, I swear I am." Skuld and Urd were watching him now too, and he could feel Urd straining against the car seat to try and eavesdrop on whatever McGuiness was saying. "I'm heading home right now. I was shopping."

 _"Oh, ye're fine,"_ McGuiness continued to rant. _"Ye're so fine yah Dinnah notice the messages I left? What were ye doing Dipshit, shagging Sheila all night? How the fook did ye' even get home?"_

"No!" Keiichi protested. "I wasn't doing any of that, I swear!"

 _"Ah, so ye cannah even spend a night 'en heaven, is 'Dat so?"_ McGuiness demanded. _"An I am to suppose next ye'll say 'you are fine' and that 'everything is fine' and that I need not worry, is 'dat so?"_ Keiichi felt the hair along his arms raise in gooseflesh, a smile that was more a grimace stuck spread across his face _. "Well I will be 'dey one to decide 'dat, you crankscrew. I'll see ye at ye're residence."_

The man hung up before Keiichi could speak another word, and for a moment the SEAL held the phone to his ear, paralyzed with the new reality that his OIC was about to meet his new…fuck, how was he even supposed to introduce Belldandy? Urd was easy, but Belldandy and the Poodle… "Fuck." He snapped, and tossed the phone onto his dashboard, where it skated before coming to rest near Belldandy. "Urd, we need a cover story, ASAP."

"Belldandy's in the witness protection program and needs a place to stay while I help her adjust to her new life," Urd replied.

"I'm what?" Belldandy squeaked.

Keiichi shook his head. "Won't work," he said. "Deb is an agent in that program, remember? Plus, it kind of defeats the purpose of her being in the witness protection program when you go straight up to my boss and explain that exact thing to him."

"Fuck," Urd growled, baring her teeth and looking out the window in thought.

"So say she's a rescue from an international human trafficking incident instead," Skuld offered with a shrug. "Urd and I are part of a foreign government agency and are working with the local government here in the States until we can get the paperwork written for her new identity."

Belldandy cranked her head back to look at Skuld in shock. "You're what?"

"Oh come on!" Urd cried. She kicked Keiichi s seat without realizing it, then turned to glare at Skuld. "That's basically the same thing!"

"Yeah, but it gives you and me cover stories too," Skuld retorted. "Unless you already have a 'job' down here." She sniffed. "Plus, there's an element of truth to it, which will make it easier on Belldandy. Don't forget her own position in all this."

Urd winced. "Yeah, forgot about that," she grumbled.

"So then who's the government?" Keiichi persisted. "Australia?" He looked back at Skuld in his rear view mirror.

The goddess met his gaze and shrugged. "Doesn't matter," she said. "Keep it vague to help sell it, put pressure on whoever you were talking to about the necessity of keeping quiet, and leave it from there." The goddess leaned back in her seat, and by now she had the entire vehicles attention. "You said you go on deployments and TDY's a lot, right? That means you aren't in your own house that often, right?"

"Well, yeah but…"

Skuld was on a roll. "So then Urd befriended you however long ago and for whatever reason, and now she's coming to you for a big favor because your place is normally unoccupied, but is still owned and lived in by you. The favor is to let Bell stay in one of your extra rooms for a little while until our government can work out the paperwork necessary for her to start a life here in the States."

She looked at Urd for help, and the goddess pursed her lips with a slow, even nod. "And of course it's a bureaucracy, and so during our rescue some ass hat didn't do his job properly and signed the wrong dotted line," she said. "Because of that there's a delay in funds, leading all the way back 'home', which means no money for Belldandy and no support for us, thus me calling in this huge favor from Keiichi."

Skuld grinned. It was vicious. "And since Keiichi Morisato is such a standup guy, he agrees to it, because fuck it, you and he are such great buddies and he can't say no to a sweet gal like Belldandy."

"This is stupid," Keiichi grumbled.

"Well then if you have a better idea, by all means speak up," Skuld snapped. "Otherwise shut up and color and let the adults talk."

Keiichi muttered something under his breath but otherwise said nothing. Belldandy looked between the three with increasing worry. "Then what do I do?" She asked.

"Nothing," Skuld replied. "Just smile and say hello; act like you normally would when meeting someone new. It's none of this guy's business who you are or what your story is anyway, and it's our job to make sure he understands that.

"I'm not sure I'm comfortable with this…" Belldandy murmured.

Next to her, Keiichi grunted. "That makes two of us."

"It doesn't matter," Skuld persisted. "The best thing to do would be avoiding the whole situation as much as possible, but that isn't going to work, so we have to make this work instead."

"It will work." Urd said. "We'll make it work."

* * *

 **A/N: Surprisingly we got this done.**


	8. Chapter 8 - What Happens Now?

l

-8-

A dirty white Ford pickup was in Keiichi's driveway by the time his Chevy pulled down the driveway that lead to Keiichi s house. A large, burly man rested against the Ford's driver's side door, and two of the Chevy's occupants recognized the stranger as LCDR McGuiness. The man fixed a scowl at the vehicle from beneath a thick, curly brown beard as they pulled up, and even before Keiichi could hop out the man was lumbering towards the truck, his deep, green eyes heated with coiled fury.

"Goodness," Belldandy breathed, staring at the man with wide eyes. "He's almost as large as Tamiya."

Skuld looked at her. "Who's Tamiya?" she asked.

Keiichi hopped out of the truck and Urd followed him a moment later, catching Keiichi's OIC off guard. He paused ten feet away from Keiichi, and his eyes roamed from the SEAL to Urd, then to the vehicle. His gaze rested on Belldandy for a moment, and the goddess flinched back at the anger in them, her mind bringing whispers of Aoshima's own temper as the man's voice began to ring in her ears again. _You worthless piece a shit! What the fuck is wrong with you?_ Her mouth dried, and she could feel her heart as it began to quicken once more before a hand moved to rest on her shoulder, squeezing it reassuringly.

The goddess jumped, then looked behind her to Skuld, who'd scooted to the middle of the back seat in a gesture of support. The goddess grasped the hand on her shoulder like it was a life jacket on a seaman overboard and squeezed it tight, taking strength in the comfort her sister brought. "You're fine, Sis," Skuld murmured. "Let Urd and Keiichi take care of this. I'm here for you."

Belldandy nodded, then glanced back to the stranger outside. The edge of the man's anger had faded somewhat, and in it's place was a more thoughtful expression as he observed first Belldandy, than Skuld. Finally, he directed his attention to Keiichi and Urd. Belldandy sucked in a shuddering breath, recalling Keiichi's words from earlier that morning; _Whenever you're starting to feel out of control, stop and focus on something that isn't connected with whatever's scaring you, okay?_

The Norn swallowed. Her throat felt like sandpaper. Taking Keiichi's words to heart, the goddess began to focus on the steering wheel of the Chevy.

Outside Keiichi approached his boss. "Sir." He fell into a tense 'parade rest' stance, his arms folded behind him as he addressed McGuiness. He'd screwed up by not answering his phone, and the tension was evident in his stance, where years of military discipline had made such actions second nature. Another day, another time, when McGuiness wasn't in sheer 'raging bull' mode, Keiichi's stance would have been more relaxed. Yet until the man had a chance to clear the air with his OIC, he needed to play it safe.

Urd's departure from the vehicle had helped somewhat. The presence of a civilian, even one as familiar as Urd, had forced McGuiness to reign in his temper a bit, but he still scowled, he still smoldered, and he still glared as the woman came to stand by Keiichi's side.

"Well now, will you be explaining yourself proper-like?" The man spoke long and slow, making an effort to enunciate his words without his accent. "And will you be introducing the ladies in your vehicle, Morisato?"

"Yes Sir." Keiichi didn't flinch. Didn't so much as blink. "The woman in the front passenger seat is Ms. Belldandy Tyrdotter. She's one of Urd's cases." Fuck, what the hell was he saying? If Urd didn't pick up some of the heat he'd start yammering away and shoot himself in the foot. "The woman behind her is Skuld…" He paused there, uncertain of what to say. Belldandy and Skuld were sisters, but the cover story they had distanced them from such a relationship.

Urd came to his rescue. "Special Agent Skuld Highkin," she said, digging into a pocket and withdrawing a wallet Keiichi didn't even know she owned. "And allow me to properly reintroduce myself, Commander McGuiness. I'm Special Agent Urd Hildborne of the International Humanitarian Relief Center." She flashed something at McGuiness, and the man stared queerly at her. "Skuld Highkin is my partner." She pocketed the wallet once more. "We're a branching organization under the United Nations dealing with illegal activities that happen outside the jurisdiction of countries who are not a part of the UN. Primarily we deal with Black Market activities ranging from the iillegaldrug trade, weapon trafficking, or human trafficking."

"I have not heard of you." McGuiness narrowed his eyes. "And I have a good many years of experience working with the UN, Ms. Hildborne."

Urd nodded. "And you wouldn't," she continued. "Ours is not well-known, even to those people whose spent years working in the United Nations because of the missions we conduct."

McGuiness scowled at her. It was hard to believe he'd raised a bottle in toast with her a couple of nights ago. The level of tension here was palatable, and the man straightened, folding his massive arms behind him in his own 'parade rest' stance as he broadened his shoulders, staring down at Urd from his massive six foot seven height. The Commander could be an intimidating son of a bitch when he wanted to be, and right now he was in full-blown 'asshole' mode, his intentions to cow the slim woman before him into submission obvious. "And pray tell, what missions are you doing here, Ms. Hildborne?"

Urd remained steadfast. "I'm not at liberty to discuss that here," she replied, and Keiichi was given the strange impression that the woman was somehow laughing, somehow mocking his OIC despite the somber expression on her face. "If we have access to a more secure area, I may be able to discuss that at greater length, however at this time I can only reveal that my intentions were under orders from my own superiors, and that GM1 Keiichi Morisato was a target of opportunity during that time to aid me in our own efforts to conduct a very specific mission."

The man released a rumble in his chest as his gaze moved from Urd to Keiichi. It sounded like something more fitting an angry bear. "And I am to be led to believe that is why you were unable to answer your phone?" He demanded. "You vanished with Shel-" he caught himself. Any sense of comradery that had been nurtured throughout the five years Urd had known him was gone in the wake of this new revelation, this new betrayal. "—Ms. Hildborne for some reason detailing the women in your truck?"

"Yes Sir." Keiichi wisely held his peace. Whatever Urd was talking about seemed to be working some sort of magic on McGuiness, and he wasn't about to spoil that by opening his big trap.

"I requested his assistance in a matter detailing the current case I'm working on," Urd continued, her tone all business. "If he was unable to access his phone during that time, than the fault lies with me and me alone." Green eyes darted back to Urd, who met his gaze with cool, dispassionate violet. "It is a matter that we can discuss in further detail alone, however due to the sensitivity of the matter, I ask that you do not inquire further into the subject until we can acquire a more secure area. Is that acceptable?"

It was an invitation, Keiichi recognized. An offer to acquire a better explanation and further details of whatever lie Urd had whipped up on such a quick basis. Fuck, she almost had Keiichi himself believing that shit. He had to remind himself that Urd wasn't human, he'd used a hairdryer as a makeshift raygun, and that the woman in his passenger seat had beaten the crap out of a demon in nothing but her birthday suit. Yet Urd somehow made that seem like a dream; a story of fiction more believable from the minds of Hollywood rather than something he'd experienced first-hand. Urd's explanation was more appealing, more rational, and so it came as no surprise when McGuiness grumbled, relaxed, and seemed to somehow loose some of his intimidating bearing.

"I want your card," he demanded. As if by magic a small, a light colored business card appeared in Urd's hand, and she handed it over to the Commander without comment. He scrutinized it through narrowed eyes, then sighed further and stuck it in his wallet. "I'll be in touch," he said icely, then looked at Keiichi. "You will report to the SCIF in building 5019 at 0700 sharp tomorrow," he ordered. "Where you will tell me everything that transpired from the moment Ms. Hildborne approached you to the moment I met you here, at your house." He glared at Urd, his gaze challenging, but he continued to address Keiichi. "Is that understood, GM1?"

"Yes Sir," Keiichi replied. Urd did not meet the Commander's challenge.

McGuiness cast one more glance between the two of them, then looked off in the direction of the Chevy. The Norns in the truck had not moved. The man frowned. "Morisato, you had best not have gotten into something outside of your league," he warned, and with that stalked off, his appearance that of an angry bear who'd been awoken during its hibernation.

Keiichi did not relax until McGuiness climbed into his old Ford and drove off.

He ran his fingers through his hair, finding his scalp slick with sweat. "That… could have gone better." He sent a look to Urd, who similarly blew the air from her cheeks, no longer Special Agent Urd Hildborne but Sheila once more. "Fuck, that was intense. Too intense for my taste." He shook his head. "What the hell was that, Urd?"

Belldandy and Skuld were leaving the truck now. They were holding hands. Keiichi didn't blame them. "Who was that?" Skuld demanded, looking over her shoulder at the fading yellow dust trail the Ford had kicked up in its retreat. She sounded…impressed.

"My boss," Keiichi responded lamely. "My pissed-off, mean-mugging, intimidating bear of a boss. Lieutenant Commander Christian McGuiness."

"I like him," Skuld said bluntly. Everyone froze and looked at the goddess with wide, disbelieving eyes. "He scares the shit out you, doesn't he, Magilla?" she inquired. "I like that. Always good to see someone who can intimidate a guy like you."

Keiichi's mouth fell open, but no words left his mouth. Even Urd looked stumped. Finally he shook his head. "We can discuss him later," he grumbled. "Come on, let's get the groceries inside before the food spoils."

XXX

It wasn't until later that evening, after the bags had been unpacked and new towels came to hang in the bathroom that Keiichi got his second guest that day. It almost made him wish for the relative normalcy McGuiness brought with his anger. At least he could deal with McGuiness. McGuiness was an old hand, a familiar beast, and in the end anything his Commander did was for the benefit of his team, regardless of what strange and horrible situations they managed to weasel themselves into.

Not this one.

Keiichi didn't know how to deal with a Valkyrie.

She came as Keiichi was bringing out the rest of the TV dinner stands. There were four of them in all, and the ones not in the living room had been repurposed for other tasks. Belldandy had attempted to start dinner for everyone that night, and was then ganged up on by both her sisters. Keiichi had watched in amusement as Belldandy was coaxed into playing several rounds of ro-sham-bo with first Urd, then Skuld in the living room, while either sister slipped away to get dinner started while the Middle Norn was distracted. By the time Belldandy had caught on to their little game, Skuld had already cut and prepped several vegetables and chicken, and Urd had started sautéing them while Skuld went a couple rounds with her. Keiichi himself was tempted to join the little game to help keep Belldandy distracted, but by then the smell of chicken began to waft from the kitchen, and the game came to an abrupt end.

Then it was Keiichi's turn to distract the goddess, who'd grown visibly upset by her two sisters antics and the realization that once again, she'd been denied the 'opportunity' to fix Keiichi a meal. The SEAL passed the time by pulling out a chess board that'd been a birthday gift from his younger sister, Megumi, and after some encouragement Belldandy joined him for a game, him one white, Belldandy on black, at the goddess' insistence. "Aoshima preferred white," was all she said before clamming up again, and Keiichi wisely let the topic drop.

He wasn't very good. A vast amount of TDY's and deployments with a lack of challengers had left Keiichi with little opportunity to hone his skills, though it was something he'd always wanted to do. He'd gained a renewed interest in the game after giving in and seeking help from Mental Health, and the SEAL enjoyed the way the game entrapped his attention. He was hoping it would hold the same for Belldandy, yet despite his own terrible plays he could tell her heart was not in the game. The Norn was more humoring him than anything else with moves even someone new to the game recognized as bad, and so when the doorbell rang, it was with great relief that he rose to answer it.

He later wished he'd have let Belldandy answer it instead.

"Coming!"

He opened the heavy wooden door to his house and found a woman standing outside, her dress peculiar, her mannerisms strange, and her face blank of emotion. In that moment, some small, insane bit of him imagined the woman storming into his house, _a la_ Terminator-style, saying in a deadpanned, robotic voice, "Come with me if you want to live."

Either that or, "I am looking for Sarah Conner."

"What?" Keiichi blinked, realizing he was staring at the woman with his own blank expression and that the Valkyrie, Lind, had spoken to him.

"I said that I am looking for Urd," she repeated. A single blue brow rose in question.

"Well hello to you too," Keiichi said, his voice was heavy with sarcasm. "And how are you doing this fine evening, dropping by unannounced on our little unassuming household?"

Lind's expression did not change. "Is Urd here or not?"

Keiichi sighed. "Come on in. She's prepping dinner." He stepped to one side to allow the Valkyrie entrance, and then closed the door behind her. Belldandy peered at her from the living room's threshold, her gaze thoughtful.

The Valkyrie nodded in greeting. "Norn."

Belldandy mimicked it. "Valkyrie. You're the one from last night, are you not?"

Keiichi walked past the blue haired woman, who nodded in agreement before following Keiichi further into the house. "I'm here for Urd."

Belldandy frowned, her gaze perturbed. "What has she done?"

"Yo Sarah Conner!" Keiichi shouted. "Terminator's looking for you!"

Three out of the four goddesses didn't get the reference. From the kitchen Skuld poked her head out. "Who's Sarah Conner?" she demanded, then caught sight of Lind and paled. "Oh. Ooooh shit on a biscuit." She turned back into the kitchen. "Urd! It's for you!"

"I heard someone call for the last hope for humanity." Urd's voice grew louder, and Skuld vanished in place of the silver-haired Norn, who peeked out and paled considerably when her gaze fell upon Lind. "You know, when you said 'I'll be back', generally you're supposed to wait for the sequel," she joked weakly.

Lind stared, showing no comprehension of what Urd was hinting at. In a manner that was almost identical to the Keiichi of a few minutes ago, Urd sighed and stepped into the hallway. "Can this at least wait until after dinner?" she asked. Her tone was strained, reminiscent of the night of the rescue with Urd ill at ease beside Lind.

Lind raised a brow. "You speak as if it's your last meal."

"Are you to tell me it isn't?"

Lind said nothing, and Urd nodded. "Thought so," she grumbled. Belldandy and Keiichi looked at her in fresh concern.

"Wait, what is the meaning of this?" Belldandy asked, her own tone growing agitated as she glanced from Lind to Urd. "Urd, what did you do?"

The goddess sighed and squeezed the bridge of her nose. "It can wait until after dinner," she insisted. "At least allow me that much."

"Urd, cut it out," Keiichi begged. "You're talking like you've got a date with Old Sparky or something." He looked back at Lind, who's own expression had the emotional range of a brick wall. "Just what the hell are you here for that's got Urd so wound up, huh?"

"Urd requested it wait until after you've supped." Lind inclined her head. "So we shall wait. I will return after you've had your fill, and from there we may continue speaking."

A fresh chorus of protests rose from those present, and of them all Urd was the loudest. "No!" she yelled, and Lind looked at her. "You come barging in here bringing gloom with you? Well guess what; you get to sit with us and share the mood over dinner," she snapped. "You're eating with us, and you're sitting right next to me, got it?"

A flash of discomfort passed across Lind's face, and for a moment she lost the stony complexion, and in its place was a young woman who looked as uncomfortable and nervous in her surroundings as those who were around her. "Um—"

From further in the kitchen Skuld was shaking her head, though whether she was pitying the Valkyrie, pitying Urd, or trying to dissuade the Valkyrie from arguing was anyone's guess. Keiichi brought his attention back to Lind, who was looking from one person to another with a look of deepening distress, before finally meeting his gaze. He frowned at her, and for some reason was reminded of Iraq, of Afghanistan, of the many, many times he'd accompanied McGuiness in meetings with various Village Elders. Not all of them had been pleased with the Americans who'd built a base near their homes. _You come to our homes and steal our land for your eff oh be's. You tell us we cannot grow our poppy and so burn it down, then compensate us with seeds which bring us no income. You wear pig skin in our homes and add further insult by displaying your pig-skinned soles to us. You eat food that is_ Haram _in front of our sons and daughters and feed it to our brothers whom you imprison in your camps. And you have the audacity to sit across from me and ask we speak as equals?!_

 _This is just another deployment for her._ He felt a strange sense of _Déjà vu_ wash over him. _Just another deployment, and you're a long way from home, aren't you, Lind?_ It was disconcerting to see things from the other side of the looking glass, and the man breathed a long, meditative breath. "Where's the rest of your unit?"

Lind looked at him with a start, and Keiichi continued. "Those other two-the green haired Valkyrie and the brown haired Valkyrie. Are they on post?"

Lind's frown was uncomfortable. "I'm alone," she revealed. The goddess looked less than happy revealing the information, and a small piece of Keiichi admired her for her integrity. Had he known he was going into a situation that might end in hostilities, even if he was alone he'd have made a bluff if he knew he could get away with it.

Keiichi nodded. "Alright. That means we should still be able to spread the meal amongst the five of us."

"I would speak with you if you've the time, Valkyrie." Belldandy kept her distance, but her gaze was imploring.

Lind frowned. "If this is about Urd it will have to wait." An irritated expression was slowly spreading across her face.

Yet Belldandy shook her head. "It is not," she assured. "I would speak of the reasons behind the assignment that led to me."

Lind pursed her lips, then looked from Belldandy to Keiichi and back again. "You know I'm not allowed to speak of much on the lesser planes." She warned.

"I'm aware." Belldandy nodded. "I only ask that you speak of what you're able."

Lind frowned, and the look of distrust on her face did not fade. At length she nodded as well, and with a gesture from Belldandy the Valkyrie followed her back into the living room. His own curiosity getting the better of him, Keiichi followed as well, hanging back to observe the two woman as Belldandy offered Lind one of the few chairs available. The Valkyrie shook her head at the invitation, preferring to stand, and with a shrug Belldandy sank back into her own chair beside the chess board.

"You were assigned overwatch of Urd to ensure she did not interfere with the wish established between myself and Aoshima, correct?" At Lind's nod Belldandy continued. "This was per my own directions to ensure no one interfered with boundaries established by that wish, yes? Because I sent instructions deliberately ordering no other deities interfere with the wish." Again Lind nodded, and this time Belldandy nodded as well, her gaze thoughtful. "Do you know why you specifically were assigned to Urd?"

"Urd was ignoring the orders sent up by you denying further divine involvement in your affairs." Lind replied.

Again Belldandy nodded. "But are you aware why _you_ were instructed to provide overwatch of Urd?"

At that Lind paused, then slowly shook her head. "I am not," she confessed. "At the time, I thought it strange that the Powers That Be dictated a Valkyrie police a goddess over one of the more fitting justice deities, but it was not my place to question orders." She stared at Belldandy, and a shadow passed across her gaze. "I regret it," she said. "Perhaps if I'd had an ounce of a brain, we'd have saved you sooner."

Belldandy shook her head. "Please, ignore that right now." Her voice wavered for a moment, then grew steadier. "You were a military unit assigned to a task outside your jurisdiction than, yes?"

This time, Lind hesitated before nodding once more, her gaze questioning. "Have your superiors spoken with you on the reasoning behind that yet?"

"No," Lind said. "Though now, after discovering the demon at your…previous residence, I believe that someone suspected demonic involvement with your wish."

"That is what I suspected as well." Belldandy nodded in agreement. "However, it was not until Keiichi Morisato interfered that I found actual proof of this myself, and this was while working side by side with Toshiyuki Aoshima for ten years." The goddess pursed her lips. "Yet if someone had enough of a reason to suspect…if someone could find the proper reason to assign a _Valkyrie_ oversight of a deity rather than one of Athena's _Eumenides_ …" She trailed off, looking at Lind expectantly.

Lind returned the stare with a blank one of her own, for a moment showing little understanding of what Belldandy was hinting at. Then her eyes widened. "Oh," she said. "Oh… wait… wait, does that mean—" She cut herself off all at once, her gaze darting to Keiichi, the kitchen, and then back to Belldandy.

The goddess met her gaze with a calm one of her own, and her expression gave nothing away. Keiichi wondered what they were hinting at, and sensing he'd get nothing more from the two woman the man shrugged and left them in peace. He caught one tentative question from Lind as he moved into the kitchen, "Does that mean the rumors are…" He didn't hear the rest of the question.

Dinner was a tense affair. Keiichi sacrificed his own chair and new dinnerware for Lind, who took the items only after a great deal of prodding from Belldandy. They dined in the living room; an awkward cluster of TV dinner stands, folding chairs, and Keiichi leaning against the wall with a paper plate. The only drinks available were water from the tap and root beer, and Keiichi wasn't surprised when the women present all decided on the water.

They dined in an awkward silence, and as Urd had demanded Lind sat right next to her. On occasion, Skuld would sneak glances at the two, yet the tension between everyone present prevented even an attempt at innocent talk. Everyone was on edge, and of them Urd the most. Not for the first time since Lind's arrival Keiichi wondered what had brought the woman to his home. He wondered what the Valkyrie presence meant for Urd.

Urd picked at her food, her face drawn and pale. It wasn't the flavor. Another night it might have been an enjoyable meal; between Urd and Skuld's combined skils, they'd managed to make a decent dinner of sautéed bell peppers and chicken tender enough to fall off the bone. Now it seemed that most of the meal was about to go into the fridge, as Urd's own discomfort had already spread to Lind and was showing signs of affecting Skuld as well. Keiichi's own appetite wasn't what it should have been either, though the man was uncertain if it was the tension to blame or something else. _He_ certainly didn't know what was going on, or what the arrival of the Valkyrie could possibly foretell.

Only Belldandy remained unaffected by the somber atmosphere. She finished her meal with polite gusto that spoke of many meals which preceded business deals, and upon finishing collected everyone else's unfinished meals before returning to the living room. Keiichi wondered what she did with the leftovers, then decided he didn't care.

"Alright." Urd's face was knit in a tight grimace. "Let's get this over with. No more dawdling, Lind." The Norn looked sick with anxiety, and Skuld began to shuffle restlessly in her seat, staring at them both with large, dark eyes.

"Are you comfortable with this in the open?" Lind asked, "We can speak in private, if you wish."

Yet even before Lind finished speaking Urd was shaking her head. "No," she said, and her voice was quiet. "They need to hear what you have to say. They deserve to know as well."

Keiichi felt himself break into a cold sweat, and the man crossed his arms over his chest, eyes darting from one woman to the other with poorly-contained apprehension. Lind looked at him, her gaze unreadable, and Keiichi felt his arms break into goosebumps. "Even the mortal?"

"The mortal has a name," Urd snapped. "He gave it to you himself. _Fucking_ _use_ _it_." She breathed deeply, and Keiichi watched her chest rise with anxiety. "And yes I want him to hear. He's looking out for Belldandy now and he needs to be familiar with how things work with us. Now will you fucking _please_ get on with it?"

Lind was silent a moment more. Keiichi thought he might scream if it went on a minute longer. Then she sighed, leaned forward and placed her hands on the knees of her white uniform. A change seemed to come across her person, and all at once the uncomfortable woman in white was gone, replaced once more with the steel Valkyrie. "Urd Tyrdotter, Eldest of the Norns, Chief Administrator of Yggdrasil and Keeper of the Knowledge of the Secret Well, Eldest daughter of Daitenkaicho Tyr, the Just Binder of Beasts, you have been found guilty of the following crimes: Illegal tampering of a wish bound under contract in the first degree, conspiring against a Wishgranter of the GRO in the third degree…" Lind began to list out a long line of charges against Urd, and the Eldest Norn looked straight ahead, voicing no word of protest and allowing the accusations to continue uninterrupted. Keiichi felt his mouth part in disbelief, yet he stopped himself when Urd sent a sharp glance at him, her gaze so fierce that it froze him before he could even think to get a word out.

Belldandy listened in heavy silence, her gaze thoughtful. She didn't move from her seat until Skuld moved to rise, a look of protest spreading across her own face with such unabashed fury that Keiichi though she was liable to attack the Valkyrie. And then Belldandy was behind her, her hands resting on the younger Norn's shoulder and pressing her back down into her seat. The younger deity looked up at her sister with disbelieving eyes, yet the middle Norn did not meet them, her gaze too heavily focused on Urd and Lind.

"…and you have been found guilty of releasing a tenth-dimensional form on a third-dimensional plane, risking the destruction of the entire dimension. Have you anything to say in your defense?" Lind finished, bequeathing Urd an intense look.

Urd closed her eyes and Keiichi felt his heart wrench in his chest. Something about that action, that look of _acceptance,_ of defeat on the woman's face seemed worse than all the accusations piled against Urd. The SEAL felt a lump in his throat. _This is a trial._ He thought. _This is a trial, and Lind is acting as judge, jury, and executioner all at once._ He felt himself grow cold, and he wrenched his gaze back to Urd's sisters. Belldandy's grip still remained firm on Skuld's shoulders, and the younger goddess was gripping the fabric of her jeans with a grip so tight it trembled. The young woman looked on the edge of loosing control of herself, of breaking whatever so held her down and assaulting Lind, of dragging Urd away, of doing _something_ to stop this madness from progressing.

And Keiichi found himself encouraging it in his silence. _Do it._ He thought. _Do it and I'll follow. This is bullshit and you know it and I know it. Do it and we'll drag Urd out of this and fucking run._ His gaze drifted to Belldandy, who even still remained impassive. _Why aren't you doing anything?_ He wondered, he screamed. _That's your fucking sister, damn it! She did all that for you! Don't you realize that? Don't you fucking care?_

As if hearing his thoughts Belldandy's head whipped towards him, and in it was the barely controlled rage of a woman incapable of action, a woman who'd been denied such opportunities time and time again and had been forced to watch as whatever horror played out before her. All at once he felt ashamed, though he did not know why, and the man returned his gaze to Urd and Lind, a grimace on his face that was growing more and more into a snarl.

"Are you aware of the punishment dictated to one of your decree?" Lind continued. "That of an extended sealment for no less that a total of twenty millennia, to be re-evaluated at ten millennia to assess your level of guilt?"

"I am." Urd's voice was resigned. She didn't open her eyes, didn't move, but a look of peace came across her face. The valid had been passed and was out in the open now, and Old Sparky was polished and waiting with its gleaming metal helmet.

Skuld broke. She tore herself from Belldandy's grip before her sister could get a stronger hold of her. "No!" she roared, and to Keiichi it seemed as if the walls shook with her despair. "No! Half of those aren't even hers, those are mine, I'm guilty of _at least_ half of what you're pinning on Urd and it was all so we could save Belldandy!" She advanced on Lind, who didn't even acknowledge the infuriated woman, only to be pulled back, pulled off her feet by Belldandy. The woman hissed and spat like a rapid cat. "It was for Belldandy's sake you bitch! You saw! There was a demonic element involved! _You fucking saw it too!"_ She clawed at Belldandy with all the ferocity of a wild animal, yet Belldandy's grip remained strong, almost frighteningly so. "Let me go, Belldandy _let me go!"_ she screamed. Tears glittered at the corner of the Norn's eyes, tears of rage, of grief, of defeat. "Don't let her seal Urd away!" She moaned, _"Please!"_

Belldandy was crying too, Keiichi realized. They both were, restrained and restrainer, and the moisture on their cheeks glittered like beautiful, sorrowful diamonds. _Why aren't I doing anything?_ Keiichi wondered. _This isn't right, it's obvious, yet I'm just standing here doing nothing. Why? Why can't I summon up the courage to move? Why am I just standing here and watching this shit?_ It was like he was pinned; like needles had been laced into his pressure points, and despite his own disbelief, despite his own grievances, he could no more move than he could speak, and why not? These were not his people, not his culture, not his _laws_. He could no more speak out against what was transpiring than he could understand the laws that so convicted Urd. He was a stranger whose opinion didn't matter, and nothing he did would change what was about to happen, nothing _Skuld_ did would change that, and Belldandy, he realized, knew that fact. Knew it and was trying to save Skuld, save Urd, from the embarrassment and shame of the younger goddess losing control of herself before Lind.

"That's enough."

Silence befell the room. Urd had spoken. Had spoken with such presence that Keiichi could feel its weight baring down against him, and it ordered _silence_. Skuld fell quiet and ceased her struggles. Belldandy released her. Neither siblings gaze left Urd. Even Keiichi found his eyes on the goddess, not so much drawn as dragged to her, and Keiichi found he couldn't look away if he wanted to. Even Lind was staring at Urd with wide eyes, and a part of Keiichi wondered if she was even daring to breathe; she, who had just cast judgment upon the very woman who so demanded such immediate silence.

The Norn's eyes roved the room, violet eyes hard and penetrating as outside, the spring sun began to fall beneath the horizon. They moved from one person to the next, pausing long enough to observe but no more, and Keiichi flinched when they met his. He was struck with a strange thought, _Belldandy is your responsibility now_ , and then her gaze moved on, returning to rest on Lind.

"I accept your judgment and await my fate," she murmured. "I and I alone hold responsibility for all that has been listed against me, and bare the blame on no other deity's shoulders."

Lind nodded, her mouth set in a tight frown. "Very well then." She inclined her head in a slow nod. "Then by the authority granted to me in the absence of Justice Athena, Lady of Law and Master of Furies, from this moment hence forth, you are banished from Asgard, for the minimum sentence of three millennia."

Urd froze, and her jaw dropped. "I'm what?" Her voice trembled with thinly-suppressed emotion.

Lind ignored her. "You're position as Yggdrasil's head administration operator is here by revoked. Your position as a goddess Second-class, restricted, falls under probation, and your magic from this point forward shall only be used in a time of need, as so dictated by the standards put in place by your acting probation officer."

"What?" Skuld was staring too. Staring with wide, disbelieving eyes at the two goddesses in question.

"I-I'm not getting sealed?" Urd's voice was shaking now, shaking with the bone-rattling relief of a woman who'd dodged a bullet. "I-what?" She tried to rise and failed, plummeting back in her seat with such force that the folding chair groaned. The look of disbelief did not leave her face.

Lind closed her eyes and nodded. "Justice Athena reviewed your case with a great deal of scrutiny, Urd." A small half-smile tugged at the corner of one lip. "And after learning of your efforts to foil a previously unknown plot by demonic elements, has elected a gentler punishment on word of the reports written regarding your behavior over the past ten years. It was confirmed that every action you did, legal or not, was in an effort to aid a fellow deity who might have been coerced on a demon's pressure to cut all requests for aid." She sent a pointed look at Belldandy, who opened her mouth to protest before wisely falling silent. "Unfortunately, the one thing that could not be overlooked was your access to your True Self on a dimensional plane that could not hold up under the strain, and thus you're still being punished; thus your removal from a place of authority and temporary banishment from the Heavens."

Urd released a high bought of laughter. It almost sounded like sob. The goddess buried her face in her hands. "I'm not being sealed," she whispered. "I-" She looked up again, and her own tears were leaking down her cheeks now. "This isn't a joke? Not some Valkyrie jest for your own amusement?"

Lind fought and failed to hide the spreading smile on her face. "No jokes," she said, and her voice was surprisingly gentle. "Urd, you are, by far, the biggest pain in my ass I have ever had the misfortune of dealing with. But from the moment I was assigned overwatch of you-for whatever divine reason they thought that was a good idea—you have shown me time and time again that the only motive behind any of your actions was for the sake of your sister, and after learning what I now known to be true, I respect that."

For the first time since Lind had begun her little trial, Keiichi found his voice. "You mentioned a probation officer," he stated. "What's that mean?"

It was hard to tell if Urd even heard his question. The woman was trembling with visible relief. "I'm not being sealed," she murmured again.

Lind looked at him with a single brow raised. "I told you I'd be around, did I not?"

Belldandy stared at the Valkyrie with her own wide eyes. "You-forgive me, but you're a _Valkyrie!_ " She cried, and the look on her face spoke of a similar relief intermingled with disbelief. "Why would-it is not that I am ungrateful, but, well, _why?"_

Unnoticed by all, Skuld gave a large whoop of joy and barreled into Urd, knocking the older goddess from her seat. The two laid where they'd fallen, laughing in disbelief as Urd placed an arm across her eyes, masking the relieved tears that slid down her cheeks. "Who cares?!" Skuld cried. "Urd's not being sealed! That's all that matters!"

Lind eyed the duo with an unreadable expression, then turned back to address Belldandy. "I've been assigned to Urd for the past eight years already." She confessed. "And so the Powers That Be decided I would make the best candidate since I already have such extensive knowledge of Urd as it is."

"I see," Belldandy murmured. The Norn approached the Valkyrie, and Lind rose to meet her. The goddess inhaled sharply, her own face unreadable, and then before Lind could react Belldandy pulled her into a tight embrace. "Thank you." Keiichi had to strain his ears to catch what the Middle Norn said, her voice was so quiet. "Thank you for not taking her from me. Thank you." Lind released a squeak that was very un-Valkyrie like, and awkwardly pat the Norn's back. Then Belldandy released her and moved to kneel at her siblings' side. A pair of arms, one light, one dark, reached up and grabbed the middle sister, and with a yelp Belldandy allowed her sisters to pull her down into the dogpile. Urd couldn't stop laughing with her relief.

Lind moved to stand awkwardly against the wall beside Keiichi, and for a moment the two warriors quietly watched the three sisters.

It was Keiichi who broke the silence. "So…" he began. "Does this mean I need to buy another blow up mattress?"

Lind shook her head. "I'll just be making visits on occasion," she assured him. "If any of them warrant my spending the night, than something is wrong." The two lapsed once more into silence. Urd had finally shifted into a sitting position, and Skuld had one arm around both her and Belldandy, drawing them both close despite the look of semi-reluctance on Belldandy's face. It seemed that even with her sisters, the scars left by Aoshima ran deep, but for the moment the middle Norn doggedly allowed the intimacy her sisters brought.

"They're a pretty tight-knit bunch, aren't they?" Lind murmured, and Keiichi glanced at her in surprise. "You don't often see that level of connection amongst deities," she continued. "Much less siblings."

"That so?"

Lind watched him from the corner of one eye. Her gaze darted back to the Norns. "They're good for each other," she decided. "Keep that in mind, Keiichi Morisato."

"Jank."

Lind looked over at him, and Keiichi grinned. "You ain't fooling me, Lind," he said. "Most of those reports you were talking about had to have been submitted by you. It's 'cause of you Urd got off with this lighter sentence, right?"

Lind said nothing, but her cheeks pinkened. She stared down at the floor with sudden interest.

"What about you're unit?" Keiichi asked. "Is it okay for you to be assigned to Urd like this? By the sound of it, this isn't something normally reserved for Valkyries."

Lind fired off a question of her own. "Why do you keep asking about my unit?" Keiichi looked at her in surprise. "Do you assume the two I was with were part of my team?"

Keiichi felt silent, observing her carefully. "Sorry, I did," he said at last. "So they weren't?"

"No."

"Is that why you came alone?" Keiichi inquired, recognizing he was stepping into uncharted territory and wondering if he was about to step into a lion's den.

"I prefer not to answer that," Lind said, and her voice left no room for argument. She pursed her lips, then straightened from where she'd come to rest against the wall. "I've taken up enough of your evening," she said. "I'm going to head out. Do good by those Norns, Jank," she advised. "You do good by one, you do good by them all." She dipped her head in what took Keiichi a moment to realize was a goodbye, then headed towards the front door.

"Lind!" The Valkyrie paused as Urd untangled herself from her sisters and climbed to her feet, chasing the Valkyrie down with a large, exuberant smile on her face. She slowed just before colliding with the Valkyrie, and then engulfed the woman in a bone-crushing hug. "Thank you, you stupid son of a bitch." Lind released another tiny little squeak of surprise, and Urd laughed before releasing her. "Drop by anytime, seriously, You're welcome here anytime, got it?" The woman was beaming with joy, and again the light flush Keiichi had spied on Lind's cheeks earlier returned. It seemed that Lind was unaccustomed to the concept of gratitude, and Keiichi couldn't help but grin at the Valkyrie's flustered appearance.

"I'm leaving now," the warrior said abruptly, and tearing herself from Urd's grip almost ran to the door and out, leaving in her wake a trio of relieved goddesses and one amused mortal.

Keiichi looked forward to her future visits.

* * *

 **A/N: Yep, Lind will be stopping by from time to time. Sorry for the 'shortish' chapter. :)**


	9. Chapter 9 - Night Terrors

l

" **Night Terrors"**  
 _"The best monsters are our anxieties given form. They make sense on the level of a dream - or a nightmare." - Victor_ _LaVelle_

-9-

Belldandy had nightmares.

Urd predicted she would.

They started tamely enough on the night of Belldandy's arrival to Keiichi's house. Flashes of memory that left her whimpering or crying out in her sleep, only to vanish with the rising sun casting its rays through the guest bedroom she shared sometimes with Skuld, sometimes with Urd, but never alone. Yet it did not last. Urd was afraid it wouldn't.

"Skuld, switch with me tonight." The goddess in question looked up at Urd in surprise who sent her a wane smile.

"What, the air mattress not doing it for you?" Skuld raised a brow in question, and Urd shrugged half-heartedly. "The futon isn't much better, you know," she warned. "The ground is hard, and Belldandy moves around a lot in her sleep. It's hard to get a good night's rest in."

"I know." Keiichi had set up a secondary air mattress in another guest bedroom, this one the smallest in the house. There wasn't enough room in the bedroom Belldandy had taken to fit all three Norns in, and so the two sisters had opted for a weekly rotating schedule. "You look like you could use some extra sleep though. I'll take tonight, if you want."

Skuld stared at her older sister in suspicion. "What are you getting at, Urd?" she demanded.

Another unassuming shrug. "Nothing," she said. "But it'll be easier on all of us if you aren't biting everyone's head off each morning because you didn't get your beauty sleep. Keiichi's got work tomorrow, and I can always catch a nap in the day, but I know _you_ enjoy your waking hours, particularly now that Belldandy's back. It'll be kinder on us all if you get a good night's rest so you don't accidently snap at her." Skuld's brown eyes narrowed, and Urd sent her a sidelong glance. "Tomorrow's Belldandy's first day without another man around, so we gotta make it good, right?"

"Yeah…" Skuld muttered with reluctance.

"So switch with me tonight so you can enjoy tomorrow with her." Urd persisted. "I need to speak with Keiichi about something anyways, so Bell will be looking to you for guidance."

Skuld stared at her, her expression still questioning. "Alright," she caved, and Urd grinned. "I swear to Yggdrasil though, Urd, if I find out there's something else going on I'm going to punch you."

Urd smiled. "On my honor as a goddess," she claimed.

And Skuld scowled. "You know that doesn't mean shit to anyone."

XXX

" _Good evening!" Belldandy announced, appearing through the mirror attached to a night stand opposite where the man, Toshiyuki Aoshima, was standing. The man appeared to be admiring his own reflection, however the goddess came up a little short when she saw him fall back and hit his head with a shout. "Oh my! Are you alright?"_

" _Wh… Who the hell are you!" he exclaimed. "And how the hell did you get into my room?"_

" _Oh my! Forgive me for not introducing myself. My name is Belldandy, Goddess First Class, Unlimited License," said the goddess with a bow, which she knew was a traditional greeting in Japan._

" _Ok, who sent you?" the man demanded as he stood up. "It's a little late for strippers, but I can make some time. Did my cousin send you?"_

 _It sounded a bit like he was trying to rationalize her sudden appearance, yet the leer on Aoshima's face made Belldandy uncomfortable. However, this was not the first time such a thing had happened. Mortals said the darndest things sometimes in their attempt to make reason out of the divine. Usually they could be pretty innocent and at times even amusing, yet there was always one or two that made her just a little uncomfortable. This was one of those times, but thinking little of it, she hid her discomfort away. "I'm sorry?" she asked._

" _Yeah, you know," said Aoshima as he took a step closer to the goddess. "My cousin Sayoko who totally owns the 'queen bitch of the universe' routine?"_

 _Belldandy shook her head. "Forgive me, but I do not know who you are speaking of. I was sent here because through your good deeds and pureness of heart, you have earned Heaven's Grace. As a reward-" The goddess stopped when the man started spitting in laughter._

" _P-pureness of heart?" He sputtered. "H-h-how much they pay you to say_ that _?!" He tossed his head back with the deep, roaring laughter of a man who'd heard the funniest joke in the world. When he finally regained control of himself, Aoshima stepped closer to Belldandy and grabbed her arms, a large, toothy smile on his face. There was something almost evil in that expression, and Belldandy made a noise in her throat as that smile regarded her. "You don't have to lie to me, bitch. Let's just get this show on the road." He stepped closer to her, trying to turn her toward the bed. Belldandy struggled, trying to ease out of his grasp without harming him. Mortals, she knew, were delicate creatures, and too much pressure was liable to rip this man's arm from his body. Yet this strange, somewhat discerning client was stubborn, his grip surprisingly strong for a man who looked so frail, and when he didn't catch the hint and release her, Belldandy switched to a more drastic measure._

 _With a blinding flash of light, Aoshima was thrown off Belldandy and onto the bed he was trying to get her to lay down on. A look of terror crossed his face and he tried to crawl away, only to meet the headboard of the bed._

" _I apologize for that, Toshiyuki Aoshima-san, but your actions are completely inappropriate," scolded Belldandy._

" _Holy shit! You're the real deal!" Aoshima screamed and cowered in fear in front of her. He brought his hands up to cover his face, peering at her from between the gaps of his fingers. "Please don't kill me! I'll be good from now on!"_

 _The groveling the man was doing as he laid himself prostrate on the bed in front of Belldandy caused her a small amount of embarrassment._ At least he now knows where the boundaries lie _, she thought to herself. It was exceedingly rare for her to have to resort to such measures. The majority of her clients were extremely polite, but there were those very few that lost themselves in the moment._

 _The goddess recomposed herself and tried again. She took a deep breath. "I am not here to harm you. I was sent here because you have earned Heaven's Grace. As a reward, I will grant you one wish." Goodness, it'd be good to be done with this and return home. Something about this man put Belldandy on edge; he made the hair on the back or neck stand on end, and the sooner she was away from him, sorry to say, the better._

" _A wish?" asked Aoshima as he sat up. "For anything I want?"_

" _Yes, anything your heart desires," replied Belldandy. "If you wish to become a millionaire, we will take care of it. You could even ask to destroy the world, if that was truly your heart's desire…" She paused, and her demeanor darkened somewhat at the thought. "We can do that as well, although we prefer not to associate ourselves with that sort of customer."_

 _A grin formed on Aoshima's face, one that put Belldandy ill at ease. "So I can wish for anything I want?" he repeated._

" _Yes, that is correct," replied the goddess, putting on a bright smile in order to hide her discomfiture._

 _Again the man leered at Belldandy, making her wonder for the very first time in her life if a mistake had been made. On some basic level, some long forgotten instinct seemed to detect that there was something not quite right with this man. Still… she recalled the one she'd been watching for so many years. She remembered how he endured his training after hearing such horrible news. She prepared herself, using him as her inspiration to get past this sad incident so that she can get back to waiting for his call._

" _I wish," started Aoshima. "For a goddess such as yourself to be by my side so that I may do with her as I please, when I please, for all eternity."_

 _Belldandy gasped when the wish was spoken and took a step back. She herself had never heard such a wish, nor had any of the other wish granters related any similar experience. Surely this was an impossible wish, and would be rejected out of hand._

 _Much to her surprise, the goddess felt the familiar rush of energy that signified a wish being processed, then accepted. She lost her awareness and control of her body as her eyes and facial markings began to glow. Her head lolled back, and a beam of light burst forth, shooting through the roof of the building and up into the sky._

 _What seemed like an eternity to the goddess actually only spanned a few seconds. When she regained control of herself, she looked around and saw the room in disarray. This was of course normal when a wish was accepted._

" _OH NO!" she cried. Frantic, she looked around and saw a phone laying on its side next to a night stand. She rushed over and picked it up, replacing the receiver on the cradle before placing it to her ear. No longer caring about the mortal, she quickly dialed the seventy-three digit number that was the GRO's control center. "Hello, this is Belldandy," she said, tone urgent when someone picked up the other line. "I am calling to check on the last transfer."_

 _Belldandy listened in shock at the answer. "Y-y-you mean it's… it's final?" Her whole body went numb as she heard the reply. She was about to protest further when she felt a hand take hold of her arm. Slowly, it forced her to hang up._

" _It went though, didn't it," whispered Aoshima, his voice dripping with confidence._

 _Belldandy could only nod, as she was in too much shock to do anything else. Beside her, Aoshima chuckled lightly to himself. He reached up and caressed her hair. "My own pet goddess, to do with as I please," he said. The words caused her heart to nearly turn to ice. The hand on her head drifted to her chest, squeezing one of her breasts hard enough to hurt. The hand on her arm never released her._

" _From now on, you will refer to me as 'Master'."_

 _The brunette goddess turned to the man, the shock evident in her eyes as she tore herself from his grip. "I'm sorry, but I cannot grant that wish." She was alarmed now. This wasn't right. This wasn't how a wish was supposed to go and now the only thing Belldandy could think of doing was getting as far away from this man, this mortal, as quickly as possible. She backed away, yet found herself cornered between him on the bed and her against the wall, with little room to maneuver without going through Aoshima._

 _She had hoped that a little defiance may cause him to back off. Because of that, she was taken completely off guard when Aoshima reached back and grabbed a handful of her hair, jerking her head back with such brute force her head throbbed. "That wasn't a request." He glowered over her, menace filling his eyes. "I said that you will call me MASTER!" he commanded._

 _With her left hand, Belldandy called upon her magic, forming a small ball of power in her palm. If he would not back down after her polite refusal, she would resort to less than polite ways in order to save what shred of dignity she had after that wish. However, much to her horror, the spell fizzled out._

 _While Aoshima still held her, she turned her head to look at her hand. Concentrating as hard as she could, she began to conjure another spell, this one even more powerful than the first. But before it could even manifest, it also dissipated. This time, only a single, feeble spark fell to the floor._

 _For the first time, fear gripped her heart as realization sat in. A ball of ice formed in her chest. With the wish in place, the System Force would prevent her from doing anything other than follow the mortal's directions or to perform any task that he desired. Terror etched across her face as she turned to look at Aoshima. He wore a small smile across his face, and a disgusting leer appeared in his eyes as he looked over her body._

" _I said to call me 'Master'," he said, calmly this time, evenly. Somehow that was even worse than the sudden spurt of anger he'd displayed, and Belldandy took in a shuddering breath of air. Again, that unwanted hand began to comb through her hair, playing with the locks in a gentle, almost loving manner before drifting down her back, down her shoulders, sliding down the small of her back before resting on her butt. He squeezed it, not in affection but with desire, with lust, with force. He'd obviously witnessed what had happened, and knew that she was impotent before him. With a smile; that calm, almost kind smile again, he stepped into her, pressing himself against the goddess. She felt a bulge press against her inner thigh._

 _Slowly, carefully, she swallowed the lump in her throat. "Yes, master."_

 _His smile widened. Using his grip on her hair as leverage, Aoshima forced her down onto the bed. He fell on top, knocking the wind out of her. Gasping, she looked at him again. Gone was the leer that he was giving her earlier. Now he looked almost feral. Hungry. Mindless. She reached up and put her hands on his shoulders to push him away, but he leaned up and grabbed them, his hands hard and bruising, pushing them down and pinning them against the mattress. At the same time he leaned in and bit her shoulder. "You're mine now." He breathed, pulling away to look down at her with that hungry gaze and then crushing his mouth against her own. Her mouth parted in protest, in a scream, and she felt his tongue dip in, darting madly against her own and shocking her so badly that the thought of biting down on him never crossed her mind._

 _He ended the kiss, then buried his face in the curve of her neck, groaning into her as he dry humped her. She felt his warm, stinking breath, and her whole body shuddered in disgust. He was pressing against her now, and she felt his arousal dig against her womanhood, felt him twitch against the fabric of their clothes, and tried to squirm away. "Please don't," she whimpered, her voice barely audible._

 _Aoshima sat up again, then backhanded her across the face. The smack rattled her whole body, and she felt a trickle of blood coming from a fresh cut on her cheek "Shut up, Bitch," he cussed, and then reached down and grabbed her white dress and began ripping at it to get to her flesh underneath. She screamed and he punched her hard across the temple stunning her when she saw stars. "You need to know your place."_

 _She felt his fingers claw at the gown, felt the material rip with an awful_ tshh _and felt fingers dig painfully into her cleft._ " _What's this? You ain't even wet?" They squirmed around inside her like a couple of bony maggots. The stars faded, and with it Belldandy renewed her struggles, renewed her screams, fighting him off with hands that once could have ripped his head off, now void of their natural strength. He laughed at her attempts, his eyes bright with lust and desire. "Sucks to be you, Babe." He removed his fingers, then dropped his pants. With her dignity exposed, he didn't even bother to take his boxers off. "Looks like I'm coming in a dry goddess tonight, Oh Baby!" He simply whipped it out and shoved it in as hard as he could._

XXX

When Belldandy sat up screaming, Urd was ready.

The woman had soundproofed the room with a small bit of magic after waiting for Belldandy to drift off. Only a tiny piece of her was surprised to find her magic still worked. Lind's definition of 'limitations' must have been broad indeed. It happened at roughly two in the morning. Skuld hadn't been lying when she'd said Belldandy tossed and turned in her sleep. Urd's own worries for her sister had kept her sleep light, and as such the woman had gotten very little in the terms of restful sleep when Belldandy suddenly began to scream.

They were sharp and shrill shouts, several in all and each drawn with a fresh breath of air. To Urd's ears it sounded almost as if her younger sister was being stabbed. Perhaps in her dreams, she was.

"Belldandy!" Urd was at her sister's side in an instant. "Belldandy, wake up, you're safe, you're safe!" Yet Belldandy didn't hear her, perhaps _couldn't_ hear her over her own shrieks, and with a large grimace on her face Urd grabbed the goddess by her shoulders. "Wake up!" she cried, and Belldandy lashed out in her sleep, a long, forlorn cry rising and ringing through the room with such length that Belldandy's face grew red.

"No more!" She shrieked, and a hand slapped weakly against Urd's face. She didn't notice. "No more no more _no more_!" A broken sob tore from her throat, and frightened, Urd shook her harder, determined to rouse the goddess from whatever internal prison so confined her. "It _hurts_!" She screamed, long and hard, and then she was awake; awake and up and clawing at Urd, incapable of recognizing her sister from whatever demons so haunted her rest.

Urd fended off Belldandy's blows as best she could. She did not fight back. "Belldandy, it's okay, your safe!" She cried.

Yet Belldandy didn't hear her; indeed, Urd wasn't even certain the goddess was _awake_ , though the terrified blue eyes that stared up at her begged otherwise. "I can't take it!" she cried shrilly. "You'll tear me apart! _Stop!_ " One long, agonizing howl rose from the base of her throat, and Belldandy's struggles ceased. She collapsed against Urd, moaning pitifully. "No more…" she groaned. "Please, no more…" The moment passed, and the woman fell back into an uneasy slumber, resting propped up against Urd.

The Norn bit her lip, then wrapped her arms around her sister in a loose embrace. Belldandy groaned and leaned into her sister, perhaps seeking comfort in her embrace. If she was even aware of it. Urd hoped she was. Though Belldandy muttered and grumbled and grimaced, she did not awaken again that night. Urd did not move from her spot.

She got no further sleep that night.

XXX

Urd was not the only one who slept poorly that night.

Keiichi tossed and turned throughout his own rest as well, his sleep disturbed by the approaching encounter with McGuiness detailing Urd and Belldandy. He gave up on sleep some time around four in the morning, and with a sigh he put on his PT gear and headed down the stairs, easing his way past Belldandy's room to ensure he didn't awaken anyone. He was relieved when he heard nothing from the Norn's room, then pattered down the steps into the living room. The sun wouldn't break over the horizon for at least another hour or so, which made a morning run out of the question; too many wild animals out in the woods, too many chance attacks in the early morning while the larger critters were out prowling. He'd already heard about a bear attack with an early morning jogger, and there'd been rumored encounters with everything from lynxs to mountain lions from the occasional hiker. Keiichi had no intentions to make the headline news as maul-victim _numbero dos_.

Instead, the man turned on his phone and scrolled through his apps, coming across a tabata app that, while not the best, would do in a pinch for a good workout. He needed to burn off some of his nervous energy, and more importantly, he needed to speak with Urd so that he knew what to say during his approaching interrogation with McGuiness. Deciding on a workout, the SEAL began a series of core exercises, switching from crunches to flutter kicks to leg lifts and additional exercises every five minutes. He'd worked up a good sweat forty-five minutes later, and he could feel his abdominal muscles straining with exertion as a trumpet blared on his phone, signaling the end of his work out.

Groaning softly to himself, the man rolled onto his back, taking a short breather as his body recovered. He could hear footsteps upstairs, and found himself unsurprised when Urd crept down the staircase. He watched her descend, then rolled up into a sitting position. "You never struck me as a morning person, Urd."

The goddess looked at him, her face bleary and tired. "I'm not." She grumbled, before collapsing into one of the nearby folding chairs Keiichi had leaned against the wall. She sighed in discontent. "We're getting a goddamned couch next time we go shopping," she announced.

Keiichi raised a brow at her tone. "You good?" he asked.

The woman shrugged. "Didn't sleep well is all," she muttered. "Sorry, not trying to be snappy."

Keiichi didn't seem convinced. "Anything you want to talk about?" he offered, already knowing her answer.

The Norn shook her head. "I'm fine," she grumbled. "I'll catch a nap later today and be back to my chipper self before you get back from the shop today."

"You sure?" he pressed gently. "I've got some time before I need to get ready for work."

Again Urd shook her head, this time shooting the man a glare. He raised his hands and let the topic drop. "There is something I need to discuss with you though," he said, switching to his own anxieties. Urd gestured him on, now rubbing her brow, and Keiichi explained his situation to her. "What do I tell him?" he asked. "We need to keep our story straight otherwise McGuiness will pick up on our lie. He's like a goddamned bloodhound when it comes to tall tales."

Urd frowned and pursed her lips, looking past Keiichi and out the window. The sky was starting to lighten into the deep blue that came before the sun peaked over the horizon. The goddess rubbed her chin in thought, her left heel tapping out a beat on the wooden floor of the living room. The entire house had a wooden floor; they were easier to clean and more hygienic than carpet, so Keima always claimed, and his beliefs had passed down to Keiichi in turn.

At length, the goddess propped her elbows on her knees and steepled her fingers. She closed her eyes and sighed, then looked at Keiichi with a solemn gaze. "Keiichi, how much do you trust me?" she asked.

At once Keiichi straightened. "That's a tall question to ask, Urd," he said, frowning as he stared at the woman. "What about?"

The goddess chewed on her lower lip, observing him carefully. "Do you trust me enough to allow me to work a spell on you?"

"What kind of spell?" Keiichi scrutinized her, trying to get at what she was playing at. "Urd, it's not that I don't trust you, but I need more details before I commit to anything, and to be frank, none of the magic I've seen since meeting you have been exactly…" He waved his hands, words failing him as he tried to find the accurate description.

Urd sighed and nodded. "It's a simple manipulation spell." Keiichi recoiled from her, and the goddess held up her hands. "Whoa, whoa, hear me out, okay?"

Keiichi's frown deepened. "Urd, the last time you used a manipulation spell I was aiming my weapon at you because all of my team suddenly passed out and couldn't remember you're pretty face," he reminded. "I'm going into a SCIF. Lots of cameras all over the place watching for anything fishy because of the security clearance required to enter the damn building. You don't think it won't look suspicious if all of a sudden my OIC passes out while interrogating me on my whereabouts this past weekend?"

Urd shook her head. "Different manipulation spell," she said. "It won't knock him out."

Keiichi's brows furrowed together in concern. "There's more than one?" he demanded. "Just how many of these spells do you know?"

"More than you'd expect and none that I've worked on you, if that helps," Urd replied. "Except, well…this one is a bit different even regarding manipulation spells."

Keiichi stared at her evenly. "In what way?"

Urd scowled and leaned back in her chair, her fingers drumming on her knees. "You'll be affected by it too," she confessed, "…at least, if the damned System Force doesn't interfere." Keiichi stared at her, and with a grunt Urd continued. "Essentially it's a spell that works through a vassal in order to work itself on whoever is nearby," she explained. "I would speak through the vassal, and my words would be passed on to whoever the vassal approaches, weaving a tale that is appealing to the affected's sense of reasoning."

"And you want me to be that vassal," Keiichi said in disbelief. "So that you can manipulate my OIC for the _second time_ into thinking that everything is okay, everything is peachy-keen, and that whatever fable you worked up sounds true to his ears."

Urd flinched. "That's why I need to know how much you trust me," she growled. "The vassal has to be a willing participant, and one who trusts the conductor of the spell. You want a believable story without worrying about minor details that McGuiness could call you out on? This is my answer. But if you don't trust me, fine. Fuck off and figure it out on your own."

Keiichi winced, and Urd looked away with a huff, her lips set in an angry, thin line. He stared at her, this time in concern, but the woman refused to meet his gaze. "I never said I didn't trust you," Keiichi said at last. "But I'm not going to lie to you and say that your magic, fuck Urd, your _powers_ , don't scare me sometimes. This is all still new to me, and it's still pretty intimidating for a simple mortal who's biggest worries last Friday night were originally getting home and nursing Saturday morning's hangover."

He frowned and looked at the floor, observing the grains in the hardwood. "Will this spell have any lasting affects?" He glanced at her, brown eyes wary. "It's not going to cause any kind of brain damage, right? He-we're not going to start finding holes in our memories or anything, right?"

Urd bit the inside of her cheek, then glanced his way. "There'll be some amnesia," she admitted. "You won't recall what was said, only the gist of the conversation. Same thing with McGuiness. There will be a knowledge that you spoke, and a feeling you knew what you spoke of, but the words…what was explained…all of that will be gone, because that's when I'll be taking over, acting through you to ensure the spell takes effect." She shook her head. "But it will only be during that time, Keiichi. I promise."

She turned to stare at him, and the two met and held each other's gaze for a long moment. His hands and feet throbbed in recollection of the last time magic had been worked on him. _But that was a demon. This is Urd._ Keiichi sighed and bowed his head. "Fine," he grumbled. "But only this one time, okay?"

Urd nodded. "Just this once," she agreed, then hesitated. "Thanks for trusting me, Keiichi."

XXX

What followed was an experience that Keiichi would later revisit in his mind on multiple occasions. Each time he tried to make sense of what he'd done and each time his mind failed to dredge up images of just what exactly had transpired during that time. He recalled Urd casting some sort of hoodoo-voodoo on him, remembered the strange, violet light that had passed across his vision and the sick, dizzy feeling that accompanied it before everything faded back to normal.

He remembered showering and changing into his uniform, making himself a shake and ensuring a fresh PT uniform was in his gym bag before heading out for the day. At one point he thought he saw Belldandy watch him leave from the window of her room, but even that event was fuzzy, and all this before Urd's magic activated. He remembered the drive, the morning race to base and cursing out a couple of the more reckless drivers as they hit the gas with a lead foot. There was the traffic that came with the morning drive onto base as Sailors checked ID's at the front gate and him navigating around police barriers and onto the main base itself.

It wasn't until he approached building 5019 that things grew really hazy. He remembered parking and walking inside…handing his ID over to a sailor who had to check his clearance…waiting for McGuiness in a conference room. Then violet. Gentle, light violet that clouded his thoughts and fogged his mind. And then only snippets of scenes. McGuiness's stern face. Questions he could not remember and answers that sounded strange to his ears. A woman's voice whispering in his ear. The sense that someone was always peering over his shoulder, though McGuiness and him were the only ones in the room. And then it was done and over. The fog cleared, and Keiichi found himself following McGuiness outside the building and to their own vehicles. "…make an appointment with her either today or tomorrow." McGuiness was saying, and Keiichi was nodding dutifully.

He stopped at once, and McGuiness stared at him. "Morisato?"

He blinked and looked around, disoriented. "M' fine." He thought he sounded a bit like Urd in that moment. The words felt odd and clunky in his mouth. "S'good." He muttered. "Need caffeine." This time the words came a bit clearer, and shaking the remaining violet cobwebs from his head he blinked and looked at his boss. "I'm going to run and grab some coffee before heading to the shop. You want anything?"

"An Irish Coffee, but they don't sell that here," McGuiness replied, then frowned, his gaze thoughtful.

"What's up?" Keiichi asked in curiosity, and McGuiness glanced at him.

"The office…" he started, looking over his shoulder back to the SCIF. "We were the only ones in that briefing room, right?"

Keiichi felt a lump settle in his gut. "Yeah…" he started. "You requested no one bother us, and the Intel bubbas know better than to interrupt a meeting."

McGuiness nodded, but his gaze remained quizzical. "Perhaps it's spirits," he grumbled. "I can nah shake the thought that a woman was with us as we spoke."

"Huh." Keiichi cursed internally. "Weird. That's some hunch, Sir."

McGuiness grunted. "If I still held the faith I'd tell you to get yourself blessed," he said. "The woman…I feel like she hovered above you, Morisato." He frowned. "Ye'd best watch yourself. I can nah shake the feeling the presence was malevolent."

Keiichi laughed weakly. "Don't be getting superstitious on me, Sir," he said. "You know it was probably just the Ghost of Intel. They say there's one in every vault and SCIF out there."

"Maybe." McGuiness still looked uncertain. "Maybe not."

XXX

The day continued on as normal. Team 12 trained. McGuiness held meetings. At one point Bravo approached him hunting for details on Urd, and Keiichi threatened to hog tie him to a chair if he didn't let the topic drop. "You wouldn't," Bravo bated him. "You don't know the first thing about knots, Jank."

"You want to have a go?" Keiichi retorted. "You'd be surprised the tricks you learn from the chair force." He retrieved a pair of handcuffs he'd gotten from his buddies over in SERE, twirling the metal loops on a finger. Bravo wisely backed down.

It was close to six thirty by the time Keiichi returned home that night, and the house was peaceful. Belldandy was there to greet him at the front door, which he found a bit disconcerting and a tad bit creepy. She seemed uncertain though, and Keiichi chalked it up to another one of Aoshima's requirements that had been instilled into her behavior over the course of ten years.

"You don't have to wait for me like that," he assured her, taking off his cover and slipping out of his blouse with a happy sigh. It was good to be home. "Seriously-work can be unpredictable sometimes. I don't want you staying at this door when I might be working a twelve hour shift for some last-minute exercise."

"Are you certain?" Belldandy looked worried, but not disappointed. She almost looked relieved, actually. Keiichi took that as a good sign.

"Sis, we need to get you a hobby," Skuld groused from the stairwell. "Something like sewing, or maybe recreational shooting," she suggested. "Oh! I know! Fencing! Not the 'stab you with a toothpick' kind but the 'off with their heads' type, like Papa likes!"

"Well, that's quite a leap," Keiichi muttered dryly. The Norn did have a point though. "What do you do in your free time, Belldandy?"

The goddess frowned, then shook her head. "Nothing so enjoyable as any of those activities," she mumbled, then looked away. Keiichi snuck a glance to Skuld. The younger Norn shook her head, _don't push it_ , and Keiichi sighed with disappointment.

 _Not this time, Bub. Close, but no cigar. Try again tomorrow, yeah?_

"Where's Urd?" he asked. "I need to ask her something."

Skuld shrugged. "Taking a nap. Bell and I were just about to get started on dinner since she's snoozing upstairs. Any preferences?"

"Um." Belldandy looked at him with rekindled interest, and Keiichi stole a glance back at Skuld for help. Shit, he'd been living off protein shakes and, admittedly, MRE's since Deb had left him. Such a diet created all the palatable appeal of a brick. He hadn't even bothered turning on the gas for the stove since he'd returned from his last deployment. Now that Belldandy had come into his life with her interest in cooking, he would have to do that sometime soon.

Yet Belldandy was looking at him like she was expecting Keiichi to confess his heart's desire for food, which was a horrible idea because there was some evil little piece of him hankering for that veggie omelet MRE hidden in the cabinet. It'd be kinder if Belldandy chose something instead or hell, even Skuld, because at least then there was a chance of getting the goddess to cook something she wanted for herself rather than something Belldandy felt she needed to cook for Keiichi. The SEAL wasn't Aoshima and wanted to quash any correlations between himself and the man who'd so ruined the Norn's life. Yet for the life of him, Keiichi didn't know what kind of foods Bellandy enjoyed. The woman guarded her joys almost as much as Keiichi horded protein powder and MREs, and neither of the two of them would get anywhere without some kind of outside assistance.

Skuld mouthed something to him, eyeing Belldandy and leaning a bit towards the goddess. "How about…" The Norn repeated it, and Keiichi tried to follow along with what Skuld said. "…Swedish…Meatballs?" He glanced back at Belldandy, who eyed him pensively before sending a shrewd look back to Skuld who stared back with a curious look of her own. Belldandy looked back at Keiichi. He smiled at her.

"Do we even have the proper ingredients for that?" she wondered aloud, and Keiichi shrugged his shoulders. The Norn narrowed her eyes. "Have you ever had Swedish meatballs before?"

Skuld nodded her head from the corner of Keiichi's eye, and Belldandy's head whipped back to her younger sister, who's face returned to it's ever-curious innocence. "Skuld…" there was a note of warning in her voice, and the Norn tilted her head to one side in confusion.

"What?"

Belldandy stared at her sister a moment longer, then returned her attention once more to Keiichi. The smile did not leave his face, and his eyes danced with mirth. "Course I've had Swedish Meatballs." He'd never even heard of the dish up until now. "I've just never made them myself is all." Behind Belldandy Skuld gave him a thumbs up, then swiftly grabbed the stairwell's handrails when Belldandy whirled to face her.

"Hey, I haven't had Swedish Meatballs in years!" Skuld proclaimed. "Good call there, Magilla!" Keiichi scowled at the nickname. "Come on Bell, let's go see if we've got what we need to make it." She drummed her thumbs on the wooden railing, then trotted down the rest of the steps. "Wasn't that one of your favorite recipes? Don't tell me Aoshima spoiled that for you too."

"Well…no, but—" Skuld hooked an arm around Belldandy's and dragged her off to the kitchen.

"Wonderful!" She crowed. "Then let's have us a real meal for a change!" She glanced back at Keiichi with a wicked smile on her face. "Congratulations Keiichi. You get to wake the demon now."

"Skuld!" Belldandy protested. "Don't call Urd that!"

"You've never had to wake her up before, have you Bell?" Skuld asked lamely. "She's worse than a bear covered in porcupine quills with bullet ants in her hair." This time when the goddess looked back at Keiichi, it was with pity. "Nice knowing you, Keiichi!"

"You too, Poodle." Whistling, Keiichi made his way upstairs, ignoring the curses Skuld threw his way as he headed for his room to change. He'd speak with Urd about McGuiness when she woke up on her own, but he wasn't about to wake the woman from a nap.

XXX

The problem with napping during the day was the sense of disorientation that accompanied waking. The grogginess that muddled the thoughts and the sense of lost time that rested in the back of one's mind, the odd, fuddled memories of what was and still is and what may have passed all in the span of mere hours, and, on occasion, the loss of logic, the loss of _recognition_ that so bewildered the mind as a person woke up in a strange bed, in a strange house, with a sun that was only just starting to set behind the expanse of trees.

Urd hated that part about naps. She also hated the fact that now, she wouldn't be getting another good's night rest until well into the evening, possibly around midnight or even into the following day. Grumbling and spitting curses, the woman struggled out of the bed she was in, finding it hard and lumpy with scratchy blankets that felt too hot in the spring heat. "Bell…?" she mumbled. The bed smelled a bit like her sister now, though the scent was light. "You were screaming…" she muttered, and then with a groan fell back on the bed and buried her face in the pillows. Screaming… screaming… what about? _When?_ Was it still 'today'? Or had she slept all the way into 'tomorrow'? _It'll happen again tonight, regardless._ Avoice whispered in her ear. She was too drowsy to differentiate it between her own inner monologue or World of Elegance. _What will you do?_

 _Same thing we do every night, Pinky._ She thought, and somewhere perhaps a piece of her even laughed. _Try and take care of Belldandy._ The thought of another argument with Skuld and another long, sleepless night made her moan in distress. _You can't keep this up forever, Dearheart._ Oh, that was definitely World of Elegance, no question about it. Only two people called her that, one of them was in her head. _Skuld isn't a child like she was ten years ago. She knows how you think and is already suspicious. You'd be wise to inform her of what's going on._

"Don' wan' her to deal with it." Urd growled into the pillows. _She doesn't need to see Belldandy like that._

 _She does._ World of Elegance argued. _She may not have seen the videos, but she's no fool. The sooner she understands the faster she can help. Same with Keiichi. You can't take this all on alone._

"Watch me," she grumbled. With her face buried in a pillow, the words came out as, _'Fight me_ ' instead _._ World of Elegance fell silent, perhaps recognizing it as a battle she would not win this time, and with a sigh Urd picked herself up once more and stumbled out of the bed.

Time for another long night.

XXX

And so the week continued.

Urd continued to heckle Skuld into letting her sleep on the futon. Each time grew harder than the last, and Urd could see the growing suspicion, the growing irritation in her youngest sister's eyes when Skuld finally allowed herself to be coerced out of another night watching out for Belldandy. "You know I can help too," she said one night later in the week. "Whatever's going on is wearing you thin Urd. You aren't fooling anyone."

Yet Urd only smiled and denied her claims, and every night, without fail, Belldandy would awaken; sometimes as soon as sleep claimed her, sometimes in the early hours before dawn, but always, without fail, with screams and cries for mercy in a sleep so deep that Urd was unable to rouse her. And always, without fail, Urd would be at her side, attempting to awaken the goddess in whatever way that would not cause her harm, her own terror over whatever nightmares so befell Belldandy spurning her on even when Urd felt herself spent, her emotions exhausted and her nerves dead by the time the sun lit up the sky.

Each morning Belldandy would awaken to find Urd at her side. Sometimes with herself leaning against the older goddess on the bed, sometimes awakening to her sister holding her hand, rubbing it gently and without thought as she stared out the window with a lackluster expression. Always awake though. Always exhausted.

"What do I say in my sleep?" Belldandy asked her once. Urd grunted without comment, and as soon as Belldandy left the bed Urd crawled in it, falling into a sleep of such pure exhaustion that Belldandy doubted the arrival of their father would be enough to rouse her.

Twice Skuld recruited Keiichi in attempting to corner Urd and convince her to talk. Both times yielded little, and even conferring with Belldandy provided little in the ways of information. Keiichi's attempts to speak with Urd about the strange encounter were forgotten in place of worry. Urd simply would not talk, nor see to reason and allow Skuld a night with Belldandy. Everyone had their own suspicions, but nobody seemed to have the courage to conference what they were.

Not until Friday night.

Friday night the dam broke.

Belldandy was having another nightmare. It was a violent one. The Norn was screaming with such ferocity Urd feared she'd go deaf, feared her spells would fail, feared that Hagall, demon that she was would hear Belldandy's cries of fear and pain and would laugh. "Belldandy!" Urd had stopped hoping her sister would hear her words after the third night with her. "Belldandy, please wake up! I'm begging you, it's a dream, it's only a nightmare, he can't hurt you anymore!"

A howl tore from her sister's throat, the wild and sheer terror of a trapped animal locked away in a woman's voice. She writhed in the bed, where sheets and blankets tangled around her limbs like the coils of a massive cotton serpent. There were no words with this nightmare, no, this was the inarticulate terror of those monsters that dwell in the psyche; those beasts of the unspeakable name whose personage were left as shadowy after images in the waking world, where the light of day did little but cast them into deeper darkness.

Now Belldandy fought those creatures off with the desperation of a woman on her last legs, certain that this fight was the final fight, and that her strength was spent and the beasts were moving in to devour her. "Belldandy, come on! Fight this! _Wake up!"_ Urd grabbed her by the arms, her own fear spurning her into action, and it was in that moment that Belldandy's eyes flew open; not the glazed eyes of a sleepwalker but the clear gaze of one who'd succeeded in tearing herself from the jaws of a beast. Yet her terror was real, the beasts still fresh afterimages, and perhaps it was one such monster that she saw when her gaze focused on Urd. Not that of her sister but perhaps some shadowy enigma in the form of a man, leering down at her as it grabbed her on the bed.

The goddess released a howl that was equal parts fear and rage, and her magic swirled around her in response, plowing into Urd with such force that she was flung into, nay, _through_ the wall and into evening night. The wall exploded, and with it whatever spell that had so locked in the noises of terror and depravity that had emerged from Belldandy's throat night after night over the expanse of a week.

Her surrounds not yet familiar to her recovering unconscious, Belldandy drew her legs up to her chest and screamed, burying her hands in her hair as she squeezed her eyes shut, desperate to be rid of the shadows of her mind. There came a thundering at her door, shouts from voices that should have reached her yet failed, and as Keiichi barreled into the room Belldandy's wild magic lashed out once more. It discriminated against no one, man or god or something else, and it was only Skuld's immediate reaction behind the SEAL that prevented the magic from ripping Keiichi in half.

The younger Norn drew him back with one arm, throwing the larger man out of the guest room as though he was nothing but a ragdoll, and as he hit the back hallway wall the door to the guest room splinted, cracked, and then collapsed in chunks of debris. "Stay outside!" Skuld roared, then raced inside, risking the magic that had so easily tossed Urd about in an effort to reach out to Belldandy.

Keiichi ran to the threshold, then ducked when a twisted chunk of metal that had once been a window frame barreled towards his head like a projectile. He felt it breeze through his hair in passing, and then it was buried in the wall behind him, where it dangled at least three inches into the wood, swaying like a wobbly arrow on the breeze. The SEAL stared at it, his eyes wide with how close he'd come to death's door, and then he looked back inside.

Skuld was shouting Belldandy's name. Shards of glass larger than Keiichi's fist flew towards the goddess as though guided by invisible hands. With a bellow that was inhuman, the youngest Norn smashed her foot into the ground. Whatever strings that held the glass were cut, and the dangerous shards fell to the floor and inch from the Skuld's face.

Belldandy released a howl that chilled Keiichi to the bone, and against his own desires the man found himself stumbling back, his head almost colliding with the twisted frame that had almost casually ended his life a moment prior. Something-Keiichi couldn't see it but he sure as hell _felt_ it-collided with Skuld, striking her hard across the stomach and sending the younger goddess off her feet and crashing into the opposing bedroom.

"Skuld!" Keiichi screamed. He glance towards Belldandy. A Whirlwind of items-turned-projectile that danced around her head like something from _The Poltergeist._ A shiver raced down Keiichi's spine, and the SEAL raced into the other room _-his_ room, as Skuld pick herself out of the wood works with a groan.

"Did somebody get the name of that bus?" she moaned, and Keiichi pulled her to her feet. She wavered unsteadily, then bent over with a dry heave.

"Where's Urd?" Keiichi asked, letting the goddess lean into him as she straightened.

The Norn's grip was trembling. She drew in a ragged breath. "Outside?" She didn't sound too sure of herself. "Dunno, got to get to Belldandy." She pushed him away, teetered on uncertain legs, then rushed back into the room in a dead man's run. She broke left, and in the next instant-again with that eerie feeling of _something_ -the floor splintered in a deep indent. With a gasp she teetered right, and with a roar Keiichi felt more than heard, the floor crumbled and broke, displaying the garage below.

Then there was Urd, haggard and bruised but alive, and with an inarticulate scream Belldandy's eyes were drawn to her. "Urd—" the strange presence that surrounded Belldandy went mad with its new target, and Skuld forgotten the many projectiles that danced around her head lurched forth in a final affront. They shattered against an invisible wall before the Elder Norn with the ferocity of debris lost in a tornado. "Urd, I can't—" Belldandy's cry was lost in a shriek like a heavy gust screaming through a cavern. She looked around her, no longer dazed but very, _very_ aware, and her face was the look of panic when one found themselves attempting to outpace a twister.

For ten years Belldandy's magic had been suppressed. Ten long years where her magic had ebbed and waned. Ten years of abuse, Ten years of no use, ten years of building, gathering, rising and bubbling with every strike, every blow, every touch that had been extracted on her person or against her will. Ten years with no outlet, to gather and toil and build, like a can of soda that had been shaken to the point of explosion and then left to sit.

Now, someone had punctured that can, and the magic surged forth like a geyser, uncontrolled and unrestrained, lashing at anything and everything that approached like a blinded, wounded animal, seeking to maim, to hurt, to _kill_ as had its mistress so desired but had been incapable of working. Now though…oh, now it was bringing down the house with everyone and everything in it, with no discretion whatsoever.

"We got this Bell, we got this!" Skuld had managed to reach her side, and Belldandy grabbed her sister and pulled her onto the bed with a yell, shielding Skuld with her body as another plunge of magic left a man-sized depression in the floor. Both sisters screamed, hell, Keiichi screamed, and Urd raced forward in the hopes of aid.

"Ride it out, Belldandy!" Urd cried. "Ride it out! Direct it! Aim it somewhere else and let it run itself dry!" She darted past her sisters, and Keiichi saw the air waver in front of her. Urd noticed it too late, and with a terrible _crack_ the magic presence whipped across her face. The goddess dropped bonelessly, and Keiichi heard Belldandy scream her sister's name. Before he was aware of what he was doing, the man was in the room, racing towards the fallen woman and gathering her up in his arms.

 _Her neck isn't broken her neck isn't broken it's not broken she's a god its not broken because she's a fucking_ god-again the air wavered, this time with sparks, and with wide brown eyes he followed its path as it pulled back, like a whip about to crack or a snake about to strike. Instinctively, he turned away from it and squeezed his eyes shut, bringing his back up to take the brunt of the blow and shield Urd all at once. _We're both going to—_ he braced himself for the blow, for the pain and the blood and the broken bones that would follow, and then Belldandy released a shriek so _demanding_ that Keiichi felt his head crane up. His head was pulled to the ceiling, his eyes bulged in their sockets, and he saw his hair rise as though gravity had taken the night off.

The ceiling exploded. Yet like his head (he couldn't bend his neck, couldn't move, and it felt like his eyes would be ripped from his sockets if he so much as tried) didn't move. No shrapnel rained down. Instead it soared upwards, and the SEAL watched in a mixture of awe and terror as ceiling tile and plaster, wood chips and support beams, danced above his head in a swirling typhoon. The air was pulled from his lungs, but he didn't care. His flesh felt like it would rip from his body. He didn't care. He felt like he was going to die and he _didn't care_. He sat, he kneeled, clutching Urd to his chest as pain tore into his body, too in awe over the sight above his head to wonder what ill fate would befall him.

 _It's an aura._ He thought. _A living aura of destruction._

 _And It's beautiful._

The presence, the magic, glittered with deadly mystique against the light of stars, and in it Keiichi saw not galaxies but the _universe_ ; a map of such a grand scale it bordered on infinite. It held there, a glittering expanse that threatened to consume him beneath a white sliver of moon, and then the pressure, the _demand_ , was gone, the aura was gone, and Keiichi fell forward with a strange heaviness that he did not immediately recognize as gravity.

Debris from the roof began to rain down into the room, but Keiichi was too stunned to think, and he sat dumbfounded where he'd fallen, staring blankly as around them, wood struck wood and shattered into dangerous splinters. And then even that ceased; an aura of a deep shade of blue engulfed the room in a globe, and as Skuld concentrated on her magic Belldandy crawled off the bed, racing to Keiichi's side.

"Urd! Keiichi!" Belldandy cried, and collapsed on the floor next to them both, her eyes wide with a familiar panic that would have worried Keiichi had he not already been so bemused. He stared at her, uncertain if he recognized the goddess, and then looked down as Urd groaned in his arms.

"…Feel like someone hit me in the face with a melon." Urd grumbled, then grimaced. A large, red welt was swelling across her right cheek, and the Norn rubbed her jaw, wincing before staring up at Belldandy and Keiichi in question. "Wha…?"

Belldandy's lower lip trembled with suppressed emotion, and then with a cry she embraced them both. "I didn't-Oh Yggdrasil, I couldn't stop it!" she sobbed. "Why couldn't I stop it, Urd? I hurt you! You and Skuld both! I-I almost killed Keiichi!"

 _That_ seemed to stir Keiichi from his stupor.

And it was in that moment, that Gunner's Mate First Class Keiichi Morisato began to scream.

* * *

 **A/N: Is that how Bell and Aoshima's first meeting went? Maybe, maybe not. That was the wish, though.**

 **She certainly has her demons. I wonder how Keiichi and company will deal with them?**

* * *

 _Comments of a Madwoman: What does it take to drive a man to madness? A fight with a demon or an experience with the divine?_


	10. Chapter 10 - Night Terrors

l

-10-

It took the Norns two hours to calm Keiichi down. The man was beside himself with horror, his fingers digging so hard into his scalp that he'd drawn his own blood, and this without even realizing it. Words did not reach him, despite every effort on Skuld's, on Urd's, on Belldandy's part to soothe him. And he couldn't stop screaming. He screamed long and loud until his they grew ragged and hoarse, until his voice became clipped and broken, eyes bulging in their sockets and roaming their surroundings like an animal trapped in a corner. The man had seen too much that night; too much magic, too much madness, and the resulting concoction when combined with the adrenaline and Keiichi's own definition of how the world was supposed to work could not process the full extent of events that evening.

He shied away from everyone in those horrible two hours. Not just Belldandy but Skuld too. Not just Skuld but Urd, though the woman still rested in his own hands. Hell, had there been a mirror he'd have recoiled from that too, for the man reflected back at him would have been a stranger; a man with sunken eyes wide with fear and bright with looming madness, hair matted with dried blood and red stains on his crusted nails. He didn't look like Keiichi. He didn't look like a SEAL. He looked like a man who'd witnessed some Eldritch Horror from the mind of Lovecraft himself, yet the Cthulhu of his world was in the form of three women who even now crowded around him, their eyes dark with worry and, though he did not recognize it then, hurt.

At some point Urd vanished, and when she returned there was a paper cup in her hand, filled with some noxious substance that made him retch when the smell hit his nose. Someone, he didn't know who, held him as he lost the contents of his stomach, rubbing his back in slow, gentle circles in a manner that reminded him of Debra. She used to do that when he got sick or when he drank too much, especially towards the end of their relationship. He'd drink himself into a stupor trying to rid himself of the young boy who's face so haunted his dreams, and when it became too much and he lost his stomach, Debra had always been there, whispering calming reassurances in his ear and rubbing his back like he was a child once more.

This one didn't whisper, but he could feel the heat of her body pressed against his side. Something about that heat was calming, almost like a protective sentinel that stood watching over him, chasing away the Cthulhus and the destructive auras and the Debras of his mind and bringing with it a peace that slowly began to slip into his skin. He felt weak by the time his stomach emptied itself, and when he straightened there was Belldandy, a cup of water in one hand and her other resting on his back, guilt and terror and concern naked and warring for dominance on her face. She handed him the cup and he took it with trembling hands. Half of it landed on his bare legs and more on his face, but the small bit he managed to get into his mouth he swished around and spat, ridding himself of the remainder of last night's half-digested meal.

Belldandy took his cup without comment, replaced it with something else, and the noxious smell; a mixture of sulfur and pears, threatened to turn his stomach once more. His abs trembled with fatigue at the thought, and he glanced at Belldandy, as though asking her, _why do you so torture me?_

She nodded in that slow, deliberate manner meant to reassure the ill. "It will help." She murmured. "Urd is a master of potions, she knows what she is doing." She was nodding in the same way he had when she'd had her first panic attack, and he found himself nodding just as Belldandy had her first day in his house. "Drink it all at once. Hold your breath and don't think about the smell. It will help you adjust."

He nodded wordlessly, his gaze pleading, begging, but for what he couldn't say. Brown eyes darted down to the cup in his hand. There was no light but that provided by the stars and the moon above his head, and the liquid within looked like black tar. _It'll kill you._ Some piece of him whispered. _It's poison. Nothing that smells like that can be good for you._ A picture of him drinking the sludge came to his mind's eye. Of him drinking it all at once, just as instructed, and then him gagging and clutching his throat, his face turning purple and his eyes bulging in their sockets as the substance killed him, perhaps attacking his respiratory system like mustard gas or clotting his blood like the venom of a snake.

"It won't." Belldandy murmured. "I promise it won't. It will help you. Trust me, Keiichi."

He looked at her, then back to the cup. A long moment passed, and then Keiichi brought the cup up to his lips. _Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn,_ he thought, and felt an overwhelming urge to giggle. The man tossed the drink back and downed the potion in a single gulp. It had no taste that he could discern, despite the atrocious smell, and it was cool and thick, leaving him with the impression that the SEAL was drinking mercury. Yet as soon as it passed down his throat an overwhelming sense of peace enveloped him. The anxiety fled his person, and in its wake was a calm so deep and so suffocating it felt as though someone had jabbed his veins with a cocktail of industrial-strength Xanax or Valium.

The man stared at the empty cup, then looked back at Belldandy. "Better?"

"Am I going to die?" he asked her, and the look of shock that transitioned across her face made him laugh.

"You aren't going to die, Magilla." Skuld voice was condiscending as she scowled at him, then turned her attention to Belldandy. "Give him a few minutes to adjust. Urd said the potion comes off a little strong at the start for mortals. It needs time to disperse through the rest of his body."

Keiichi stared at her, not even reacting to the hated nickname. "You get the license plate number off that bus that hit you?" he asked, and this time Skuld stared at him blankly.

She shared a look with Belldandy, then the two sisters looked back at the SEAL. "Keiichi, I wasn't hit by a bus."

He stared blankly back at her. "Oh." What _was_ she hit with? Now that the potion was working through his system, he was having some difficulty recalling it; chunks of it were becoming a blur, a stain his memory wanted no part in and was going through great lengths to erase now that Keiichi was calming down. He let it, perhaps some instinctual part of him recognizing the dangers in the memories that had so brought him to the edge of madness. _Ia Ia Cthulhu and a Waka Waka to you too._

A hand touched his shoulder, and he looked up, finding Urd with a stack of clothes beneath her arms. The welt on her right cheek was an angry bright red, and there was the first beginning signs of a bruise starting to form around it. She offered the bundle to him. "Doing better?" Her voice was soft and perhaps even a little scared.

"I feel like a loon who just got his daily dose of Happy Juice," Keiichi replied, sorting through the small stack and pulling a tan t-shirt over his head. "…Did I do that all in my boxers again?" he asked, and then, as an afterthought, "I'm not going to pop hot during a drug test, am I?"

"Yes and no, respectfully." Urd responded. She sounded relieved.

Keiichi nodded, then rose to his feet. His head exploded with stars ( _galaxies, all glowing in the ever-expanding universe and he's a mote, a speck, an atom of space dust and it doesn't matter, nothing matters)_ as the blood rushed to his head, and he paused, blinking, waiting for the moment to pass. "Okay," he said, then looked straight at Belldandy. "Hope you enjoyed the show," he said said with a smile, then proceeded to stuff first one leg, then another through the pt shorts Urd had grabbed while rifling through his laundry. The man didn't know why he'd said what he did, and the startled look on Belldandy's face suggested she didn't either.

But that was fine. Everything was fine. Everything was fucking _amazing_ right now. His house was missing a chunk of roof and a chunk of wall. The guest bedroom was destroyed and so was his. There was a hole in the second floor and he could see where chunks of plaster and wood had just missed his Harley in the garage below. He'd seen fuck only knew what, but it was fine, it was cool, it was good. _Ia Ia, Waka Waka,_ come on home and shake 'does _tatas._ Ride the waves, Janky-baby, ride the waves.

Skuld and Urd shared a look. "Keiichi, why don't you head downstairs and take it easy for a bit?" Urd suggested. "We've got everything up here covered, and you look like you need a moment.

 _A moment? I think you mean years,_ some piece of him muttered. "I'm good." He said. "I want to help. What can I do?"

Again, the sisters shared a look, this time between all three of them. Skuld pursed her lips, then stepped forward, taking Keiichi by the arm and guiding him out of the room, avoiding shrapnel, glass, and splinters with a care that spoke more for his care than her own. The Norn's grip was surprisingly gentle. Her tone, moreso. "Keiichi, you can't stay in there right now," she said. "The room is dangerous, and until we have a chance to repair it, we don't want you getting hurt." The words were surprising coming from Skuld, and perhaps for that reason, Keiichi took her words into careful consideration. "Belldandy's afraid right now, too," she continued. "She's putting on a brave face for you, but right now all it's doing is bottling up her emotions again. She needs a chance to decompress without fear of injuring you, and in order to do that you need to be away from her for a little while, okay?"

He knew that tone. That was the same tone the Lieutenant who'd called him in to talk with him used after the news of Aiko's rape had reached his ears. The comforting, gentle 'please cooperate with us it's for your own good' tone he'd heard time and time again throughout Basic and into 'A' School. _I hate that tone._ He thought, but it was a stray thought, one that just drifted through the mind like a school of fish. _I'm supposed to hate that tone. They used that tone to tell me I couldn't be released to visit Aiko in the hospital._ _Now they're using it to tell me I can't help Belldandy. But I want to. She almost killed me but I still want to help her._ Ah, the ever-so-wonderful 'Theys' of the world; those people of authority who's every action were 'for his own good'. _Well, 'they' can shove it, 'cause I want to help. I'm_ going _to help. I won't just sit by and let it happen like Aiko. Not this time._

 _Why?_ A voice asked in his head, another one of those 'fish-school' thoughts that just sort of drifted along through his head. It sounded a bit like Skuld.

 _Because I think I might be in love with her._ He thought. _And I want to see her smile._ "There must be something I can do to help." Despite the calm that had so seeped into his body, there was a small hint of desperation in his voice. "Please."

Skuld was silent for a long moment, observing his face with the careful scrutiny one saved for administering judgement in a courthouse. Then she sighed and closed her eyes, perhaps seeing whatever it he was looking so intently for. "Are there any twenty-four hour groceries around here?" She asked.

"I can think of one or two."

Skuld nodded, the corner of her left lip dipping in a frown. "I want you to go out and grab a couple of things, okay? I don't often inhabit this part of the globe, so I don't even know if the stores around here would sell them, but its worth a shot and even if you come back empty handed, by the time you return Belldandy will be safe again."

"What are they?" He eyed her with fresh interest.

"Comfort food," Skuld replied. "Our nerves are all frayed, and I'm hoping this will help settle them, especially for Belldandy." A tint of rose graced her cheeks, and the goddess looked away. "Ice cream for me. Nothing big-just get the smallest one you can find and I'll be good. Sake for Urd. She'll never admit it, especially around Belldandy after Aoshima, but Sake's always been her favorite type of liquor-" She paused and looked at Keiichi. "I swear, she's not an alcoholic. Do they even sell that stuff here in the States?" She was rambling now but Keiichi didn't think she was aware of it, or if she was, didn't care. It seemed to place her at ease, and so he simply nodded. "And tea for Belldandy. Try not to get any of that bagged shit either, the loose leaves. I don't know if they have any of that in a store this late either, but it's worth a shot…no Japanese brands either. I don't know what her favorite type of tea is anymore, but I'm willing to bet it's not green tea. Try black tea, or maybe grab some cinnamon and cloves and milk if you can't find loose leaf. It's not much, but after growing up with Belldandy I know how to make Chai at least."

She fell silent a moment, crossed her arms and looked at the ground thoughtfully, drumming her fingers against her opposing arm. "Get something for yourself, too. I don't know what you like, but get something you know helps calm you down in a pinch or has a lot of good memories riding on it, okay?"

"Okay." A task. That was good. He needed a task. A task would keep him busy, keep him occupied, keep him from wondering about his house or how he'd once again slipped past Death as the wraith stopped to point its bony finger at him. He could do that. Hell, he _wanted_ to do that. Something to let Belldandy know everything was still okay. Something to let Keiichi know _he_ was still okay.

"And who knows?" Skuld looked up at him and attempted a grin. It looked strained and fake in the shadows of the house, but he saw it regardless, and recognized the Norn's own attempt at comfort. "Perhaps you'll make her smile."

XXX

Two thirty three.

Two thirty three saw Keiichi dressed in one of his uniform tan t-shirts and a pair of Navy PT shorts, leaving the house with all its holes and all its deities and all its unresolved conflicts. Two thirty three followed Keiichi down the road and into the forest, where there were no street lights and the road was nothing but different shades of black, illuminated only by the high beams of his truck. Two thirty three trailed behind him as those lights illuminated dark shades of browns and greens and the occasional bright lights of nocturnal eyes. Two thirty three left him at the bend of a road where another late-night driver came around the bend, the both of them flicking their lights to their low beams in passing before back to the highs which kept the monsters in the shadows of imagination. Two forty crept around the bend as the forest cleared into a plain. He passed a herd of does who watched him with glowing eyes in the early morning, and as two forty five stalked up behind him he could feel the potion that had so calmed his nerves into a coma ease its death grip on him.

He pulled over into a a gravel pit used for U-turns and parked his vehicle there at two forty-six, where he turned off his high-beam lights and turned on the trucks internal lights. The man turned off his engine and there he sat, in the middle of the forest in Virginia half-way between his house and the nieghboring town, and it was there he sat in silence, gripping his steering wheel in a death grip as his mind's eye replayed the events that had so destroyed his house. Taking advantage of the silence of the forest and the peace brought on by the potion, the man took a deep breath, and then looked inwards. There, he examined him memories, sorting them into two categories: Those that were Clear and those that were Not Clear.

Those that were Not Clear he deposited in the trash bin of his mind, left to decompose and fade into obscure shadows that he told himself would not and could not harm him. Those that were Clear, he forced himself to experience, to visualize and relive in an effort to examine, to analyze, to _understand_. The emotional section, he knew, he would have to experience another day; he could not rouse the same incomprehensible terror that had so gripped him during the event; not with the potion in his system, and the terror attributed to the event would stay ripe and infected, like a stye that needed to drain, until he'd gone through it several times.

But in the calm he could still watch it unfold, disconnected as he was, and with the calm he could see what else was happening, those tiny details that had not made themselves so immediately known to him. And he could think of what he'd have done differently, what he _wanted_ to happen differently, that would have led to a better solution for everyone involved.

It was another trick, another exercise that he'd learned in Mental Health; one that had allowed the poison of his past incidents to fade and had made them easier to speak on, but one he'd yet to pass on to Belldandy. _I should,_ he thought, watching as in his mind the Keiichi of the past began to scream and then soon after began to vomit, and this time he caught the fear that was so naked on Belldandy's face. _I should teach it to her. It might help with the nightmares._

Lord, but she had ten _years_ she needed to work though. His had been a couple of incidents spanning hours. Hers had been days and months and years. The man grimaced, recognizing the fact that he was cheapening the severity of his own encounters, and shook his head. _It can still help though._ He thought. _If it can help me get past Fida…if it can help me get past_ this _, than it's got to help her get past Aoshima._

Aoshima… Keiichi did not blame Belldandy for the actions that had so destroyed his house. He could not, and he would not. No, not after seeing the videos that had so destroyed her as a person. The blame lied with Aoshima and Aoshima alone. _I should have killed him while I had the chance,_ he thought, and a surge of anger-hello darkness my old friend-surged through him with such suddenness he almost didn't recognize it. He slammed his fists into the steering wheel with a heavy _thump_ , baring his teeth in a snarl. "Fucking Aoshima ain't no goddamned better the Stuart!" he growled, and at the mention of Aiko's rapist the man groaned and let his head thump down against the rubber steering wheel.

A car wisked by, highbeams bright. He grimaced and looked away, but the spots were still behind his eyelids as the vehicle passed into the darkness. He focused on them, watching the lightspots dance and throb behind his eyelids as he let his forehead rest on the steering wheel. He let it rest there with a sigh, breathing hard through his nose as he groped for his cellphone. The man found it after some searching, and opening his eyes once more he unlocked it and dialed Aiko.

" _Kei?"_ Aiko answered bleerily after several rings. That was how she always greeted him. Maybe not always after the first ring, but always with that special nickname she had for him. Never, 'Hello', never, 'What's up?', never 'Are you drunk' or 'how ya doing'. Always 'Kei'.

"Hey Aiko. Did I wake you?"

" _Of course, silly, it's almost three in the morning."_ She laughed on the other end, and Keiichi could hear the sleep still thick in her voice. _"What's up Big Brother?"_

He stared at nothing in the light of his vehicle, then closed his eyes and leaned back with a sigh. "I gotta question for you."

" _Bring it."_ He didn't stop the smile that pulled at his lips. Always eager to help, that one. Even when he'd just woken her up from a dream with Prince Charming.

"How'd you get through your nightmares, Aiko?"

" _My nightmares?"_

The smile dimmed on his face, yet the anger didn't return. The potion was working its magic like before, and now the house and thoughts of what he'd like to do to pedophiles were long and distant; events he'd heard about but held no connection to him or the people he knew. _If only that were true._ He thought, then spoke once more. "From when you were younger. You know, back when I was in Basic."

There was silence from the other end, and for a moment he feared Aiko had fallen asleep on him while waiting for him to speak. Then she spoke once more. _"You're asking a lot of questions about that time, Keiichi."_ She only used his full name when something was wrong. He supposed on this account, something _was_. " _What's going on? What happened over there?"_

For a moment, and just for a moment, Keiichi considered telling her. Explaining Urd, explaining Bell, explaining the godforsaken videos and the children he'd seen on the screens. The temptation was great, and Aiko and him were close; "like two peas in a pod", so Takano used to claim. Keima was more blunt. "Keiichi is what Aiko would be if he'd been born a girl." He used to grumble. "The way they act, the way they talk, it's like a mini-Keiichi is always walking around the house!"

Then the moment passed and Keiichi sighed. "I don't know if I can tell you yet," he confessed. The SEAL didn't want to lie to her, not Aiko, but he also didn't want to betray the trust the Norns had so placed in his hands. "But…things are tough, and you're the only person I feel comfortable with looking for advice."

" _Do you need me to cancel my plans to come visit?"_ Aiko asked.

"No…I don't think that's necessary." Keiichi drawled. "I'm hoping things will calm down before the next three-day for you, but…"

" _Until then you need my advice."_ Aiko finished for him.

"Yeah."

" _Is it about a lady friend?"_

A lady friend…that was a nice way to put Belldandy."It's... complicated."

" _It's complicated?"_ Keiichi winced at his sister's tone. She sounded upset. _"It's always complicated with you! That's why Deb was so good for you, because there was nothing complicated since we knew her since we were kids. If you really want my advice, I say call-"_

"Don't," Keiichi interrupted. "Just…don't go there, 'kay?"

" _Just say'in."_

"Yeah, I know." The man rubbed his brow. "You and Megumi both are always 'just say'in'. Can we just focus on the current problem please?"

" _Fine."_ Aiko sighed. _"Are you sleeping with her?"_

Keiichi jerked as though he'd just been slapped. "What kind of question is that?"

" _Just answer!"_

"No."

" _Ok, good. You know what always helped me? It was that little sailor bear you gave me after you all did that marching-formation-thingy-"_

"Pass in review."

" _Whatever. Listen, Kei, I'm gonna level with you. I couldn't express my feelings properly back then, but that was the greatest present you could have ever gotten me."_ There was a long pause on the other end of the line, as though Aiko was thinking of the proper words to explain herself. _"For me…it was an extension of you; like a little piece of you that was with me wherever I was. It helped me get through some of the worst of it. The…the nightmares. I'd go to sleep clutching that bear and—"_ She cut herself off abruptly. _"You better not laugh about this, Keiichi, or I swear I will come down there and shove this bear right up your ass."_

"Wow, easy Bengal," he soothed. "I'm not going to laugh. You know there's nothing funny about that time."

"… _Okay."_ Aiko still sounded uncertain. " _So…the bear. It, I don't know, was a representation of you, right? When I smelled it, I'd always imagine that what I smelled was stuff that reminded me 'a you. Saltwater. Gunpowder. Metal…"_ She sounded apprehensive. _"You know, stuff that you'd attribute to the military or whatever."_

"Asbestos and black mold?" Keiichi offered, and grinned when Aiko released a muffled laugh.

" _No, you Goober! But…you understand what I'm saying? That bear reminded me of you because it was a gift from you; it_ smelled _like you. And, well…"_

"Scent is the strongest tie to memory," Keiichi quoted. He remembered reading that somewhere before, maybe in a book or a magazine during a deployment.

" _Yeah."_ Aiko agreed. _"So if I was you, I'd give her something that reminds her of you or someone she feels safe around."_ She paused. _"She…does feel safe around you, right?"_

Keiichi considered Aiko's question for a long moment, drumming his fingers against the steering wheel thoughtfully. _Did_ Belldandy feel safe around him? _She made a wish that the two of you stay together forever._ But that had been a wish made in the spur of the moment, Belldandy freed at last, overwhelmed and emotionally exhausted after a hard night of revelations and battles. _She kissed you._ Another part of him reasoned, and felt a thrill of electricity traverse down his spine and into his groin as he recalled that moment. Yet Belldandy hadn't kissed him since, hadn't so much as _smiled_ at him after arriving at his house, and, admittedly, that hurt. There was no sign of the woman he'd met in Japan, nor any steps he could see that might dictate a change for the better.

 _It's only been a week though._ He reasoned, _You can't expect her to just 'get better' after a week. That's not how it works. You think Aiko recovered in a week after her rape? Buddy, it took her fucking_ years _to get past that._ Yeah, he knew that, he'd seen it, and he'd helped her there too. But Belldandy…

 _She held you when you damn near lost your mind after whatever it was that happened._ Another part of him muttered. _And she'd been trying her damnedest to make a meal for you, even though you told her that shit wasn't necessary. She's trying hard to adapt to the concept that she's free, but you gotta remember she was stuck with that motherfucker for ten years._

" _Kei? You still there?"_

"Yeah, sorry," he mumbled. "I don't know. It's…she doesn't really open up a whole lot, even around-" He stopped himself before he 'her sisters', because in reality he couldn't say that. Urd and Skuld were around her more that Keiichi was because he had work, and he couldn't say what the trio did in the hours he was away from home. Was she more open when he was gone? When it was just her and Urd and Skuld? Did she smile and joke and laugh with them, only to return to that same stoic and solemn woman Keiichi knew when he returned home? _I still know almost nothing about her, h_ erealized. _She likes Swedish Meatballs and loose leaf tea that may or may not include green tea. She showers with men's shampoos and soaps_ -my _shampoos and soaps, but why?_

He didn't know. Probably wouldn't know until he asked Belldandy or Urd himself.

" _Then from me, personally? I would figure it out and then work from there. If she feels safe around you, then maybe give her one of your old shirts that you've outgrown, and don't tell me you don't have any-I've seen those arms of yours, Kei, and they get bigger every time I drop by for a visit."_ It was almost as if Aiko had tapped into his own thoughts there for a second. " _If she doesn't trust you, then do not-and let me make this as clear as crystal, Keiichi-do_ not _take it personally. You remember how when I was in sixth grade they had to move me to another class because of the teacher? I was afraid of him because he looked a little like Stuart. I would break down and start crying whenever I had to go into class even though he'd done nothing wrong. I couldn't take it, Kei, and it was stupid, the sixth-grade me knew it was stupid, but it didn't change the fact that I was afraid of him. I even wrote a letter to him trying to explain it, but Megumi was the one who had to deliver it because I couldn't look him in the eye."_

He remembered that. Megumi had recounted the story to him when she'd come down to visit once. "I never saw a grown man cry until that moment," Megumi had said. "He opened up the letter right there in front of me while his class was at lunch. I don't even think he realized he was _crying_ Kei. He just folded the letter and placed it in his desk, then thanked me all quiet-like and asked me to leave. But can you imagine, Keiichi? Being told you couldn't be around someone because you resembled their _rapist_? To know that your face alone would inspire that kind of terror in another person? Fuck, he must have felt _awful_." Megumi had been pretty drunk that night, which admittedly was probably the only way she could talk about it. In reflection now, he felt like he could use a drink, too.

" _Now I'm not saying that's the case here,"_ Aiko continued on, ignorant of the thoughts drifting through Keiichi's head. _"I don't know your lady friend's story and I'm not a psychologist who can speak on that sort of thing. I can only speak on my own experiences, and if her story is anything like mine, you cannot take it personally Kei."_

"I know." Keiichi's voice was gruff. "I guess for right now I'll have to ask her myself." He sighed with dejection. "Thanks anyway, Aiko. I'll keep the shirt idea in mind."

" _Good,"_ Aiko said. _"Give her time and give her your support. Again, I don't know her story but… you know I pushed a lot of good people away, Keiichi. I didn't mean to, but I didn't know how to express the pain I was in, or the fear that kept closing in around me. Make sure she gets help, Keiichi."_

"I will. Thanks again, Aiko."

" _Anytime, Kei. Let me know if there's anything else I can do for you, okay? And…will you let me know how she's doing? Your lady friend?"_

"Yeah…I guess I can do that for you," Keiichi said. "You'll probably get a chance to meet her when you come over."

" _That will be cool,"_ Aiko replied. _"Take care of yourself, Kei. I know you're a big rough and tough SEAL, but I know when things get to you. Don't let this be one of them, okay? Love you, Big Brother."_

"Love you too, Aiko. Get some sleep, okay?"

"' _kay. G'night Kei."_

"Night."

The man hung up the phone and stared at it, his gaze long and thoughtful.

His mind elsewhere, the SEAL didn't notice he was not alone until his new guest made its presence man stiffened and sucked in a startled breath as the truck dipped then leveled. Something heavy crawled across the pickup's bed. He heard it paw at the emergency toolbox he kept in back; a red, metal box that weighed at least fifty pounds, and heard it skate across the grooves that lined the metal bed. His eyes darted to the rearview mirror, and in it he spied a deep, black shadow investigate the other materials in his truck. _What. The. Fuck. Is. That._

He heard a deep growl, and with his eyes glued to the mirror he watched the form slide across his back window, for a moment revealing short, tawny fur that scratched against the glass. _That's not a dog. Too slender for a bear. Is that a goddamned mountain lion?_ There weren't any mountain lions in Virginia though; they'd all been hunted to extinction. Another growl, a curious chuff, and the man started badly as the thing climbed onto the roof of the truck. He heard the metal warp beneath its weight, and the man turned to look out the window, watching as a long, slender tail slipped up and out of sight.

 _It_ is _a goddmaned mountain lion. Holy shit there's a goddamned mountain lion on my truck._ He sucked in a deep breath and leaned his seat back as far as it would go, scrunching down into it to make himself less visible. Of all the times to be caught without his rifle. _I survived god only knows what with Belldandy and it's going to be a fucking mountain lion that finishes me off._ How much weight could the glass of his windshield withstand before it broke? How much did a mountain lion weigh? _It's going to come down the front of my truck and break through the glass,_ he thought wildly. _It'll get stuck in the windowpane and start clawing at anything within reach trying to get back out, and I'll be the first thing it shreds to pieces._

A paw came down on the glass, and Keiichi swallowed. The pad alone had to be bigger than his fist. _How big do pumas get again?_ Fuck if he knew. The ones at the zoo he took Keigo to didn't look that big, but he'd been on the far side of the enclosure back then. This was up close and personal. Too close.

Another paw came down on the glass, this one a little further down, and the puma began to crawl down the windshield. The cougar was _massive_. It had to have been at least three, maybe even four feet tall, but that could have been the fear starting to circulate through Keiichi's mind. It's forepaws hit the hood of his truck, and there it stood, one back leg still on the roof of his vehicle, the other leg resting on the windshield and giving Keiichi a healthy display of the white fur of its underbelly. The creature looked around, its large head swaying from side to side like a king ( _no, a queen,_ Keiichi thought _, that's definitely a female)_ surveying her domain, and when it became apparent that the beast held little regard for him Keiichi allowed himself to release the breath he was holding.

"Hello you dangerous, gorgeous thing." Keiichi caught himself whispering, "Please don't pay me any mind. Please just kindly hop off my truck and go about your morning. _Please_." As though hearing his words the puma's head jerked back at him, and Keiichi's heart skipped a beat as a pair of luminous, golden-ringed eyes met his. _It sees me. Oh fuck a duck, it sees me._ It's jaw parted a small bit, and it slid the rest of the way down the windshield and turned to face him fully. The window fogged from where it's breath hit the glass, and Keiichi spied long, sharp canines that held a yellow sheen in the light of his truck. Keiichi didn't move. _It's a roamer. Gotta be._ There was something he assumed was a tag in one of its ears. _Didn't know roamers could get so big._ Yet even despite his fear, he couldn't help but admire it. Oh, the fear was great. Even with the potion, he could feel it bottoming out in his bowls and crawling along the inside of his stomach, but Ho-Lee-Shit, what a sight. It's small, round ears swiveled to and fro, and again one of those massive paws came to rest on the windshield, this time letting it slide down the glass as though it was a housecat asking to come inside.

 _If you're cold, they're cold. Let them inside._ He thought inanely, and felt a tiny little laugh slip out of his mouth against his will. "Sorry Beautiful, not this time," he told it, watching as it paused and then switched to the opposing paw. None of its claws were extended, but he could see the deadly points within the fur of the paws. "I got a woman back home already." A hand edged towards the horn, hoping that maybe he could scare it away. The great cat saw this and stopped, laid its ears back flat against its head, and released the most godawful scream he'd ever heard.

Keiichi screamed too, felt himself jump, and then without another 'how you may' the puma hopped off his truck and trotted off, leaving the man trembling and alone as it disappeared into the surrounding shadows of the forest. He laughed. It sounded perhaps a bit hysteric. "That-that was _awesome._ "

He didn't find the strength to start his truck for another fifteen minutes.

XXX

By the time he got back home it was close to four thirty in the morning. "Thank god it's Saturday," Keiichi grumbled, hauling out the bag of 'comfort food' he'd bought and heading inside. The man felt spent. It'd been a long night, and now that the excitement of the early morning was past him, the idea of going back to sleep held looming appeal.

Locking his truck, the man looked up at his house. There was no evidence he could see of the destruction so brought forth by Belldandy, nor did he come across any remaining shrapnel in the grass as he climbed the steps leading up to his porch and headed inside. The living room was clean too; someone had even been kind enough to fold the TV stands and stack them up against a wall with their neighboring chairs. _Maybe we can go shopping for that couch today._ The idea appealed to him. A nice, simple task to help keep him distracted, maybe even keep Belldandy distracted. _What kind of a couch would a goddess like?_ he wondered. Did goddesses even like couches?

He'd figure it out later. With a mighty yawn, the man moved into the kitchen, depositing items in the fridge, freezer, and pantry for later use. That done, he crept up the stairs, avoiding the planks he'd long ago identified as the noisy ones before checking his room. It was empty, the wear on it from the fight was gone. Like the TV stands below, someone had even taken the time to tidy up his room a bit; his bed was made, and he could just catch the lingering scent of a woman. Recognizing the fact that all three Norns used the same body wash as he did nowadays, it could have been any of them, but his mind decided it wanted to believe it was Belldandy.

Speaking of which…

The man left his bedroom as he'd found it, slipping into the guest bedroom Belldandy inhabited. The room was repaired, but the bed was empty, and for a moment Keiichi feared that Belldandy and her sisters had fled in the wake of the disaster they'd unleashed upon his house. He stared at the bed with its empty sheets with wide eyes, feeling his stomach knot with anxiety. _I fucked up somehow,_ he thought. _I freaked out on them with that magic-thing and they thought I couldn't take it, so they left. They just…no, no that can't be it._

With a lingering glance at the guest bedroom, the man moved to the next room over, finding the blow-up mattress deflated and rolled up neatly in one corner. It too, was empty, and the man felt his throat grow dry. _No, no, please tell me they didn't leave me. They, she didn't even say good-bye, I would have at least wanted to say good-bye to them, please for Christ's sake no!_

He moved to the bathroom, but the door was empty and open. The towels he'd bought for them and all the soaps and shampoos were still there, but they were _gods._ What use did they have for such mortal items? Souvenirs? A shirt that said _I HEART MIDGARD_ in big, bold letters? He couldn't believe that, didn't _want_ to believe that, but Jesus, where the hell were they?!

Grimacing, Keiichi returned to Belldandy's room, his brows furrowed with deep worry lines as he stepped into the room and surveyed it, wondering if perhaps he'd missed something, if they'd left a note, _something_ to let him know everything was okay.

Nothing.

No note, no letter, no 'so long and thanks for all the fish', nothing.

His throat locked. It felt almost as though his heart might break. _I just wanted to help,_ he thought. _I just wanted to see Belldandy smile, is that so bad?_ Fuck, even _Urd_ had left without a word, and he liked to think that they were pretty close as far as friends went.

"…Fuck." He could think of no other words to describe his feelings, and despondent, the man trudged back to his room, sinking onto his bed with a sigh. Now what? Propping his elbows on his knees, the man closed his eyes and leaned forward, burying his face in his hands. "I'm sorry, Belldandy," he mumbled. _I didn't mean to scare you off like that._

A sigh came from a corner of his room.

Keiichi stiffened, then looked up. Where had that come from? He looked around, his eyes wide and searching, and in one of the corners near the entrance to the master bathroom he spied a lump of figures nestled together. _What the…_

It was the Norns. All three of them, piled together in a corner propped up against one another. Belldandy was in the center, with Urd and her right and Skuld on her left, and all three of them breathed the deep, even flow of a restful sleep. They were in the corner his door blocked from sight when opened, and so somehow they'd escaped his notice upon him first peering into his room.

The SEAL stared at them for a long moment, dumbfounded and relieved, watching as Belldandy sighed once more, squirmed in her sleep a bit, and then settled when Skuld leaned further into her. Urd muttered in her sleep. The red welt on her cheek was gone, he noticed, but in its place were bags from exhaustion beneath her eyes that made them look bruised, even in her sleep. She didn't so much as twitch when either of her sisters moved, but instead slid along the wooden floor. If not for the fact that she was pressed into the corner of the wall, Keiichi would have bet that the Norn would have eventually slid off Belldandy altogether.

A slow smile lit up Keiichi's face. _They didn't leave._ _Fucking A, they didn't leave._ How long had they been there? Why were they sleeping in a corner like that? Who _fucking_ cared?The man dug into his pocket and retrieved his phone, then pulled up the camera app. _One picture._ He told himself. _Just one picture, just in case they do decide to leave me. One picture to remember them by._ He lined up the shot, grateful he'd disabled sounds on his phone, and took a single picture, taking care to ensure the light was good and that the shot wasn't blurry. He beamed at the resulting image, the turned off the phone and pocketed it again. _How long have they been like this?_ He wondered. He didn't want to wake them, but… the man glanced at his bed, then hopped off and yanked off the comforter one of the Norns, hell maybe all of them, had taken so much time to smooth out across the bed. He dragged it across the room, the draped it across the sleeping sisters' forms, straying only long enough to make sure the heavy blanket didn't drift down from their shoulders.

 _They're here. They've stolen my bedroom, but who cares, they're here._ Belldandy murmured something in her sleep. It almost sounded like 'ichi', but perhaps that was just his ears. _Guess I'll go chill in the guest room, then._ He decided, the slipped out, a large smile on his face as he closed the door quietly behind him.

So distracted with his own thoughts, he never saw Skuld's eyes crack open and follow him out.

XXX

It wasn't until noon that everyone roused that day. Urd took the longest; the others woke up around nine, but Urd was the only person to sleep in until twelve, and even then there were still heavy bags beneath her eyes.

"I've been overexerting myself," she confessed. "Between the lack of sleep and all that magic, I'm worn to the bone, guys."

Skuld punched her in the arm. Urd yelped, then glared. "Your own fault," the younger woman scowled at her. "And you should have told us what was going on."

Urd scowled back at Skuld but said nothing, instead rubbing her arm moodily.

Belldandy looked between the two of them with worried eyes. "Please don't fight. It's my fault, I—"

"It's not your fault, Belldandy." Both sisters were quick to interrupt her, and Keiichi watched with a start as they spoke in unison. Lind's words form earlier returned to him. _They're a pretty tight-knit bunch, aren't they? …They're good for each other._

 _Yeah, they're good for each other alright._ Keiichi agreed. _Say what you want, but those two are probably the best thing that could a' ever happened to Belldandy._ Urd and Skuld never started fights with Belldandy. They'd start fights and argue like a couple of cats with each other, but whenever the blame game came around one or both was always quick to shoulder it before Belldandy could so much as consider it.

"Still…" The goddess lowered her head, brow creased with apprehension. "What if it happens again?" she asked, and at that everyone fell silent. "I don't…the entire house could explode." She looked up abruptly, her face set in a determined frown. "I can't accept that," she said. "I—" She frowned, grit her teeth, then tried again. "I'm not sleeping tonight," she announced. "You all have suffered because of my nightmares, and I cannot allow that to continue further."

"Wow, hey now…" Keiichi said, staring at the woman in alarm. "You can't just 'not sleep', can you?" He paused, then looked at Urd. "Can you?"

"We can't." Urd shook her head. "Keiichi's right, Bell, that's going to hurt you and you know it. Sleeping is the alternate method you use to help link yourself up with Yggdrasil. You _know_ what will happen if you deny that, especially while you're here in a third-dimensional body. These bodies require sleep just as much as Keiichi does, and you'll only worsen the condition if you don't get some rest."

"Yeah." Even Skuld was agreeing. "Sleep deprivation isn't going to make the nightmares stop. Just hold them back until your body shuts down and forces you into sleep." She shook her head. "And you know what'll happen then? You'll be in that deep sleep won't be able to rouse you from."

"I appreciate your concern, but my mind is made up." Belldandy inclined her head. "At the very least for one night," she protested. "You all deserve some rest without having to worry about me, and I can keep myself occupied until dawn."

"So what, you'll sleep during the day then?" Skuld stared at her in disbelief. "How will that help? You'll just be shifting the time you have nightmares!"

Belldandy shook her head. "No, I'll stay up into the following evening." She decided. "That way you all have at least a twenty-four hour time period to rest and recover without worrying about me." A flash of guilt rode across her face. "Besides, you've all been doing so much for me lately…I need to pick up my share of the burden as well." She shook her head. "I won't have you all making sacrifices for me when I've nothing to return."

"Bell, listen to me, please," Urd said gently. "You aren't a burden to anyone. What we do is by our own choice-you haven't _asked_ us to do anything. We _want_ to do that stuff for you, because we love you. But you can't stay up for a full thirty-two hours."

Belldandy stiffened, and then sighed. "Urd," she began, and her voice was quiet. "Last night, for the second time in two weeks I knocked you through a wall. My magic lashed out at you and Skuld and even Keiichi, and Skuld is still recovering from the cracked ribs I gave her." She sent a look to Skuld when the younger woman opened her mouth to protest, and Keiichi looked at the younger goddess in surprise. Skuld winced and looked away with a scowl. He hadn't realized the blow from last night had been _that_ bad. "Not only did I almost kill Keiichi- _twice_ -but I almost drove him to madness because I let my magic get away from me, and if forced him to see it in a manner that his mind could not fully understand." She eyed all three of them, her frown deep and gaze stressed. "What part of last night was something any of you _wanted_ to do for me?" she demanded. "When I had injured you all in some way, either physical or mental?"

Silence fell upon the room, and Belldandy nodded, her expression bitter. "I am no fool," she whispered. "You all are suffering because of my own actions. At least allow me the chance to suffer in turn."

"We just want to help, Belldandy," Keiichi said.

Belldandy fixated a glare on him, but beneath the anger and resentment, he saw the guilt and hurt that dwelled within her eyes. Aiko's words from earlier that morning returned to him. " _I couldn't express myself properly back then…I pushed a lot of good people away from me, Keiichi."_

 _It's no different._ Keiichi thought. _So what would you do if it was Aiko in her place?_ The answer came easily enough. "Listen, if you want to try and stay up that late, I'll stay up with you, okay?" His words evoked a fresh peal of protests from Urd and Skuld, but the SEAL ignored them both. "It's hard and boring staying up late like that-trust me, I've pulled plenty of overnight watches before. It's easier if there's someone to help pass the time with." He nodded encouragingly to her, and saw some of the anger fade. "So I'll stay up with you. Hell, I'll even keep you awake, if that's what you really want. It's no biggie on my part. I'm used to getting only an hour or two of sleep a night." He grinned at her, hoping it was sincere. "Hell, it'll be like a slumber party, only without the ghost stories and pillow fights. We'll make pillow forts and have hot chocolate and popcorn, shoot, we can even play some videogames-you ever play _Street Fighter_? In fact…"

The man clapped his hands, startling everyone present. "That's the perfect reason to go out and buy a couch today! We'll get ourselves one of those nice big ones, load it in the truck, and have ourselves something other than these damned-uncomfortable chairs to sit on. What do you say?"

They were staring at him. All three of them. Skuld looked like she wanted to strangle him. Urd looked ready to protest, then paused, her gaze torn as she looked from Keiichi to Belldandy with worried eyes. Belldandy stared at him, her eyes burrowing into him as though trying to guess his plots. Keiichi held his peace and kept his eyes on Belldandy. _I'm leaving the decision up to you_. He tried to communicate to her. _You have a choice. You've always had a choice and I want you to know that._

At length the goddess nodded. "Very well." She said. "Very well…I will accept this."

Keiichi's smile broadened into a more honest one. Urd and Skuld both scowled. "Sweet." He said, and pretended not to notice the death glare Skuld directed his way. "How about some tea to seal the deal?"

"Tea?" Belldandy's brows shout up in surprise, and he caught a spark of interest in her gaze before it vanished behind its usual wall of disinterest once more.

"Yup." Keiichi nodded, and caught Urd send an accusing glance to Skuld. Skuld was attempting to flay him alive with her eyes alone. "I didn't know what flavor to get you, so I got a couple different types. None of them are loose leaf, unfortunately, but I'm working on that."

"I-" The goddess closed her mouth, looking so stunned that for a moment Keiichi worried she might bolt. "I-I can work with that." She bit her lower lip. "Did…is there…black tea?"

God, she was so hesitant it was heartbreaking. _Like watching a beaten dog being offered a treat from another person._ He thought, and felt sick. Aoshima had wanted Belldandy to call him 'Master'. Had that been all she was to him? A dog to kick and beat on whenever the mood deemed fit? _Never again._ He decided. For a moment his hands throbbed, as though a pair of hooks had been forced through them, and then it was gone. _I'll make sure no one hurts you ever again. I swear it._

"There's also some cinnamon and cloves." Skuld spoke up, and Keiichi looked at her in surprise. The goddess was glaring at a far wall, her face twisted into a scowl. She huffed. "Also saw some anise in there too-it's all powdered, but it'll still work, I guess. Milk too, but it's that awful 'skim milk' trash that seems to be the latest sensation sweeping the nation."

The SEAL watched as all three Norns made a disgusted face at the mention of 'skim milk', for a moment looking so identical to each other that even with Urd's more exotic features, there was little doubt as to the relation between the three. "White water," Urd muttered.

Even Belldandy grunted in displeasure. "Ugh." Then the goddess brightened. "Still…I can use that and a little additional cinnamon…maybe even a tad bit of honey…" A corner of her mouth twitched up in what Keiichi _knew_ was the start of a smile, and despite himself he leaned forward, eyes wide with anticipation.

Belldandy caught him staring. The almost-smile vanished. Instead, she flushed, and with a quick 'excuse me', departed for the kitchen in a rush. _Damn._ Someone swatted his arm, and he flinched, looking back to find both Skuld and Urd staring at him, unamused.

"Creeper," Skuld grumbled, then followed Belldandy into the kitchen.

Urd sighed. "We all want to see Bell smile too, Keiichi, but stop making it so obvious." She rubbed her temples. "I hope you know what you're doing. I don't think I'll be able to stay up and help if things go south this time around," she warned.

Keiichi nodded. "I know what I'm doing." He had no fucking clue what he was doing. No idea, but it _felt_ right, and goddamned if his instincts hadn't served him well all his life. "It'll go fine. Don't worry about it."

* * *

 **A/N: Next too chapters have some surprises for people. :)**

* * *

 _Comments from a Madwoman: Remember how this is an AU story? Get ready for some different mechanics ranging in how magic works as well. Also in the next chapter, things get weird. Real weird. Loopy weird. As in I was not in my right mind when I wrote what's in the next chapter. But hey, it's all good, It's all cool, Keiichi called a cougar beautiful and all she did was scream bloody murder at him._


	11. Chapter 11 - Night Terrors

l

-11-

After a full week staying at Keiichi's house, the small group finally went out to buy a couch. They went to a 'Virginia Furniture Store' in the heart of Norfolk, and from there Keiichi resigned himself to his fate. "Okay Belldandy, I'm leaving you in charge of what couch we get."

Belldandy whirled to face him in surprise. "You're what?"

Keiichi grinned. This was going to be either really fun or a horrible disaster. He was hoping on the former. "You heard me," he chirped. "You said you wanted to help out too, right? Well, now's your chance. You need to pick out a good couch."

The woman stared at him as though he'd just spouted gibberish. "Um… what kind of furniture do you want?" she finally asked.

Keiichi shrugged. "Don't care," he said. "It's going to be your couch, so make sure it's something _you_ like."

Again, a look of mass confusion blanked out her face. "What do you mean it's 'my couch'?"

"Exactly that," Keiichi replied as he nodded. "This is something for _you_. As in, pick out something _you_ like, because it will be _your_ possession, not mine. _Your_ couch, to sit on or sleep on or burn to the ground if you so please." He paused, thought about it, and then said, "We'll also grab you a fresh set of blankets for the bed, too. Again, make sure it's something you want, and don't worry about the price tag—I'm not hurting for change."

"A couch for me," Belldandy repeated, staring at him as though wondering if she misheard or he misspoke, and the look of disbelief didn't fade when he nodded in agreement. "Ah…" She looked to Urd and Skuld for help, but they'd already caught on to Keiichi's intentions and were playing along.

"It's all you, Sis," said Skuld. "Want to go around and see what looks good?"

Urd grinned at her and whispered something in Belldandy's ear. The woman jerked back when Urd was finished, then stared at her sister, aghast. Urd gave her a thumbs up. "Go and have some fun, Bell. When's the last time a man let you cut loose and go shopping?" She waved her hands in a shooing motion, and catching the hint, Skuld grabbed Belldandy and pulled her away, leaving Urd with Keiichi.

"What'd you tell her?" Keiichi asked.

Urd just smiled. "You'll see," she replied. "Think of it as her way of seeing just how sincere your offer is." She grabbed him by the arm and started to drag him in the opposite direction. "Now come on. We should have you order some other things while we're here."

"Like what?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

Urd rolled her eyes. "Keiichi, I swear, you're worse than a cave man sometimes. How about something like a dining room set? Maybe a coffee table? Dressers? A recliner? A bookshelf? Some actual _furniture_?"

"Oh." He was starting to wonder about his offer to pay for whatever Belldandy chose. All of a sudden this seemed like it was going to be a very expensive outing. "Right."

XXX

Belldandy picked out the most godawful, ugly-ass, grandmother couch Keiichi had ever seen. But it was also pretty damned comfortable, he'd grant her that. The man sank into the couch with a sigh, bouncing on the cushions before lying down on the length. It was firm enough not to feel like he was being devoured but soft enough that it didn't feel like he was lying on a cluster of planks. "Not bad." He hoisted himself up and off, then gestured to Urd. "Lay down on it," he said. "Is it big enough?"

Urd raised a brow at him but did as requested. There was about three inches of extra space between her feet and the far arm. "Sweet. It'll do for a bed, too."

"A bed." Belldandy sent him an accusing look, and he grinned.

"Not for tonight, no," he reaffirmed. "But sometimes, say we have extra company for whatever reason, like the he guys or Lind, and they need to stay over, we can grab a few extra blankets, a spare pillow, and you've got some place to sleep when beds are slim." He stared at her with a smile, then added, "You ain't never lived to you've slept on a buddy's couch."

"I see…" Belldandy pursed her lips. "Then will this do for you?"

"Will it do for you?" Keiichi fired the question back at her. "It's your couch, not mine. I'm just pointing out things that are good to watch for with a couch is all."

The goddess frowned, then eyed the couch once more. It was a deep shade of pink that reminded Keiichi a bit of chewed bubblegum, with a floral pattern sewn in shades of gold and green at random intervals on the back and the tops of the cushions. It looked like something his grandmother would have owned back in the fifties, and the idea of such a piece of furniture resting in his own house made him laugh. He'd already been married once, and he'd stopped feeling self-conscious about the appearance of his furniture long ago. It'd be fun, and it'd drive the guys from Team 12 nuts if any one of them had to spend the night.

Belldandy glanced back at him, and Keiichi smiled once more. She looked back at the couch, still uncertain, then back at Keiichi. "You'll actually let me buy this." It was more a statement of disbelief rather than a question, and at his nod again her attention continued to drift between the couch and Keiichi. Behind her and well out of her range of sight, Urd and Skuld were watching with growing amusement, as though Belldandy was enacting out the most entertaining scene they'd ever witnessed. If he was one to judge, he'd even go so far as to say the two were making bets on whether or not their sister would not just choose a couch, but _this_ couch.

Urd looked like she was rooting for her. Skuld's face was pink, and she bit her lip, shaking her head as she tried to fight back a grin. Finally, Belldandy set her face in a determined line, her gaze fierce. "Then I wish to buy this couch," she said. He recognized the tone. It was one that said, _this is it, your last chance. You either give up this farce now or we're taking it home._

"Sounds good," Keiichi said. "Let me go track down a sales rep." He turned, pretending not to catch the look of utter shock on the Norn's face as he walked off, whistling. He also pretended not to notice Urd pounce on her sister as he rounded a corner, nor the startled squawk from Belldandy.

"You're freaking adorable sometimes Bell, you know that?" Urd crowed, and as Belldandy began to protest, she said, "Nope! Deal's set! This Ugly Beast is going home with us!"

He was relieved no one was around to see him double over in laughter.

XXX

The day passed into evening. It took some effort, but somehow they managed to get the 'Ugly Beast', as Urd so fondly dubbed their new couch, into the bed of the truck, held down with cables and some wooden planks. Keiichi had never been so grateful to have a trio of otherworldly beings at his side. He didn't think he'd get it through the front door of his house any other way.

They'd also ordered additional furniture as well; a solid wood dining set for the dining room with four matching chairs, a couple of small dressers for the guest bedrooms (where the Norns stored their clothes, Keiichi had no idea. The SEAL had never seen the sisters bother with laundry before) a La-Z-Boy of a bright red to match the Ugly Beast, and a larger, queen-sized bed for the guest bedroom Belldandy currently inhabited. Keiichi would move the current twin-sized bed into the other guest bedroom after the new bed and mattress arrived, and would use the comforter set Skuld had helped Belldandy pick out to go with the new bed, officially making it 'Belldandy's room' rather than what Urd had deemed as 'temporary lodging'.

It was a lot of furniture, and the resulting bill had hurt to look at, but it hadn't hurt as badly as Keiichi thought it might. The mention of Belldandy having her own room and bed and blankets had brought about another of those rare 'almost-smiles' to her face, and Keiichi conveniently forgot about his aching wallet afterwards.

Skuld had requested they stop at a store to grab a quart of milk—whole milk—on the trip back home, and after they'd finally maneuvered the Ugly Beast through the door and into the house, Keiichi had been treated to Chai 'as it should be'. The SEAL didn't care for it much either way, truth be told, but then he'd never been a big tea drinker anyways. He drank it regardless, and Belldandy seemed relieved when he complimented her on its flavor.

Dinner was a simple affair that night, yet what came after it was another new experience Keiichi could add to his 'Big Book of Weird Norn Shit' that night. Urd broke out the Sake he'd gotten per Skuld's suggestion and poured everyone a small glass after dinner. She set a small porcelain glass down beside everyone and filled each cup close to the rim, yet no one drank. Instead, as the goddess returned to her seat, Belldandy got up in her place, brewing more Chai with the black tea Keiichi had gotten and the various spices and milk that went along with it. A strange, peaceful silence had fallen upon the Norns, and sensing there was more happening than just what was visible, Keiichi fell quiet as well, curious but unwilling to break the strange mood that had befallen the sisters.

It was a meditative silence, reflective in a manner that exuded calm. Urd stared into her cup, Skuld's gaze drifted out a window, and Keiichi's own eyes found themselves following the ebb and flow of Belldandy's dress, watching the way the folds of the material would press against her body, hinting at the form concealed within, and then in the next moment flow out, obscuring the possibilities nestled there but letting his imagination fill in the details. It was hypnotic, he realized; a shifting dance that would have been regular and ordinary any other day, yet in this strange mood and in this strange light, it pulled him to and fro, up and down, back and forth like a man on a ship and leaving him with the strange feeling that he was swaying, swaying, swaying to the dance of the sea and her melodic songs.

His body felt like it was rocking with the ocean's current by the time Belldandy finished the Chai, and as her sister prior, the goddess produced large mugs for everyone present, filling them all in a manner almost identical to the still untouched Sake before retaking her seat. And then Skuld stood. As Keiichi guessed, she moved to the freezer and withdrew the small pint of ice cream he'd bought for her. Just as Urd, just as Belldandy, as though by magic she pulled four tiny bowls from the cupboard. Four tiny bowls like four large mugs and four ceramic cups, none of which Keiichi owned in his household possessions and yet seemed to somehow sprout with the needs of the Norns.

She grabbed an ice cream scoop from one of the drawers-of course she did, he didn't own one-and placed first one perfectly round ball of ice cream in each bowl and then a second in each bowl before finally a third…and then she paused, and somehow produced a fourth little ball for everyone present. Four cups, four mugs, four bowls and four scoops. Four was the magic number this night. Not three; no Trio of Norns, not Three Furies, nor three Fates, or Gods. No Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit or Maiden, Mother, and Crone here. No boys and girls, Keiichi of the holy trinity of one-Mortal, Man, and Warrior-was here to join the fun, and that Holy Trinity was now an Unholy Four.

 _Make way, make way. Today's the day Ol' Keiichi's comes to play._ And with a start the SEAL realized, as Skuld passed out the bowls, that he was expected to participate as well. Like it or not, joking or not, he _had_ become part of this strange ritual, whatever it was, and with growing apprehension the man met Belldandy's eyes. _I don't know what to do._

And just as easily a response came, as Belldandy met his stare with a level of calm and kindness he'd only seen in his dreams and in the pictures Urd had shown him in what felt like another life. _You do._ That gaze said. _You always knew. From the moment Urd stood up to the moment Skuld sat down. Four, three, two, one-_ Ichi _-Keiichi._

And indeed he did, for as soon as Skuld took her seat Keiichi was up, up and moving around the TV stands with a fluidness that on a normal day was absent from his body. Yet this was no 'normal day', no sir-ee Bob; there was a disconnect between his mind and his body today; a strange feeling that he was a tool guided by different hands than his own, not fully in control of his own actions. Yet where there should have been fear instead there was peace. _Ia Ia, Waka Waka, come on home and shake 'dem Tatas._ Everything was good and everything was fine, just like that potion had done after it had passed his lips and slid down his throat. Except it was different this time, it was _right_ , and as he opened the cupboard he found exactly what he was looking for, and that was four tiny plates. Tiny little plates he'd never seen except perhaps in his dreams, and they were perfect for what he had in mind.

He distributed them in a tiny little square upon the counter, then went into the pantry, withdrawing a small little bag from where he'd hidden it behind the cans of expired food. He observed the contents inside for only a moment, then closed the pantry behind him and returned to the plates. He stared at the porcelain, and thought, _four little plates with four tiny dates_ , tearing open the plastic and placing a single date on each plate. He went clockwise, from the top, and named off the individuals who'd own the plates once they were ready. _Urd, Belldandy, Skuld, Keiichi. Four, three, two, one. Crone, Mother, Maiden, Man. Fire, Air, Water, and Earth._ His mind was buzzing now, humming with a strange energy that tingled and made the air seem electrified. The SEAL stared at the plate for Belldandy, then the plate for himself, the two resting opposed to each other. _Air and Earth are wrong. Air and Earth are right._ His head felt fuzzy, and that rocking motion still filled his body. _Crash-swish…crash-swish…crash-swish…_

He grabbed the plates, two with each hand, and headed back to where they were seated, for the first time recognizing the fact that they'd maneuvered the tv trays into the same square Keiichi had produced with his plates, Urd at the head, ( _She faces west towards the setting sun)_ Belldandy next, _(She is cast in high noon's glory towards the north)_ followed by Skuld ( _who is east with the rising sun)_ and finally Keiichi himself _(and he is cast in shadow, watching the glory of the gods in the sky above)._ He deposited them in the same order as he'd arranged the plates and placed the dates, then returned to seal away and store the remaining fruit.

He took his seat and looked over at Belldandy. That strange, peaceful 'feel good' mood had yet to fade, and all he could think was _everything is good. Life is good._ He stared at the goddess across from him and smiled at her. He felt mellow and relaxed, and judging by the expressions shared by the three sisters around him, they seemed to be in a similar state of being. Belldandy gave him another 'almost-smile', and this one bridged a little bit more across her face; not an 'almost-smile but a 'near-smile'. It stayed like that on her face as the goddess leaned back with a content sigh, and then Urd spoke.

"Mine is the fire of the spirit that burns through the night." She announced. Keiichi looked over to her, finding a peaceful, content smile on her face. "Through thick and thin it sheds the darkness and destroys the poisons, bringing warmth even as it scalds. This I bring in offering, and may its heat guide you when darkness sets in."

"We accept this offer in thanks." They said it all at once, Keiichi included, and together the four of them grabbed the tiny cups and took a sip. To Keiichi if tasted not so much as the sake he'd had whenever he was back home, or even the shitty generic brand he'd gotten in the same store as Skuld's ice cream, but fire; pure, liquid fire that heated his throat and made his eyes water. The man almost thought he saw smoke rise from his nostrils, and he could smell fire-not sake, not smoke, but _fire_ on his breath.

 _Keiichi what the hell is going on?_ Some tiny piece of him screamed. He recognized it as the voice of reason, which had slowly been fading more and more into obscurity with every day spent amongst the Norns. _What the fuck are you doing?! What are they doing?! What's going on?!_ He didn't know and didn't care. The calm had set about him like that potion from before, and that feeling that everything was _right_ , everything was _fine_ , did not ebb. _Ride the waves, Jankey-Baby. Ride the waves._ What did that even mean? _Go with the flow._ Some part of him told him. _Don't think about it. Just let it happen._

They finished their sip, and placed the cups, still mostly full, down beside the mugs, arranged in that same square with Urd at the top and Skuld on the bottom, Belldandy and Keiichi on either side for everyone at their makeshift 'table'. As Urd leaned back Belldandy straightened, her expression once more one of peace and kindness. "Mine is the breath of life that flows through the world," she murmured. "Upon its currents the world shifts and turns, spreading the warmth of the fire and the cool of the water and the fertile earth without discretion. This I bring in offering, and may its dance soothe you when darkness sets in."

"We accept this offer in thanks." They took the mugs with both hands but did not drink. Instead they brought it close and inhaled, and Keiichi smelled hot spices and earthy scents that moistened his nose. Yet there was more, too. Scents he couldn't explain, scents he recognized but couldn't name, scents from all across the globe that he knew in the instant of a breath - _animalsplantsmenwomenelementslightdark—_ and then were lost to him as he exhaled. _I just inhaled everything on this planet._ He thought to himself, his head woozy as it tried to sort through the information overload, and then he was placing the mug down, Belldandy was leaning back, and Skuld was leaning forward. _Oh boy, here we go again! Another wave coming Keiichi, hang ten Bro!_

"Mine is the waters that traverse the body." She stated. "Come hot or come cold, from the sky or from the earth, it nourishes all and grants growth for all. Life for you, water for your crops." She looked at them all with a large, exuberant smile on her face, and to Keiichi it seemed as though her eyes glittered with starlight. "Let its currents aid and nurse you, providing you with relief when darkness sets in."

"We accept this offer in thanks." They took a small scoop of ice cream, only it wasn't ice cream anymore. Keiichi wasn't going to let his eyes fool him into believing it was ice cream, because it was white like snow with a tint of blue like a glacier. He'd gotten her a pint of _Ben and Jerry's Chocolate Fudge Brownie_. He opened his mouth and took a bite, and oh lordy it felt like he was eating an iceberg, tasting the currents that seeped from a freshwater stream before melting into the heated water of a geyser as the iceberg melted on his tongue. The chill dug icepicks into his brain, and as it faded he could taste the barest hint of salt as an aftertaste. Salt and minerals from the waters found deep underground or within the ocean's current, and he wanted to gasp but couldn't.

 _Woo-hoo! That was a good one!_ The voice of insanity whooped. _Who's next. Oh!_ You're _next, Janky-Baby! Think you can give these girls a wave like theirs?_ Keiichi doubted very much he could; he was a man, not a god, but they were all waiting on him expectantly, and like it or not, he was expected to contribute. _You've come too far now to back out like a bitch. Time to man up and show 'em what you got, Buddy Boy._

He looked down at the assortment of cups and bowls and plates before him, his eyes drifting to the dates. He pursed his lips, then leaned forward, all at once shy and scared, like a little boy placed in the spotlight on a school play. The Norns, all three of them, watched him without comment, but there was a peace in their face, a kindness to their expressions that encouraged him. _It doesn't matter what I say._ He realized. _So long as it's got meaning behind it._ "Mine is the fruit of the earth…" He trailed off, cleared his throat, nervously (like a nervous student when he'd given speeches at Ceremonies and Graduations) then tried again. "It is the fruit of hard labor and reward…grown by the earth and, ah, shared among friends."

Dates… he'd discovered dates during a deployment to Al Udeid. Qatar was a waypoint for various deployers heading for Afghanistan or Iraq, and the surrounding area was largely safe for Americans. He'd gotten the opportunity to go shopping off-base at one of the local stores, and had bartered for a box of imported Iranian dates with one of the locals in the nearby city. They were as sweet as candy, he'd discovered, and had shared the goods among his Team and with additional acquaintances without care. Anything from Iran was banned from American import, and for many of them it was a once in a life time opportunity to sample an Iranian export.

He had a lot of fond memories of that time. Shoot, that had been the last time he'd seen Urd, dressed and disguised as an Airman with her silver hair tied up in a tight sock bun. _I shared the dates with her too._ He thought. _We were having our two nightly beers together-just the two of us, because Urd didn't want to be seen by the rest of the Team. I gave her the last of the dates that night._ The look of surprise, and then genuine gratitude she'd displayed to him that night had been endearing, and the sense of comradery they'd shared late into the morning hadn't faded even after she'd left. He'd felt at peace with himself for the first time in what had felt like _ages_ back then, and it had lasted all the way until he'd come home. _It was one of the best deployments I'd ever gone on. Easy going and relaxed, and all with good company._

Now, those fond feeling returned to him, and he felt a wide smile spread across his features. "It is product of comradery born upon the earth's surface, soil, and sand." The words were coming easier now, he found, and part of him even started to wonder why he'd been scared in the first place. This was easy. _Like planting seeds_. "When food is scarce and the nights are long and cold, when there's no fire and you're afraid to draw breath, let this hold the fright at bay and remind you you're not alone when darkness sets in." He looked at them, hopeful, and saw large, joyful smiles on the faces of everyone present, even Belldandy.

He returned it with his own, and just as enthused the Norns announced in great, pealing voices that rang in his ears " _We accept this offer in thanks!"_ As one they took a single date, and as he bit into the fruit it was everything Keiichi knew it would be. Sweet and sour, savory and spicy, moist and dry all at once. He swallowed with them, and all at once the ceremony, the ritual, the _mood_ was broken: Urd rose from her chair with such suddenness that her chair crashed to the floor. She was at his side before Keiichi could blink, laughing and hugging him tightly. Skuld leaped forth with a smile like the Cheshire Cat, wrapping an arm around his neck in a headlock as she gave him a noogie, like she was an older sibling and he the younger who'd just won a football game. Then came Belldandy, at a slower pace but with a rush all the same, and as Urd and Skuld pulled him up and out of his own seat she embraced him with such force and emotion that he found himself lifted off his feet. She beamed up at him; they all did, but of everyone's Belldandy's was the brightest, the kindest, the one that stole his heart and set his dreams dancing.

"Did I do good?" He squeaked, and for a moment all three sisters paused to observe him, then burst out in a laughter that was its own music to his ears. _I could listen to that for the rest of my life,_ he thought, and laughed with them.

"You did wonderful, Keiichi." Urd assured him.

"What _was_ it though?" Keiichi asked, and Belldandy lowered him to his feet. She did not release him from her embrace.

"Yggdrasil," Skuld said. "That was what a direct link-up with Yggdarsil feels like on a shared network, Keiichi." She socked him in the arm good naturedly. "That's why I wanted you to get those items. We needed to link up with Yggdrasil to help purify Belldandy, and hot damn if you didn't go and fucking _join us!"_

"Wait…what?" Keiichi looked at them all, his smile not fully understanding but happy all the same. Happy because they were happy, Belldandy was happy, and he'd done something to help make that so.

"When we're on another dimension, Yggdrasil is the system that helps sustain us and maintains our bodies to our higher selves," Belldandy explained. "If we don't have the opportunity to properly connect, than the bodies we inhabit begin to decay, first on a spiritual level, then on a mental and finally physical aspect." She held him at arms length, his hands in hers. "Keiichi, I haven't had the opportunity to link up to The World Tree in almost ten _years_."

"Belldandy was in a toxic environment." Urd stepped in now, her face bright with relief and joy as she tossed an arm around Keiichi's shoulders. "Normally that's okay so long as it isn't for an extended period of time. We bath to help purify ourselves and ensure the link is still strong with the Yggdrasil mainframe, and that keeps us safe in mind, body, and spirit." She shook her head. "But after ten years of that kind of environment…eventually the link starts to corrode, and that corrosion starts feeding down the line to the deity it's connected to. At that point, it doesn't matter how much the god involved purifies herself; it won't be enough because of the corrosion, and eventually that deity will become corrupted and loose their status as a god entirely."

"So what did I do?" Keiichi asked, his smile still the ' _I have no idea what's going on'_ face of a clueless man.

"You helped," Skuld said matter-of-factly, as though those two words alone explained everything. "It won't solve everything…but it's a start. It's a _big_ start, and the fact that you not only trusted us, but _contributed_ to it goes a long way, Magilla. You helped, you joined in, and the corrosion is stopped. It means Belldandy can start healing _for real_ now."

"It does?" He looked at them all, and in that moment found himself in awe by their presence. The Norns were literally _glowing_. Not the glow of healthy skin, but a glow of an _aura_ , one he could see and which shined upon their brows clear as day on a sunny morning. _I'm in the presence of the divine,_ he thought. And for the first time since meeting Urd, that fact, that _reality_ , hit him like a ton of bricks. _I'm in the presence of the divine, and I'm_ helping.

He was doing a good like none other, and with a laugh, this time he embraced Belldandy, then laughed harder when the goddess didn't recoil at his touch. _Does this mean she trusts me?_ Some shy piece of him wondered, and he looked up at the goddess, for the first time seeing the pure, unadulterated _love_ in her face.

 _It does._ That same voice responded. _You bet your ass it does._

XXX

Belldandy still decided she was going to stay up all night. "I said I would, for your own aide," she explained.

"But you need to rest," Skuld replied. "Please? The reconnection with Yggdrasil is still new and weak. Sleep will help strengthen the bond."

For once Urd held her peace. Instead her eyes remained glued on Keiichi, following him as the man brought up his laptop from downstairs with an external hard drive. Keiichi tried to ignore her gaze. _Urd, I don't know what you're expecting me to do, but stop it,_ he thought. _I'm not a mind reader, despite my earlier performance._

Whatever had connected their minds so easily, that 'shared network on the Yggdrasil Mainframe', was gone now, and that eerie sense that he was not in control of his own actions was gone, replaced with 'Keiichi' once more. The man found he was both relieved and disappointed. While it felt good to be 'himself' again, the peace and the feeling of 'rightness' had dissipated soon afterwards, and with it so too had that elusive, mystifying, goddamned fucking _beautiful_ smile _. I'd kill for that smile._ He found himself thinking at one point, and then laughed at his own thoughts. Love made monsters of all men, it seemed, and Keiichi was no different. _Don't matter. Just means I got to work twice as hard for Heaven's Grace,_ he decided, and smiled at the challenge. It wasn't even an entire loss, either. Belldandy decided she was going to stay true to her word and that meant Keiichi would stay true to _his_ and join her.

 _I get to stay up all night with the woman I love,_ he thought, and despite himself he couldn't hold back the silly, puppy-like glee at the prospect of being alone with Belldandy for a full night. _It really_ is _like a slumber party. Mom and Auntie are upstairs asleep and I'm downstairs with the girl I like, sneaking peaks at her breasts and trying to be discreet and get a kiss. Shit, I'm no better than Keigo right now._

"Oi, Loverboy, ground control to Major Tom, do you read me?" He blinked, then started as he focused on a pair of bright violet eyes an inch from his nose. "You listening?"

"Nope!" The SEAL chirped, and smiled as the goddess groaned and leaned back from him. "Drifted off, totally missed it. What'd you say?"

"I said you're as lovesick as a teenager," Urd grumbled in distaste. "Listen Jank, take tonight in stride, okay? I know you don't understand a lot of what we did back there after dinner-if you understood any of it-"

"I didn't."

"I figured." She sighed and sent him a look, but he could see the hint of a grin on the corners of her mouth. Ah, that fabled Norn Almost-Smile. Truly he must be blessed to have witnessed not one, but two such legendary expressions from two of the three deities within a day of each other. "Just know this, Jank. We did a lot of good for Belldandy today. At the same time however, don't expect too much from her tonight. Rome wasn't built in a day, and what we did only repaired the link with Yggdrasil. It didn't change anything regarding her actual experience with the Fucknugget-"

Keiichi laughed abruptly. "Fucknugget? Is that what you call him now?"

"Focus Keiichi," siad Urd as she bopped him on the side of his head with her hand. She tried very hard to sound annoyed, but he saw that the Almost-Smile had evolved into a Near-Smile now, so she obviously wasn't too annoyed with him. "She'll still have nightmares, Jank, and she's still going to be the same stubborn woman we've all come to know and love, but that doesn't mean you can't still try and make her laugh. Show her Monty Python, tell her stories from your deployments, but keep your filter on, play games with her and be prepared to get your ass handed to you."

She paused, her gaze thoughtful, then nodded. "Actually, yeah. If all that fails, start playing some games on your computer or something, and don't tell me that giant beast isn't some gaming laptop with a bunch of emulators on it." She pointed to the black laptop under Keiichi's arm. "Play some kind of competitive game with her. Put it on its most difficult setting and let her loose. The Belldandy I know and love was insanely competitive, and I'm willing to bet this one is no different. You just need to loosen her up a bit."

"I got it," Keiichi nodded. "Never knew she was into that sort of thing. I tried playing chess with her a while ago, but I didn't really get anything from her."

"Show her some stupid movies and silly videos," Urd suggested, ignoring his comment. "It might lighten her up a bit and have her take a game more seriously. Let her beat you a couple of times to see that you won't loose your shit on her."

"Okay, that sounds like a good idea," he nodded, and Urd pat his shoulder. "Are you going to get some more rest?"

She nodded tightly. "Since there's now two vacant beds, I'm stealing yours while Skuld takes Belldandy's. If I'm lucky I'll sleep like the dead and won't wake up for half a decade, but who can say?"

The SEAL nodded. He was well-versed in sleep deprivation and the deep sleep that came when the head finally hit the pillow. "Sleep well, Urd." She nodded at him, and the man scowled, making her pause. "Before you go…"

"What's up?"

"Back in the dining room, after we did that…thing. You mentioned that Belldandy was being corrupted," he said. "What did you mean by that?"

Urd's expression fell into a careful neutral, and the woman observed him in a long, heavy silence. At length, she spoke. "What happens to corrupted data?" She asked.

"You lose it," Keiichi said. "If you can't recover it, then that data is gone forever." He frowned at his own words, brows furrowing together as he meditated on the meaning. "You mean-"

"Good Night Keiichi," Urd interrupted. "You did a good thing for my little sister today, and for that, from the bottom of my heart, I thank you." She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek; a small peck, a sisterly kiss, yet one that startled him by the sheer gratitude and affection that came with it. "Watch out for her tonight for me." She straightened and winked at the SEAL, then proceeded towards the stairs. "I'm trusting her to you in my stead."

He watched her depart in silence, then returned to the living room with Belldandy and Skuld. For a moment he paused in the threshold, observing the duo in a new light. Neither of the Norns noticed him. _I never saw it._ He thought. _Since she came here there was never any signs that anything was wrong. Not like... not like_ that _._ It'd been a week since she'd come to his house though, and they'd done nothing in that week. Nothing until... _Nothing until Skuld gave me that task. Was it that nightmare that gave Belldandy away? Or did Skuld just notice something that none of us did?_ The goddess in question was trying to convince Belldandy to go knock it off, cut it out, go to sleep because 'its for your own good'. _The great and terrible 'Theys' of the world make their inevitable return._ Keiichi thought, and shook his head. Belldandy looked no closer to backing down now then she had before their little 'link-up', though she certainly seemed more vocal about it.

 _Vocal and glowing._ He thought, listening with half an ear as Belldandy argued back just as hard. _Urd's right._ _There's a life to her now that just wasn't…present before. It's like a fire that was reduced to smoldering embers, and was rekindled because someone had the sense to feed it._

Deciding to save Skuld from loosing any more face, Keiichi stepped into the room. "Give it up, Poodle, you aren't getting anywhere this round." The goddess scowled at him, and he smirked. "It can't do any harm to let Belldandy try, can it?" he inquired. "I mean, she's a grown woman! I'm pretty sure she can decide for herself what's good for her or not." He sent a meaningful glance to the Middle Norn, who almost sighed with relief.

 _Finally, someone who listens to reason._ He almost heard the words in the sigh, and Skuld grit her teeth, sending him another glare that would have peeled paint if he was a house.

"One of these days, Magilla—"

"You'll curl your hair and start yapping, and then you really _will_ be a poodle." Keiichi finished for her.

Skuld turned scarlet. "Oh, that's it motherfucker, it's _on_."

"Skuld!" Belldandy snapped, and the younger Norn flinched. Keiichi started too. _That_ was a new tone. "Honestly, I love you, but I grow sick of being treated as a despondent dependent!" The middle Norn fixated a glare on her sister, and Keiichi could almost see Skuld's hair stand on edge. "Please, allow me a moment to think for myself for a change, as it has been so denied to me for the past ten years! With how you act, it's almost as though Mother were here herself and scolding me as a child once more."

The flush on Skuld's face deepened almost to a dark shade of purple, and the younger woman froze, mouth hanging open and gaping like a fish out of water. Keiichi's brows shot up in surprise, wondering what he'd just witnessed as Skuld finally managed to shut her mouth. "…I'm going to bed now." She said, her face showing a flush of embarrassment so great it could not be withstood. She passed Keiichi with such a rush the man half-expected to see her legs blur like some old _Looney Tunes_ character. The man kept himself well out of her path, just in case the character she was emulating was _Taz_ , but Skuld didn't even spare him a second glance.

He let out a low, appreciative whistle as the goddess hastened up the stairs and out of sight. "What was _that_ about?" he asked, then followed with, "…What do I have to say to get _that_ kind of response from her?"

"I'd prefer not to say." Belldandy grimaced. "Please, can we focus on something else?"

"Sure." Keiichi reasoned, and just like that felt a silly grin fall on his face. "So, what would you like to do first?" he asked. "We've got games, movies, television shows, whatever trips your trigger." He'd set up one of the cleared TV stands from earlier next to the flatscreen, and it was there he sat his computer, opening the laptop and connecting an HDMI cable to one of the outputs. The man turned the tv on, and Belldandy watched with a start as a screen identical to the laptop appeared.

Keiichi logged in to his computer, and with a happy little chirp the screen changed to his desktop, displaying a large picture of four people in the background. Belldandy recognized one of them as a younger Keiichi. The others she guessed were his siblings. One was so young that he was still a boy.

"You have a movie genre you like?" Keiichi asked.

Belldandy blinked, and with a start tore her gaze away from where she'd been examining the faces on the screen. "Sorry, no," she said. "Movies…never held much appeal for me."

Keiichi looked over his shoulder, his gaze thoughtful. "Do you mind me asking what kind of movies you watched?"

Belldandy pursed her lips, for a moment looking uncomfortable. Then she sighed. "I suppose…samurai movies were something…" What was he to her now? Her ex? Aoshima? Master?"

"That something Fucknugget enjoyed?" Keiichi asked, using Urd's latest nickname for the man in question.

Belldandy's jaw dropped in surprise, her eyes wide. "I'm _sorry_?!" she cried. "Are you referring to-"

"Your ex?" Keiichi continued. "The Buttplug? Ass Wagon? Dick for Brains?" Belldandy's jaw dropped, and Keiichi paused. "…Would you prefer I called him by his real name?"

"I—no, I-" A fresh wave of horror descended on her. "No! I mean, yes, I mean-" She stared at him, her hands pumping up and down as her cheeks darkened.

Keiichi laughed. "Okay, I get it," he said. "I get it. We just won't speak about him, okay?" He turned back to his computer, connected the hard drive to a USB port, and pulled up the connected drive. "You ever seen _Monty Python and the Holy Grail_?" He asked. "That was the first Monty Python movie I ever saw. I didn't get it at first, because the humor was so different from American humor, but it grew on me after a while." He smiled at her, and for a moment Belldandy felt her heart flutter in her chest.

"I have not," she admitted. On top of his love for Samurai movies and martial arts movies, Aoshima had a strong dislike of anything Western, probably due to his ties to the _Yakuza_. The only thing he ever allowed that had even a hint of Western influence were the business associates working with his front company, and the types of girls he enjoyed for his…hobbies, and even those were for a business venture. Slavic girls in particular turned out to be a very marketable stock, she'd had the misfortune of learning. Belldandy had taken steps to put an end to that as quickly as possible.

"Well, you're in for a treat." Keiichi said, turning and rummaging through his virtual files before opening one marked _Monty Python._ He double clicked a video file, and second screen popped up and expanded, revealing the opening credits. A large, gleeful smile on his face, the man snaked over to the Ugly Beast, where he let himself fall onto the cushions. "Read the subtitles, read the opening credits, read as much as possible. Trust me, it's worth it." Thundering music began to issue from the flatscreen's speakers, and Belldandy looked at him in question. The smile did not fade. If anything, it attempted to grow larger still, and the Norn was reminded of an eager little boy showing off his prized possessions to the lady he had a crush on.

 _He's adorable when he smiles like that,_ she thought. Despite the mass of muscles and the hardness of experience, despite the scars and gruff, scruffy appearance he portrayed after having not shaved for a full day, when he smiled like that his entire appearance changed. The hard SEAL that was the man who'd rescued her a week ago vanished, and in its place was the gentle youth she'd watch grow up ten years prior. _No wonder he was married, s_ he thought for a moment. _With a smile like that, he'd steal the heart of even the goddess of love and war, harlot though she is._

She turned back to the screen, contemplating the wisdom of perhaps, maybe, just _maybe_ edging a little closer to him, and then began reading the text as it appeared on screen.

And it was of course at that point that all such romantic thoughts fled her being as she caught some of the subtitles that appeared on screen. "Wait..." She blinked, wondering if her eyes were deceiving her or if perhaps there was something wrong with the language transceiver that allowed her to speak with Keiichi. Unnoticed by her, Keiichi was watching her with absolute glee, almost beside himself with excitement as he watched her reaction. "Why are there Swedish subtitles." She paused, staring in confusion as _'Wik'_ appeared at the bottom of the screen. Her brows furrowed in concentration, and a heavy frown slid across her face. "See…the…loveli…lakes?" Wait, that wasn't Swedish. That was…well, Belldandy didn't know what it was, but it certainly wasn't Swedish.

"What?" The Norn looked back at Keiichi. Yet the SEAL did nothing but smile that same silly smile and pointed back to the screen, and with growing bemusement Belldandy returned her attention to it. ' _A moose once bit my sister.'_ Scrolled along the bottom, and the woman's jaw dropped as an entire paragraph detailing the event appeared on the next credits line. " _What?!"_ The music fizzled out on the next scene, and a message apologizing for the subtitles and detailing those responsible being sacked appeared. "What on earth-" The music began to start up again, this time with high, musical chimes, another strange 'subtitle that was not' appeared, and then the music faded a second time, detailing the sacking of the sackers. Again it started up again, and Belldandy was not blind to the credit detailing an individual who'd trained a moose (perhaps the one that bit the sackee's sister) appear with some absurd long name. _I wish a moose bit my ex-husband rather than that individual's sister,_ she found herself moose credits appeared on screen, followed by a third and final fizzle out of the message detailing the sacking of those responsible for subtitles, credits, and directors, and the music that started next was wild, chaotic, and accompanied with flashing red and yellow backgrounds and the mentions of llamas.

Belldandy looked at Keiichi in astonishment. " _This_ is the movie you wanted me to see?" Was this how all Western movies started? This-this _absurdity?!_

Keiichi just stared at her. "It gets better." There was laughter in his voice and his eyes danced with mirth, and uncertain of what to say, Belldandy turned back to the movie. Oh…oh, it was going to be a long, _long_ night.

It got better. Keiichi said it would and he was right, just like the man who'd somehow recovered from being turned into a newt. Belldandy even recalled the exact moment it got better while she was sitting next to him. King Arthur and his crew armed with coconuts had approached a palace, a huge, impenetrable fortress lined with large, towering stone walls. Belldandy had immediate thoughts of Aoshima and his own modern-fortress, and the memories had been an unpleasant trip down memory lane. Keiichi seemed oblivious to how the European castle's appearance soured her mood, but Belldandy had done nothing in the past ten years if not learn how to internalize her own thoughts and emotions. Keiichi seemed to honestly be enjoying the movie, glancing at her every couple of minutes as though ensuring she witnessed some scene of absurdity, some bit of madness or some piece of depravity that seemed to be the entirety of the movie. She didn't want to spoil it for him with her own distaste as she took a trip down memory lane.

And then the French appeared.

Atop the castle walls they stood, harassing King Arthur and his band of knights as they attempted to storm the palace, launching every poor insult in the book they could think of at the English with such terrible accents that Belldandy had to snort back a laugh of her own. Bad as it was, the way the Frenchmen were portrayed somehow brought to mind Aoshima's horrible attempts at English, and the way his business partners would snicker and bite back laughter during meetings conducted in his front market. The fact that they then had the horrible sense to throw all their livestock and then what appeared to be sewage at the English only helped solidify the mental resemblance of the man's poor decisions in his life, and she had to bite back laughter in the hopes that Keiichi didn't notice.

If he did, he pretended not to. She appreciated that.

There was a black knight, too. A black knight who's prowess marveled King Arthur, and despite herself she found her eyes straying to Keiichi, recalling his rescue of her that fateful night and the black stealth armor he'd worn to protect himself. Of course, that image was shattered after King Arthur cut off the Black Knights arms and legs, and she had to make a mental note to scrub the comparison from her mind. Keiichi roared with laughter beside her, and against her hardest efforts she felt a small, tiny smile squirm upon her face.

The sudden musical interlude with the Knights of the Round Table had been unexpected, and, after the rest of the movie had progressed, Belldandy again found herself snorting when the knights dancing on a table cut away, showed a brief image of a thin, deprived prisoner strung up and clapping gaily, then returned to the knights. "Oh goodness it's my life in a movie." She buried her face in her hands with a moan that wanted desperately to be a laugh, and Keiichi laughed beside her and put an arm around her shoulders. She didn't pull away. _Thank Yggdrasil for small blessings._

 _"Let's not go to Camelot. 'Tis a silly place,"_ King Arthur said, and Belldandy found she agreed with him wholeheartedly.

 _Let's forget about Aoshima. 'Tis a silly man,_ she thought to herself, and smiled into her hands.

There was a wizard named Tim with a pass time for explosions. "You sure that's not Skuld's dad?" Keiichi whispered to her. " _And_ Urd's? They both seem to have a penchant for blowing stuff up."

"You're incorrigible," she moaned, but the grin did not fade. She'd not gotten it to go away since Camelot.

A terrible White Rabbit was defeated with a Holy Hand Grenade. "Think Lind uses those?" Keiichi winked at her.

"I doubt that poor woman even knows what a grenade is," she replied. "You'd have better luck finding such a thing in Skuld's inventory."

It riled a chuckle from him, and towards the scene with the Bridge of Death, Belldandy found herself leaning into Keiichi. "Wait, is the 'Old Man from Scene 24' blind in both eyes?" She whispered, and then grimaced as she watched first one knight, then another get thrown over the bridge with a _boooing_.

"Yep," Keiichi replied. Like all the times prior, he pretended not to hear the snort that arose when King Arthur answered a question with a question of his own, and watched as the old man himself was cast over the Bridge of Death with a similar _boooing_ to the knights.

"This movie is ridiculous, Keiichi." It was small, but there was a hint of laughter in her voice.

"I know," he replied. "But that's what makes it so entertaining."

The night was still young by the time the movie was finished with an abrupt and final ending. The police coming in and arresting King Arthur and his knights was baffling, and as it had started, so too did it leave Belldandy staring gape-mouthed at the television. "That's it?" she cried, looking for verification from the man at her side. "Honestly? There's nothing after? Nothing at all?"

"That's it," Keiichi said. "Nothing but a bunch of loons apprehended after escaping the loony bin, and this after murdering that one old guy."

She stared at him. "I…was wondering about that…" she mumbled. "That…that was by far, the strangest thing I have ever seen." She paused, and then frowned. "I feel so…unsatisfied." She looked at him again. "No holy grail? Just like that? Not only did they fail but there wasn't one in the first place?" Even the ending battle was anticlimactic. She…how was she supposed to feel after that? _It's like sex with Aoshima,_ some stray piece of her thought. _Anticlimactic and disappointing. Right towards the end it even becomes pitiful._ She flushed at her own thoughts, surprised that such a thought would even transgress through her mind in such a manner.

"You good?" Keiichi looked down at her with a grin.

"Ah, yes…just a strange thought is all," she said uneasily. He looked at her in question, but with her silence he didn't press.

"How about we try something else." He rose from the Ugly Beast with an enormous groan and stretching his arms above his head. His shirt curled up around his waist, and Belldandy risked a quick glance at the flash of abdomen, catching a hint of muscle beneath the skin. Her eyes darted up to the man's face before he caught her staring, and letting his arms drop Keiichi headed back to his computer. "You want to try some videogames?" he asked. "Help ease out of the silliness of Camelot and its knights for a bit?"

Belldandy pursed her lips. "What did you have in mind?" she asked. Games of any type were something Aoshima held a great fondness for...in particular when he was _winning._ He lost his temper when he was losing, and people-good people-tended to get hurt when he lost his temper. Keiichi she knew wasn't that same type of person, but the memories, like so many other things, spoiled the mood.

Keiichi planted his hands on his hips, staring down at his computer and then over at a black gorilla box that he'd come to use as a storage container. "Well…" he started. "I was originally thinking of introducing you to _Mario Kart_ , because it's a fun multiplayer game, but then I thought better of it. That games makes enemies of the closest of friends and family 'cause it's got this weird 'boomerang' or 'slingshot' mechanic to it."

"I…don't know what that is," Belldandy admitted.

Keiichi looked back at her and shrugged his shoulders. "I don't either," he said. "It's something Keigo tried to explain to me once-Keigo's my little brother, by the way-and he said that it's got this habit of giving the best items to people in last place, so that right towards the end people who absolutely suck at the game can make this amazing comeback, usually with a blue shell or a lightning bolt that just annihilates whoever's in first. It ain't real' fair, so I figured we'd better try something else."

He closed his laptop and unhooked it from the HDMI port, then moved to the black gorilla box, popped it open, and withdrew a small rectangular box. "I heard you like challenges though, and…let me see here, I know Keigo left it here during his last visit…ah, here we go." He took out a plastic case, and her curiosity getting the better of her, Belldandy leaned over from where she sat atop the Ugly Beast.

"What is 'Dark Souls'?" she asked.

Keiichi looked over his shoulder at her with a slow smile. "A challenge," he said simply as he connected wires to the console resting before the television. "I'm not really good at it myself. Keigo called me a ' _filthy casual'_ once, but I don't know or care what that means." He gave a tiny half-shrug. "I'm not that into videogames-I prefer hobbies that keep me up and moving-but Keigo and Aiko play them, and that one war game I got-what was it, _Battlefield_ or _Call of Duty_?-either way, they play that too, and we can all play together online, which is real fun, even though I can't hit the broad side of a barn with the guns in those games."

He pried the plastic case open. A name was written in _kanji_ at the top of the disk, and Keiichi smiled before showing it to Belldandy. "Keigo was born in America, unlike my old ass. He thinks _kanji_ is the coolest thing since the invention of a freezer, and he's always tagging his stuff with the characters that make up his name. Somehow this makes him 'super popular' at school, and kids are always hounding him to write their names in _kanji_ too." He smirked and shook his head. "It's cute. Kid eats that shit up, the dork."

Removing the disk from the compartment, he slid it to the front of the console, and Belldandy watched with a single raised eyebrow as the machine ate the disk and the display on the flatscreen once more changed. He grabbed a black controller and scrolled over to a monitor depicting the videogame on screen, then selected it before returning to the couch. "So, want to make your own Black knight?"

He offered her the controller, and biting her lip, Belldandy took it, hesitation seeping into her features as she took the offered item. "My own…knight?" _Tis but a flesh wound!_ Rang through her head in the voice of the Black Knight, as she stared at Keiichi pensively. "What do you mean?"

"Exactly that," Keiichi said. "I don't know much about the game, to be honest. I never made past the tutorial. But from what I know of it, you create a knight or some other medieval guy and then go fight off all these monsters and stuff. There's something about a fire, a bunch of zombie-looking dudes, some dragons, all sorts of stuff."

Belldandy stared at him. "Uh…huh."

"Just try it," Keiichi urged. "It can't hurt, right?"

"I supposed…" Belldandy trailed off, looking down at the controller held in her hand, then at the television. The controller felt large and awkward in her hands. It was at the start menu for the game, which held an ominous darkness to it which seemed fitting for a game entitled 'Dark Souls'. Looking down at her controller, the goddess experimentally pressed a button, and was rewarded as the screen gave way to a _New Game_ and character creation model.

"I can create an avatar?" she asked with a start, and beside her Keiichi nodded.

"You can make it look like whoever you want," he said.

"I see." She stared at him, then back at the character model. After further experimenting with the controls and gaining a feel for how the game handled, Belldandy began to customize her character.

Two hours later.

Keiichi didn't have the heart to tell her that the man she was trying so hard to design in his own image wouldn't be seen all that often. Most of the game would be seen from the character's back, with the virtual avatar adorned in some kind of armor. The character didn't look _exactly_ like him, but it was probably as close as the game would come to it's own digital Keiichi, and he had to give Belldandy credit for her effort.

"You didn't want to make…you?" Keiichi asked, watching as she named her avatar, hit _yes_ , and the game rolled through its introduction.

"No," Belldandy said. She watched the screen with mild interest. "I am no knight."

Keiichi raised an eyebrow. "And I am?"

Belldandy looked him dead in the eye. "You are," she said. "You are my knight. The knight who saved me."

Keiichi fell silent, for a moment at a loss of what to say. Belldandy looked back to the screen, and deciding that for now silence was the better answer, Keiichi did as well.

The screen shifted to a coffin, and the lid slid open, displaying a hollow-eyed would-be Keiichi as the Undead crawled out. "Wait…this isn't the character model I made." Belldandy's brows furrowed together, and she looked to Keiichi for an explanation. The man shrugged his shoulders. Lips pursed in confusion, the goddess once more turned her attention to her avatar, moving him around with the joystick and testing out the abilities he had. At some point, she started to head down the only path available to her, and as she moved patches of red appeared on her path, detailing the controls when prompted.

The goddess seemed to catch a feel for the controls quickly enough, and by the time the first opponent appeared on screen, a hollow-eyed zombie like her own character, she disposed of it with relative ease. Same with the next several opponents, though some sort of monstrous ice dragon had caught her off guard and eaten up a chunk of her health. She was quick to ensure a repeat event did not happen afterwards.

"This does not seem so bad," Belldandy said. She looked up at Keiichi, and on her face was an expression he'd never seen before. It took him a moment to recognize it for what it was; Competitiveness.

 _You said this would be a challenge. Where is it? I demand entertainment,_ he imagined her saying, and smirked. "Git Good," he said, leaning back as Belldandy leaned forward, face heavy and dark with concentration. _Oh sweet Summer Child, don't you feel it in the air? Winter is coming._

There were a couple of instances where Belldandy was startled by some hollow-eyed opponents dropping out of no where upon her, but she'd learned to dodge early on and was quick to switch out any old gear for new, better gear. Keiichi watched it all in relative silence. He'd never seen this side of Belldandy before, and he couldn't help but be entertained by the vast array of facial expressions the Norn ran through without thought. There was the deep, 'I see nothing but the game' concentration. The startled 'Where the hell did this fucker come from' shock. The 'holy shit I almost died' look of relief. And the one Keiichi himself was well-versed in when he'd attempted to play the game: 'Roll, roll, roll, _roll bitch!'_

It didn't take long for her to come across the tutorial's boss. At first Belldandy didn't seem to think anything of it. She rushed in without hesitation, drawing the sword from a large goliath of a man called Iduex Gundyr, and then began swinging madly. She managed to score a couple of hits on the tutorial boss's form, and then Gundyr rose, the music changed, and the intimidating figure decided it was time to take a piece out of Sir Keiichi's ass. He struck Sir Keiichi with a large spear in hand, a chunk of Belldandy's health vanished, and with a scowl on Belldandy's face the Keiichi on screen retreated.

' _Tis but a flesh wound!_ She darted in, attempting another strike, and succeeding with a small wound on her opponent. Yet this time she was not fast enough to avoid the immediate counter, and with a series of consecutive strikes Sir Keiichi fell dead to the ground. _YOU DIED_ appeared in large, red letters, and blinking Belldandy leaned back, watching as her character respawned at a bonfire a small distance from Gundyr's realm. "…Hmm."

Keiichi watched her from the corner of his eye, and with a tight grimace Belldandy once more set out to the tutorial boss, disposing of respawned enemies and collecting additional souls along the way. She got a little further this time, taking the opportunity to roll like Link across Hyrule Field as she gained a stronger feel for the Gundyr's attack patterns, dipping in when an opening appeared and dipping out just as fast. After a good chunk of its health was gone, around three-fourths or so, the boss underwent some sort of ghastly transformation, and as half of its body bulged grotesquely into some sort of huge, oily black serpent, Belldandy yelped, Sir Keiichi was swatted like a fly, and as he fell dead once more the words _YOU DIED_ arose on the screen.

"Okay…" The goddess licked her lips, then hunkered forward. "This time. This time for certain."

 _This is the most adorable thing I've ever seen her do,_ Keiichi thought, finding his eyes drawn less and less to his virtual self and more and more towards Belldandy.

It took a while; a good thirty minutes if Keiichi was to judge, but on the third go-around Belldandy defeated the monstrous beast, and the victorious smile that alighted her face was almost savage in its glee. She lit a bonfire and proceeded onwards after collecting the souls she'd lost in Sir Keiichi's prior lives. Then through the doors she went to the next area where, ten minutes later, off a cliff Sir Keiichi rolled as an agile opponent with a large, poisonous sword forced Belldandy back.

 _YOU DIED._

Belldandy stared at the screen, watched Sir Keiichi respawn near the fallen Gundyr's bonfire, and then sighed and continued on once more. Keiichi was tempted to ask if it was challenging enough for her yet, then noticed the Norn's scowl, and thought better of it. At some point she reached the Fire Link Shrine, where she lit a bonfire, met a strange, creepy NPC called Fire Keeper, and leveled up for the first time. At the High Wall of Lothric she came across her first dragon, and watched as Sir Keiichi fell to its broad arc of flames when she tried to dash through an opening.

 _YOU DIED_

Following that she found a mimic. It proceeded to eat her as she stared at the moving chest in confusion.

 _YOU DIED._

Keiichi glanced at his watch, startled to see it was nearing one forty-five in the morning. Had they really spent so much time in the game? _She's a persistent woman, I'll give her that._ And a quick learner, too. The game had shown her its brutal streak and little by little she'd adapted and overcome the game's mechanics. She proceeded slowly, rolling in and then out of boxes, striking treasures chests to ensure they weren't mimics, and at times rolling and blocking for what felt like ages before growing comfortable enough with a new enemy's attack patterns to attempt a strike of her own.

When the goddess finally recovered the souls of Sir Keiichi's last death and reached a new bonfire, Keiichi announced, "How about we take a break for a while?"

Belldandy jumped, then looked at him, her eyes wide. She'd been concentrating so hard on the game that she'd forgotten the man sitting next to her. "But I'm not done yet."

Both of Keiichi's brows shot up in surprise. "Belldandy, you don't have to beat the game in one night," he said. "It wasn't designed for that."

"It wasn't?" She stared at him peculiarly. She looked back at the game, but Sir Keiichi appeared to be in a safe enough location where he didn't need to worry about monsters ending his delicate life.

Keiichi shook his head. "Nope. Most video games these days aren't. They're meant to be enjoyed in increments. You can come back to it later on, but I think now would be a good idea to take a break and try something else. What do you say?" In truth, that last death spawned a look on Belldandy's face that made Keiichi fear for his TV. The goddess looked for a moment like she was contemplating the wisdom of chucking the controller at the screen.

Now, she frowned, looked at him, then back at the screen. Evidently she must have realized a break was in order as well, for with a sigh she nodded and handed to controller over to Keiichi, who proceeded to end the game and turn off the console. "Good challenge?" he asked her, and with a small bit of reluctance, she nodded.

"Yes…good challenge."

Keiichi nodded. "I'm going to grab us some drinks, then we'll see what else we can do, alright?"

The goddess nodded in confirmation, and Keiichi went into the kitchen and retrieved two root beers from the fridge. Upon returning to the Ugly Beast, the SEAL offered one of the cans to Belldandy. She stared at it for a long moment. "Want me to grab you something else?" he asked.

The goddess blinked, then shook her head. "Ah, no, that won't be necessary." She took the offered drink, and with a sigh Keiichi plopped down beside her, digging out his phone and unlocking it. Belldandy peered over at him with a side glance, then popped open the root beer. It hissed and fizzled as the carbonation trapped inside escaped, and Keiichi looked over at her with a smile.

"So, which one of you got the _Old Spice_ stuff at the store last week?" he asked.

"Urd," Belldandy replied, taking a sip as Keiichi balanced the phone on his lap before popping open his own can. "I believe her exact words were, 'I'll get all the men _and_ the ladies this way'."

Keiichi choked on his drink, almost snorting out soda, and Belldandy looked at him in fresh concern, pounding his back as he coughed and sputtered. The man waved her off, as the coughing fit subsided into laughter. "She _would_ say something like that," he rasped, then fell into a second coughing fit.

"Are you alright?" Belldandy eyed him with concern, and he smiled and nodded, the coughs fading somewhat as he turned his attention to his phone. He pulled up an app Belldandy had come to recognize from her socializing with the guards _-YouTube_ -and resting the can between his legs the man tapped something into the search bar.

"You've probably never seen the Old Spice commercials then, huh?" he asked, and at Belldandy's blank stare he smiled. "Ready for more stupidity as introduced by yours truly?"

She stared at him in alarm. "More _Monty Python_?"

"Better."

The goddess stared at him. "I'm not sure if I should feel encouraged or frightened by that," she confessed, and Keiichi chuckled. He selected a video, and leaned over to Belldandy. Torn between the possibility of another absurd video and being closer to Keiichi, the goddess decided on the former and leaned towards the man as well. He tilted the screen a bit so she could better see it, and Belldandy stared in confusion over what she saw. "I…don't understand."

It was a large, shirtless black man on screen. He was yelling something about…Old…Spice? And there were explosions in the background and karate chops and yelling, so much yelling, _all the yelling_. " _OLD SPICE BODY WASH PROVIDES SIXTEEN HOURS OF ODER BLOCKING POWEEEERRR!"_ he screamed, and then the camera switched to-Belldandy recoiled, her eyes wide. Was that supposed to be a _tiger_? With a human mouth? Why was it screaming? Why was the large intimidating black man screaming? Why were they both screaming over Old Spice body wash?! Why was the large intimidating, admittedly handsomely toned black man riding a stuffed fake tiger with a human mouth? Did-did he just flex his pectoral muscles?!

Belldandy tore her eyes from the phone and stared up at Keiichi. "Are you trying my sanity?" she demanded.

"Keep watching," Keiichi said, and sure enough the video moved into another…episode? Commercial? What in the Nine Worlds _was_ this? Now the man was just standing there, screaming again about his Old Spice stuff and holding up the product he was advertising. It zoomed in on his armpit to what she assumed was a poor rendition of what mortals believed the inside of an armpit was. There he was again, the same terrifying screaming black man, and _again_ it zoomed in, this time to that same man kicking back on a beach bed with some other man lying out next to him.

"What...?" The new man inhaled, commented on the freshness of it, and then the camera zoomed out, away from lounge chair man, away from armpit in armpit man, and back to the original man. "Keiichi, what on earth is this? Who is this man? Why is he screaming?!" Explosions erupted in the background of the next commercial. "Why are there explosions?!"

"Why not?" Keiichi grinned over at her, however Belldandy at this point was too bewildered to notice. "Hmm…maybe Terry Crews is more down Urd's path…" In the video the man flexed his pecks again, and Belldandy leaned back, eyes wide with something that looked like thinly-veiled horror and awe. Her hands began to tremble as she tore herself away and brought the can of root beer to her mouth, taking a long pull from it. As the fizzy liquid slid down her throat, she suppressed the urge to belch.

Whatever this stuff was (root beer he called it?), it was starting to make her feel a little good. Something almost like a buzz was stirring up in her mind, and Belldandy found she didn't mind it too much. It was kind of nice, truth be told. She returned her attention to the screen on Keiichi's phone. Now there was a man standing with a tennis racket. A tennis racket while standing on a whale. And he was batting balls with a tennis racket while standing on a whale. Now there were people taking his picture standing on the back of that same whale while he was hitting tennis balls with his racket. And now there were balls coming out of the whale's blow hole and he was hitting them with a bat while people were taking his picture while hitting tennis balls with his racket. And then he was blind-folded.

While wearing sunglasses.

And the whale was wearing sunglasses.

The whole thing made her head spin. Or was it the root beer? _Don't know, might as well take another drink. Who knows, maybe my head is buzzing because it's about to explode at the command of Mr. Screaming Man._ She felt an absurd little giggle slip from her throat at the mental image that accompanied the thought. Another pull on the can and it was empty.

Belldandy looked at Keiichi. He was saying something, but she was not quite sure what. That's because her focus was on his ear where the Screaming Man from before was peaking out. _How did you escape the phone?_ she asked him.

"KEIICHI MORISATO HAS GOT THE POWEEEERRR!"

 _Can Keiichi flex like this man?_ she wondered idly. As the little man disappeared in a blaze of glory, her gaze fell back to the phone. Gone was the man, whale, audience. It was replaced by a Handsome Man wearing nothing but a towel and standing in a bathroom. _"Hello ladies."_ Oh my, he had a voice like Apollo. _Dark chocolate, s_ he thought, and another silly giggle slipped out. " _Look at your man, now back to me, now back to your man, now back to me."_ Belldandy found herself following his instructions as he called them out.

Keiichi.

Handsome Man.

Keiichi.

Handsome Man.

 _"Sadly, he isn't me,"_ said the handsome man.

 _And I'm OK with that,_ was her next thought. _I always did prefer mochi to chocolate._ That earned a straight up laugh from the Norn, and for the life of her Belldandy couldn't say why. Her gaze fell back on Keiichi, who was still watching his phone, this time with a noticeably larger grin, and she felt her face flush red. In her eyes, that Handsome Man paled in comparison to her Black Knight.

As if the mere thought of him had conjured him, the Handsome Man seemed levitated up from out of Keiichi's short cropped hair. He was holding out his hand, palm up. Standing in it was a small bottle of what appeared to be the Old Spice body wash in the bathroom. "Hello Belldandy. Look down, now back to me. Where are you? You're on a couch with the man who saved your life. He may not be me, but he probably smells like me because he uses Timber."

In an explosion of hair, the Screaming Man appeared. He appeared to be running in place for some reason. "RRRAAAAAAHW! GUESS WHO!"

The Handsome Man looked... more annoyed than anything. "It's you again."

"IT'S ME AGAIN!" screamed the much more muscular Screaming Man. He jumped up into the air and landed atop the Handsome Man, causing him to be pounded back down into Keiichi's scalp. "GOODBYE!" He then focused his attention back to Belldandy, thrusting his hand out, which contained a different bottle of Old Spice.

"KEIICHI MORISATO IS TOO POWERFUL TO USE TIMBER! HE USES BEARGLOOOOOOOVE!" The disembodied head of Aoshima appeared next to him. He turned and kicked it. "BULLY KICK! EXPLOSIOOOOOON!" When he finished, both he and the floating head were consumed in a ball of fire.

"Hello again, Belldandy. I've missed you." The goddess's eyes are drawn down to find the Handsome Man was on Keiichi's shoulder. He was once again holding his palm up again, where the bottle was sitting once again. What appeared to be diamonds rained down out of his hand from where they were piled up around the base. "As you can see my large, screaming, muscular friend has saved the day even though he does not use Timber. But that's not relevant. What is relevant is how you feel. Is it the root beer talking or is it love. Is it sleep deprivation or is it affection. Look at me, I don't know. Lean in closer. Inhale deeply. Timber." Unsure of what else to do, Belldandy did as instructed, catching Keiichi's immediate and undivided attention. He turned to her with a start, and the Handsome Man continued. "Does he smell like me? Maybe, maybe not, but it's ok if he doesn't because you love him. You should tell him how you feel now because I'm on a horse."

Sitting on a small white horse, the small Handsome Man began to melt back into Keiichi. But just before he disappeared completely, the horse's head lifted up, revealing the Screaming Man. "BEARGLOVE!"

"Timber."

Her Black Knight stared into her eyes for a moment. A look of concern spread across his features. "Belldandy? Are you ok?"

The goddess felt herself sway as she got lost in Keiich's strikingly beautiful chocolate colored eyes. They really were mesmerizing to her. Its not like this was the first time she had looked into them, but for some reason, they held particular appeal to her right this instant.

"I love you," she blurted out, then let out a small hiccup. Keiichi froze. Whether it was from what she said or the uncouth thing she did in his face, she did not care. "I'm going to kissss you now," said Belldandy with a slur. She leaned in closer still. His lips parted, as if inviting her in, and she accepted.

Then her entire world went black.

XXX

 _Did I just get cock-blocked by sleep deprivation?_ thought Keiichi as he stared at the brunette goddess who was now laying on his chest, letting out a light snore. Damn... thankfully no one else was around to see _that._ Keiichi didn't think he'd live it down if word ever got back to his team, hell, _Urd_ that a kiss had slipped past him because the love of his life chose that exact moment to pass out.

Sure, it was a good thing-a _really_ good thing! Belldandy could finally get some sleep without feeling too bad about it-but still... _damn_.

 _Well...I guess it's not_ too _bad._ He decided, staring down at the woman that now lay passed out on his chest. Her breath came out in a deep and easy rhythm, without so much as a twitch to indicate she was even dreaming. _Looks like I still get to spend the night with a beautiful woman on top of me._ Turning off his phone, the man reached over, careful to ensure he didn't disturb Belldandy. He grabbed the now-empty soda can from where it rested between the Norn's legs, and shaking it, moved it to the ground away from their feet. He did the same with his own can, happy to be rid of the drink. Root beer was god awful, but it kept him from drinking in earnest, and for that he was grateful.

With both cans out and away from feet that could cause an accidental spill, Keiichi leaned back against the Ugly Beast, working to ensure he didn't awaken the goddess at his side on accident. Any of the Norns would have told him not to waste his time; when Belldandy crashed, she went down _hard_. The goddess did little aside from sigh and scoot into him at his movements, and when it became apparent that she wasn't going to awaken at his adjustments, Keiichi settled himself with his head against the Ugly Beast's arm rest. His grip gentle, he drew Belldandy up into the crook of his arm, lying her head on his shoulder to ensure her neck was supported.

The goddess murmured and burrowed against him. She was warm against his body, and Keiichi was grateful the a/c was on. He'd probably start to sweat otherwise. _Doesn't matter._ He thought, staring down at her and feeling the gentle heat of her breath against his chest. _She could be a little ball of fire and I'd still endure it for her._ The SEAL smiled down at the Norn, stroking her arm affectionately. After a moment's consideration, he leaned forward and placed a light kiss on her forehead. "G'night Belldandy," he murmured. "Pleasant dreams."

He hoped so, anyways. Deciding he was about as comfortable as he'd get on the Ugly Beast. The man turned his face into the back of the couch to block the living room lights from his eyes, closed them, and let himself drift off as well.

It would be the first time in many long, painful years that Belldandy would find herself with a restful sleep, the Aoshimas of the world chased away by singing mental patients, screaming men, and the gentle embrace of her own personal Black Knight.

And explosions.

* * *

 **A/N: At no point should any theme we introduce be considered an endorsement of any of the products portrayed or referenced. We just think their commercials are awesome! And now, apparently, so does Belldandy! BTW, our longest chapter to date. Expect at least the next 2 to be of similar length.**

* * *

 _Comments of a Madwoman: Three guesses to which part Loopy Nena wrote. The first two don't count._

 _Loopy Nena is almost as fun as Sleep Deprived IdiAmeanDada and Buzzed Belldandy. Shit got weird man. Shit got real weird._


	12. Chapter 12 - Night Terrors

l

-12-

 _He came to her as she lay spread across the bed, lying atop covers too hot to sleep under. She rested on her stomach, her head buried in the pillows, yet she heard him as soon as he entered, felt the subtle shift of weight as the mattress sagged from where he climbed up to join her at its base. Hands, large, rough, but oh so very_ hot _, grazed the back of her heels and traveled up the back of her legs, feeling, rubbing, massaging as they moved to her hips. They danced along her inner thighs, the touch a gentle glide that provoked a twitch from her body as a spike of anticipation launched up into her core._

 _She angled her head to look back at him, yet the darkness of the room obscured his features, obscured his expression. She knew he was smiling though, could feel it in the way his hands explored her inner thighs before progressing to her butt, squeezing firmly before those hands dove beneath her shirt and to the small of her back. His fingers explored its length, grazing across her sides with such delicacy that she shuddered. His arms caused her shirt to rise as he explored further up, and she could feel cool air drift across her form. His knees dug into the bed on either side of her waist, and she felt him tower over her as those same fingers moved to caress her breasts, playing with the sides offered to him until she angled her chest up, allowing him access to the curves of her top._

 _He took it with a hearty rumble, and it was then that she felt his weight press down on top of her. He braced himself with his forearms, yet still bore down on her, and she could feel the large bulge of his manhood dig in between her butt cheeks. She groaned as he whispered something to her, yet the words were lost as a fresh bolt of electricity struck her core and made her melt, and as he squeezed and played with her breasts she could feel herself moisten in amorous anticipation. A pair of fingers toyed with her nipples until they were hard and pert against his grip, and her hands curled into desperate fists against the sheets of the bed as he kissed her between the shoulder blades, on the back of her neck, then the side, working his way up the line of her jaw until she angled her head and met him with her own lips. She felt a thrill of energy traverse her body as their lips met, felt his tongue dart into her mouth, and purred into his kiss._

 _He gave her breasts a final, hard squeeze, pinched the nipples just hard enough to create an excited ache along her womanhood, and then they departed in favor of pulling her shirt off. She helped him, eager, hungry for his touch, then moved to the shorts she wore, her hands darting up away from herself and to his massive frame. He was naked, unlike her-an irony that was not lost to her-and it was only the slim pair of jogging shorts that separated their sexes._

 _He helped her out of them with an swiftness that spoke of his own hunger, and when she was finally free of the offending cloth those tickling, massaging, tantalizing hands moved to her opening. A finger grazed along her cleft, moving down with an abruptness that stole her breath, and she jerked up as a hot ball of fire settled in her groin. He found her clit, and she groaned into her pillow as he pinched it and played with it, sending spikes of pleasure from her core up to her breasts in quick, spasmed bolts._

 _She grinded against the fingers, eager, desperate, and heard him chuckle against her back. Those magic fingers shifted to her opening, and there the digits slipped inside, their entrance eased by her own moisture. They began to pump into her channel, and she squirmed and gasped beneath him as her inner walls yielded to his touch. His other hand trailed up her side once more, and she leaned towards him at an angle, allowing him ample access to her chest and hissing as he grabbed one breast and squeezed it hard. His length was hard and unyielding against her rump, and she reached back towards it, grazing the head of his manhood before he swatted her away, his voice teasing as he once more bore down on her._

 _Her breath hitched as the fingers inside her began to dance and play in earnest, and in her center the pleasure mounted, building like water flooding into a dam and threatening to overflow as he continued to play with her, fondling and squeezing, teasing and massaging, biting and kissing and grabbing her body, her flesh, like he owned it, and oh, how willingly she surrendered it to him._

 _She writhed beneath his touch, desperate now for release, yet his actions remained teasing, leaving her teetering along the edge of ecstasy as he played with her, holding back just enough to the point where she feared she might cry, might beg for relief, to feel him inside her, to be completed. Despite her efforts though he ignored them, ignored her, and it left her trembling with unfulfilled desire._

 _When his fingers finally departed her inner channel she thought she might scream with anticipation. She shuddered as he shifted above her, and she rose to meet him. For a moment she felt something hard press against her back door, and then his head lowered, rubbing to and fro along her lower lips with such frustrating torment that once more she reached for him. Again he avoided her grip, swatting away her desperate hand with an amused laugh. He stroked her back, whispered those not-words aloud, and she stilled with agonized anticipation. She felt him push past her lips and into her, and-_

Urd awoke with a moan, her fingers burrowing into the pillow beneath her as her lower body quaked with unfulfilled passion. She blinked into the early-morning lights produced through the curtains of the bed, and still half-asleep, she thought she felt a ghost of a body rest its weight against her back. Her body jerked with fading anticipation, yet the fulfillment was gone, leaving her high and dry. In its stead was nothing but the pillow that had somehow maneuvered between her legs through the night, and as the dream faded Urd groaned once more, this time with waking frustration.

She looked around the room, for a moment not recognizing it, and then buried her head back into her pillow when she recalled the bed was Keiichi's. _The pillows smell like him._ She thought, then recalled her shadowy lover with a thrill that sparked the fading heat in her groin.

"Oh...fuck!" With a growl tore herself out of the bed. She felt hot and bothered and, well... "Damn it." The Norn looked down at herself, part of her expecting to be nude, but the black tank top and blue jogging shorts that had become her standard wardrobe for bed were still on her person. They clung to her body, and as the cool air of the air conditioner struck her person she shivered. They were cool and damp against her frame.

This was why she hated wearing clothes to bed. She'd started wearing them upon coming to Keiichi's house as a show of respect for the man in question. That and Belldandy, especially when the nightmares kicked into high gear; no one needed to see that much skin when waking up from whatever atrocities Belldandy was going through, but _goddamn_ if they weren't a pain in the ass to sleep in.

For a moment she considered drying them with a spell, but then thought better of it as once more the imagined touch of a lover reached her breast. Better for the damp clothes to cool her flames a bit rather than keep them warm and nestled in some fresh clothes. "I need a shower," she muttered, if for no other reason than to fill the silence of the room and banish the residual touches that even now left her quaking with desire. "A long, hot shower. With no interruptions."

 _Yes, no interruptions, no one needing the bathroom..._ What time was it?

She looked to the alarm clock that balanced precarious against the bed's headframe. The analog lights displayed _6:52 a.m._ in bright red. _It's Sunday, though..._ She frowned and departed the room. Skuld she knew wouldn't be a problem, but if Keiichi and Belldandy had succeeded in staying up all night... Heading down the stairs the goddess looked into the living room. The living room lights were on but the flat screen was off and the laptop beside it was closed. There was some kind of videogame console resting beneath the flat screen, and she could see wires, dusty with disuse, that connected the black box to the television. The room was quiet, yet if Urd listened carefully she could just catch the gentle breathing coming from someone-two someones-in the room.

Frowning, she moved into the living room, spying the duo she was searching for piled up together on the Ugly Beast. They looked almost like a pair of drunks who'd passed out on each other, however Urd was not blind to the arm that held Belldandy close to Keiichi's body. Her own curiosity getting the better of her, the goddess drew near. Neither of the Ugly Beast's occupants stirred at her approach, signaling the duo were dead to the world around them. Belldandy's sleep in particular held a level of peace Urd had not witnessed in the past week, and with it a soft smile came to the elder Norn's face.

It faded when her eyes traveled to Keiichi. The heat in her person pulsed for a moment, and she twitched, then grimaced. "This isn't good," she whispered. She approached the man passed out on the armrest, then sighed. "We might have a bit of situation on our hands, Jank." Almost against her will, she ran a hand through his hair. It felt soft against her fingers, and again last night's dream flickered through her mind. "I'm not supposed to develop feelings for you." She pulled her hand away-almost jerked it, as though it were a dog pulling taunt against its leash, and then straightened and shook her head. "You should be haunting Bell's dreams, not mine."

Without thought Urd collected the two can's of root beer-one empty, the other almost full-that resided near Keiichi's arm at the base of the Ugly Beast. The Norn then departed for the kitchen, her thoughts so conflicted that she didn't notice Keiichi's head turn towards her. She dumped the residual liquid down the sink, then disposed of the two cans before heading back down the hallway and to the staircase. She paused only for a moment to observe the couple passed out on the ugly, pink couch, and then sighed, shook her head, and moved on.

She proceeded up the stairs and into the bathroom, determined to fulfill what the man of her dreams would not- _could_ not-do.

Belldandy awoke that morning to a stiff body, a rising headache the likes of which she'd never known, and a mouth that tasted like chalk. Her head felt thick and fuzzy when it wasn't throbbing in her temples, and the goddess pried her eyes open with a grimace. The morning light was dim thanks to some godsend who'd drawn the curtains, but the small little ray that did filter through was blinding.

The woman groaned and shielded her eyes with an arm, turning away from the light in an attempt to ease the pain in her skull. "Well well, good morning to you too, Sunshine."

The goddess grunted, and it took her a moment to sort through the static that so clouded her mind and to the owner of the voice. "Kei...ichi?" she mumbled, and lifted her arm just enough to peer around her. Keiichi's voice was soft, yet that didn't stop the pain it brought; at this point anything shy of a pin drop hurt. She leaned back, finding her neck protesting the act, and stared at the man she was leaning against.

The SEAL smiled at her. There were noticeable bags under his eyes, yet the man's demure was bright and almost cheerful. "How'd you sleep?"

"Like a brick." Belldandy replied, and then scowled at her own voice. Never mind the fact that she sounded like a cat that'd been screaming herself hoarse all night. The goddess never made such generic comparisons on her own status. _I never watched silly movies or played silly games either until last night._ An image of a large screaming man rose in her mind's eye, and in an explosion of fire he vanished.

 _"_ No nightmares?" Keiichi asked.

Belldandy stared up at him, for a moment confused. "Why would I have nightmares?" she asked, and somewhere within her muddled mind a memory arose, and the goddess made a face. "Oh. Right." But that brought up the question; had there been any nightmares? The goddess wracked her brain for clues, yet nothing aside from screaming, exploding men and singing, dancing knights who later got hit by monsters and died came to mind. "I...don't think so," she said. "Some...rather... _interesting_ dreams, but no. No nightmares."

No nightmares.

 _Wait..._ The knowledge took a moment to sink in. _No nightmares._ "No nightmares." Her head was pounding and there was an urgent need to rinse her mouth out. Her body was stiff from sleeping on an ugly beast of a couch on top of Keiichi, and the light from the morning sun hurt her eyes. "No nightmares." None of it mattered in the wake of this new knowledge, this new _freedom_ , and even with her own grievances warring for dominance in her head the goddess felt a smile blossom on her face. "No nightmares-Keiichi, I-" The SEAL was smiling down at her, and in a burst of impulsiveness embraced the man with a laugh.

The man started a moment, then chuckled as well, embracing her in turn. "Good," he whispered in her ear. "I'm glad for you." They departed after a moment, and with a groan from Keiichi that caused Belldandy's head to throb (what had she drunk last night?) the two sat up on the couch. The man rubbed his neck, then focused on Belldandy. "Any theories on what changed this time?"

 _You,_ was Belldandy's immediate thought. She didn't have the courage to speak it aloud. "It could have been a variety of factors," she said instead. "Though I'm certain the sleep deprivation itself wasn't one of them." For a moment the image of The Screaming Man kicking Aoshima's disembodied head, where it promptly exploded, drifted through her mind. She fought to hide the resulting smile. "Perhaps those absurd videos you showed me helped." _Perhaps_ you _helped._

"You think?" Keiichi stretched his arms over his head, and Belldandy leaned back, enjoying the way the sun highlighted the flexing muscles along his upper arm. _He is rather well toned._ Her heart leapt against her rib cage, and without thought she swallowed, then grimaced as the after taste still in her mouth. _I need to brush my teeth. Maybe ask Urd for a potion._ Goodness, what had she _done_ to herself last night?

"I think it was something else," Keiichi continued. Belldandy raised a questioning eyebrow, and the man nodded. "I know this is going to sound kind of stupid, but..." For a moment, he trailed off, eyes darting out the window in thought, or perhaps embarrassment over what he was about to say. Belldandy held her peace, and was rewarded when the SEAL looked back at her. "...what if it was because you felt safe?"

The statement caught her off guard, and startled, she stared at Keiichi, gesturing for him to explain. Keiichi looked away. _Is he uncomfortable?_ Belldandy wondered, taking in the subtle change in the SEAL's body language. _But why? He was fine a moment ago._ "Keiichi?" she asked. The man leaned forward on the couch, propping his knees on his elbows and folding his hands in front of his face. His left heel began to beat a tempo, and the man stared directly in front of him, lost in thought.

"Alright, so this is kind of hard for me to talk about, okay?" he asked out of the blue. "So bear with me...I don't know how much of what I'm gonna say is even gonna make sense, but I'm going to try anyways."

"Alright." Belldandy turned to face him entirely, however Keiichi's eyes remained fixated on the front of the room.

"Okay." He said again, and frowned. "So...I've got a younger sister, right? And, well...something bad happened to her when she was a kid. Real bad." _Tap tap tap tap._

"I see." Belldandy knew at once who he was referring to. While she'd not seen the event first hand, she'd borne witness to Keiichi receiving the news while he was still a trainee at Great Lakes, and the resulting pain he'd gone through attempting to deal with not only the stifling environment of Basic but also attempting to come to terms with the knowledge that he couldn't be there for Aiko. It had been part of her initial surveillance that promoted him to a candidate in the GRO.

"So... yeah, she had some pretty bad nightmares following that. Kind of like you." _Just like you._ He meant. She could almost see the words in his head."I...wasn't there to experience a lot of it. There wasn't much time between Basic and 'A' school-where we go after Basic to learn our jobs-but I caught a bit of it." He sighed and rubbed his face with both hands, then returned to his previous position. "Sorry, bad memories. This is something I don't like talking about." He glanced at her as though worried that what he was saying might alienate her, but Belldandy nodded, hoping it was reassuring. He gave her a small grin before returning his gaze to the wall with the flat screen on it. "So... she'd have nightmares over that time, couldn't sleep, woke up screaming, all this bad shit... and, well, I had to actually ask her about this, but... one of the things she claimed helped stop the nightmares was a gift from me."

He leaned back into the Ugly Beast, and now his expression grew embarrassed. "I ended up giving her a bear from Clothing Sales after Basic. I didn't think anything of it at the time- I'd just graduated, wearing my dress blues, I thought I was the top dog 'cause I was a brand new Sailor-you know how it goes." The man dropped his hands into his lap, and unconsciously began to massage his palms as if they pained him.

Belldandy did not 'know how it goes', but she nodded regardless, encouraging him on. He glanced at her and gave her another slim smile before continuing.

"I got bears for both my sisters-one for Megumi, who's two years younger than me, and one for Aiko, who's almost a decade younger than me; she was the one who was hurt, by the way... and they were...you know, just those overpriced little uniformed teddy bears you can find on almost any base. But for whatever reason, that thing worked like a charm." He shrugged his shoulders. "She said it was because the bear smelled like me." There was a hint of a blush in his cheeks now, and again he glanced towards her and then away. "It smelled like someone she trusted. Someone she felt _safe_ around."

"I see," Belldandy said, then pursed her lips. _Someone she felt safe around, is that so?_ She'd not heard of this bit about Aiko. "And you believe that is the case here as well?" she inquired. "That I felt safe around you? That I could smell you in my sleep and that somehow that kept the nightmares at bay?"

The man beside her flushed. "Told you it sounded stupid," he grumbled.

"It's not though." She said. Keiichi looked at her, though his face was still a bright red. "It's not," she insisted. "Urd stayed with me a full week and could do nothing to stop the nightmares. Her exhaustion was proof enough of that, and what happened on Friday..." Her voice faltered, and it was her turn to look away as a lump of guilt settled in her throat. "You saved me from Aoshima, Keiichi." She tried again. "I...You were what gave me strength when I felt like I could not go on. I watched you, Keiichi. From when you first became eligible for a wish, I watched you grow and I watched the experiences of your life shape and mold you into the person you are today. I...I had been excited, once upon a time, because I wanted so badly to meet you in person. I admired your strength of character and the morals you held so close to your heart, but then..."

"Yeah." Keiichi's voice had grown quiet and soft. "Yeah, after Aoshima... things changed."

 _Things changed._ Belldandy almost laughed at the vague interpretation of the last ten years of her life. She nodded. "Things changed," the Norn agreed. "Things changed, and it was all I could do to stay afloat. I-" She stopped herself, falling silent for a long moment. Her throat locked, and taking a deep breath the Norn looked to the Ugly Beast, taking note of the various details that made up the couch- _her_ couch- before calming enough to continue. "The thought of meeting you...that was what kept me going for so long. Not the knowledge that Aoshima was a mortal man who would one day die. Not the idea that my sisters were attempting to reach me. Is was the strength displayed by you throughout the years leading up to my inevitable...servitude to Aoshima."

She looked up at Keiichi and found the man watching her with a grave expression. "So I suppose for me it is not so strange a concept...not so silly or so stupid a theory to warrant my disdain." She shook her head and closed her eyes, and within her mind the events of last night flickered through her brain like sparks from a fire. _I love you._ Had she said that? Or was that just part of her dreams? "I trust you, Keiichi. I trust you more than I ever thought imaginable. And...despite the nightmares, I've never felt so safe now than I have in my life."

An arm slipped over and across her shoulders, and she didn't resist when Keiichi drew her close. _He smells safe._ Some long-forgotten piece of her whispered. _He_ is _safe._ The goddess inhaled deeply, then released her breath in a long sigh. Gunpowder. He smelled like Old Spice and gunpowder and the forest. "I apologize," she mumbled. "This is not what you needed to hear from me."

"You're fine," Keiichi murmured. "I got told of a little something that might help you at night, but I wasn't sure until now, so..." Belldandy looked up into his face, and the SEAL shrugged. "I don't have anymore stuffed bears I can give you, but...think a pillow will work instead?"

"A pillow?" Belldandy stared at him queerly. Keiichi smiled.

"I've got two, but I only really need or use one of them," he said. "Want to try that out and see if that will keep the nightmares at bay tonight?"

Belldandy clutched her head and tried not to grimace. It was starting to pound pretty bad. "I'd rather sleep with you," she said absently.

Keiichi laughed nervously, and like that the solemn mood that had so fallen atop them vanished. "Believe me when I say I would like nothing more," he said. "But I don't think I'm ready to take that step with you yet. I also think there is a lot more that you need to work through before that happens." He sighed wistfully.

"Maybe we can have another slumber party sometime this next weekend, if you want," he offered instead. "I had fun last night, and I'll be more than willing to stay up with you as long as you like if it means watching stupid videos and playing videogames with you-well, maybe not _playing_ , but watching you play, sure." He laughed at that, and Belldandy allowed a small half-grin of her own to squirm onto her face. "You're pretty good at that Dark Souls game. Better than me, that's for sure. Maybe better than Keigo-I don't know how far he ever got before he left for home again."

The small half-grin on Belldandy's face threatened to expand into a smile with his words, and her initial tension and melancholy that had so awoken by those black memories once more retreated into obscurity. "I would like that," she admitted, and as his smile grew so too did hers. "I would like that very much. Thank you, Keiichi. I appreciate that."

"Well don't you two look adorable." Belldandy yelped, and then blushed as she turned to observe Urd from where she rested against the entrance to the living room. She felt the heat rise to her face as she caught her sister's eye, which sparkled with mirth. "So I take it everything went well last night?" The goddess had a towel around her shoulders, in a pair of fresh jeans and a violet blouse that complimented her eyes. She looked like she'd just finished a shower. "I don't remember waking up to any screams last night. I'm hoping that because I didn't just sleep through everything, right?"

"Not so much as a twitch," Keiichi replied in Belldandy's stead. "Took your advice. Had a lot of fun. Think I might have a new Monty Python fan on the rise." His arm didn't fall from her shoulders, Belldandy noticed. She felt her blush grow stronger.

"No kidding?" Urd cried. "Which one you guys watch?"

"Monty Python and the Holy Grail." Belldandy murmured, and now she could feel the blush rising to her ears. "Oh goodness."

Urd cackled, then said, "And the Lord spake, saying, 'First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin. Then shalt thou count to three, no more–no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thy foe, who, being naughty in my sight, shall snuff it.'"

"One...two...five!" Keiichi quoted.

"Three Sir." Belldandy corrected in an English accent.

"Three!" Keiichi cried, and all at once screaming erupted from the second floor.

All three present froze, then looked up at the ceiling as a high, angry voice penetrated the household. "Urd! You used all the hot water!" Skuld screamed.

Urd winced, and for a long moment nothing else arose from the trio. Then Keiichi whispered in a hoarse, Scottish accent, "It's the White Rabbit!"

And just like that the trio erupted into roars of laughter; that deep, belly-aching type of laughter that overwhelmed the senses at left its victims short of breath. The arm around Belldandy's shoulders fell away as Keiichi moved to clutch his stomach. Belldandy didn't notice, however, because she'd already fallen to her side on the length of the Ugly Beast. She announced one stuttering, rasping word, "Ec-Ec-EXPLOSIONS!" And felt a fresh wave of painful laughter engulf her. Not even Urd was safe from the strange bought of madness, for the woman had to grasp the threshold frame to keep herself upright, her legs growing weak and threatening to drop her as she tried to breathe through the laughter.

By the time the laughter faded, everyone, not just Belldandy, was red in the face. Tears were streaming down the Norn's face, but for a change Belldandy didn't mind them, and everyone else seemed too exhausted for the moment to comment on them. There came movement from upstairs, followed by Skuld's footsteps as the goddess scurried down the stairs. The goddess appeared in the threshold, her expression irritated and suspicious, and it was at that time Keiichi, his throat aching and his abdomen throbbing, once more spoke in his best Tim the Enchanter imitation. "Look! That rabbit's got a vicious streak a mile wide!"

A fresh peal of fresh laughter erupted from Urd and Belldandy, and Skuld stared at the man in white-faced rage. "Oh, so I'm a rabbit now, is that it you overgrown mule?"

XXX

Later that day, it was going on seven o'clock, and Keiichi was sitting on his back porch sipping on a glass of water. The light of the sun was already fading, and there was a chill in the air still as spring had not fully taken hold quite yet, but he did not care. Today, no, the last forty-eight hours had been a good time. Not only for him, but he dared to guess it had been for Belldandy and her sisters as well.

In fact, he could hear laughter emanating from the house behind him. He knew that Skuld and Belldandy were in the kitchen finishing up dinner. Urd was with them as well, sitting at the brand new kitchen table that they had assembled earlier that day. That had been an adventure in and of itself as Skuld had insisted on helping him, complaining that all this time sitting idle around the house was causing her to get rusty working with tools.

That had degenerated into something of a battle of wills. He, who wanted to follow the directions, and she who thought she knew better than the engineers who designed it. It nearly came to blows at one point, but eventually they made it through and completed the project. He did allow for a couple of post-build modifications that the youngest Norn claimed would enhance its durability. That seemed to satiate her in the end.

Keiichi heard the sliding glass door open and close behind him. Someone walked up beside him and placed their hand on his shoulder. He reached up and squeezed it affectionately.

"Dinner is almost ready," said Urd quietly.

"Ok," was his automatic reply. He looked up at her and saw that she was staring off towards the tree line. "See something?"

Urd narrowed her eyes a bit, as if she were trying to discern some minute detail in the distance, then shook her head. "No, nothing. Sorry."

He gave her a sideways glance, not really believing what she said but decided not to push the issue. With a heavy sigh, he moved to stand up. When he turned towards the silver haired goddess, she punched him in the arm, hard. "OW! What the hell was that for?"

Urd crossed her arms across her chest and smiled at him. "Can't tell you, secret." He recognized the mischievous glint in her eye. "All I can say is that you deserve it."

"Well, whatever I did, would you tell me WHEN I do it next time," he said as he rubbed the now sore spot on his arm.

Urd simply turned and headed to the door. "Probably not," she replied just as she opened it and slipped inside without a glance.

Keiichi just shook his head and followed. Through the door, he saw Bell and Urd head up the stairs, probably going to the bathroom to freshen up for dinner. He opened it, stepped in and closed it behind him. When he turned, he was confronted by Skuld. There was a look in her eyes, an angry one. He had seen her angry before, but not quite like this. It was as if she wanted to tell him off about something, but something was holding her back.

Suddenly she punched him in the same arm that Urd punched him. "OW!" he cried as he leaned his injured appendage away from her. "What the hell, Skuld!"

Without a word, she turned away from him and ran up the stairs after the other goddesses, leaving Keiichi to wonder what the hell had gotten into Belldandy's sisters.

Behind him, out in the woods, two golden-ringed eyes watched for a moment longer. Having seen enough, the enormous mountain lion flicked an ear with a small, hoop earring before turning and stalking deeper into the woods.

XXX

Lind had the decency to wait until they finished dinner that night before making her next appearance. As before, she appeared dressed in the standard white outfit of what Keiichi came to recognize as a uniform. As before, she greeted him at the door with an uncomfortable stony expression, as though she was at odds with either displaying her emotions or uncertain of how to do so properly.

Keiichi smiled at her regardless. Some small part of him had been expecting her. The goddess had thus far been regular in her weekend visits, and the man decided he'd be more surprised if she didn't show sometime before work on Monday. "Hey Lind," he greeted. "How goes it?"

The woman blinked at him as though startled by his warm greeting. "It...goes?" she asked, staring at him with guarded worry.

Keiichi chuckled. "I take it that's a good thing?" he asked. "Come one in. Sorry, you missed dinner this time, but if you haven't eaten yet there's still some leftovers I can grab for you."

"No thank you." Lind was quick to turn the offer down, and he looked over his shoulder at her with a raised eyebrow. "I don't like imposing on others," she explained.

The SEAL smirked. "You know, in some 'mortal' cultures, it's considered impolite to turn down food or drink that's offered." Lind stiffened, then looked at him with the familiar, horrified expression of a soldier attempting to 'win hearts and minds' and then fucking up by explaining the concept of bacon to a tribe of _Sunni_ Bedouins. He laughed. "Relax, Americans ain't one of 'em. Just something to keep in mind. And don't worry; if you were imposing, I wouldn't have offered you any food."

"R-right," Lind stammered. Her cheeks were a bright red.

There was soft chatter from upstairs, and Urd, followed by Belldandy, headed down the staircase. Urd was speaking on a topic that took Keiichi a moment to realize was videogames; discussing the size of 'hit boxes' and character animations detailing enemy actions. Most of it was beyond him-Keiichi never bothered learning the more nerdier aspect of videogames any more than he'd bothered trying to get past the first tutorial boss at the start of _Dark Souls 3._ That stuff was more in line with Keigo's interests rather than his own.

She paused when she caught sight of the newest guest. A look of surprise flashed across Urd's face before the goddess sent her an earnest smile. "Hey Lind, what's up?"

Lind started, looking up at the sisters. "Ah...you...two?" The duo stared at the Valkyrie in confusion, and next to Lind Keiichi snorted back laughter. It seemed American slang was something the poor woman was not well versed in.

"It's a greeting, Lind," Keiichi explained.

"Oh." The goddess looked back at him, then up to the Norns. " _Oh."_

The siblings continued down the stairs, and Urd asked in a joking manner, "You're not here to take me away again, are you?"

"Ah, no, not this time," Lind replied. "I'm just here to ensure things are going well with you. I received some notification of high levels of magic use and wanted to ensure nothing bad happened."

Belldandy stiffened, yet Urd laughed it off. "Oh, that? Yeah, Skuld and I had some issues we needed to work out. We got into a bit of a scuffle."

Lind looked between the two sisters with a raised eyebrow, not in the least bit convinced. "What kind of a scuffle forced you to tap into the heavier spells in your inventory?" she asked. "The amount of magic being thrown about was enough to draw the attention of even the local spirits. With how things were going I was starting to wonder if you'd even draw the native mortals' attention."

Urd shrugged. "Sleeping rights," she said. "Skuld and I couldn't agree on sleeping arrangements between who slept with Belldandy and who got the other guest room, and we only just got the couch." She grinned, and there was a spark of mischief to it. "You want to see the couch? Belldandy chose it herself. It's an _amazing_ couch."

Lind stared at her in bafflement, and Keiichi had to give Urd points for the quick topic change. "Urd, I don't care about-" Yet already Urd was hooking an arm around Lind's shoulders and dragging her away, quick as can be, leaving Belldandy the chance to release a relieved sigh.

This was quickly followed by a fresh word of protest from Lind. "Oh Yggdrassil, what is that?!" She exclaimed. Belldandy and Keiichi looked at each other. "Why is it _pink_?" There was laughter from the other room, and sending a shrug to Belldandy the couple moved to the living room as well. "No I don't want to sit on it, it's _pink_!" Lind exclaimed. The duo entered just as Urd pulled Lind down onto the couch with her with a laugh. Lind's protests rose in earnest, and in a move Keiichi had taught Urd throughout the years Team 12 had known her, the goddess locked the Valkyrie's arms together.

The woman squirmed to no avail, and Urd shot a smile up to Keiichi. "Quick!" she cried. "Get a picture! We need blackmail material!"

"Urd!" Lind cried. "This isn't funny. Release me!" There was more pounding coming down the stairwell, and from the corner of one eye Keiichi spied Skuld coming to join them, a keen interest on her face.

"Is that Lind?" Skuld whispered, and Belldandy stepped to one side to allow the younger Norn a view.

"Would you relax?" Urd laughed. "You act like I'm waterboarding you or something. It's a _pink couch."_

Keiichi pulled out his phone and used the quick app on the lock screen to access the camera function. Lind continued to protest. "That's the whole point!" She snapped. "It's _pink_! I don't want anything to do with your horrible taste in furniture, Urd!"

"Hey now, don't get like that." Urd looked hurt. "The Ugly Beast has feelings too, you know. That's how you convince it to eat you when you sleep on it at night."

"You _named_ it?" Lind froze, eyes wide as she stared at Urd in bafflement. Keiichi took the opportunity to snap a photo. "You named it _the Ugly Beast?!_ And you're accusing _me_ of being cruel to a piece of furniture?"

"This is the most amazing thing I've ever seen," Skuld whispered.

Next to Keiichi, Belldandy sighed and buried her face in one hand. "I never should have glanced at that couch." She muttered under her breath.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Keiichi snapped another picture of a struggling Lind and laughing Urd. "I think it's the best investment I've made in a long time."

Belldandy rewarded his comment with a small smile.

Eventually Urd released Lind, and got a good amount of curses, threats, and arm punches for the trouble. It took Belldandy making some tea to help soothe the Valkyrie's ire. The woman had surprised them all when she actually made a cautious request: "Do you have...mint?" And had been delighted to discover that mint tea was one of the boxes Keiichi had bought in his first run to the store Saturday morning. It was spearmint tea, and for the life of him Keiichi couldn't figure out why that seemed to make the Valkyrie smile so much.

Maybe she just enjoyed mint.

At Lind's request they gathered around the dining room table Keiichi and Skuld had constructed earlier that day. There were only four seats, and so Keiichi grabbed one of the spare folding chairs that they'd been using with the TV stands earlier. They sat around the table with Keiichi squeezing in beside Belldandy at one of the longer ends, placing himself between her and Urd, who was on one of the shorter ends. Skuld sat across from her, leaving Lind across from Belldandy and Keiichi.

The Valkyrie looked like the odd man out in her standard white uniform, and she played the part, too, wearing another uncomfortable frown that spoke of possible bad news. Belldandy had been kind enough to make tea for everyone, though while Lind had mint tea, the goddess was quick to make more Chai for Keiichi and the other Norns, and the resulting mixed scents of spice and mint was strange but not wholly unpleasant.

"So, what'd I do this time?" Urd leaned forward onto the dark, hardwood table, a smile that was half-joking, half-serious on her face.

Lind looked at her with a raised brow. "Aside from getting in a supposed 'scuffle' with your sister?" she asked. Urd's smile became strained, yet she said nothing else, and Lind sighed when it became apparent that the elder goddess wasn't about to give up the ghost. "Nothing, as far as I'm aware," she said. "I'm actually here for Skuld."

The change that overcame Urd's face was a startling sight to behold. All at once the good nature dropped from the older woman's body language, and in its place was a cool stillness that reminded Keiichi of the calm before a thunderstorm. He could almost _feel_ it, and the man found himself leaning away from the Norn, a part of him entertaining the idea of moving the folding chair to the other side of Belldandy. "What of?" Urd asked. "Lind, if this has anything to do with what I did to save Belldandy..." There was an edge of aggression in her voice, and Lind met her gaze with a pair of cool blue of her own.

"Oh will the both of you lay off?" Skuld snapped, and with a start both Valkyrie and Norn looked over at her. "Shit, you two are friends one moment, at each others throats the next! How about you stop and hear what Lind has to say before jumping to conclusions, Urd?"

Urd opened her mouth to protest, yet before she could get a word in Belldandy cleared her throat. "I agree with Skuld, Urd. Let's hear what Lind has to say first before making any assumptions." She sent a meaningful look to the older Norn, and for a moment it looked as though Urd was ready to argue further. This close, Keiichi could see the muscles of her jaw work in visible tension. Her gaze circled the occupants of the room, and then gritting her teeth, Urd leaned back in her seat with a sigh and crossed her arms over her chest. To Keiichi it looked almost as if the woman was pouting...if the glare she was directing towards a wall wasn't so deathly.

Lind closed her eyes and leaned back in her chair as well. She almost looked relieved. "Thank you." She opened her eyes and looked back to Skuld. "When are you returning to Asgard?" she asked. "Yggdrasil is showing symptoms of a fresh bug infestation, and I'm being harassed by the Powers that Be to figure out why you aren't solving the problem. The debuggers on station are at their wits end, and higher supervision is close to panic because they haven't heard anything from you since you came down here. As far as they're aware, you just upped and vanished."

Skuld winced. "Ah...shit." She ran a hand through her hair and gave a nervous laugh. "In everything that's been going on down here, I forgot all about my job."

Keiichi leaned over the table to look at Skuld in curiosity. "What's your job?" he asked.

"You're still a debugger for Yggdrasil, isn't that right?" Belldandy looked over at the younger Norn with her own curious expression, and at Skuld's nod the woman dove into an explanation. "Skuld ensures that Yggdrasil, the World Tree, operates smoothly. Without a debugger, the tree is likely to be riddled with bugs that slow down the network processing and eat into the tree's lifespan," she said, and there was a small, almost undetectable note of pride in her voice.

Keiichi frowned. "You guys have mentioned Yggdrasil before, but I don't think it's really been explained to me."

"Yggdrasil, otherwise known as the World Tree, is the primary interface that runs the multiverse," Urd spoke up, and Keiichi looked at her with a start. "Think of it as one of two main servers keeping the universe and all its many variants of itself running smoothly, like a videogame. The other server is Nidhogg which is manned by demons, but that's a story for another time." She gave a dismissive wave. "So, the servers help run the world in the game, right? Now, think of all the characters inside-NPCs, enemies, playable characters, whatever-as all the life in the worlds. The game world needs to be pretty big to host the amount of content and characters, right? That means you need someone to look after the server and make sure it's running smoothly. That was my job as Chief Administrator of Yggdrasil. Run diagnostics, ensure the firewalls are up to date, run support, all that stuff. But sometimes, there are things that just sort of happen in the system. Gremlins. Bugs. Malicious worms introduced by hackers who want to ruin the game or tilt the scales to their advantage, right?"

Keiichi nodded. "Yeah, I think I'm tracking so far..." he mumbled. "So is that what Skuld does?"

Belldandy nodded, and once more she took over. "Whenever there's a glitch-sparks in, say, the computer's 'wiring', I suppose you could say, or a command sent by Urd doesn't make it to the other end of Yggdrasil properly-those are signs of bugs. And when those bugs appear, they can start a literal infestation in the World Tree-like a beetle infestation, only worse-and whenever they appear, the resulting hiccups in the processor causes glitches in the universe."

"Like what?" Keiichi asked, and now he found himself honestly curious. This was some Matrix-shit right here, and he wanted to know just what passed for a 'glitch' in the universe.

Skuld sighed and began ticking events off with a finger. "Groups of people disappearing. People disappearing from one timeline and reappearing in another. Dead volcanoes erupting without warning. Earthquakes where there shouldn't be earthquakes. Sightings of animals that don't exist in one universe crossing over into another for a time. Dead souls being whisked back to their bodies from underneath a death god's nose. Unexplained phenomena that give rise to legends of haunting grounds or portals to other worlds." She stopped there, then shrugged her shoulders. "The list goes on, but you get the idea."

Keiichi nodded. "That's...pretty impressive." Fuck, that was beyond anything he could ever do. The Norns were literally keeping the universe operating smoothly. "But Lind said there were other debuggers. Why's it matter if Skuld's missing?"

"Skuld's the best there is when it comes to her job, that's why," Urd said with a huff. "She's a Norn, and not just that, but she's the Norn of the Future-Skuld can predict where infestations are liable to sprout and draft countermeasures before they even spawn." Across from her Skuld blushed at the praise, then looked down at the table. "Without her expertise in the matter, it's very possible that Yggdrasil could be overrun-but that has less to do with Skuld's ability and more to do with how lazy the rest of the debugging crew has got since she joined the team." Urd's expression darkened for a moment. "They've all been slacking because there hasn't been as much work for them to do with Skuld around, and now I bet they're bitching and moaning about having to get off their ass and work."

Skuld's flush deepened up to her ears. "Hey now..." she protested. It sounded weak. "That's not fair. They do what they can."

"And you do about three times their combined work." Urd eyed her from across the table, then sighed and bowed her head. "Sorry Skuld. I don't like it when people take advantage of my younger sisters."

"We know, Mama Bear." Skuld said flatly, and Urd jerked back as though a bee had stung her on the nose. Belldandy brought a hand to her face and was forced to look away to hide her smile. Skuld continued. "You get like that when it comes to _anything_ dealing with us. I swear there are times I wonder just how big an affect Mother had on you growing up, because there are certainly times you _act_ like her."

Lind cleared her throat loudly, bringing the attention back to the present. "Regardless _,"_ the Valkyrie said. "Skuld needs to head back before anything like what she mentioned starts to manifest on the Lower Planes. She's needed by the Higher Leadership, and she needs to reassure her own organization that she hasn't just been sealed by a demon or succumbed to a worse fate." She looked pointedly at the woman in question, who frowned and crossed her arms over her chest in an unconscious imitation of Urd.

"I'm not going." Skuld said.

Lind stared at her, face slack with shock. "You're what."

"Skuld, what are you...?" Belldandy stared at her younger sister in concern, and then trailed off as she caught the expression on her sister's face.

"I'm not going," Skuld repeated. She stared at Lind, her expression dark and unreadable. "I'm staying here, Lind. My help is needed more down here than it is up in Asgard." Her voice was quiet and soft, and there was something in it, something Keiichi could almost identify at the edge of his perception, within the Norn's voice that rose a chill somewhere deep in his soul. "Belldandy is stuck down here because of the wish she made with Keiichi and Urd is stuck down here as well because of the punishment extracted against her," the goddess continued. "Right now, I'm the only one of my sisters who can travel to and from Asgard. I need to stay down here in case something happens that warrants aide from back home." She stared at Lind, her gaze fierce and unapologetic. "No offense Lind, but I'm not about to trust the lives of my sisters to a Valkyrie who makes weekly visits and a mortal who's got all the brains of a gorilla when it comes to the Divine."

"Skuld, that isn't fair and you know it," Belldandy protested, yet Skuld wasn't swayed; indeed, would not be swayed in matters involving her sisters. "If Yggdrasil is suffering from bugs than you're needed up in Asgard," the middle Norn continued. "You have an obligation to ensure that Yggdrasil works properly-an obligation not just as a goddess or a debugger, but as a _Norn_ , Skuld. You know just as well as I that we have responsibilities to uphold to Yggdrasil. Those cannot be ignored or abandoned on a simple whim." She stared at the younger woman in concern, and Skuld met her gaze with a heavy frown. "We're in a safe location. Lind is checking on us regularly and if something were to happen to either of us we still have means of communicating with Asgard," she explained. "You shouldn't let us get in the way of your official duties."

Skuld bristled, and the look she sent Belldandy was so clouded with anger that it startled not only Keiichi, but Belldandy as well. Never before had the woman directed such a heated expression to the goddess, and it left Belldandy taken aback as Skuld began to argue. "What, so you're saying my job is more important than helping out down here?" she demanded. The woman stood abruptly, slamming her hands down hard on the table. Keiichi could feel the vibrations travel up into his arms. "After everything you've been through, you're just going to get all flippant and dismiss me like I'm some little girl? Why, because I'm you're little sister? You think I can't help out too?"

"Skuld that's not what I-" Belldandy rose to meet her in alarm.

Yet already Skuld was shaking her head. "No," she interrupted. "No, fuck this shit. I'm not going to just stand around here and be talked down to like a goddamned child. Screw this mess." She moved away from the table and out of the kitchen, stomping in a rage as she proceeded into the hallway, past the living room and out the front door. Those present at the table flinched as she slammed it behind her.

"What...what did I say?" The goddess looked at Urd, startled and hurt.

The woman rose with a sigh of her own. "She think's we're trying to get rid of her." The Norn shook her head. "I'll go talk to her." Without another word Urd made for the hallway, leaving in her wake a perplexed Valkyrie, a wary man, and a wounded sister. She headed outside and quietly closed the door behind her. Skuld was standing on the small balcony that overlooked Keiichi's front yard. Her hands were gripping the railing, and the silver haired goddess could see that her sister's knuckles were white from squeezing the metal.

"What do you want," barked the black haired goddess without turning around.

Urd crossed her arms across her chest, observing the younger woman with a raised brow. "I was wondering if you were going to revert back to your younger self," she said.

The youngest Norn turned her head and looked over her shoulder. Tears trickled down the corners of red, irritated eyes. "What are you talking about?"

"Well," started the silver haired goddess with a shrug. "Since you're acting more like the child you were ten years ago, I figured you might as well get ready to go back to looking like one as well."

Skuld whirled around to face her older sister. "That's not it, it's just that-"

"Just that what?" demanded Urd as she leaned in closer to her unruly sibling. "That you're not in to the whole 'adulting' thing anymore? That you don't want to deal with the responsibilities that come with it?" She uncrossed her arms and placed her hands on Skuld's shoulders. Her voice softened. "You were forced to grow up very fast not too long ago, don't ruin what progress you've made.

A fresh tear rolled down Skuld's cheek. "But I need to stay here with you and Belldandy!" she insisted.

"And do what, exactly?" Urd's purple irises bore into Skuld's chocolate brown. "Sit around the house and play Parcheesi with the rest of us misfits? I didn't sacrifice my position and career just so that you can throw it all away along with me. I took the blame you'd have gotten so that you can return to your job, Skuld. I know how much you love Yggdrasil."

"But I don't trust Magilla," came the weak reply. "And...Urd, what if..." The woman bit her lip, and in the warm glow of the porch lights Urd became all too aware of the fear nestled in her sister's gaze. She was unable to complete the sentence, and Urd left it to die in its silence.

" _Keiichi_ is one of the best thing that's ever happened to Belldandy," replied Urd, placing as much emphasis on his name as possible. "You know it, and it's making you jealous. I've seen how you glare when Bell looks at him with those lovey dovey eyes when she thinks no one is watching."

Skuld wrinkled her nose and turned away from Urd. "But he's not the same guy that was supposed to get the wish," she complained. "That guy, I might have been able to tolerate. But gorilla arms in there..."

Urd smiled when Skuld trailed off. "Do you really think that the Keiichi Morisato from ten years ago could have handled Belldandy the way she is now?" The sullen expression on the youngest Norn's face was her answer. "Contrary to what you might believe, Bell is in the right place at the right time to get better. He's helping her _heal_ , Skuld."

"But what about further down the road?" Skuld looked back up at her. "I've seen things, Urd. I've seen things, and I don't like it. I don't like it at all."

There was a hint of accusation in Skuld's voice, and the silver haired goddess was reminded of the dream she had this morning. "Not going to happen."

Skuld's eyes lingered on her sister skeptically as she turned and faced the yard again. Urd stepped forward and wrapped her arms around her siblng and hugged her from behind, placing her chin on Skuld's shoulder. "You better make sure of that," replied the Norn of the Future.

"You can bank on it," replied the silver haired Norn of the Past. "You know, it's not like we're going anywhere. It's also not like you can't come down here pretty much on a whim and check on us. You know how things are between here and home."

"I know." Skuld's voice was a whisper, so filled with reluctance and worry that Urd felt her heart go out to her. "I know, it's just—Urd, there's still that part of me... that tiny bit of me, that little girl... it's stupid, but... I don't-" She stopped herself, her face scrunching into a grimace before swallowing and speaking on. "I'm afraid, Urd," she admitted. "We just got Belldandy back, and now I have to leave so soon, and you—"

"It won't come to that." The elder Norn assured. "No more than any of those other things you've been seeing. I promise you it won't." She kissed the back of Skuld's head. "We may be damaged goods, but that doesn't mean we can't watch out for ourselves."

Skuld leaned forward against the rail slightly, gripping it even harder than before. Urd simply watched, knowing that there was a war raging in her sister's mind over what to do. As she waited, she glanced back behind her, wondering what the other three were doing while she was talking to Skuld. She caught just a whip of almond colored hair as she looked at the small window that was set high in the door. She snorted to herself, knowing that Bell's insecurity had probably gotten the better of her.

"Fine."

Urd turned her head back to her youngest sister. "Fine," repeated Skuld. "I'll go back."

The silver haired goddess smiled. "Good girl," she quipped.

Skuld turned and glared for a moment, the comment touching well exposed nerves from years gone past. "I am not a kid!" she replied angrily. But there was a mischievous smirk there that gave way that she knew Urd was only kidding. The brown haired goddess stepped out of her oldest sister's embrace and stepped to the door, throwing it opened and marching inside, Urd following close behind. When she reached the dining room table, she glared down and Keiichi for a moment before shifting her gaze to the Valkyrie. "I'll go back."

Lind moved to rise. "Good, then I will start-"

"In one week," interrupted Skuld.

The Valkyrie stopped half way once she processed what the Norn had said. A frown appeared on her features as she eased herself back into the seat. "I do not think they will accept that," she replied evenly.

"Bullshit," replied Skuld. "They can take it or leave it. Retro to last week, I am taking two weeks vacation. If they don't like it, they can get bent."

Lind looked to Belldandy for assistance, but the middle Norn kept her silence. She rose again out of her seat, stood, and pushed it under the table. "I will take your proposal back and see what they have to say."

"No, you will inform them that this is how it will be," said Skuld as she placed her hands on her hips. "If you, one of them, or even Brynhild herself darkens this doorstep with the intention of getting me to come back before this Saturday, then I quit." The iron in Skuld voice was unmistakable, and everyone else in the room could tell that she meant it.

Lind and Skuld glared at each other. As the staring contest dragged on, the tension in the air caused Belldandy to start fidgeting in her seat. Urd was about ready to say something, but Belldandy stopped when Keiichi took her hand and squeezed it. After several long moments, it finally ended when one of them gave in.

"Fine," said Lind, the anger in her voice was almost palpable. "Just remember that when Saturday comes, I'll be back."

"And I'll be ready," retorted the Norn.

The mood lightened considerably after that. Urd strong armed Lind into staying a little while longer, breaking out some more of the Sake that Keiichi had gotten for her. Between Urd, Lind, Skuld, and Belldandy, they polished off the bottle. Keiichi took a fair amount of ribbing from the Valkyrie and the silver-haired goddess for not partaking, but he had to go in to work fairly early tomorrow as McGinness had scheduled an early training exercise.

As such, around about ten-thirty, the SEAL helped a somewhat inebriated Lind out the front door, where she punched him in his already sore arm and told him that he was a good friend to Urd and the others. He then assisted an even more enebriated Urd to her bedroom, where she winked slyly at him and told him that she was going to be meeting with McGinness sometime either Monday or Tuesday, so he should not be surprised to see her around. When the man headed downstairs to help Skuld as well, he found the Norn already passed out on the Ugly Beast. Not wanting to rouse the angry poodle, he left her there, grabbing a blanket to cover the goddess up.

Much to his surprise, Belldandy was none the worse for wear compared to her drinking partners.

It was as Keiichi was going to bed afterwards that one final event happened to seal the evening. He'd given Belldandy one of his two pillows right as he was getting his gear ready for work tomorrow, and the way she'd clutched it to her chest had reminded him of how Aiko would hug her teddy bear close to her when something scared her.

It wasn't until Keiichi began to drift off to sleep that the final event occurred, and that final event was his door opening on almost-silent hinges. It was the slight creak of those hinges that awoke him, and for reasons that eluded him Keiichi found himself ten years old once more. Ten years old and recounting the stories Megumi used to tell him of Deb's house growing up. It was a house that had been burned down in the sixties, killing the family that lived there.

Megumi used to claim that the lights would flicker for no reason at night. That doors to empty rooms would creak open on their old hinges and that, on occasion, she would spy a ghostly miasma like a patch of mist hanging around a vent. One time she even claimed to see an old woman watching her, though what had scared her the most had been the time when, just as Keiichi was now, the door to Debra's bedroom had opened late at night. There'd been no one around to open it, but all of a sudden Deb-she'd only been a gangly nine-year old back then-had jumped out of her bed and started screaming, started hollering, started jumping up and down with such fright that Megumi had started to scream too.

It'd been so bad that Deb's dad, Mr. Johanson, had called the police, fearing someone had snuck into the house. He'd sent Megumi and Deb to the Morisatos down the street to help try and calm them down and distract them, and both girls had been too scared to sleep in Megumi's room that night. They'd opted for Keiichi's room instead, and after a lot of begging, his younger self had finally given in and let them sleep in his room, on the condition they didn't touch his stuff, of course.

Yet before they'd drifted off to sleep, Deb had whispered something to him, and it had haunted his sleep for months until they'd managed to put the strange event behind them. " _It lives in the groans of the wood and the creaks of the hinges. You can't catch it, but it can catch you."_ Those two sentences had kept him up and staring at his bedroom door for the rest of the night; whenever he was close to drifting off, he'd hear a groan in the wooden floor, like that of a moaning beast, or something like a squeaky hinge that might have been the shriek of a creature in agony.

Why that memory resurfaced now Keiichi didn't know, but it left him wide awake. Wide awake and aware as the near inaudible creak fell silent and something wisked in on feet lighter than feathers. A floor board groaned, and Keiichi took a deep breath, fighting the sudden, ridiculous urge to cover his head with his blanket. _It lives in the groans of the wood and the creaks of the hinges._ Deb's voice, young and childish once more, rose in his ears. He swallowed, but could not manifest the courage to breathe. He didn't even want to move for fear of what he might see. _This is stupid, Keiichi,_ he told himself. _It's probably just one of the girls is all._

And if it wasn't? _You can't catch it, but it can catch you._ The little girl that was once his wife spoke up in earnest. _Don't move, Kei. Don't let it know that you know it's there. It'll gobble you up then, and the only thing left will be your sock, Kei, that's it. Just a sock and nothing else. Not even a bit a spit or drop of blood. Just a sock._ And wouldn't that be an accomplishment, giving that he'd stopped wearing socks to bed after joining the military.

"Keiichi?"

The man started, almost screamed, then turned to look at it's source. His room was dark, but the hallway lights at Belldandy's back shadowed her face and body, creating a dark silhouette that reminded him somehow of a boogy man. A pillow was under her right arm, and she stared down at the SEAL with a soft frown.

"Belldandy?" His body protested rising, and the hair along his arms and the back of his neck stood stock straight, like a cat that'd been startled by a cucumber. _Dude, calm your tits. It's just Belldandy. What's got you in such a rush?_ The voice of logic asked him, and truth be told, Keiichi had no answer for it. Nothing other than the fact that for whatever reason, he was scared because ( _you can't catch it, but it can catch you)_ something had brought to mind one of the creepiest moments of his childhood and he couldn't shake the fear that the monster under the bed or some kind of boogie man was about to eat him. He swallowed his fear and said, "...what's wrong, Belldandy?"

Belldandy held the pillow out to him. "It smells too much like Urd." In the strange lighting produced by the hallway lights the triangle on her forehead seemed to be glowing and it almost looked as if her eyes flashed a brilliant blue. Yet that was just his mind playing tricks on him, he was certain. "Is it alright if we exchange pillows?"

 _Is that all?_ "Oh, yeah, sure..." The shadows played games with the Norn's expression, and for a moment it almost appeared as if Belldandy was upset. Yet even as he moved to sit upright the strange impression was gone, and again Keiichi chalked it up to his imagination getting the better of him. "Here you go." He grabbed the pillow behind him and offered it to her, watching bemused as the goddess took the offered item, sniffed it, nodded, and then handed him the other pillow. "Yeah, sorry 'bout that." He grumbled, though the SEAL wasn't certain why he was apologizing. "Forgot that Urd was using my bed last night."

A flash of surprise slipped across the woman's face. "...Ah," she said. "I'd...yes. I'd forgotten about that too." For a moment the hallway lights dimmed, then brightened again, and now it appeared as though less shadow engulfed the goddess's face. She almost looked...guilty, yet before Keiichi could get a better look at the expression Belldandy turned away. "Thank you again for the pillow, Keiichi. Sleep well."

"You too." Keiichi mumbled, eyes darting between the goddess and the hallway lights, daring them to flicker again with his mind. They didn't, and Belldandy departed once more, leaving him in the darkness of his room as the goddess shut the door behind her.

This time the hinges didn't creak.

 _What the fuck was that about?!_ Keiichi wondered, staring at the light that flooded through beneath the door. The lights flickered once more, and Keiichi could not suppress the shudder that tickled his spine as the floorboards groaned with the Norn's departure. _Nope. Don't care. Wanna go to sleep. Want to forget this ever happened. Screw this, screw all this shit._ He brought the blankets up to his neck and covered his head with the pillow originally meant for Belldandy. His last thoughts before awaking to his alarm the following morning were, _I guess it does smell like Urd._

And then he too, slept.

* * *

 **A/N: Oh, the twists and turns that we have in this story, it'll almost give you whiplash.**

* * *

 _Comments of a Madwoman: A little late Halloween treat towards the end. Ten points to anyone who can figure out the reason behind Keiichi's sixth sense acting up._


	13. Chapter 13 - Kindred Spirits

l

 **Kindred Spirits**  
"The most intriguing people you will encounter in this life are the people who had insights about you, that you didn't know about yourself."  
\- Shannon L. Alder

-13-

There were no more nightmares. Keiichi's idea worked wonders, and every night following Sunday was left in peace. Tuesday brought the arrival of the new queen bed for Belldandy's room, and Keiichi and Skuld worked- _argued_ -well into the night to disassemble the twin bed, move it piece by piece into the neighboring guest bedroom, and then assemble both the new bed and the twin bed in their respective rooms while Belldandy and Urd worked on dinner.

Belldandy appeared more relaxed now; since the night on the couch, the silent, tense woman Keiichi had met had gone into hiding, and in its place was a quiet individual who on occasion would grace Keiichi with a slim, if at times awkward, smile. It wasn't much-there were still moments that Keiichi could see that tense woman from before come forth and take over, but with each day it appeared less and less. There were still moments of unprecedented panic attacks, yet those held none of the severity displayed by her first on the day she'd tossed Urd through the back door and into the woods beyond. At least, none he noticed while the SEAL was home.

"She has them all the time when you aren't here," Skuld explained to him Tuesday. Keiichi looked up from the manual he was glaring at and looked at the younger woman questioningly. Since her ultimatum on Sunday, Skuld had changed as well. She still enjoyed calling him 'Magilla', but there was a strange anger behind her words or whenever they argued. It was almost a spiteful anger, yet for the life of him Keiichi didn't know what he'd done to so invoke the wrath of the dark haired goddess. And then there'd be moments, just like now, where out of the blue the Norn's attitude would do a quick one-eighty. The anger would vanish and in its place it felt almost as though Skuld was doing some sort of change over with him; as though she was expecting him to take over all her 'duties' once she left, as was the case of service members in the middle of a PCS to a new base or PCA to a new unit.

Seeing the confusion on his face, Skuld frowned before continuing. "You know, the panic attacks." She met his eyes, then averted her gaze back to the wooden planks that made up the bed frame. "Whenever you're gone they get real bad sometimes. It's almost like that nightmare from before, only without the magic. Just the panic and the fear. Urd and me are usually able to rouse her from them, but there's always this terrible moment where you can see it on her face that she doesn't know where she is, that she's getting ready to fight or defend herself." A shadow passed over her face. "Sometimes I think she still feels whatever it is she'd trying to stop from happening." Sorting through the pile of nuts and bolts that had accompanied the bed, the woman picked out two, held the edges of the planks together with her feet, and fit a screw through a hole burrowed into the wood. "And then you come home from your job and 'poof'! No more panic." She grabbed a nut and threaded it on to the screw, spinning it in place before tightening it with a wrench. "I don't know what it is about you, but you place Belldandy at ease in a way not even we, her closest sisters, are able to do."

The screw tightened, Skuld placed the wrench down and looked him straight in the eye. "You'd do well to remember that, Keiichi." Keiichi. She'd called him _Keiichi_. Not Magilla, not an insult-his _name_. Somehow her use of his name was terrible to him, and the SEAL could feel all the hair along his arms and the back of his neck rise. It unnerved him. "Because if I come back here and find you broke Belldandy's heart..." She left the rest unsaid, but the warning was enough. Enough to leave him breaking out in a cold sweat that he couldn't shake, leaving him with memories of the demon in his watch and the demon with Aoshima. What could a goddess do in comparison?

Keiichi decided in that exact moment he never wanted to find out. Still... "Skuld, I'm not trying to hurt anyone," he said. "I don't _want_ to hurt anyone, especially Belldandy." He paused, looked at the small instruction booklet in his lap, and then closed it and moved it to the side. "I want her to get better, just like you and Urd. And, well..." Damn it all, was he really going to say this? To _Skuld_ of all people? _Yes. Yes you are because of all the people here, she needs to understand this more than anyone._ "I love Belldandy, Skuld. I can't emphasis that enough." Here he paused, taking the time to examine Skuld's expression as the words sank in.

For her own part, Skuld's face remained a carefully neutral, and while it made Keiichi hesitant to continue, he forced himself on regardless. "But at the same time, there's always a chance it won't work out." His sigh was heavy as images of his ex-wife flitted through his mind. "I married my best friend seven years ago. I'd known her since coming to the states from Japan, and we grew up together-Debra, Megumi, and myself-from elementary school all the way past high school graduation. We kept in touch when I left for the Navy and she left for college, and after she got her Bachelors we decided to try and see if we could make something more of our relationship."

The SEAL shook his head. "I still believe those were some of the best years of my life. The Navy could be ruthless at times... but I'd always be able to return to Deb, and things would be okay again." His face darkened as memories he more often than not tried to avoid resurfaced, and this time, this one time he let them. "But... sometimes you do stupid things to the ones you love the most. I ended up hurting Deb pretty bad, and it wasn't because I broke her heart or anything either. It was..." He grit his teeth and closed his eyes. The man took a deep breath, then continued. "It was bad. And it broke my heart... it broke her heart, but... because of that incident, we filed for a divorce. We recognized that what I'd done had destroyed our relationship... had destroyed the trust we'd built up for _years_ , Skuld. Maybe we could have salvaged something from it if I hadn't been so _stupid_ back then-" He voice rose in a deep growl, and Keiichi stopped himself.

Skuld said nothing.

He took a shuddering breath, then continued. "What I'm trying to say is...fucking hell... I don't want to hurt Belldandy anymore than I wanted to hurt Deb back then. But at the same time... at the same time, Skuld, if something _does_ happen... then even if it hurts, even if it does break her heart, it'd be better for us to end the relationship if it isn't salvageable. I don't want to leave her feeling trapped in some horrible, desolate relationship like she had with Aoshima. I want her to have the freedom to move on if she thinks 'hey, Keiichi's an asshole, Skuld was right, fuck this guy ten times over with an iron hoe, dueces, I'm out bitches'. I know she made that wish, but I don't care about it-as far as I'm concerned, she's a free woman and if she wants to stay, she can stay, if she wants to go, she can go." Another long pause, and this time he waited, wondering if Skuld would say anything. Yet still the goddess said nothing.

"Look, I don't know what else you want me to say." Keiichi shrugged his shoulders. "I'm not going to sit here and lie to you saying 'everything will be fine'. I'm not that positive and you're not that naive. But I'm also not going to try and convince you I'm the best thing in the world for your sister. I'm not trying to gain your favor, Skuld, because quite frankly, your favor amounts to shit in my book. You're either cool with me or you're not, and from what I've seen you're the type a' person who won't be bought by 'faith and goodwill', so I'm not gonna try and persuade you one way or the other, and..."

He paused there, and Keiichi's brows furrowed together. "And... why the fuck am I preaching to you?" The SEAL stared at the woman before him first in confusion, then in suspicion. "Wait..." It wasn't normal for him to be this chatty. It wasn't normal for Skuld to be so _quiet_. "Wait, what the f-"

"I think I understand you a bit better now, Keiichi." Skuld rose without another word, abandoning the bed posts she'd been working on and walking around him to the front door. She pat his head as if he were a puppy as she walked by, and Keiichi recoiled from her touch as though she was a viper. Skuld just smiled. "Stay honest with us gods, Keiichi. 'To lie is to invite demons, whereas sincerity is sacred.' That's the best advice I can give."

The SEAL twisted to watch her leave. "What the hell did you do to me?!" he demanded.

Yet Skuld ignored his question. "I'm tired of arguing with you on how to build a bed. I'm going to put the twin back together so at least _I_ have something to sleep on tonight."

"Skuld-"

"Later Magilla!"

She left him in a rush, slamming the door behind her. "That little _shit,"_ he growled.

XXX

Wednesday proved interesting as well, and in more ways than one. He woke up to a text message from Aiko, one brimming with excitement: _SWIGGITY SWUNNY IM COMING FOR DAT BUNNY._ Below it was a gif. Keiichi touched the play icon on his touchscreen and watched, still half asleep, as a family released a baby rabbit into their lawn 'Be free, Bunny!' Only for a hawk or a falcon to swoop down and snatch it off the ground.

It took him a good five minutes to figure out what she meant, and when he did, Keiichi groaned into his pillow. "Easter weekend." In the excitement over the past weekend, he'd forgotten all about Aiko's upcoming visit. Aiko was supposed to come down from North Carolina to spend the weekend with him, as had become standard whenever there was a holiday or vacation where Keiichi wasn't deployed. _And you went and told her Easter was still a go for her to come down, remember?_ Yes, though he'd been high off whatever magic potion Belldandy had gotten him to drink and it had been close to three in the morning, he remembered. He remembered all too well.

 _That means Aiko's gonna meet the whole gang._ He grimaced. Why did Skuld have to stay through the week? Where the hell was he going to put Aiko in a three bedroom house occupied by three goddesses and a mortal? "This is going to be a clusterfuck in the making." He grumbled, but couldn't stop the smile that wormed its way up his face. It'd be an entertaining clusterfuck, if nothing else, because there was no way in fucking hell he was going to cancel on Aiko. Gods or not, Aiko was family, and he was looking forward to seeing her.

A part of him was looking forward to what she'd make of Belldandy.

Snorting to himself, the man rolled onto his stomach and propped himself up with his forearms. _Does this mean you want bunny for Sunday Brunch?_ He texted back, and then spammed a second text with rabbit emotes. Aiko's response was a very loud _NO!_ Followed by a variety of angry and disgusted emotes, and snorting Keiichi rolled out of bed to get himself ready for the morning.

The day only grew stranger the further it progressed.

McGuinness called them all in for a meeting in the SCIF where he'd initially confronted Keiichi over the Norns. This time, the SEAL thought nothing of it; the SCIF was a location often used for meetings discussing possible ad-hoc deployments or training TDYs leading up to longer-term deployments. They were regulars amongst the Intel Bubbas, and while the meeting was sudden, there was nothing odd or interesting about it to warrant his attention.

At least not until Team 12 in all their glory walked into the conference room and found Urd sitting at its head. She smiled at them from the large desk chair normally reserved for high ranking staff like McGuinness, dressed in a surprisingly formal and conservative white blouse and a black skirt that fell down to her knees. The woman's silver hair was held back out of her face in a bun, and something about the outfit and the way the Norn presented herself reminded Keiichi almost of a government agent. It made the hair stand up along his arms. The only government agents he'd worked with in his time of service was the occasional CIA agent, and nothing good had ever come from their brief encounters. The last one had almost gotten Morrison killed, and that before the IED that had taken off most of his toes and sent him into retirement.

For a long moment no one said a word. McGuinness was silent, watching his team's reaction. Urd was quiet, still smiling that mad-dog CIA government smile. Keiichi didn't dare say a word for fear of drawing what would already amount to unwanted attention once their meeting began. It was HM1 Angel Sanchez-'Croaker' as he was better known-who broke the silence. "Sheila?!" he cried. "What are you doing here?" The man gaped at her, brown eyes bulging in their sockets. "What are you doing in a _SCIF_ of all places?" Urd's smile grew larger, and the man turned to look at Keiichi. "Yo man, what the hell?" He demanded. "You been holding out on us? What's this all about?"

 _I forgot Urd was going to have a meeting with McGuiness,_ Keiichi thought. He wasn't even aware Sanchez was talking to him. _She never said anything about speaking to all of us. Was this her idea or Tank's?_ He wouldn't have put it past either of them, really. McGuinness was always looking out for what he felt was best for his team, and Urd had a fondness for Team 12 ever since they'd intervened in the fight against the demon.

"Have a seat lads," McGuinness's tone left no room for argument. Team 12 looked up at him. "Ms. Hildborne here will take the time to explain that to you." He folded his arms against his massive chest, and with a small murmur of dissent the group moved to the chairs surrounding the table. Keiichi sat on Urd's right, sensing that he'd be called on to explain his own bit in this-and just what the fuck was he supposed to say?- whereas McGuinness took a seat on Urd's left. The others scattered throughout the room, taking up various chairs as they looked at the strange trio in a mixture of confusion, curiosity, suspicion, and yes, the always popular concern.

Only Braxton sat next to Keiichi, and when he did he glared at the SEAL. "What the fuck did you do, Jank?" he hissed. His eyes kept darting from Keiichi to Urd. "What the hell is she _doing here?!"_

Urd did a very good job of ignoring the younger man, and Keiichi sighed, contemplating the wisdom of kicking their newest recruit under the table. "Fuck if I know," he grumbled. "We're about to find out though, or were you not paying attention?" Braxton had been a growing thorn in his side since Belldandy had moved into his house. The man wouldn't let the topic of who Urd was drop, and it had devolved from an amusing avoidance to an irritation that Keiichi couldn't get rid of. Perhaps there was a bright side to this meeting after all. At least it'd get Braxton to shut up about Urd and leave him alone for a change.

When everyone found their seats, Urd rose from hers. "Good Morning everyone!" She sounded awfully chipper this morning. Annoyingly so; McGuinness, a man who's blood was black from the amount of coffee he drank, hadn't even had his first pot of the day, and he scowled at the woman's borderline-bubbly mood. "First off, despite the fact that most of you recognize me, allow me to properly reintroduce myself. I'm Special Agent Urd Hildborne of the International Humanitarian Relief Center under the United Nations."

GMC Brian 'Piper' Jackson leaned forward in interest. "No shit?" he said, then made a face. "Sorry, shouldn't be cursing to you Shei-uh, Ms...Hildborne?" He stared at her, at a loss with what to do with this new information. On one hand, it was Sheila who was talking to them-the same woman who cursed up a storm and insulted them just as they did her whenever she magically appeared to share a drink with the Team. Yet on the other hand...here was some kind of government official who looked more at home with a three letter agency over a bunch of scruffy SEALs. How the hell were they supposed to approach her?

"Bullshit," Braxton muttered under his breath. At least one of them had no reserves about cursing. "No such thing."

Urd looked him straight in the eye. "There is such a thing, though our operations are rather covert due to the sensitivity of the missions we conduct." The pleasant smile never left her face, and Bravo flushed an embarrassed red before averting his gaze to the table. "For the past ten years I've been working in conjunction with the FBI in a large joint operation targeting international sex trafficking and child prostitution." A fresh murmur rose from the table, and Urd waited for it to die down before continuing. "We recently had a long line of successful stings ranging all the way from Thailand, Pakistan, and Ukraine all the way down to Japan and the US, in particular Wyoming and Colorado."

"What was the name of the operation?" Braxton eyed her in suspicion, still unconvinced. It was strange, coming from him. Braxton had a bad habit of living up to his callsign of 'Bravo' whenever a woman was around, and his behavior was a noticeable oddity, one made more apparent given how the man had dogged Keiichi for details on Urd over the past three weeks.

"Operation CROSSFIT," Urd replied, and smiled as a chorus of muffled snorts and laughter escaped the team. Even Keiichi snickered, though somehow the operation's name didn't surprise him. He'd never heard it before, he was certain, yet it still felt as though the SEAL had glanced upon it or heard it somewhere before. "One of our biggest stings recently happened in Japan; we rescued thirty-two individuals ranging from various locations, many of which were young girls from China or Vietnam, with an occasional woman or boy from Yugoslavia, Iceland, and even a couple from here in the States."

"Oh Lord," Sanchez murmured. "How many people were arrested?" He paused, a deep frown on his face. "Did you beat the shit out of any of 'em?"

"We ended up arresting fifteen people, to include both the traffickers and the pimps." Urd replied. She ignored Sanchez's second question. "However with the greater success of these missions, we've suddenly found ourselves with a good many displaced individuals, and one of the difficulties we've been having is returning the people to their proper countries with the documentation stating that they are from the country they'd been extracted from. This is a process easier said than done, as we've discovered. Countries don't want displaced human traffic victims that can't prove their nationality without a passport, and some of these people have been in the system so long they don't even remember where they came from. We've been having difficulty making ends meet in this regard; however, the United States government has been quite generous in lending its support for those people who'd been rescued."

"Okay..." Jackson drawled. "That's sweet and all, no, really, I ain't joking, but...what does that have to do with us?" he asked, looking around at his teammates, and then focusing on Keiichi. "What does this have to do with GM1 Morisato? You took him...what, two, three weeks ago? And then we don't hear from him for an entire weekend? And now here you are introducing yourself as some undercover covert operative that reminds me a' those OSI guys, and you expect us to believe that Morisato _isn't_ involved in this operation you been talking about somehow?"

"I was just about to get to that, Chief Jackson." Urd nodded, and Keiichi took a deep breath.

 _Here we go..._ He thought, watching Urd with a pensive face.

"So..." There was a subtle change in Urd's demeanor, so slight it was all but unnoticed by all but the most perceptive of people. "Despite the United States government and the United Nations combined good intentions, there are a great many people working within. Many tiny pieces that work the machine, and if one is to fail than the results can be catastrophic, yes? Well, for us that tiny cog came in the form of a bureaucrat." She sighed, and the Norn's expression darkened with an anger so deep it could have passed for real. Keiichi wondered just what memory she was reliving to transcribe that anger on her face.

"A specific group of the women we saved-some of which had been in the system for close to ten years, give or take a month, ended up with a faulty batch of paperwork that created an error in the processing line to get them basic necessities to live here in the States. Food, water, shelter, the funds to provide for that and clothes, a job, an _identity_... gone. No funds to go into a temporary place to stay and no paperwork that would take the necessary steps to providing them an identity for a job." The woman crossed her arms beneath her breasts with a scowl. "It's one of the worst case scenarios that could happen to us; these women are the ones with no passport, who've been in so long they have no place to return to and who need an identity and a new life more than anyone else we've rescued."

"So...Jank here..." Sanchez pressed, dark eyes darting to Keiichi and then to Urd, his gaze imploring.

"I'm getting to that." Despite the apparent anger on her face, Urd's tone was calm and collected, and perhaps because of that eerie calm Sanchez leaned back, eyeing her as if she'd just threatened him with _la chancla._ "But I feel I need to emphasize the position I was put into; there were little other options left to us. Because of the lack of funding to provide housing and supplies to the victims, the IHRC was forced to rely on the charity of others to help support the individuals in question." She looked at them, no longer smiling but stoic, observing each member of Team 12 carefully before continuing on.

"I approached Petty Officer Morisato at that bar three weeks ago with a very large request," she explained. "We'd been fortunate enough to find alternate living locations for almost everyone who'd been victimized by the faulty paperwork, however we weren't able to locate an alternate unit for one of the individuals most needing a home. Fortunately, I've come to know not only Team 12, but Morisato himself rather well, and as such, I took a gamble and called in a favor." She looked at him, and Keiichi felt the hair along the length of his neck rise as he became the center of attention.

"I guess you want me to take over for you now?" Keiichi looked at Urd with a raised eyebrow. She dipped her head in a nod, and Keiichi sighed. _What the hell am I supposed to say?_ He wondered, and the answer came to him with surprising clarity. _The truth._ "Her name's Belldandy Tyrdotter. I agreed to play host for her after Urd came and explained the situation to me. I met her Saturday night, after sleeping off Sunday's drinking at a hotel. Skuld came to get us that morning-she, uh, works with Urd. We had to travel quite a distance to meet her, but she seemed willing enough. She knows Urd and Skuld pretty well, but..." He frowned, and rubbed his hands together in slow, thoughtful circles. In that moment Keiichi forgot who was right beside him, forgot Urd's relation to Belldandy, and instead he looked to his team, staring at them gravely. "She's... fuck, guys... she's just like Aiko was. You know. From that time."

The reactions that came across Team 12's faces were as varied as they were when they'd glanced upon Urd, and ignored by all the men present in that moment, the woman in question took the time to observe them all carefully. It appeared that everyone at the table, everyone but their newest member, Braxton, was aware of Aiko's story, and why not? Were they not a team? One that had shed blood and tears side by side from one deployment to the next? Were they not kinsmen? McGuinness's eyes narrowed, but otherwise he showed no other response. Jackson grimaced. Sanchez closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Even Braxton, new though he was, sensed the gravity of the situation and held his silence, staring at Keiichi in the calm contemplation of one who chose to wait for a bad story in its own time rather than force it into the open right then and there.

"I had to take her in, guys... how could I _not_." Keiichi's face darkened, and in his expression all the anger and rage that had manifested over the course of his enlistment dwelt, glittering with violent anticipation like a cluster of stars in his eyes. It was a terrible sight, yet there was something equally pitiful about it, as though unresolved guilt and shame rested just beneath the surface of that anger. As if those sorrowful emotions sought redemption, to repent for what the young sailor of yesteryear had been unable to do for a girl of nine years old.

"She has panic attacks," Keiichi continued. "They're bad-you can almost _see_ what's going through her mind when they grab her, and Urd and Skuld have been staying over to try and make sure that she's looked after. The nightmares were pretty bad too, but we might have found a solution for that, but still..." He buried his fingers in his hair, and then growled out, "If I could have killed the bastard who'd done it to her..."

"Breathe Morisato." McGuinness's voice was a gentle rumble. Keiichi sucked in a deep breath on his commander's order, and when he released it there was an audible shudder that came with it. "Again," McGuinness instructed, and as the younger man followed through, the larger man continued. "You'll do neither Ms. Tyrdotter or yourself any good focusing on the beast that bit her. Focus on what you _can_ do instead." He paused and shared a brief look with Urd. "We're all familiar with Aiko and the trials she went through when she was younger. What she experienced. What you were unable to do for her because of your own position at the time."

Keiichi looked up at him, and from Urd's perspective she was taken aback by just how _tired_ the man looked in that moment. The exhaustion on his face was close to pallable, with worry lines creasing the roof of his forehead and stress lines making evident the shadows beneath his eyes. It was a look the goddess could never before remember seeing on his face, and it left her wondering at just how much of his own pain he'd been hiding for Belldandy's sake. How much of a toll had Belldandy's arrival in his life taken on Keiichi? Was he not a mortal attempting a task more suited for a god? How much relief did he feel now, knowing that he could at last speak on the topic with his peers and seek advice?

"Well, now circumstances have placed you in a position where you _can_ do something for the one affected," McGuinness continued. "And you are not alone in this endeavor. You have Ms. Hildborne and her partner to assist you in ensuring Ms. Tyrdotter has the support and help she needs to recover from what has happened to her. And you have us to come to for support and advice as well."

Taking the hint Sanchez voiced up. "Yeah man, you know we'll help however we can. You ain't a one-man army! You got to rely on your Bros!"

Jackson nodded. "We got your back, Jank. Best thing to do is focus on the future." He looked to Urd. "This lady-"

"Belldandy," Urd said at once.

"Belldandy, right," Jackson nodded. "Belldandy's got a therapist, right?"

A shadow fell over her face. "Not yet, admittedly," she growled, sounding less like 'Ms. Hildborne' and more like 'Urd'. "Broken system won't cover for her without a proper identity or the paperwork filing a sponsor. I'm working to correct that issue as we speak."

Sanchez nodded, humming in thought. "Jank, we can probably help with that," he said. "You know, pull some strings or whatever to have someone from Mental Health speak with her?" His gaze darted between Keiichi and Urd, thoughtful but hesitant all at once. "Jank could sponsor her as a dependent-technically that's what she is, right? Just without the official paperwork? He can still sign off on her and everything, right?"

"But won't she need a dependent's card?" Braxton piped up, and Sanchez scowled and pursed his lips, rubbing his bearded chin thoughtfully.

"I am well acquainted with one of the commanders who works in Mental Health," McGuinness said. "I might be able to have him come down and speak with Ms. Tyrdotter." He looked to Urd. "If that is something you believe would be in her best interest."

Urd looked at him, surprised, and then leaned back into her chair, lips pursed in a thin line. "It might..." It almost sounded like an honest consideration from the Norn. Perhaps, in the sudden support displayed by Team 12 to Keiichi and Belldandy, it was. "I'd have to speak with her on it... Belldandy's reluctant to speak on any of the events she went through with A-" The goddess stopped herself and looked around. McGuinness gestured for her to continue. "She doesn't talk about what happened to her. It might be difficult to convince her otherwise." She looked at Keiichi. "She might feel a bit more willing if someone accompanied her. Not me or Skuld-I don't think she wants to talk about that with either of us present-but maybe you?" She looked back at McGuinness. "I'll bring it up to Belldandy and see how she feels about it." It was probably the one honest statement she'd said during the entire meeting. "Thank you for the consideration, Tank."

And perhaps in that moment some unknown wall was scaled between Urd and McGuinness. Urd's words were sincere, despite the large web of lies she'd weaved to help cover for the Norns, and in their sincerity the goddess forgot her formality by referring to Team 12's commander by his call sign. At once there was no longer a 'Sheila' or a 'Ms. Hildborne' but a woman known simply as 'Urd', working to aid a woman who may or may not have been a relative and finding relief in the people around her. She smiled a large, toothy smile, and the formality of the atmosphere seemed to break, as though the room had at once taken a deep breath of relief.

It was something felt by everyone, and even Keiichi found his spirits lifted as McGuinness returned Urd's smile with one of equal sincerity. And with his attention so focused on the two of them, Keiichi almost didn't hear Braxton mutter under his breath. "Maybe I was wrong?"

Sanchez overheard him as well. "Wrong about what?"

Braxton started, then shook his head. "Nothing, sorry." He smiled, then looked over at Urd. "So you're saying if we go over to Morisato's house, we'll run into Belldandy?"

"And Skuld too," Urd nodded. "Though, admittedly, you won't be seeing much of Skuld soon. She's been called back to the central office to try and make ends meet with the messed up forms, but you might see her every now and then. We've both been staying at Keiichi's house as well to try and help Belldandy adjust, and she's due to leave by the end of this week."

"Man, what a shitty way to go-on Easter Sunday? That's some bullshit right there." Sanchez grumbled, then straightened. "Wait, Jank, are you saying that Sheila here's been shacking up with you?" He sent a disbelieving look to Keiichi, who moaned and buried his face in his hands.

"Angel, it's not like that, I swe-"

Jackson interrupted him. "Whoa, no, Sanchez's got a point!" he exclaimed. "Last time we went to your place you had us sitting on those fucking folding chairs!" He sent a glance to Urd. "Sorry Ms. Hildborne."

Urd waved him off, now entirely too amused with the direction the conversation was going. "It took me two weeks to convince him to get furniture," she added, and Jackson's eyes grew wide.

"No shit!" He cried, winced, looked at Urd, who waved him off again, then looked at McGuinness, who sent him a warning glare. The man grinned. "No, this is great!" he said. "And it's Easter weekend too? Man, you know what this calls for? A barbeque." Jackson leaned back in his chair. "I was gonna host at my place here on base, but Morisato's got a bigger place." He looked over at Keiichi with a large smile. "What do you say, Jank? I got brats, burgers, ribs, the whole shebang marinating in my fridge. Want to invite us over so Team 12 can introduce ourselves like the gents we ain't?" He paused, then looked at Urd. "Is it okay for us to meet her? I mean, you know since she was..." He waved his hands about, uncertain how to communicate his intent.

Keiichi and Urd shared a look, for once both uncertain on how to respond. Then Sanchez spoke up, "We understand if you think it's a bad idea, but it'd be a good way for us all to meet-including your partner, Sheila. This way we can have an idea on how to act around her without all at once-forgive my language-scaring the shit out of her."

"Well..." Keiichi looked back to Urd. "Aiko's coming up to visit as well..." He trailed off at Urd's look of surprise. "Right, I forgot to tell you about that... my little sister's coming down to visit since it's a three day weekend for her school." He frowned, and then after a moment's consideration added, "I'm not cancelling on her, Urd."

Urd frowned. "I never said you had to," she replied. "I'm just surprised, is all." Sighing, she leaned back in her chair, drumming her pinky and thumb on the leather armrest. "I don't see a problem with it." She announced after a few moments. "Belldandy will have to meet you all sooner or later, and it'd be better to do it at Keiichi's place since the surroundings are more familiar to her. She might get overwhelmed by an unfamiliar household with additional people dropping by." She looked back at Keiichi. "Do you see any problems with it?"

"No, I think it's a good idea," Keiichi replied. "We can do it while Skuld's still here as well-kind of see her off with a bang-plus Braxton hasn't been up to my place or met Aiko yet." The SEAL looked to the man in question. "I introduce everyone in Team 12 to Aiko," he explained. "She's like a burr that I can't shake when it comes to holidays, and she's my main emergency contact in case something happens to me."

"Sweet!" Sanchez exclaimed. "So then we all in agreement? Head over to Jank's place on Friday for a barbeque?" He smiled broadly at Urd. "We'll be on our best behavior, Scouts Honor."

Urd snickered while Keiichi nodded, a grin of his own beginning to form. "Sounds good." He replied. For the first time since revealing the fact that he'd been harboring three women in his house, the SEAL felt a bit of excitement as the prospect of Team 12 meeting the Norns. "Say around three or so people start arriving?"

The conversation dwindled after that. Discussions on harboring human traffic victims were exchanged for who would bring what to the barbeque, and the tense atmosphere was exchanged for a more easy and open one as the members of Team 12 heckled and teased one another. Urd, for the first time since seeing McGuinness lumbering towards Keiichi's truck on a Sunday afternoon, felt at ease amongst the team members once more. She glanced at McGuinness, who smiled on occasion and laughed when a joke was cracked, but otherwise did not contribute much to the conversation.

She caught his eye when he glanced her way, and with a small jerk of her head the two of them, Lieutenant Commander Christian McGuinness and Special Agent Urd Hildborne, rose to leave. McGuinness waved Keiichi down when the SEAL moved to rise as well, and leaving the remainder of Team 12 to work out Friday's gathering the duo left the conference room.

"Thank you for allowing me to speak with your team, McGuinness," Urd murmured, allowing the larger man to escort her through the SCIF and to the door, dropping a badge declaring her access level off in a bin as McGuinness signed her out. "You've produced a fine group of men out of Team 12." The sincerity in her own voice startled her, and a part of her was surprised to find that she meant what she said. "You should be proud of them. They may act rough around the edges, but they've got good hearts."

McGuinness watched her with a sidelong glance. "What's this?" he said. "Don't tell me you're getting sappy on me, Sheila." It was the first time he'd called her by the Team's designated nickname for her since first seeing Belldandy in the Chevy.

Urd chuckled. "I wouldn't know sappy if my life depended on it," she retorted. "I just comment on what I see. They say you can judge a leader by his followers, and from what I've seen you've been leading them down the right path."

McGuinness hummed in reply. "I'll be honest with you Sheila... no, Urd," he said, and the Norn looked up at him with renewed interest. "I still feel that not all of what you had to say in there was the truth. It still feels like something is missing…though what that is or why, I am still uncertain." He eyed her critically. "However, I am willing to give you and your own partner a chance. The woman I saw in Morisato's truck that day...Ms. Tyrdotter... I feel there is more to her story than just the fear I saw on her face."

Urd held her silence, and McGuinness nodded. "I do not expect you to tell me anything." He admitted. "I understand that we all have our secrets, and despite everything else, Urd, you are a woman who guards them closely. I have learned that in the five years I've known you, if for no other reason than by the fact it took you five years to trust us enough to speak of your career." He nodded solemnly. "I shall not pry, so long as Morisato is not entwined in those secrets to the point where it affects him negatively. That man has a tendency to commit himself to whatever is thrown his way, and I will not allow it to ruin his career...or his life."

"I understand." Urd nodded, startled by the man's perception and surprisingly wounded by McGuinness'ss own mistrust of her. It wasn't that the distrust wasn't well founded, but hearing the words coming from the man she'd known for so long still stung. She scowled. "I'm doing everything in my power to protect him-to protect them _both_ ," she admitted. "But even I can only do so much…and for those times where something slips through…" She shook her head.

"I expect you to come to me." Urd started, then looked up at McGuinness. The man stared back at her, his gaze unwavering. "You've known all of us for five years, Urd. At this point, you may as well be family, secrets or not. I won't pry into your story, but know that if Morisato gets in over his head…if _you_ get in over your head, I'm telling you to come to me. Is that understood?"

For a long moment Urd stared at the hulking man before her in bemusement, the words circling through her mind but not quite sinking in to comprehension. Then she smiled, and in it was a relief so profound it hurt to look at with how it splayed across her face. "It is," she replied. "…I think I'm starting to understand why your team is always hailed as the best on base," she said. "And thank you, Christian. I'll take your words to heart."

XXX

Thursday afternoon an old, used, 2005 Honda Civic rolled up the road and into Keiichi's driveway. It was a ramshackle old thing, dark blue and covered with the silver scrapes that spoke of many hand-me-downs and use and abuse. The bumper was covered with various band stickers ranging from the well-known to the obscure, and about a quarter of them had peeled off with age, leaving in their wake a white film that showed the imprint of what once was. The car was affectionately known as the 'Blue Bell', a name so dubbed by Keigo in his youth after Keima had first bought it, then gifted it to Megumi after she left for college. After Megumi had graduated with a degree in law she'd given it to Aiko as her own college gift, and Aiko supposed that after she graduated she'd pass it down to Keigo once he had his learner's permit. The Morisato family was not known for waste, and they'd wear their possessions to threads and strips of metal before they ever gave up what was theirs, and the ol' Blue Bell was one of the finer examples of this trait.

Now, seeing no sign of her brother's silver Chevy anywhere, Aiko Morisato drummed her fingers on the refurbished leather steering wheel of the Civic, humming in thought. She'd gotten to Virginia earlier than expected. There'd only been morning classes at NCSU, and she'd packed her bags all night Wednesday in order to hit the road as soon as the lunch bell hailed the end of her final class. She'd expected a lot more traffic in the two-almost three-hour drive up to Suffock, Virginia from Raliegh, North Carolina, but the freeway had been nothing close to what she'd expected. She'd estimated her arrival to be around six or seven in the evening, yet here she was at her older brother's place at four-thirty in the afternoon.

"Well..." she reasoned. "He could have his truck in the shop... I know he's usually able to sneak off work early when it comes to the holidays, so..." Shrugging to herself, the young woman stepped out of the car. For a moment she considered calling her brother to see if he was indeed home, then thought better of it and proceeded up the porch. Surprising Keiichi was a past time of hers, and Aiko didn't want to ruin the moment with a text asking if he was home. "If he's not I'll just head back down to that little diner I saw a while back." Her stomach growled in consideration. "Have a late lunch and some coffee, then surprise the hell out of him when he _does_ get back."

A game plan in mind, Aiko climbed the porch steps and rang the doorbell next to the heavy wooden front door. The woman waited for a moment, ears straining as she rocked on her feet, and was rewarded for her efforts when she heard footsteps on just the other side. A large smile spread across her face, and the college student ceased her rocking in preparation for the door opening. She watched the door knob turn, saw the door open, and with an exclamation of "Kei!" barreled into the person on the other side.

It wasn't until her arms slipped around a much thinner waist, felt her head collide with something soft, and felt them both go down with two rather feminine shouts that Aiko Morisato came to the startling conclusion that the woman she'd tackled was not, in fact, her brother. They hit the ground with a pair of grunts, and for a moment Aiko laid where she'd fallen, her brain trying to wrap its mind over the fact that she'd not collided with her large beast of a brother but instead some slim broad with titties the size of melons. Titties that even now, her face was buried in. It made it rather difficult to breathe.

"Not that I'm not enjoying this or anything, but could you getting off me?" A voice murmured in her ear, and with a startled yelp Aiko scrambled off the woman, staring at the dark skinned woman with wide eyes.

"OhmygodI'msosorry!" The words came out in a rush as Aiko rushed to her feet, watching as the woman picked herself up and brushed off the dust that clung to her outfit. _Holy shit she's got huge breasts. They look like they're about to pop out of her shirt._ "Are you-she looked back over her shoulder, yet nothing about the surrounding area had changed. The place still looked like Keiichi's place, and her brother hadn't told her anything about him moving. She looked back to the stranger. "Are you... are you Keiichi's lady friend?"

The woman froze. "Am I his _what?"_ She stared at Aiko with large violet-were they really purple?!-eyes, and behind the tan woman with the strange platinum-blonde hair Aiko spied another woman, this one a brunette with lighter skin. She was also staring at Aiko with large eyes-these ones blue instead of-wow, Dark Lady really _did_ have purple eyes, and had frozen mid-step in the hallway.

"Wait..." Aiko paused, staring between the two of them, then said, "Keiichi didn't say anything about _two_ lady friends."

"Two what?" It was the brunette's turn to stare at her in confusion. "Urd, what does she-"

"Hey!" _Another_ voice rose from inside the house, and now a third woman appeared, this one with long black hair. "Guys, who's at the door?" She glanced from the brunette towards the platinum blonde, leaning to the side a bit so she could get a better look at Aiko. "Hey, is that Lind?" She asked. "Nice haircut! It suits you!"

"Skuld, that's not Lind." The Brunette said. Aiko almost didn't hear her.

" _Th-three_ lady friends?!" Aiko exclaimed. She brought her hands to her head, burying the fingers within the short blue locks. "Oh my god my brother's a Morman." She paused as the strange women in her brother's house continued to stare at her blankly. "...This _is_ Keiichi Morisato's house, right?!"

"Last we checked." The black-haired woman said. "What the hell is a Morman? Who are you?"

"Aiko Morisato." She replied. "Keiichi's sister. Who the hell are all of _you_?!"

"Keiichi's lady friends?" The brunette quipped, and Aiko watched as the other two recoiled in horror.

"Belldandy, _no!_ " The dark skinned one cried, and in Aiko's mind she imagined the brunette looking Ladytits square in the eye and saying, _"Belldandy yes."_

That wasn't what happened, of course. Instead the brunette just stared at her dark friend next to Aiko in confusion. "What?" She asked.

 _As if you don't know._ Aiko thought in disbelief, and it was in that moment that a truck, Keiichi's truck, thank the lord and Hallelujah, can I get an amen, rounded the bend and pulled up beside Aiko's Civic. The woman in question turned to follow it's path, and as it came to a stop and Keiichi hopped out, his younger sister's eyes narrowed. "Oh... I'm going to _wreck his shit._ " She hissed, and without another word to the strange women who'd come to inhabit Keiichi's house-what were they, his goddamned harem?!-Aiko stormed off the porch and towards her older brother.

Behind her she could hear the trailing voices of the women in the house. "Oh, this is gonna be _good_." That was the black haired girl.

"Skuld, stop. What's she doing?" That was the brunette. "Should we stop her? She looks like she's going to hurt Keiichi."

"Nope." And of course Tits McGee. "We're going to sit this one out, Bell. Siblings spats belong to siblings, not strangers." Well ain't that the fucking truth.

Keiichi, dressed in pt gear so filthy the uniform looked more dirt then cloth, paused to watch Aiko's approach. His eyes widened in surprise. "Hey, Spike Leesa, you died your hair!"

"Keeeeii _iii!"_ Aiko cried, and then dropped into a sprint towards Keiichi. "You son of a _bitch!_ " The man blinked at her, looked to the porch where the three women had come to stand, and then bolted as well.

"Holy shit, what'd I do!?" The man cried, "Look, I'm sorry about the burn on your hair, okay?! You look good! I swear! Short spikey blue hair suits you!" He raced around his truck and the Civic, and Aiko followed him, the two starting laps around their respective vehicles. "I'm sorrrrry!" he cried. "Please, don't be angry!"

"I'm going to dislocate all your fingers!" Aiko threatened. "And then I'll cuff you to the back of your pickup- _without_ bobbypins!"

"Urrrrd!" Keiichi cried as they circled their fifth lap. "What did you tell her?!" It was hard to tell if he was scared, angry, or laughing at the whole situation.

"Why does he always think I..." The dark skinned woman trailed off, the shouted back, "I didn't tell her anything!"

"Then why's she trying to hurt me?!"

"I'm not trying, I'm _going_ to! That's not a threat Kei! You can't run forever! I've run more marathons than you've gone on deployments!"

"How the hell would I know?!" Urd shouted above Aiko.

Skuld stepped up to join her. "Better run faster Magilla! She's gaining on you!" The woman looked close to doubling over in laughter.

"Oh goodness," Belldandy murmured, burying her face in her hands and shaking her head in embarrassment for herself, for her sisters, for Keiichi, and perhaps even for Aiko.

XXX

"So let me get this straight." Aiko's brown eyes darted from one person to the next. "You two," she pointed at Urd and Skuld, "are part of some UN organization running stings on human trafficking?" At Urd and Skuld's nod she turned to Belldandy. "And you were one of people they rescued?" Belldandy said nothing, and after a long, lingering gaze Aiko turned to Keiichi. "...And you're the moron who got looped in to housing all three of them? What the hell, Kei? A month goes by and all of a sudden you're roleplaying _Maison Ikkoku_?" She punched Keiichi in the arm, causing the man to groan in anguish.

They'd decided to keep the story the same as what had been told to Team 12. No one wanted a hiccup in the stories, and the possibility of someone sniffing out the truth of what was really going on was too great to risk. Unfortunately, while the story had done wonders for Keiichi's team, the same could not be said for the lone woman sitting on an ugly pink couch next to her brother.

"Please don't compare my life to an anime," he muttered. "It's not like that, I'm telling you. Urd called in a favor and Belldandy needed help. That's all there is to it."

"That's a mighty fine pile of bull _shit_ if you ask me." The woman placed heavy emphasis on 'shit', missing the way Belldandy flinched at the drawn-out curse. "You really expect me to believe that? You think I'm going to fall for some lame-ass excuse like that when I've known you all my life?" she demanded. "Kei, you couldn't lie your way out of a bucket if I was standing right next to it." The problem wasn't the story. The story was good, the story was fine, and for anyone who wanted a simple, believable explanation, the story was the truth, which was one of the reasons it had worked so well on Team 12. Team 12 knew Keiichi and trusted him. They knew Urd, and to an extent trusted her as well.

Yet Aiko was proving to be a bit of a skeptic when it came to 'Tales from the Book of Norn'. The problem here was that whereas Team 12 knew Keiichi, Aiko _knew_ Keiichi. And she didn't know Urd. Or Belldandy and Skuld for that matter. But she knew all of Keiichi's ticks; those little signs that happen unconsciously and give people away to the ones who knew them best. Keiichi would have been the first to say that of everyone he knew, Aiko was closest to him. The Navy SEAL leaned into the Ugly Beast with a moan. What was he supposed to tell her then? He didn't want to lie to her anymore than he wanted Urd to work another one of her creepy-ass voodoo memory spells on Aiko. "Alright, fine. I'll tell you the truth then."

He heard Belldandy suck in a deep, surprised gasp, and without thinking reached over and grabbed her hand, squeezing it gently. Urd watched him with a raised eyebrow, while Skuld had grown very still, waiting to hear what he'd say before reacting. He took a deep breath before starting. "The truth is, Aiko... these three are a trio of Norse goddesses that run a gigantic super world-tree computer thingie that keeps the universe running. Belldandy here," he raised the Norn's hand, "grants wishes but got conned into serving this one freak over in Japan, and Urd enlisted my help for a weekend to save her. I had a hair dryer for a weapon and got my ass kicked by a demon, then Belldandy and me tag-teamed her with a mixture of badassery and Monty Python. Now they're chilling with me because I gave the wish meant for me to Belldandy, and she wished to stay with me forever." He scowled at Aiko. "There. Happy?"

Aiko stared at him for approximately five seconds, then narrowed her eyes and punched him in the arm once more, this time with all her might. "Asshole," she stated, missing the looks of relief that flashed upon the Norns' faces. "You're getting better at lying. Fine, so they're part of the UN and you're hoarding a human traffic victim in your house." She sighed, then muttered absently, "This is probably the most pussy you've seen since volunteering at that animal shelter after Deb moved out."

Keiichi gaped at her. Belldandy gaped at her. Urd stifled a snicker. Skuld broke into flat-out laughter. "Oh, I like you!" she cackled. "I can tell already we're going to get along great!"

Keiichi glared at her, then looked at Aiko. "She likes anyone who wins one over on me," he grumbled.

Aiko stared at him and shrugged. "I don't see a problem with that. You're a goddamned Navy SEAL, Keiichi. You need to be brought down a notch or two on a regular basis. It keeps you humble."

"Goddamn it," Keiichi buried his face in one hand. "Aiko, you're supposed to be on my side." Keiichi's protest was muffled by his palm.

"Yeah?" Aiko appeared unimpressed. "Was this before or after you told me about the three ladies living in your house?"

Keiichi's response was unintelligible, but the embarrassment that pinkened his ears was all too obvious.

"Please don't be upset at Keiichi. He was only doing what he thought was best." Belldandy came to Keiichi's aide, and it was only then that Aiko noticed the two of them were still holding hands. "I..." The woman bit her lip, then narrowed her eyes, squared her jaw and forced herself onwards. "The last ten years of my life have not been... pleasant." She confessed. "I was forced into many... many bad situations, and by the time I was-" She glanced at Keiichi. "When I was... rescued, I had begun to despair for myself." The hand that rested on Belldandy's knee clenched into a tight fist, and baring her teeth the woman continued on. "Please understand... for ten years I was surrounded by many. Terrible. People." She bit off each word individually, as though the sentence alone took effort and an exorbitant amount of will. "And I-I am only now beginning to recover from those long years. Keiichi is helping me with that, but... while he will not admit it, I will in his place. I cannot be around a great many other people, Aiko."

The goddess sent the woman an earnest look, and perhaps in her face Aiko saw a spark of something familiar. Some of her skepticism faded, and in a manner remarkably similar to Keiichi the young woman leaned back into the couch with a low groan. "Alright, alright!" she griped. "Fine, I'll stop picking on my brother-for now-okay?"

Belldandy watched her from the other side of Keiichi with furrowed brows, then inclined her head in understanding. If anything, Keiichi only grew redder.

"So you're here for the holiday weekend, right?" Skuld asked, taking over when it became apparent that Keiichi was too embarrassed by the two women on either side of him to converse. "That...what was it, Eostara's Sunday, right?"

"You mean Easter?" Aiko stared at the woman with a raised black brow.

Skuld nodded. "Yeah, that," she said. "Are you staying here throughout Eostara's Sunday?"

"Easter," Urd corrected, and this time Skuld glared at her. "Sorry, she's not really familiar with American holidays."

"Urd..." Skuld growled a warning, and Aiko watched them both with a look of mixed confusion and disbelief.

"Right..." Aiko trailed off, then said, "Well, I _thought_ I'd stay here with Keiichi, since that's what I normally do whenever I come down. However given the current circumstances..."

"You're staying." Keiichi raised his head abruptly, sending a pointed stare to his sister. "We'll make room for you, there's still plenty of space. You aren't sleeping in a hotel."

"Kei-"

"You're staying here, Aiko." Keiichi's voice was firm, leaving little room for argument. "You're my sister. I'm not going to send you off to some hotel an hour's drive from me just because other people are staying here as well. We have three beds and a couch. There's more than enough room for you."

Aiko grimaced. "I'm not spending an entire weekend on a couch, Kei," she said. "Especially a pink one like this." She patted the Ugly Beast. "You may be used to roughing it in the wilderness, but I've got some standards."

Keiichi raised his own eyebrow, sending his sister a side glance. "You live in a college dorm though," he said. "The only way that gets rougher is if your dorm mates decide to blow the roof with some engineering project or science experiment."

"Exactly." Aiko crossed her arms over her chest. "And that is why I'm sleeping in a bed. Either here or at Motel Six. Doesn't matter either way to me."

"That won't be necessary." Belldandy shook her head. "If need be you can sleep with me." She got several startled glances from the people around her, yet the goddess appeared ignorant to the strange looks. "Keiichi recently bought a queen-sized bed for the guest bedroom I'm using, and it's more than large enough for two people to share."

Unnoticed by Belldandy, both Urd and Skuld's jaws went slack, dropping in shock. Even Keiichi and Aiko stared at her in surprise, before Keiichi said, "That...that won't be necessary. If it comes to that, Aiko can just sleep with me, but I can always just use the cou-"

His words were drowned out by a sudden a vocal protest from not just Belldandy, but all three Norns. " _No!" t_ hey exclaimed in one voice, and together the Morisato siblings jumped, staring at the trio with large eyes. First Skuld, then Urd, and finally even Belldandy planted a scowl on their faces, and for the life of both siblings, the Morisatos could not figure out what had so set the three women off.

"No, no, you are not sleeping with Keiichi, no, that's just-" Urd began,

"-ridiculous, you can't have a guy and a girl sleeping in the same bed, especially when they're related because-" Skuld spoke over her.

"-you never know what could happen when it's one man and one woman in the same bed together, so-" Belldandy finished, and together the trio said all at once, "You're not sleeping with Aiko!"

For their part, Aiko and Keiichi looked at each other, too stunned to move. They looked at the Norns who watched them with matching heated eyes as though daring either sibling to speak against them, then back to each other. As the Norns before them, so too did the Morisato siblings wear matching expressions on their faces, and those expressions were, in the simplest of terms, an all too obvious, _What the fuck?!_

Check another one off for the 'Big Book of Weird Norn Shit'.

And then Aiko had the bad sense to challenge the trio's judgment. "But...we slept together all the time when I was a kid..."

The look of shock that spread across the Norns' faces was palatable, where it devolved first into horror, and then further still into accusation at the two siblings.

Keiichi raised his hands in front of his chest, as though warding off a blow. "Wow, wow!" he exclaimed. "How about we calm down a minute. What the hell did we do?!" he demanded.

"Jesus Fuck!" Aiko cried beside him. "What the shit? Is it because we're Asian?" She glared. "It's because we're Asian, isn't it."

Keiichi glared at her. "Aiko!"

She ignored him. "Look, I don't know about you three, but this shit is normal in our house, okay? You know what's not normal though? Sleeping with some random grown-ass woman in the same bed. Are you at least going to make me dinner first? Or are you just gonna-"

"That's _enough!"_ Keiichi thundered, falling into the persona he used out in the middle of a combat zone out of habit. It was a tone no one in the household, be they sibling or Norn, had ever heard before, and it silenced _everyone_. Four pairs of wide, shocked eyes turned to stare at him, yet not one person dared to speak, the four women staring at him with an expression that reminded him of a herd of deer in headlights. It felt like a small eternity before anyone summed up the courage to speak, and even then, that person was Keiichi, and only after he'd once more managed to get himself back under control.

The man looked from one person to another, observing his audience of doe-eyed women before taking a deep breath and focusing on one of the Norns. "Skuld," he chose. "Will you please explain to us-like an _adult,"_ he emphasized, "Why you, your _partner_ , and Belldandy are so upset about the proposition fielded by Aiko?" He glared at her, _This is for Tuesday,_ and waited for her response.

Skuld stared at him as if he'd just grown another head, then shared a wild-eyed look with Urd. "It's um-that is, you can't just..." The woman's face flushed a bright scarlet at being placed on the spot, and finally Skuld blurted out, "You just _can't_ , okay? It's-it's against UN regulation!"

Aiko and Keiichi stared at her. "But...we aren't part of the UN," Aiko said. Even Keiichi was looking at Skuld queerly, as though wondering what the UN had to do with a pair of siblings sharing a bed.

"Culture," Urd muttered, and Skuld latched onto it like a lifesaver.

"Culture!" Skuld shouted. "It's against our culture! We don't-um-we don't allow unwedded men to share a bed with women, even if they're related!"

Aiko's stare remained blank and confused. "And...what culture is this from...?"

"Iceland!" Skuld threw the name out as if it was the first thing that came to her mind. Perhaps it was. "Big families, tiny houses, boys don't sleep with girls, okay?!"

"Iceland?" Both Keiichi and Aiko spoke up in bafflement. "Wait, you three are from _Iceland?"_ Aiko continued. "But you..." She looked at Urd. "You have an Australian accent! Why do you have an Australian accent if your from _Iceland?!"_ She looked to Belldandy and Skuld. "And why don't you guys have an accent? Well, okay, maybe she," the woman looked at Belldandy, "has a bit of a Japanese accent, but _still_!"

"But Urd doesn't have an-" Belldandy began.

"Mother's an Aussie," Urd announced. "Pop's from Iceland. Grew up with Mum until my teens or so then got carted off to Pop after they split. Weird times. Ever hear a Nordic woman speak with an Australian accent? It doesn't translate well." She smiled at Aiko, but it came off more like a grimace of teeth than an actual smile.

"But-" Aiko looked at the trio with wide eyes, and this time Skuld interrupted her.

"I grew up on the US base in Iceland," she said. "Born on Iceland soil but _Mamma_ was part of the US military whereas my own _pabbi_ was also from Iceland. Grew up surrounded by American military. My accent doesn't come out unless I'm speaking to my _pabbi_ in his home language." She smiled, sharing a nervous look with Urd. "Iceland isn't part of the UN, but Australia and America both are. We got paired together because we're both familiar with Nordic languages." She gestured to Urd, who nodded in rambunctious agreement.

"Say something in Icelandic." Aiko challenged.

"Urd's mother is an _ári, fjári, kölski, sá í neðra,"_ Skuld said at once, and the Morisato siblings jumped when Belldandy's head whipped to face Skuld.

"Apologize!" She demanded. "That's rude!"

Urd roared with laughter, and Skuld looked at Belldandy helplessly. "What?" she asked. "It's true! Bell, have you ever met Urd's mom?!"

 _"_ What'd she say?" Keiichi asked in curiosity, but judging by the large amount of protests between Belldandy and Skuld and the heavy laughter coming from Urd, his words weren't heard. "Urd, what'd she say!? _"_

"No-no th-that's wrong, that's not it!" Urd stuttered between laughter, too distracted to respond to Keiichi's question. "S-she's _sá gamli, myrkrahöfðingi!"_ And then once more she fell into laughter, this time sliding down the back of the couch and to the hardwood floor. Aiko and Keiichi turned to watch her slide, staring at the woman in bewilderment as Urd sat on the ground, beside herself with laughter. They looked back to Skuld and Belldandy.

"Belldandy, what are they saying?!" Keiichi asked, and this time it was the middle Norn's turn to flush in embarrassment.

Skuld smiled widely. "Yeah, what did I say, Bell?" She asked, and there was humor in her voice. "What did Urd say?"

"Oh goodness." Belldandy brought her hands to her face. "Skuld-" She groaned, then looked at Keiichi and Aiko, "She-how to translate this...Skuld called her 'the one down below', and Urd-"

"It's so _true_ though!" Urd cried from behind the couch, and Belldandy directed a glare over the edge of the couch and to the collapsed woman on the other side.

"And Urd called her _mother_ ," Belldandy emphasized, "the Old One, Chief of Darkness."

Urd laughed harder behind the couch, and Skuld stared at Belldandy with a wide, shit-eater's grin on her face.

"So..." Aiko surmized. "She's our now-ex Mother-in-law?"

Keiichi brought a fist to his mouth to bite back the laughter, but Skuld had no qualms with laughing. She joined Urd in the resulting uproar, and Aiko smiled innocently at Belldandy as the embarrassed pink spread up to the Norn's ears and down all the way to her neck. "Oh dear," she muttered. "You all are incorrigible."

XXX

"I can't believe I'm agreeing to this," Aiko muttered. She was sitting on a bed. Belldandy's bed, waiting for the woman in question to return from wherever the hell she'd gone off to. "I'm sleeping with a strange woman who I'm pretty sure my brother has the hots for." She groaned and let her head thunk into the wall she was pressed up against. _Don't make it weird,_ she thought, and then, _don't make it gay, Aiko. It's not like she's into ladies...right?_ She was fairly certain at least that Belldandy wasn't into woman-Urd maybe, based off the afternoon's initial meeting, but Belldandy certainly not. She'd seen the brunette make too many moon eyes at her brother when she thought no one was looking, and it was almost cute in a puppy-love kind of manner. _Except I'm the one sharing a bed with her. Not Keiichi. Me._ She snorted. "Don't make it gay, Mikasa!" she told herself, then chuckled at her own joke.

"Who is Mikasa?" Belldandy entered the room with a pillow under her arm, staring at Aiko quizzically.

"No one!" Aiko cried. "No one, ah-how long were you listening?" Her eyes darted to the pillow. "Spare pillow?"

Belldandy stared at her. "It... keeps the nightmares at bay."

"Ah," Aiko said, and then the words sank in. "Aaah. Got it." Keiichi hadn't said anything about nightmares. She looked at the woman in concern. "Just so you know...if you kick me, I'm going to kick you back."

The Norn sent her a confused look. "Why would I kick you?"

The two shared a long and awkward silence together, Belldandy with a pillow under one arm and Aiko dressed in pink pajamas with panda faces on them. Urd passed them in the hallway, then did a quick one eighty and stuck her head into the bedroom. "Don't make it gay, Belldandy." And as the woman in question yelped Urd laughed and headed further down the hallway.

Aiko bit back a laugh, watching Belldandy's shocked expression before the woman dipped out of the room, shouting something that sounded like Icelandic back at the UN rep and hearing the darker woman respond in turn. _If I didn't know any better, I'd say they were doing everything they could to sell their story,_ the college student thought in amusement. _But with how they act, I wonder if they aren't sisters._ Her own experience with a woman from a special victim's unit after her rape had never been so close, though she had formed a friendship with her caseworker that even now remained strong. No... whatever the relationship between these two it had the same close, sibling-bond that Aiko associated with Megumi and Keiichi, and it made her wonder hard at just what her older brother had gotten himself into.

Yet he wouldn't tell her and Belldandy and her friends from the UN didn't have the loosest of lips either, so for now Aiko would play by their rules and let them keep their secrets. So long as they didn't get Kei into trouble, what they did and why was none of Aiko's business.

Belldandy returned to the room, scowling down the hallway at whom Aiko assumed was Urd, then made a strange gesture with one hand that seemed to translate into _I'm watching you._ Aiko grinned at the action. _They're sisters. No doubt about it. Sisters from another mother maybe, but sisters none the less. I'll bet my scholarship on it._ Belldandy continued to stare down the hallway with a frown, her expression challenging, and then, content with what she'd seen the woman turned back to Aiko.

She blew at her long bangs, causing the almond-colored strands to dance in the air. "Ready for bed?"

Aiko sent her a wane smile, biting back the sudden, mad desire to say, _Don't make it gay, Belldandy,_ in the same tone Urd had used. Best not to tease the poor woman too much. She seemed like one of those sweet-natured girls who didn't know how to respond to teasing. "Sure," she said instead. "Let's go to bed."

* * *

A/N: Sorry a touch late, busy weekend.

* * *

 _Comments of a Madwoman: Operation CROSSFIT is based off an actual FBI operation that came to light while I was writing Urd's scene with Team 12. For those interested in that sort of stuff, look up Operation CROSS COUNTRY._


	14. Chapter 14 - Kindred Spirits

l

-14-

 _The sensation of being watched overcame her. Her eyes fluttered open and looked about the room. Everything seemed normal as she surveyed her surroundings. Nothing was out of place, nothing had been disturbed, and her bedroom door still remained closed. Yet the feeling did not leave; that something_ was different _, that she was not alone, that someone or something was watching her from a place she had yet to come across. She searched harder, scanning the room with narrowed eyes as she tried to locate the sensation, feeling the hair along her arms and up the back of her neck rise as the sense grew stronger. Then her eyes saw it; a chair against the wall opposite the Ugly Beast, which she was laying on currently. Not her bedroom-it had been before, but not no longer, for such was the way of dreams-but the living room. The chair was dark, but it unmistakably was a matched piece to the couch she was laying on now, a dark, deep cast of pink with floral patterns._

 _In it sat a man._

 _He was watching her, that much she could tell. Watching her with a keen interest, like he was waiting on her to do something. She smiled. Though the poor lighting of the room hid his features, it was clear that this muscular man was familiar, was safe, and that she was not in any danger like times in the past._

 _A perverse little thought came to mind, one that was quite un-lady, no, un-goddess-like. She smiled wider, and she caught a hint of a smile on the man's face, which was otherwise obscured from the tip of the nose up in shadow. Slowly, she turned so that her body faced him fully. One arm came up to help support her head while the other moved down, along her body. She hooked the bottom of the charmeuse she was wearing with her fingers and pulled it up enough to expose the curve of her hip while she moved her leg to keep from exposing anything underneath. Teasing him. Taunting him. Leaving his mind to imagine what his eyes couldn't see._

 _His smile widened. She could also see a stirring below his waistline._

 _It excited her to know she had that effect on him. She batted an eye at him as she moved her hand up, exposing more of herself before bringing it up and cupping her breast. She closed her eyes as she luxuriated in the tingle in her body as she played with her nipple through her charmeuse. There was just enough fabric to give the man a tantalizing hint of what was underneath without giving away everything._

 _She closed her eyes and leaned her head back, moving her hand up to her neck, she caressed her cheek before lowering it again. Raising back up, she gave him a sultry look, one that promised much more was on the way._

 _She saw his manhood rising, saw him gripping the armrests of the chair tighter. Yet he did not move. She didn't want him to, for she had him right where she wanted him. Lifting her leg up, she exposed her womanhood to him as she slowly moved her hand down. She began caressing her folds, causing the smoldering fire that had been growing to ignite with flame inside her. But she was not sure what was exciting her more, her self-pleasure, or the way the man's face was contorting. Gone was the smile, replaced by a pant of lust, his manhood standing at attention for all to see._

 _She moved her hips sensually under her own ministrations, panting in step with that of the man across her. She could see him start to squirm in the chair as he watched, and idly she wondered if he would get up and ravage her right there. Not that she would mind._

 _But he stayed, which only excited her more._

 _After a few more moments of watching him, he was now grasping at the armrest as if his life depended on it, she took her wet fingers away and stood up and walked to the man, her hips swaying sultrily as she approached._

 _She paused in front of him, the moon large in the window behind her. She knew that her entire body could be seen through the charmeuse, so she lifted her arms above her head and stretched, making sure that he could see every single curve of her body. She then lifted it off of her in one, smooth motion, exposing her entire body to him. Slowly, she brought her hands back down and then traced her body, starting with her chest, sliding under her breasts, then down along her hips. She then leaned forward, placing her hands on top of his arms to hold him in position, and captured his lips with her own._

 _She moaned softly as he greedily kissed her, thrusting his tongue into her mouth. She took it willingly, and responded in kind, a sultry dance of love as the two connected for the first time. But she was not going to let him control this, no. She shifted slightly, sucked in and took his lower lip between her teeth and pulled back slightly before letting him go. Leaning in again, she licked him across the lips then escaped before he could respond. Twice more she did this. Oh she was such a tease._

 _But her heart and the stirrings below her waist demanded that she move this along, lest she drive herself as crazy as the man in front of her. She leaned in, lower and further this time, and captured his earlobe in her mouth. At the same time she caught his scent; it was a combination of Old Spice, the outdoors, and gunpowder, and she felt herself tingle with excitement. She felt him shudder and gasp as she started to nibble at it. Then, using her tongue, she traced a line from there down to his chest. She then did the same with his nipple, first one then the other, before coming down to her knees._

 _As she lowered herself, she felt his manhood between her breasts. She finally released his arms and then pushed her mounds together, enveloping him between them. She could just see the tip peeking past her cleavage. She leaned in and licked it with her tongue, and was rewarded when she felt him buck his hips underneath her._

 _She pressed herself against him further and started slowly rocking back and forth, watching as the head alternately appeared and disappeared from between where she had it trapped. As it came out, she would lick the tip again and again, adding more and more lubrication, allowing her to move more and more. She heard a moan coming from the man and she looked up to see that his head had lolled back as he gasped for air. His fingers were digging into the armrests, desperately clutching for purchase._

 _She reveled in the power she had over the man. He was completely under her control, like putty in her hands, and she was sure that at that moment, he would grant her any request, any wish her heart desired. His panting grew harder, and she felt him start to grow slightly, and she knew he was nearing his release._

 _That of course, would not do, not at all. Leaning her head down, she took him into her mouth as far as she could go, then released him completely. She stood up and lorded over him, staring down into his eyes which had become consumed with desire. She felt exhilarated that she could deny him his satisfaction, no, that it was her RIGHT to do so. She could see him pleading wordlessly to her to continue. But she had other plans for him._

 _Slowly, she slid into his lap while keeping a laser lock on his eyes with her own. She pressed herself against his manhood, reveling in the electric pulses her sex sent up and down her body as she did. She grasped the sides of his head while she began to pant as she started moving more and more across his entire length._

 _Her breathing became erratic as the intensity of the coupling increased. Wave after wave of pleasure washed over her as she moved. She could see in his eyes that he was desperate to enter her, to complete their union, but she was not ready for that yet. He would get that, oh how she craved it as well, but not yet. Not until SHE was ready, and no sooner._

 _The wetness from her accompanied by the leftovers from what she did to him before allowed her to maintain a fluid motion. She moved her hips faster and faster and her own point of release approached, a tidal wave of pleasure approaching at incredible speed. She leaned into him closer, pulling his head to her and pressing it between her breasts as she groaned over and over, each longer and louder than the one before._

 _When the tsunami hit, it was like an electric shock touched all the nerves in her body at once. She started convulsing in pleasure as she ground her hips into the man. When the moment had passed, she relaxed herself on top of him, enjoying the afterglow that all good orgasms provide. She felt him start to caress her back, the first contact she allowed him to initiate since the beginning._

 _With a sigh, she leaned up and away from him as his hands settled on her hips. There was a look of pure lust in his eyes. He was more than ready now, and she had teased him long enough. She leaned up as she reached behind and grasped hold of him. Upon maneuvering his manhood into the right position, she lowered herself and finally completed their union._

Aiko woke when she felt it. Not realizing where she was, she smiled as an arm snaked around and hugged her close to the warm body behind her. So much like her lover back on campus. Smiling to her self she closed her eyes and reveled in the feeling of closeness and intimacy. Sighing happily, she leaned into the body at her back, enjoying the feel of heat and breasts pressing into her.

Breasts.

"Oh Keiichi."

Oh god.

As Belldandy tightened her grip on the young woman, realization came to Aiko in an instant. She was not back in her dorm room or even her lover's room. She was in her brother's house, sleeping with her brother's girlfriend because she and the other two women with her insisted that Aiko NOT sleep with her brother like she had nearly all her life. And why the hell was Belldandy not sleeping with Keiichi in the first place? _And how was she so strong?_

Aiko's eyes went wide as the almond haired woman tightened her grip even more while beginning to make soft little whimpering noises. To top that off, she started to feel Belldandy slightly rock back and forth against her. _OH. MY. GOD!_ she mouthed in silent horror as the realization of what the couple might be doing in Belldandy's dreams came to her.

 _EW!_

Needless to say, she got no more sleep that night.

XXX

"So, all of Team 12 is coming down here?" Skuld asked during breakfast that morning.

Keiichi nodded. "I think Jackson's going so far as to bring his grill along; he's got one of those super heavy-duty ones that cost you your first-born, and he loves barbeques. He's the kind of guy you expect to open up his own joint after leaving the military. He's even got a hobby for making his own marinades and sauces." He smiled into the cup of tea Belldandy had made for them all; tea made from whole leaves after visiting an international store a couple of days ago. While the SEAL couldn't taste the difference, Belldandy seemed to appreciate it more, and he had to admit, though he wasn't much of a fan for tea, Belldandy's Chai was starting to grow on him. "I've seen officers attempt to bribe him into cookouts for their units and military wives try and straight up buy jars of his sauces. Cooking is one of Jackson's prides and joys."

Urd raised an eyebrow. "Well it's a good thing Belldandy came into your life then." He looked at her questioningly, but Urd was looking to Aiko. "Jackson would have been horrified. Our first day here and we found your brother living off protein powder and MREs."

Aiko, with heavy bags under her eyes from a bad night's rest, shot a glare at Keiichi. "Oh, so it's perfectly fine for you to eat that shit, but you get angry when I eat Top Ramen?"

"That shit ain't ramen, Aiko," Keiichi replied. "It's salt shaped like noodles."

"It's cheap, affordable, and the standard diet of all college students," Aiko retorted.

"It's twice your daily sodium intake and is slowly killing you," Keiichi said dryly. "And rice is cheap too. And better for you. Same with frozen vegetables."

"So is creamed corn," Skuld dropped, and Keiichi flinched. "But I don't see you eating that instead of your MREs."

"Burn," Aiko said, and with a smirk took a bite of the omelet Belldandy had prepared for her when Keiichi sent a glare her way.

"When is your team due to arrive?" Belldandy asked, stepping into the conversation before it could further devolve into an argument. "Will anything be needed of us?"

Keiichi looked at her. "They'll be coming around three or four," he said. "I've got plenty of disposable plates and cutlery, and between the folding chairs and the new furniture, there should be enough room for everyone to sit." He leaned back in his folding chair, having again sacrificed his seat at the table for Aiko. The man hummed in thought, eyes drifting up to the ceiling. "I guess we should make something for the barbeque... don't need Sanchez bitching at me over the damned MREs again." He looked at Skuld and Urd. "He's almost as bad as you two about that shit," he said off-handedly, then looked at Belldandy. "Is there anything you'd like to make? It's still early, so I can make a quick run to the store and pick up anything if you've got a preference."

Belldandy looked at him with keen interest. If nothing else, the SEAL had come to the conclusion that she enjoyed cooking, and so he figured he'd give her the opportunity to try something new. "What foods do you normally eat at a barbeque?" she inquired.

Keiichi shrugged. "Potato salad, egg salad, baked beans..." He paused, crossing his arms over his chest and drumming his fingers against his right arm. "What else..." he muttered. "I know Sanchez is taking care of the drinks..."

"He better not be bringing Tequila this time," Aiko grumbled. "Last time there was nothing but tequila. And it was that nasty stuff, too." She made a face. "Bunch of gut-rotting piss..."

"I made sure he was getting beer this time," Keiichi assured her. "You only suffered that once, but we have to deal with that stuff every time there's a party in our unit." He paused, thought for a moment, then shook his head. "No beans-Braxton's got that. McGuinness...what was McGuinness bringing?" He scratched the back of his head thoughtfully. "Oh wait, that's right-he was escorting Urd out when we were talking about what all everyone was bringing." He shrugged. "No biggie. Knowing him, he'll probably grab something from the commissary deli and call it good."

"So..." Belldandy furrowed her brows together in concentration. "Potato salad and egg salad?"

The SEAL looked at her. "One or the other, you don't have to make both."

Belldandy shook her head. "It's fine, I can make both," she assured, then bit her lip before adding, "I _want_ to make both."

Keiichi looked at her in surprise, and then smiled. This was one of the first times the Middle Norn had ever voiced her own desires on something without prompting from someone else. "Okay." He nodded. "Do you think you can make me a list of items you'll need? I'll make a grocery run after we're finished with breakfast."

"I'll come with," Aiko announced. "Heaven knows you'd get lost in the produce section, and the last thing we need is you coming back with a bag of bad melons."

Keiichi glared at her. "I'm not completely helpless, you know," he growled. "I _was_ married for a time, if you don't recall."

"Yeah," Aiko agreed. "And poor Deb used to complain about how you once came back with a melon that had rotten from the inside out because you couldn't tell if it was good or not."

Keiichi flinched. "She told you about that?"

"Kei, what _didn't_ Deb tell me?" Aiko's grin broadened, and she looked at Belldandy. "You want to come with?" she asked. "I can ravish you with grandiose stories of Kei in his younger years." Next to her, Keiichi's eyes widened in dawning horror, and he quickly looked to Belldandy, shaking his head with begging eyes.

The goddess bit her lip, looking between the two siblings with furrowed brows before shaking her head. "I believe I will pass on this occasion," she confessed. "I will stay here and clean up for the upcoming arrival of your team instead, Keiichi." A part of her recognized the necessity of giving the two siblings some alone time together. There was much they needed to sort through, especially with Belldandy's occupancy in the house and the story Urd had manufactured to explain the presence of the Norns. Some piece of her even recognized the importance of them speaking in private, and while her attending would be amusing in _someone_ 's book, it would make for an uncomfortable trip as well. Aiko had been placing herself at distance from Belldandy since they'd awoken this morning, and while the goddess didn't understand what she'd done to put the woman on edge, she wanted to respect the student's request for space.

Keiichi nodded. "Alright," he said. "I'll see what else we'll need for the house as well while we're out." He looked at Aiko. "We can grab some stuff for you if there's anything you've got a hankering for-"

"Ramen!" Aiko said at once.

"-that's not ramen." Keiichi finished.

Aiko pouted. "What, you can't make ramen like Takano can? Deb could."

"Deb was a competent cook," Keiichi reminded her. "I can barely make soba, and that's literally boiling buckwheat noodles."

Aiko shook her head and tittered, then looked to Belldandy. "I apologize for my brother's pathetic cooking attempts," she said. "He hasn't tried to offer you a chocolate shake yet, right?"

Belldandy stared at her before shaking her head. "Good," Aiko continued. "Don't take him up on the offer. It's nothing but protein powder and water, and it's the nastiest shit in the world."

"Hey!" Keiichi yelped.

"I'll... keep that in mind," Belldandy said slowly. On the other end of the table Urd and Skuld shared a look but said nothing. Instead, Urd rose and collected the empty plates littered around the table while Skuld gestured to Belldandy. The middle Norn sent them a curious glance, but followed regardless, rising as well and following the two siblings into the kitchen.

The Morisatos looked at each other, and as the trio departed Aiko raised an eyebrow. "You know they act a lot like sisters, right?"

Keiichi shrugged his shoulders. "I think you need coffee," he muttered, and Aiko perked up at once.

"Oh please for the love of god _yes_ ," she breathed. " _Tell_ me we're stopping by a coffee shop on the way to the store."

The man rolled his eyes. "Only if you stop harassing me about those three." He jutted his chin off to the three women in the kitchen, and Aiko scowled.

"Fuck you and your coffee-free house," she growled. "Blasphemy is what it is. And now you use my own weakness to the god of caffeine and late college nights against me. How _dare_ you."

Keiichi shrugged, unconcerned. "If Bell's tea ain't doing it for you, you can always suffer your withdrawals in silence."

"I'd sooner die."

With the two of them in the dining room, the Norns conversed in the kitchen. "Urd, where did you place those sticky notes?" Belldandy asked as the woman in question placed the finished dishes in the sink.

"They're on top of the fridge," Urd replied with a glance over her shoulder. "What are you planning, Bell?"

"Yeah, Keiichi already has most of everything he needs for those salads of his." Skuld moved to join Urd as Belldandy acquired the small yellow notes from their designated spot. "We've already got tomatoes and spinach, and I guess we could afford to get some more eggs since we go through them like crazy anyways, and Keiichi isn't really a 'meat and potatoes' kind of guy, but..."

Belldandy glanced at Skuld, who'd moved to lean against the countertop, watching her elder sister with a curious expression on her face. The middle sibling raised a brow. "Are you certain that is what egg salad and potato salad consist of?" she asked.

Urd snorted. "What else would it be?" she asked. "Egg SALAD. Potato SALAD. Seems pretty obvious to me."

"Ah, I see," Belldandy nodded. "Just as a shrimp cocktail is made of an alcoholic beverage?"

Skuld snorted, and Urd turned to regard her more fully, her face startled. "Did you just..." She trailed off, then shook her head. "Okay, listen Bell, I've been in and out of the States for close to five years now. I think I know what they mean when they say anything with 'salad' at the end of it, and usually it's got a lot of veggies in it." She shrugged. "Besides, Jackson's bringing the barbie, and from what I've been told he's so close to a carnivore I have to wonder if there's demon's blood running in his veins. He provides the meat, we provide the greens, the others provide everything in between. Seems pretty straightforward to me."

"I suppose..." With some reluctance Belldandy looked towards the dining room, where she could hear Keiichi and Aiko conversing, but not over what. "I feel like we should be certain though. Maybe if we just ask-"

"Don't be silly, Bell," Skuld shot out, joining Urd's side with a dismissive wave. "Urd's right. Salad. Kind of hard to screw up, right?" She grinned. "Besides, I saw that look in your eye. You've got something else planned, don't you? Fess up! That's the real reason you wanted that little notepad."

Belldandy looked at Skuld with a start-had Skuld always been able to read her so well?-and then sighed. "I know how to make ramen," she confessed. "And I thought since Aiko mentioned it..." She started when both Urd and Skuld abandoned their posts, the both of them making a noise so strange that Belldandy could only compare it to a _'squee'._

"Oh goodness, I forgot how much of a sweetheart you could be," Urd muttered, and Belldandy didn't know if she should be amused or annoyed as her sister engulfed her in a bear hug.

Skuld laughed. "Some things never change, do they?" She hugged Belldandy tight enough for the older woman to grunt. "Sure, ramen, why the hell not? We'll help too." As one entity the two sisters released the middle Norn, causing Belldandy to sigh in relief. Skuld picked up the notepad from where Belldandy had dropped it on the floor. "What do you need, Sis?"

Bell pursed her lips, then held out a hand. Skuld raised a dark brow but handed the notepad over without comment, providing a pen for the woman as well. The Norn jotted a series of items down on the paper, stared at it for a moment, then went through the shelves as she took stock of what cooking wear Keiichi had on hand. After a moment, she sighed and shook her head, then added a couple of additional items to the notepad as well. Skuld peeked over her shoulder to see what she'd written, and Belldandy angled it towards her so she could catch a better view. After a moment, the goddess sighed and chuckled. "How the hell did Magilla survive on his own?"

"I think we all know the answer to that," Belldandy said weakly.

Urd snorted. "Protein shakes, multivitamins, and MREs. Living the luxury of the Bachelor's Lifestyle."

Skuld pat her shoulder in sympathy. "I'd say you know how to pick 'em, but..."

And Belldandy groaned. "You all are incorrigible."

XXX

The trip to the store should have been fast. Belldandy didn't have many items on the list associated with what Keiichi thought was typical of potato or egg salad, but he reasoned that most of it was stuff the goddess was planning on making from scratch. In actuality, he was more confused by the requested large pot and the ladle, as well as ingredients not normally found in a Safeway, such as miso paste, marin, a very particular type of seaweed, cuts of pork more particular to a meat market here in the States, and of course, ramen noodles.

"Think the future ex-wife is trying to get in good with the family?" Aiko looked over Keiichi's shoulder as they departed the Starbucks, some concoction that seemed more syrup than coffee in her hand that even now she took a sip of. It made Keiichi want to gag.

Instead he glared. "Don't call Belldandy that, okay?"

"Got it." Aiko nodded her head in understanding. "So, think the 'sister-in-law that got away' is any good with Japanese cuisine?"

Keiichi sighed but let it drop, knowing that harassing Aiko about the various names would do nothing but inspire her with further creativity. "Don't know," he admitted. "Most of the dishes she's made around the house are Western in nature. I'm surprised she even jotted this stuff down; with her past, I'd have thought she'd avoid anything Japanese in origin."

"Well she's certainly not avoiding _you_ , Loverboy." Aiko socked him lightly in the shoulder, her fist colliding with bruises still healing from the various strikes he'd fallen victim to by the women in his life. "And believe me, she's got it _bad_ for you. Super bad."

Keiichi glanced at her in surprise as they climbed into the old Chevy. "She came out to you?"

"Nope!" The smile on Aiko's face looked more like a horrible grimace as some previous memory played out before her. The woman shuddered, then took a sip of her sugar-coffee. "But... she might have showed some signs last night."

"Like how?" Keiichi asked, his curiosity peaked. "It takes a platoon of marines just to figure out what food she enjoys. How the hell did she express she likes _me_?"

Aiko laughed uneasily but didn't divulge her secrets. "Just know that she really, _really_ likes you," she said. "She's crushing harder on you than a hyena with a bone."

Keiichi stared at her. "I don't get it."

"I know," Aiko said. "That's the point. So...how about you?" she asked. "Don't tell me those feelings only go one way."

Keiichi scowled at her. "Don't punch me while I'm driving," he warned. "And... well..." He sighed. "Yeah, I like her."

"'Like her' like her or ' _like_ her' like her?" Aiko asked. "Come on, Kei. Spill the beans. You haven't so much as looked at another woman since Deb left and now you've got not one but three new women in your life? One of which was the 'lady friend' you told me about?"

The SEAL grimaced. "Okay, okay," he groaned. "So maybe I like her a little more than, say, Keigo and any girl who walks in front of him."

"Keiichi..." Aiko's tone had a note of warning, and the man groaned.

"Okay, fine!" he snapped. "So maybe I might be a little, I don't know, in love with her?"

The woman scowled. "And you've known the woman for what, two, three weeks, tops? You don't think you're going a bit fast?"

"Oh for fucks sake!" Keiichi grumbled. "You really are your mother's daughter, you know that? Listen, I know, and I'm trying to go slow with it-she's got a lot of issues she needs to work out, and I know those are issues I don't want to get in the way of our relationship. I wasn't bullshitting you when I said I was trying to help her work through them, okay?"

"Okay, yeah, sure." Aiko nodded. "So does that mean you're taking her to a therapist? What about a doctor? She get examined for any STDs? Any chance of her catching something you don't want none of?"

"Aiko-"

"No Keiichi," she interrupted him. "You need to shut up and listen to me on this, okay? If you're telling me the truth-hell, even if you're only telling me _part_ of the truth with the whole human trafficking bit, and don't look at me like _I'm_ the one jumping to conclusions, than you need to take this shit into consideration. Ten years, multiple partners, none of them by her own choice? Dude, you gotta take that stuff looked into. For all you know she's a petri dish in a lab experiment. You really want any of that nastiness on your junk? And a therapist? You telling me after two weeks in your place-she told me she had nightmares, you know-that you haven't gotten her in for a psyche eval yet?" She twisted in her seat to send him an angry glare, and Keiichi was all too aware of the worry beneath it. "What happens if she's Carrie McMurderface from that sort of experience? Never mind her own issues for the moment-those go without saying-but what happens if the experience was too much for her? Keiichi, how well can you say you know this woman?"

"Already reached that point and past it," he muttered.

Aiko looked at him in alarm. "What'd you just say?"

"I said Urd is looking into it!" Keiichi said in a louder voice. "As for doctors," _She's a god. Gods can't get STDs from mortals. Right?_ Urd had never said anything about it to him, and one of the first things she and Skuld after rescuing Belldandy was take Bell aside and check her over for injuries during the fight with that Hagall-bitch. "she's clean as far as anyone else can tell. Urd got her checked out immediately when she was rescued-I guess it's part of their procedure at the UN or whatever, but a therapist is still a work in progress." He scowled, and then thought back to McGuinness's offer. "We're thinking about speaking with one of the guys at Mental Health on base about that since there are some complications in the system, okay? Now would you ever-so-kindly lay off?!"

"Just say'in."

And Keiichi groaned. "You're always 'just say'in', Aiko."

Their journey took much longer than anticipated following that. The pots were an easy grab, and they were able to find most of the other ingredients for the barbecue's side dishes at the same store. They had to go to a more international-friendly store in order to get miso and mirin, however, and while they were there Aiko went on a field day. "Do you know how often I get to have _real_ rice cakes?" she proclaimed while dumping three large bags of the items in question into the cart, where they toppled on top of the glass bottle of mirin and cold ramen noodles. "Not that American shit that tastes like styrofoam, but the actual stuff? Like what Grandpa likes to send?" She looked around some more, and her face lit up in joy. "Oh shit son, they got Milky candy here! And _umeboshi_!" The smile she sent him was evil. "Have those girls ever had _umeboshi_ before?"

A slow, cruel smile appeared on Keiichi's face. "No," he said as he saw the direction his sister was heading. "I don't think they have." He paused and thought for a moment. "Neither has Braxton, and Sanchez was off on leave when I introduced Tank and the others to it..."

They stared at each other with matching smiles. "We're getting it!" they chorused.

XXX

It was close to eleven by the time the siblings returned home, having retrieved the items listed on the tiny yellow sticky note. By then, the house held the fresh scent of cleaning supplies, and Keiichi noticed that once more the folding chairs and tables had been stacked neatly off to one side. The Norns were in the kitchen conversing amongst themselves, having not noticed the arrival of Keiichi and Aiko. They weren't speaking English. It didn't sound much like a Nordic language either, if Keiichi was honest with himself, and sounded much more like that strange tongue Skuld had used over the phone the night Urd recruited him to rescue Belldandy. He had to admit, it was a pretty language, even if he couldn't understand it, rising and falling in pitch almost as though it was being sung.

Aiko elbowed him in the side, causing Keiichi to grunt. "Icelandic, huh?"

Skuld was the one who noticed them, and without missing a beat she said, "It's a country dialect. Only a handful of people use it anymore because of how old it is. If rumor's to be believed, it dates back all the way to the gods themselves. Some folks say that Grandpa Odin invented the tongue after he created the Elder Futhark."

"'Grandpa Odin'?" Aiko raised an eyebrow, and Skuld stiffened right up until Urd took over.

"That's what folks up North call him," she grinned. "Amongst just about every other title in the book, from 'All-Father' to _Ganglari_."

Skuld snorted. "You're the _ganglari_ now," she muttered under her breath.

Urd ignored her. "He ended up hanging himself from the branches of Yggdrasil for nine nights coming up with the runes, all of it in self-sacrifice in order to develop his own branch of magic." She smiled broadly. "Which was supposed to be really funny back then because prior to that, magic was a woman's art. He got called out a lot for it."

Skuld looked at her with a raised brow. "Was that before or after he plucked out his own eye in exchange for wisdom?" she asked. "Because, you know, hanging yourself upside-down from a giant tree for nine nights injuring yourself in your own name for magic doesn't exactly scream 'wise'."

Urd laughed, and even Belldandy looked away with a brief smile, leaving the Morisato siblings once more wondering if they'd been left out of some inner joke. Keiichi in particular wondered if 'Grandpa Odin' was more than a simple title.

Aiko rolled her eyes. "Anyways, we got the items you needed." She looked at Belldandy. "You know how to make ramen?"

Belldandy hesitated a moment, then nodded. "I learned how to prepare a variety of dishes during my time with-" An uncomfortable frown slid across her face, and she stopped herself, then tried again, clearing her throat before continuing. "I... cooking was an escape for me. A way to put my skills into something else. Present myself in a manner that was... human."

Some of the good humor faded from Aiko's face, and she nodded solemnly. "I... think I might understand," she said. "Something to remind you that you're a person, not an-" This time she stopped as well, and with a determined frown spoke again. "Not an object."

Belldandy looked at her with a start, her eyes wide and lips drawn up in a grimace, her face all at once pallid and white. For a moment she didn't speak, instead observing the short, young woman with the wild, spiky blue hair in front of her before finally inclining her head in agreement.

Aiko nodded as well. "The actions of our past do not define us," she said. "And we're better than whatever those people decided we were." She held Belldandy's gaze with her own stubborn brown, scowling in a defiance that was aimed towards something, no someone in her past who was not present. Then her face brightened, and she said, "And the best way to fuck them over is by living on your own terms."

Belldandy stared at the younger woman in shock, surprised by Aiko's profanity, and then surprised those around _her_ when she smiled and nodded in turn. "That is...one of the best ways I've ever heard it put," she confessed, and Aiko's smile broadened.

The two shared a smile borne of kinship, and then Aiko asked, "Let's move on to something else then. So... you ever had _umeboshi_?"

The smile dropped from the Norn's face like a brick off a rooftop. "I never much cared for it, but yes, I've had it."

Aiko looked at Keiichi. Keiichi raised an eyebrow. Aiko looked back at Belldandy. "Have _they_ ever had _umeboshi_?" The two Morisato siblings stared at the Goddess of the Present like a pair of Cheshire Cats.

Belldandy looked to Urd and Skuld, who'd been watching her and Aiko in contemplative silence. Now Urd raised an eyebrow as well, while Skuld tilted her head to the side like a curious dog. "What's _umeboshi_?" she asked.

"A type of plum," Belldandy said, keeping her face a careful neutral. "They're native to Japan."

"Bell..." Urd looked to the Morisato siblings in suspicion. "Why are they smiling like that? What's it taste like?"

"It depends on the brand," Belldandy said, keeping her answers vague, then turning to Aiko. "Did you happen upon some while shopping?"

Aiko nodded, and Keiichi said, "We'll have to break them out for you during the barbeque tonight. You guys _need_ to try it."

"Keiichi, the last time you said I _needed_ to try something it was a ghost pepper." Urd pursed her lips. "And at that time you were very, very drunk." Aiko burst out laughing while Belldandy and Skuld looked at her in question. "You're exact words were, 'it'll clean you out like a priest exorcising a demon'. Give me one good reason why I should try this."

"We'll all have one," Aiko chirped, and Belldandy nodded as well, her face still giving nothing away to her own inner thoughts.

"We all had a ghost pepper too that night," Urd recalled. "I distinctly remember a bunch of men rolling around on the floor with a bartender calling for an ambulance. The only one who wasn't dying from the heat was Sanchez, and he was calling you all a bunch of pussies because of it."

Keiichi laughed. "Yeah, that wasn't one of our better ideas. This one isn't like that though, I promise you. It's just a little sour."

"Like a ghost pepper is a little hot?" Urd asked. Keiichi did nothing more than smile, and the goddess sighed. "Get out of here, the both of you." She made a 'shooing' gesture with her hands. "We have food to make. Play nice and I won't add ghost pepper powder to them either."

"Oh no," Keiichi groaned in mock horror. "Urd's going to kill us. Belldandy, save us! Don't let her near the spice rack!" He slid an arm around his younger sister's shoulders. The two siblings laughed, and together slipped out of the kitchen, leaving in their wake the groceries they'd acquired from the various stores in town.

Belldandy sent her sister a pointed look. "Urd, don't put ghost peppers in the potato salad."

Skuld laughed, and Urd looked at Belldandy with a start. "But I don't have-"

"Don't put it in the egg salad either."

"Bell-"

Urd stared at her sister in bafflement, jaw hanging open in confusion, and Skuld laughed harder.

"Why are you all assuming I'm going to put ghost peppers in potato salad?" Urd exclaimed.

"Because it's something you'd do!" Skuld chortled. "Bell's got every right to tell you off!"

"I was joking!" Urd exclaimed.

"A likely excuse!" Skuld retorted.

Belldandy moaned. "Enough, both of you." She grabbed the bags off the table and began to sort through them, sticking items in cabinets and the fridge. "I'll send you both out to join them if you don't settle down."

"Yes, Mother." Urd and Skuld chorused, and this time Belldandy's head shot around to glare at them both. Then it broke into a small smile, and all three of them broke into their own good-natured laughter.

Their laughter followed them out of the kitchen and into the living room, where Aiko was sitting next to Keiichi, peering over his shoulder as he dug through the emulators on his laptop. "Mario Kart," she said, listening to the laughter with a half an ear. "I need to make sure I can still whoop Keigo's ass next time I go home. He's under the impression that college leaves no time for videogames."

"Keigo's under the impression that being an _adult_ leaves no time for videogames," Keiichi replied, bringing up the game in question before rising and hooking the laptop back into the television in a repeat of last week's 'sleepover'. "How's the little shit doing by the way? I haven't seen him online much." He moved to the gorilla box that held his accessories and popped it open, removing two wireless controllers designed for computers and handing one off to Aiko.

"From what Keima said, he's obsessing over some new project." The woman accepted the controller before making herself comfortable on the Ugly Beast. "He goes from one hobby to another like a jack-of-all-trades trying to master everything, and you know how antisocial he gets when he starts investing his time in something. From what Takano told me, he lost interest in glass blowing, which upset Keima like nobody's buisness, and then moved into rock carving, of all the weird things."

Keiichi let out a soft laugh. "Rock carving? Like marble?" Aiko shrugged. "Oh man. Keima must have gone on a tyraid for the whole block to hear. I know he was thinking Keigo was going to inherit the family buisness' since he's good with his hands, but _now_ this?" He shook his head and laughed. "That guy. I love him, but sometimes he's a strange kid. Good, but strange." He hit the 'start' button on his controller, and with a soft chime the game moved to the character select screen. "As if he wasn't antisocial enough as it is." The two selected their respective characters, then moved to the track selection and hit 'random'. Just above the music of the game, Keiichi could hear what sounded like singing from the kitchen.

 _"Gudaskymning faller pa gloden_  
 _Muspelheim Ragnarok harstamma._  
 _Borjar flamma ur odets eld I_  
 _Muspilli flammor over Jord."_

 _That's new._ He thought, _I don't think I've ever heard them sing before. It's pretty, whatever it is._ If he focused, he could just make out the individual voices that comprised the Norns, from Urd's deep, low voice to Skuld's higher pitch, with Belldandy acting as a Soprano that intertwined with them both in harmony. _The sounds of past, present, and future all in one song._ He thought, and distracted, he missed the green light that sent Aiko's character zooming past his half of the screen.

"Ha!" Aiko cried. "You sleeping over there. Kei? Come on, Bro, wake up! The game's no fun if you don't even try."

"It wouldn't be fair if I didn't give you a head start," Keiichi retorted, and let the song drift to the back of his head, the words losing distinction and becoming a harmonic murmur as he focused on catching up and passing the other AI-controlled characters. Items were gained from boxes, traps were lain, red shells gained and used without discrimination. Keiichi passed four characters, making the leap from tenth place all the way to sixth by the completion of the first lap, while Aiko maintained second, and then first as she took a shortcut that set her ahead of her opponents.

In the kitchen the Norns had moved into the next stanza of their song.

 _"Snart kommer Surt att harja._  
 _Jattarna tanda Ragnarok_  
 _Och runor av eld besvarja._  
 _Muspel oppnar sig_  
 _Surt som I syd med oraget svard."_

 _"Kommer till kamp pa Vigrid slatt;_  
 _Kallar pa Muspels soner,_  
 _Da hjalper inga boner._  
 _Fran syd kommer kaos."_

Keiichi passed two more characters, placing him in fourth, then took a shortcut that boosted him to third, right behind the character in second. A well placed green shell sent the AI crashing behind him, and the game narrowed to Aiko in first, Keiichi in second as they entered the third and final lap. "Better watch out, Aiko. I'm catching up!" he warned. Aiko grunted and leaned forward, her face intent on the screen, and smiling broadly Keiichi propped his foot up on one leg, edging it towards his sister.

Aiko didn't notice, and one of the AI characters further back somehow got a lightning bolt, shrinking all the characters further ahead and sending Keiichi into the water in a jump he would have otherwise made. "Aww, come on," he groaned. The cart was recovered and plopped back down onto the track, but not before he watched his position in second descend all the way to eighth place. "Damn." He jabbed his toe into Aiko's ribs, and the younger woman yelped, jumping before sending a glare to Keiichi.

She swatted his foot away, then looked back to the screen, not even bothering to call him out in her concentration. Grinning, Keiichi abandoned his controller, setting it off to one side as he poked a finger into her ribs, watching in amusement as once more she yelped and squirmed away from him. "Stop it, Kei!" she protested, shooting another glare at him as her character drove into a sand pit. "You're cheating!"

 _"Makter av eld har stormar fram_  
 _Jattarna draper guden Frej da_  
 _Nu skola varlden brinna._  
 _Frukta Muspelheim! Kommer odets timma."_

The Norn's finished their song, and Keiichi's smile broadened. "You ain't cheating, you ain't trying." The man lunged at the smaller woman, and Aiko shrieked as his fingers dug into her side, squirming madly as he started tickling her. The controller dropped from her hands, and as Aiko began to try and fight him off an AI zoomed past her slowing character and cleared the finish line.

"Damn it- _Keiichi_!" Aiko screamed in laughter, "S-stop it you-" She couldn't finish her sentence as Keiichi's fingers danced across her stomach, causing her to scream and curl up into a ball, then to her armpits, where she tried and failed to fight him off. "N-no more!" She cried, and by now they were both smiling and laughing, an annoying older brother and a ticklish younger sister at her older sibling's mercy. "Oh god-"

The flatscreen cracked.

A high, electronic screech emerged from the speakers.

All at once Keiichi and Aiko ceased in their play, and as they're eyes were drawn to the cracked images of Mario and Bowser playing across the screen, the display exploded in a hail of plastic and crystal shards. Keiichi swore, Aiko screamed-now in terror rather than laughter-and the SEAL moved to shield her body with his.

Something-an invisible, oh-so-terribly _familiar_ something-wrapped itself around his body before he could. He felt it circle around his waist like the coils of an invisible snake, and with a shout he was thrown away from Aiko, colliding into the far wall with enough force to knock the wind out of him. "Keiichi!" Aiko screamed, the terror in her voice overwhelming and horrible in its depths as the man collapsed into a crumpled heap on the floor.

The speakers continued their horrible screaming, and the laptop was wrenched up from where it once rested on the folding table. The wires connecting it to the flatscreen tore out, but not before knocking what was left of it to the floor with a crash. The laptop twirled in the air, spinning like a scrap of paper caught in a dust devil, and then all at once spun towards the SEAL's fallen form, no longer a piece of technology but a black bullet. "No!" Aiko screamed, and stumbled off the couch and toward's her brother. Something collided with her nose with enough force that she felt her nose crunch. Pain exploded in bright stars across her face, and she felt something hot and wet gush from her nostrils as it grew hard to breathe. The hit knocked her to the floor. Desperately, she looked to her brother as she screamed Keiichi's name as the laptop shattered in a hail of livid sparks upon a blue, transparent light that came to rest above his man's head.

"Aiko, get out of the house!" A voice rose to her ears, and with wide eyes she turned, staring in open terror as Skuld ran to her side. "Come on, get up, it's not safe here!" Behind her Belldandy stood in the entryway to the living room, fighting with Urd as the darker woman grabbed the brunette by the shoulders. The woman's blue eyes were wide and unseeing, yet Aiko would know the look of panic that so adorned her face anywhere.

"Come on, Bell, snap out of it!" Urd screamed, and Aiko was struck with an insane, random thought: _"We're sorry, Bell isn't here at the moment. Please leave a message or call back and try again."_ The Ugly Beast lurched towards the duo, yet when that failed to rise the black gorilla box spun forth in it's stead, spinning like a twirling stick and colliding with the silver-haired woman head-on. Urd fell beneath it with a yell that sounded more surprised than injured, and she batted it off her as though someone had thrown an empty cardboard box at her. _That thing has to weigh at least fifty pounds though._ Aiko thought in a strange moment of lucidity.

Skuld wrenched her to her feet, her grip bruising, and Aiko cried out in pain. Any more force and it felt like the woman would have wrenched her arm from its socket. "Get _moving!"_ she bellowed. "Grab Keiichi and get the hell out of here! If we don't rouse Belldandy than she'll bring the house down on our heads and I can't protect myself and you two at the same time! Now _go!"_

It should have been inspiration enough to get her rear in gear and GTFO-that and the blood flowing from her broken nose-yet for whatever reason Aiko found her legs wouldn't budge. The woman didn't move, staring at Belldandy as all around them, the lights shattered in a hail of glass and the large, wooden ceiling fan Keiichi had installed four years ago suddenly came apart. Her hair danced in a sharp wind that threatened to steal the air from her lungs, and with it came a terrible certainty: _I'm going to die if I don't leave._

Yet even that knowledge was not enough to spurn her onwards, to get moving, to grab Keiichi and run for her ever-loving life. Because despite the woman screaming in her face, despite her brother's fallen, crumpled form against the wall, despite the worsening whirlwind of shrapnel that even now spun in a cyclone throughout the room, Aiko's eyes could not leave Belldandy's, could not leave the panic, the terror, the _memories_ that danced across the woman's face, and in that moment Aiko made a decision.

"I can help!" She cried, startling herself when rather than follow Skuld's advice she instead ran towards Belldandy. "It's okay!" She cried, and then screamed as one of the blades of the ceiling fan whipped towards her. Urd appeared in the last second, knocking it away with one hand, yet Aiko didn't have time to stop and admire the save. Her focus was now entirely on Belldandy. "It's okay!" she repeated. "He's gone now! It's over! He can't hurt us anymore!" Oh god, she hoped she could reach her. "He's gone! He can't touch us ever again!" She felt lightheaded, and the blood pouring out her nose wouldn't stop. She thought of Stuart, of her own trauma, of nights sleeping in Megumi's room because she was too afraid to sleep alone and waking up screaming to her older sister holding her close. "He's nothing but a ghost now! You beat him, and he can't hurt us anymore! Not you, not me, not our sisters, _no one!"_

Oh _fuck_ it hurt thinking about Him. Or maybe that was just her head. Her throat tightened as His face flashed across her mind, and without thinking she reached out to Belldandy, for a brief second more afraid of her memories of That Man than what was happening around her, and she let that terror overlap with the maddening dismay that consumed her, allowed that scared little girl from ages past return to her, and let that frightened child reach out, seeking comfort in the kindred soul before her. She embraced Belldandy with a frightened sob, heard a pained gasp from somewhere above her and then felt another pair of arms snake around her torso.

A choked sob tore out from Belldandy's throat, and then the woman's legs gave out beneath her.

Aiko guided her to the ground as gently as she could, and closed her eyes as harsh, pained scream tore from the woman's throat. "He's gone now. You beat him. We beat him. He's gone now." She swallowed and it hurt; she could taste copper on the edge of her throat and iron from where her own blood and trickled into her mouth. "He's gone now." The strange, infernal typhoon faded, and the grip around her torso tightened to the point of crushing. She felt Belldandy sob into her shoulder and wasn't even aware of the shrapnel so created by the terrible... _force_ drop to the ground around her. "He's gone now." Aiko repeated, and continued to chant: "He's gone. We beat him. He can't hurt us anymore."

"It's over." Somewhere far off came a moan that might have been her brother.

"We beat him." Something warm draped around her shoulders. She didn't know what.

"You won." And Belldandy continued to sob, clutching her tight as though she was a little girl, injured and afraid, wounded to the soul upon the shared discovery that only they were privy to: That the Boogeyman was real, that he wore a human face, and that what he took, what he _consumed_ was the spirit of his victims, leaving in his wake a shell that fought to recover what it didn't know was missing. "We had a hard run of it, and I know you're scared, but you don't have to face it alone anymore," she whispered, and the words were soft; meant only for the woman that was with her, the woman who had tasted her own terror and perhaps even more. "You aren't alone anymore. I've got you. Even if it's scary, at least we can be scared together, right?"

Aiko didn't know how much time passed following that; in that moment time seemed almost to pause for her, leaving her and Belldandy to sob and shudder in the grips of memories one had recovered from and the other was just now confronting. She wasn't aware of anything that went on around her nor did she dare spare the attention for any of the events that followed. Her brother, the strange wind somehow connected to Belldandy, the terrible strength displayed by not just Skuld but by Urd as well were all left in the shadows of her mind, and it wasn't until what felt like a small eternity, but was perhaps closer to fifteen minutes, passed before the woman in her arms bothered to pull away from her.

Even then, the things her eyes saw were not things her mind was _quite_ willing to process. The strange glow produced by Urd's hands as she hovered over Keiichi, his right hand twisted and mangled in such an unnatural way that it turned her stomach. _Nope._ The flesh seemed to jerk and bubble unnaturally, and she could almost see the bone rise and mend and straighten, healing at such a rate it left her lightheaded. _Nuh-uh._ Of how glass; those shattered bulbs that had turned into such deadly shrapnel, defied gravity on a whim of Skuld's hands, rising, melting, and mending into the lightbulbs they once were before floating up into their sockets like bats to roost, nor the glittering shards of crystal intermingled with wires that danced and glittered in the refurbished lighting as they returned to the flat screen once more. _Not gonna happen._ Her mind echoed.

That was when the role shifted from her holding Belldandy to the woman holding her, leaving her feeling more and more like a wide-eyed child presented with magic far past the scope of pulling a rabbit out of a hat. She even flinched away from Skuld as Urd took over mending the house, taking a wide berth around Aiko and Belldandy-as if she was afraid of getting too close-and grabbing the fifty pound gorilla box with all its loose items with one hand, propping it up against her shoulder as if it was empty before returning it to its place along the wall. _No fucking way._ The voice of sanity proclaimed, _there is no fucking way this is happening. This shit belongs in an anime or a Stephen King novel. This doesn't happen in real life._ Yet the crusting blood on her nose, the red that stained her shirt and Belldandy's, the pain and lightheadedness in her head all spoke otherwise.

Keiichi leaned propped up against a wall, watching the women work with dazed eyes as though he too was seeing this shit for the first time. The man was rubbing the palm of what had once been a broken hand, and when the television was fixed and the floor no longer glittered with glass shards, Urd left them for the kitchen. She came back with several small glasses, and the man's face almost lit up when he saw them. "Urd, please tell me that's your Xanax potion." The man's voice was trembling with ill-disguised stress, and Aiko was left with the horrible impression that this was not the first time that such an incident had happened before.

"It's not Xanax." Urd stated, but handed out the small glasses none the less; one for each of them, Urd included. "It's not that potion either. This potion's a bit more diluted, but after everything that just happened I think we all need something to settle our nerves."

"It's not sake, is it?" Skuld barked in laughter, yet it sounded forced. Fake.

"No." She handed a glass to Belldandy, then offered one to Aiko, who took it after a moment's hesitation with some reluctance. "It even taste's good. I swear." She moved to hand one to Skuld, then plopped down beside Keiichi, giving him a glass before holding the final glass with both hands. She chugged it down without another word, and watching her down it seemed to be everyone else's signal to drink as well.

Aiko watched them all, her brother included, consume the contents without another thought, and beheld her own glass with scrutiny. She looked at Belldandy, who had an arm wrapped around her shoulders and was clutching her as though her life depended on it. "You guys aren't aliens, right?" She asked. She felt a little woozy, but the woman wasn't certain if that was from blood lose or the encroaching panic that was clawing at the back of her throat. "I'm not going to pass out and wake up later to a sore ass or some kind of larva bursting out of my chest, am I?"

Belldandy stared at her blankly, and across the room Keiichi started to laugh. "They aren't aliens, Aiko." He assured. "They're a lot of things, but aliens? No, not this time."

Aiko eyed him critically. "You see, that's just the kind of thing I'd expect my brother to say after he's been replaced with some kind of reptile in a skin suit. How do I know you're my actual brother and not some bodysnatcher from outer space?"

"Ew." Skuld's lip peeled up in disgust. "Who'd want to snatch _him_?" She asked.

Aiko stared at her, then laughed as well. It sounded nervous and high-pitched, borderline hysteric like in the movies she always liked to watch with her friends every Friday night. "Okay, _now_ I believe you." She brought the glass to her lips and took a sip. The 'potion', whatever it was, had a sharp, clear taste to it, followed by a strange aftertaste that reminded her of mint. When her stomach didn't decide it was poison and her limbs didn't suddenly mutate into tentacles, she finished off the glass, and was startled and perhaps even a little relieved to find the anxiety toiling in her stomach dissipating into nothing. In its place came a strange sense of 'cool', as though she'd just returned from a laborious swim in a pool and her body was drifting into that 'feel good' state that came after an intense workout.

"Damn," she said, staring at the empty glass in surprise. "Damn, that shit's smooth." She looked over at Urd. "You know, you should market this stuff. You'd be a rich bitch with the money you'd make in pharmaceutical." Urd sent her a wane grin but otherwise said nothing, and Aiko sucked in a deep, meditative breath. She released it loudly, then looked at Keiichi. "Okay, we've got our hot milk. Storytime, Kei."

"Nothing to tell." Keiichi quipped. "I already told you what the truth."

"Bullshit, don't lie to me."

"He's not though." Aiko looked up at Belldandy. "He _did_ tell you the truth. An... abridged version, to be certain, but the truth none the less."

Aiko stared at the woman, wracking her brain as she tried to figure out what Belldandy was implying. "So... you still expect me to believe your lady friends really are nothing but a bunch of UN reps then?"

Skuld sighed and rolled her eyes. "Yggdrasil help me, Urd did you do something to the potion?!"

Urd flinched. "Why do I always get blamed for this stuff? I didn't do anything, Skuld!"

Skuld scowled at her. "You've got a history, you know," she grumbled, then looked at Aiko. "We're _gods_ , Aiko."

Gods.

Goddesses.

* * *

 **A/N: I messed up last chapter. I forgot to add the quote that we put in to start each arc. I have added it. So that you do not have to go back and look, here it is:**

 **"The most intriguing people you will encounter in this life are the people who had insights about you, that you didn't know about yourself." - Shannon L. Alder**

* * *

 _Comments of a Madwoman: Didn't take long for that cat to get out of the bag now, did it? And with only a few hours before the inevitable arrival of Team 12, as well... The song the Norns were singing are lyrics pulled straight from the band Therion's "Muspelheim"._


	15. Chapter 15 - Kindred Spirits

l

-15-

"Let me see your face." Belldandy's fingers were gentle on her cheeks, the cool they presented a welcome chill to the fire and pain of Aiko's throbbing nose. "Please, try and hold still. Let me heal this for you." The woman tried not to flinch at the woman's-no _god's-_ touch, and she sucked in a sharp breath as a gentle, cool tingle of relief began to seep into her skin. The pain began to fade in place of an itch along her nose, and Aiko bit her lip as she stopped herself from reaching up and scratching it.

A goddess.

A motherfucking _goddess._

The revelation circuited Aiko's mind like a race car on a track. _Now_ Keiichi's words came back to her, and Aiko's eyes shot up in surprise. "Oooohhh..." She trailed off, then looked at Keiichi. "Then you mean-"

"Yes," Keiichi nodded in exasperation. "I went out and saved a god-"

"You had a gun that looked like a hair dryer?!"

"Please stop moving, Aiko," Belldandy requested, and once more the college student fell still, though she wanted very much to look around her at the expressions she missed.

Skuld scowled, and for whatever reason Aiko's comment was the funniest thing in the world to Urd, who started laughing until she was red in the face. Aiko wondered if maybe her bit of 'potion' was a bit more potent than the others. Regardless, it made Aiko smile. Ah, humor. Humanity's greatest coping mechanism. The woman thought that if she could joke about it and laugh about it, then she'd be okay. Humor had helped her through Stuart and had helped her whenever her brother was on another 'Spook Run' that he couldn't give any details about, and Aiko assumed that it would help her adjust to this-this- _whatever_ this was-as well. It sure as hell beat the shit out of panicking, and for a moment there she'd been afraid that was exactly what was going to happen; that she'd dissolve into a blubbering mess, unable to cope with what she'd seen even as her mind tried to sweep the whole event under the rug of her subconscious. Yet Keiichi had laughed, Urd had laughed, and that meant that she could laugh too.

Could and would, if only for her sanity's sake. The itch and strange cool faded from her face, and Belldandy released her as Aiko sucked in a fresh breath from her now-healed nose. "Ha!" She pointed to Keiichi, and the man jerked back, his head thumping against the wall. The same wall he'd been thrown into with such force that it'd broken his hand twenty minutes ago. "I _knew_ you couldn't lie to me! I was right!" She exclaimed. "You low bastard! Trying to use reverse psychology on me to get me to think these ladies weren't gods."

He stared at her with his own blank expression, and then his face broke into a smile. "Well, it's not like you weren't already guessing the truth as it was." He looked at Belldandy. "Even if she didn't believe me when I told her the truth, Aiko was already making guesses that you three were related."

"Wow, wait a second." Aiko raised her hands up in front of her. Was she still light headed? Christ, her head felt like it was swimming in an ocean at high-tide. "So, okay, you guys are sisters, but what about that stuff you were telling me about earlier? That UN stuff about Aussie moms and American moms and Icelandic dads and whatever. Was all that stuff true?" She looked between the three women, watching as even Keiichi's face grew thoughtful, and knew she'd struck gold when Urd winced.

"Shit, I'd hoped you forgot about that," Skuld muttered under her breath. Aiko looked at her with a raised eyebrow, and the woman sighed. "Okay. So, three sisters. You're on the money. Same dad. Belldandy and I have the same mom." She jerked her head to Urd, who stared at Skuld pensively. "Urd over there has a different mom though, which is why she looks so much more..." The Norn paused, scowling.

"Exotic," Belldandy supplied. "The word you want is 'exotic', Skuld." She looked at Aiko. "Urd is the eldest. I was born shortly after her, and later down the road came Skuld." She pursed her lips, gaze contemplative. "We're known collectively as the Norns of Fate," she explained. "Together we run the domain of Past, Present, and Future."

"They keep the universe running smoothly," Keiichi shot in, and Urd punched him in the shoulder. He grinned at her, his face unapologetic and Aiko wondered if perhaps he was feeling loopy as well. "But for whatever reason they think I'm more fun to hang around with than whatever other gods exist in the universe."

Urd punched him again. "Your dope of a brother over here ended up saving my life about five years ago." She shrugged in discomfort as Belldandy straightened in sudden interest, the two sisters-Belldandy and Aiko-both leaning forward to observe their respective siblings. "Jank here was on a deployment to Afghanistan, and I happened to be in the area as well tracking down clues that might help me locate you, Belldandy." She jutted her chin out to the woman in question. "Of course, my methods aren't always the best-"

"Urd makes a lot of stupid decisions, is what she's trying to say," Skuld cut in. "The dummy over there decided 'hey know what? I bet a demon's involved! I'm gonna go ask a demon and see if he knows anything about my little sister's whereabouts.'" She sighed and rolled her eyes. "Like walking down a dark alley with a 'stab me' sign on your back."

Belldandy looked at Urd in fresh concern. "Urd, you didn't!" she said in disdain. "Please tell me you didn't..."

Urd shrugged self-consciously. "He said he knew where you were." She scratched the back of her head. "Course, then the fucker decided I looked like a good bartering tool and tried to seal me, but hey! That's where good ol' Janky-Baby here popped up!" She smiled and slapped a hand down on Keiichi's shoulder. "Aaaand that's how I met Team 12!"

"You threatened to blow us up after we helped you seal the demon," Keiichi replied evenly, then looked over at Belldandy and Aiko. "I almost shot her in the face because first she threatened to blow us up, then she wiped Team 12's memories and I was the only one who wasn't affected."

"And look at them now," Skuld said snidely. "Like two peas in a pod. BFFs. You two should have fucking friendship bracelets."

Urd grabbed Keiichi's left hand and hoisted it into the air, displaying the Luminox 3082 on his wrist. "The hell do you think this is?" she demanded, half in jest. "Keiichi's the one holding onto the demon that tried to seal me!"

Above their heads the lights flickered for a brief moment, and Urd released Keiichi's hand as both of the Morisatos looked up. When it didn't happen again Keiichi shrugged. "Power surge," he reasoned. "But yeah...turns out the reason for that was because I guess Urd was... I don't know, _supposed_ to meet me?" He looked at the woman with a shrug. "Some weird thing was trying to hook me up with Belldandy because I was still owed a wish by her." He raised his hands as Aiko sent him a disbelieving glance "Yeah, I know, I don't get it either, but it's the truth, okay? I was owed a wish for something and Belldandy was supposed to grant it, so..."

"So the Ultimate Force, a power that not even we gods dictate, interfered and ensured that the two of us would meet, all so that Jank and Bell could hook up," Urd continued. "And it took about five years or so, but eventually our connection led to us tracking you down, Bell, and rescuing you from, well..." The goddess shrugged. "And... admittedly, while it took a while, because for whatever reason none of us could connect the dots... we finally rescued you."

"And I gave Bell my wish," Keiichi added. "Which is how these lovely ladies managed to hook up at my place."

"Wow," Aiko said. "That's... wow." She shook her head. "So...do I get VIP access to the whole story then?" she asked, looking around at everyone present. "Because...this whole thing is just a tiny bit over my head."

For a moment both Urd and Keiichi's expressions darkened, their faces so similar to each other that Aiko could only wonder at what they'd experienced to have planted such a haunted look on their faces.

"Yes."

Belldandy's voice came out a whisper, and she looked to the woman with a start. "I... yes." She wasn't looking at Aiko so much as Keiichi and Urd. "I'll... we'll speak of it. Not right now though." She sucked in a deep breath, and Aiko was once more reminded of that terrified little girl she'd seen in Belldandy's face; that child that had been so filled with terror and despair that her only option had been to lash out in defense. This was _her_ story, not Kei's. Not Urd's. And with those few words alone Belldandy had reminded everyone present of that fact. "We shall save it for another time... later this weekend, perhaps. But not right now." With a deep breath the woman-the _goddess,_ Aiko reminded herself-rose to her feet, releasing her tight grip on Aiko's shoulder. "Now is the time to prepare for festivities and celebrations. I believe we've had enough melancholy for this day."

Skuld stared at her, then rose to her own feet as well. "You're right. This team of Keiichi's is due to arrive in a couple of hours, right? And weren't you originally coming in here to let these guys know that the salads were done?"

Belldandy stared at her, then nodded as well. "I was," she murmured, and her face scrunched up in a grimace. "I apologize, Aiko. I heard you shouting and..."

"It's alright." Aiko rolled to her feet as well. "It's my bad." Her eyes were unintentionally drawn to the red spot that now stained Belldandy's shirt. Blood. Aiko's blood. From Aiko's broken nose, so obtained after Belldandy had... what? Had a flashback and lost herself? Yeah. Yeah, that sounded like a good way of looking at it. "I should have took into consideration how I must have sounded to you." She ran a hand through her dyed hair, sending an embarrassed look towards Keiichi, whose expression mirrored hers down to the bone. "I... forgot how easy it is for something to start a flashback. Our fault, not yours."

Boy, this was going to take some getting used to. Not a woman, but a _goddess_ with PTSD? Fucking shit, man. She was sitting in a living room with a bunch of _literal gods_. She fucking _slept with a god._ Oh, if the theologists at her school ever caught wind of _this_! A small, silly giggle crawled out her throat, and Aiko buried her face in her hands. Dried blood flaked off with her fingers, yet her nose felt like it'd never been better. _Like it'd never been broken._ "This is-this is fucking _awesome_ ," she exclaimed, and everyone around her stared at her. "So, does this mean you guys are from a specific pantheon then?" She asked. "You guys said you were from Iceland, so does that mean you guys are... what was it, Norse or something?"

The trio of sisters looked to each other and shrugged. "I... guess..?" Skuld said.

"Holy shit." Wait. " _Do_ gods poop? If they do is it considered a holy shit? Or is that only when the Pope worships the great porcelain god?"

Aiko Morisato. Mortal representative of the human race. Asking the important questions no one else dared.

Belldandy's jaw dropped in horror. Skuld stared at her in disbelief. Urd threw her head back and howled with laughter as Keiichi groaned and covered his face in embarrassment. Aiko didn't register any of it. She was literally standing in the presence of the divine, a goddess had both broken her nose and healed it, she was pretty sure she was suffering from some crazy blood loss in conjunction with whatever else that potion had done to her, and hot damn if she _wasn't_ going to question them.

She was bouncing on her feet now, and a large, eager smile was on her face, one that caused her brother to watch her with a worried expression. "This is _so_ cool," she said. "What about-do you guys know gods from other pantheons? Like, has Zeus ever hit on you or something? Do you know Jesus? Are there straight up _alien_ gods out there? Or do aliens worship you guys too?" She paused, thought for a moment, then asked, "Was Asatru the right religion all along?"

Belldandy and Skuld looked at each other, the expressions growing more and more uncomfortable with each question thrown their way. Urd couldn't stop laughing, instead sliding along the wall she was leaning on and back down to the floor. "Ah...what is...?" Belldandy stuttered.

Something that could only be described as a giddy _squee_ came out of Aiko's throat, her hands coming up to her chest in close fists that pumped the air gaily. "Do you have special powers? Can you turn people to stone with a glance or turn water into wine? Can you turn lead into gold?" She was jumping now. Jumping and squeeing and scaring Belldandy and Skuld. And making Urd laugh, but it seemed damn near anything would make that happen now, didn't it? "Oh, _oh!_ Can you make all the crippling debt I've acquired since applying to college vanish?! Or maybe turn me into a puppy?"

"Aiko-" Keiichi groaned. Aiko ignored him.

"No, wait. That's perfect! Can you do that? Can you turn people into animals? I want to be a puppy!"

Skuld stared at her queerly. "Why would you want to-"

"Think about it Kei! Who's got the best life in the world? A golden retriever living in an upper middle class, closed-gate community. Nothing but a chill life, table scraps from kids, lots of love, totally safe, no worries and BALL!"

Keiichi stared at her, and then for a moment actually seemed to consider the proposition.

"MAGILLA!" Skuld cried. "Are you actually...?"

Keiichi looked at her. "Well… she has a point," he stated. "I should be more 'dog'. Like you, Poodle. Only maybe not all 'yip yip yip' and ankle-bitey, more mellow and belly rubs." He looked at Belldandy with a grin. "What do you think, Bell? Want a big ol' puppy dog that wants nothing but belly rubs?"

Skuld groaned. "If you wanted to be a fucking golden retriever you should have made that your wish instead." She glowered at him. "Maybe _I_ can still make that wish come true."

Belldandy stared at her in confusion. "But you aren't a part of the GRO, Skuld. Wish granting isn't in your job description." She looked at Keiichi. "And... while a dog sounds nice... I'd rather give you belly rubs as a human, Keiichi."

Aiko's eyes went wide as she brought a fist to her mouth. "OOOOh!" she cried. "Get it Girl!" Skuld made a strange, strangled noise with her throat, and Urd had long passed the point of laughing until her face had turned red. Yeah, okay, so maybe she _was_ a little loopy. It wouldn't even register with Aiko until later that she'd spoken to a goddess as though Belldandy was one of her friends out clubbing.

Keiichi's smile grew bolder. "Does this make me your puppy then?" He winked at Belldandy and wagged his eyebrows suggestively.

"He's not a puppy, he's a frog!" Skuld looked like she was ready to keel over and die in embarrassment. "Oh Yggdrasil. They're flirting. Make it stop. Oh heavens, my virgin ears. Make it _stop!"_

"Froggy then," Keiichi said. "You know what they say about frogs: Kiss them on the lips and they'll turn into a prince."

Belldandy looked like she was about to say something, and then seemed to think better of it, instead approaching Keiichi, leaning forward, and pressing her lips firmly against his. A fresh chorus of madness rose up as Urd whistled, Skuld protested, and Aiko whooped in glee. Keiichi smiled into the kiss before returning it, and when they parted Belldandy smiled back at him with flushed cheeks. "You haven't changed though," she stated. "I suppose this makes you my froggy Black Knight?"

"They also say repeated doses may be required and results may vary," Keiichi replied.

"Keiichi, you smooth motherfucker!" Urd cried.

"Enough!" Skuld screamed. "For fuck's sake, enough!" She looked at the two of them in disgust.

Belldandy's flush deepened into a brilliant scarlet, and with a small bit of reluctance she stepped away from Keiichi. She still smiled though, still held Keiichi's gaze, and despite her own embarrassment didn't look away. "I suppose we should finish preparing the house?" she asked.

"Yeah," Keiichi chirped. "Can't have the Poodle gnawing my ankle off because I kissed her sister now, can we?"

"Oh that's it you son of A BI-" All at once Urd was at Skuld's side, dragging the younger woman away as Belldandy winced.

"OKAY, SHOW'S OVER, TIME TO GO!" Urd said over her sister, drowning out the violent profanities leaving Skuld's mouth as they headed out of the living room.

Belldandy covered her face. "Perhaps you should stop teasing Skuld," she muttered. "I'm not sure how much more she can handle, knowing she has to leave soon.

Aiko whistled. "Yeah. You better watch yourself, Kei," she warned. "That's your future sister-in-law you're teasing."

Belldandy sputtered something unintelligible, and Keiichi's whole body shuddered as though someone had dropped an ice cube down his pants. "Aiko!" the SEAL cried, yet already the younger woman was retreating as well, laughing and chasing after the other two 'future sister-in-laws' and leaving Keiichi and Belldandy alone.

The two looked at each other with wide eyes. "Uh..."

"That is..."

"Ah..."

"...lets-lets just agree we never heard what Aiko just dropped."

Keiichi nodded in a hurry, both gratful and disappointed that Belldandy appeared as reluctant over the concept of marriage as him. "Team twelve," he said. "Gotta get things sorted for the team's arrival."

"Yes! Yes." Belldandy nodded in a rush. "Need to change clothes and make sure the salad is good and there's a place for drinks and set out chairs and-"

"Yeah." Keiichi agreed. "Gotta put a collar on the Poodle and a muzzle on Aiko."

And, despite the odds being stacked against him, Belldandy laughed.

XXX

Around three thirty that afternoon, There was a heavy pounding on the front door, and knowing who it was Keiichi moved to open it. He was unsurprised to find all of Team 12 on the other side, loaded down with various plastic bags filled with tupperware containers, crockpots, and even a cooler loaded with what Keiichi assumed was beer. Jackson was in the front of the procession, and his smile was wide and bright on his face. "MORISATO!" The man roared in a deep, thundering voice that would have terrified new recruits if he was a company commander in boot camp. "Are you going to just stand there and look pretty? Or are you going to invite us in?"

"Tamiya?" From farther down the hallway Belldandy peeked around the corner, yet the large tank of a man was nowhere in sight. Instead four other tanks of various sizes stood in the doorway, one of which she vaguely recognized from her first day in Keiichi's house.

Keiichi smiled broadly. "Hey guys, come on in!" He held the door open as far back as it would go, allowing the four men to process through the door one person at a time.

"We brought gifts!" Sanchez cried, holding out four twelve-packs of various beers out for Keiichi to examine. In a lower, joking voice he added, "Now where da' women at?"

"Try anything and I'll shove these cans so far up your ass you'll taste metal," Keiichi replied in an equally jovial tone. Sanchez laughed and slapped him on the shoulder, and as the procession moved into the living room Keiichi let the door slam shut.

"So Tank was tell..." Jackson had a naturally loud voice, yet as Keiichi followed his team into the living room, the man's sentence drifted off, falling into an almost deafening silence as Jackson stared at the Ugly Beast. "Ho-Lee-Jeezus and fuck me sideways. What is that? What in the name of Neptune's blue testicles is _that_?"

"What is what?" Moving to deposit the beer on the dining room table, Keiichi looked over his shoulder. "Oh, that?" he called, helping Urd move the drinks into the cooler McGuinness had brought with him. Belldandy moved to stand near the table, watching the entire exchange in the shocked silence of a woman unaccustomed to the creative language so produced by service members. "That's a couch. Do you like it? We named her the 'Ugly Beast'."

Jackson continued to stare at it. "Do I like it?" He looked at Keiichi in shock. "What the fuck you talking about?" he demanded. "The shit is pink, Jank!"

"I prefer the term 'light red', myself." Keiichi grinned.

"No Man." Jackson shook his head in disgust. "Dude, it looks like my granny's favorite Sunday dress fucked a love seat. Only there wasn't any love in it. Just a bunch of angry fucking."

One of Keiichi's eyebrows shot up in surprised. "What the hell are you talking about?" he demanded. "The Ugly Beast has a classical rosette pattern, you uncultured swine." He tipped his nose up and sniffed in scorn.

Sanchez burst out laughing. "Oh man, he's like one of them rich fucks from the 'Grey Poupon' commercials!"

Jackson moved away from the couch, storming up to Keiichi with a wild glare that was half in jest. "What did you call me, little man? Oh-ho, it's on now, motherfucker."

With a squeak that almost went unnoticed, Belldandy quickly retreated from the man, leaving Keiichi to face the wrath of his team mate on his own. Yet rather than go in swinging as perhaps the poor, bewildered woman might have believed, Jackson kneeled down near the edge of the dining room table and propped his elbow up on its surface. "Come on, Bitch. Let's see if those apple crushers can stand up to my twenty-four inch pythons."

Keiichi followed him down, mimicking his stance on the other corner of the table. "See if they can stand up to my di-" He cut himself off as he caught Belldandy's mouth drop in unambiquitous horror, and instead settled for grabbing Jackson's hand. "You going down, Piper!"

As the two began their arm wrestling match, Urd slid the lid back on the cooler and left the table to stand next to McGuinness, leaving Belldandy to referee the match. Not that the poor woman appeared to have any idea what was happening at the moment. "So…" She moved to lean against the back end of the Ugly Beast, a slim smile on her face as she watched McGuinness observe the spectacle with his own interest. He looked to her as the woman spoke up. "What do you think of the couch, Tank?" She patted the top of the couch like it was a dog, face smug. "You like?"

McGinness made a show of coughing into his fist before moving off, but Urd thought she heard a 'Yes' from somewhere underneath his hand.

"Christian! Angel!" Aiko descended the staircase, having washed her face and changed into a fresh outfit, with Skuld a couple steps behind her, and she smiled broadly as the two men in question looked up.

"Christ on a cracker, is that you Bengal?" Sanchez asked. "You look like Blueberry Girl from Willy Wonka! What'd you do to your hair!?"

Aiko laughed and rushed down the rest of the stairs, throwing herself first at McGuinness who hugged her back, and then at Sanchez, who spun her around with a laugh of his own. Skuld proceeded at a slower pace, and as she reached the first floor, McGuinness nodded to her. "I believe we have not properly been introduced." He said, thrusting a hand out to her. "I am Christian McGuinness. I remember seeing you a couple of weeks ago as one of the passengers in Keiichi's truck."

Skuld nodded, taking his hand and shaking it, surprised when the grip didn't crush her hand as she'd half expected. "Nice to meet you. I'm Skuld, er, Skuld Highkin, Urd's partner in the UN."

Sanchez approached with an arm slung around Aiko's shoulders. She only came up to his chest, and next to him and McGuiness, the young woman looked tiny. "Nice to meet you, Ma'am," Sanchez chirped, smiling broadly. "I'm Angel. Are you the one keeping Sheila in line?"

"Sheila?" Skuld looked at him in confusion, though she was more taken aback by the man's name. 'Angel' was not a name for a person last time she'd been on Midgard, and she had to stop herself from commenting on his name when it became apparent no one thought twice about it. To hear a man named after the being many deities considered the 'Other Soul' was... startling, to say the least. Sheila was a strange name too, but she kind of remembered hearing someone call Urd that name from some place before. Still...

"He's referring to Ms. Hildborne," McGuinness said. "It is a nickname we used to refer to her when she started appearing around our team."

"It's 'cause she's an Aussie," Sanchez threw in, and it took a moment longer to realize they were both still referring to Urd.

 _Why the hell do the people in this world keep saying Urd has an Australian accent?_ Skuld wondered, hiding her confusion with a knowing smile. "Right, I hear you." She looked to McGuinness. "So are you the one who keeps Ma-Keiichi in line?"

The man raised a single brown brow. "I suppose..." He drawled, glancing at Aiko. "If his sister doesn't do that for him." He looked back at Skuld, eyes bright with contained humor. "Why?" he asked. "Has he done something I should be aware of?"

Skuld's smile broadened. "Oh, let me _tell_ you some of the things this man has done."

In the dining room Keiichi released a roar of victory as Jackson's hand slammed down on the wooden table, startling Belldandy badly enough that she jumped, eyes wide. Releasing his opponent, the man raised his fists in the air as Jackson groaned in defeat, drawing laughter from both Team 12 and the women in the household.

"See what I mean?" Skuld asked, though the smile on her face didn't falter.

Sanchez hailed Keiichi. "Yo Jank! You gonna introduce us properly or what?" Aiko was dragging him towards the table, and sharing a look Skuld and McGuinness followed as well. Braxton was already at the table observing the Norns with open, curious eyes, and Urd stood next to him, occasionally sending him a sidelong glance when his gaze lingered too long on Belldandy's face. The two came to stand next to Urd, and Braxton leaned forward to look at Skuld in interest, that same open, curious expression-almost childlike, Skuld thought-came to rest on Skuld's face. The Norn met the SEAL's gaze head on, cocking an eyebrow up in question, and Braxton got the hint and dropped his gaze, returning it to Keiichi.

"Okay, so we've got some new folks and faces here, so we'll start off with the ones most of us are already familiar with and work our way up." Keiichi announced. He wandered around the table, then looped an arm around Aiko's shoulders. "So, most of you know Aiko here, my little sister; the thorn in my side that I can't get rid of no matter what I do." He looked over at Braxton. "You hit on her, you get a shovel. You flirt with her, you start digging. You kiss her, you die and I cover up your grave, got it?" His tone was jovial enough, yet even in the relaxed air of the house, something in Keiichi's body language made the man pause and wonder just how much the SEAL was joking.

Most everyone present laughed, and so too did Braxton, though perhaps it sounded a bit uneasy. "Man, when you gonna let Aiko start dating without you looking over her shoulder?" Sanchez slapped Keiichi lightly on the back of the head. "You worse than your Old Man, Jank!" More laughter

Aiko and Keiichi shared a laugh, and this time there was no hiding the unease in it. "Yeah, no way is he worse than Keima," Aiko said nonchalantly. "A little overprotective, but he can't follow me to school every day now, can he?"

"It's okay." Keiichi winked at her. "That's why I've got a tracker in your phone." Aiko punched him, and Keiichi grunted, smiled, and then moved on. "Speaking of which, we still have to introduce our newest teammate to our merry band of Twelve Monkeys," he said, this time gesturing to Braxton. "Here we have Master at Arms Second Class John Braxton, our very own Johnny Bravo." Braxton groaned good-naturedly. "You want to share the story on how you got that callsign?"

"Not until I'm good and drunk," Braxton replied.

"But if you do that, you're liable to get beat up again!" Jackson jibed. "And by any one of these four lovely ladies, no less!" He looked around at the Norns and Aiko. "None of you have tasers, right?"

For whatever reason Belldandy and Skuld looked at Urd, who shrugged and shook her head.

Jackson smiled. "Okay, cool, so that's one less thing you gotta worried about, see Bravo? No taze for you tonight! Though you might want to steer clear of any shovels you find lying around..."

Keiichi chuckled before moving on. "So, next we have Urd-Sheila to most of us, Urd to the rest of you." Urd smiled and nodded, all too comfortable in her surroundings. "You ever gonna tell us where you're from?" he joked.

"Southerlands of Niflheim, right along the border of Hades and Helheim." Urd smiled and rolled her eyes. "Same thing I tell you boys every time we get together."

"Right, and Australia has a portal to hell smack dab in the middle of the Outback where a bunch of demons got their asses handed to 'em by a bunch of 'roos," Sanchez joked.

"Exactly!" Urd cried. "Why else do you think it's so dangerous living down there!" The words gained laughter from all of Team 12 and even Aiko, yet the same could not be said for Skuld and Belldandy. Oh no. Their reactions were quite the opposite, in fact; all wide eyes and tense faces, humor absent from their faces, but if anyone noticed they were polite enough not to comment on the outlandish behavior.

"Alright, so next we have Skuld, who was making her own introductions." He gestured to the woman in question, who narrowed her eyes at the Keiichi but otherwise did not comment. "Watch out for this one, guys. She's straight up _mean_ when she wants to be, and protective too. Don't let her fool you; it's all a lie. She'll have you pinned up against a wall and sobbing for your mommy if you so much as glance at her wrong." The smile didn't leave Keiichi's face. "She's worse than a marine drill sergeant."

"She ain't got not Smokey the Bear hat though!" Sanchez laughed.

And without thought Skuld responded, "That's because the last guy who pissed me off has it shoved up his ass." Did a goddess even know who Smokey the Bear was? Was she familiar with the large brimmed hat he wore or his perspective of humanity and forest fires? Fuck if Keiichi knew, but if he had to guess he'd place money on her being clueless.

The man moved to stand by Belldandy as the laughter faded. "And then we have Belldandy, our guest of honor." He stared at the woman in question with a large, easy smile. "Don't let her sweet nature fool you-she' a fighter, and has beat my ass more than once."

Belldandy looked at him with wide, horrified eyes. " _Keiichi!"_

Keiichi brought his hands up as though warding off a blow. "Ahh!" he cried, taking a step further and making his hands shake. "Don't beat me again!" His voice swayed with laughter, and despite her own misgivings a small, tiny grin flitted across the Norn's face. The man straightened. "She's also got incredible taste in furniture; that glorious couch in the living room was her doing more than mine, and I'm willing to bet she could beat your ass in Fifa, Sanchez."

"Man, screw you guys and your damned soccer. Madden's where it's at!" Jackson piped up.

"She'll wreck your shit in Madden, too Piper," Keiichi retorted, face smug. "Watch. You give her a round or two to get familiar with the controls and she'll be running circles 'round you till the game breaks."

Belldandy looked away, a fresh blush tinting her cheeks. "Please stop," she muttered. "I don't know-please, no more."

"No more?" Keiichi looked at the goddess in mock-surprise. "But we're just getting started!"

"I know," Belldandy grumbled under her breath. "And I prefer that you quit while you're ahead rather than prolong it any further."

Keiichi belted out fresh laughter, none of it forced, then nodded his head. "Alright, alright, I hear you," he said. "In that case, it's time to introduce you to the rest of Team 12, the mad barrel of monkeys we are." He gestured the four men around the table. "First we have the ever-so-famous Lieutenant Commander Christian 'Tank' McGuinness, leader of Team 12 and the only real officer in our small group of merry men." In a softer voice he whispered loudly, "Don't let him scare you-he looks like a mean Rottweiler, but he's really nothing but a puppy once you get to know him." McGuinness raised an eyebrow but chose not to comment, instead nodding to Belldandy with a small half-smile before Keiichi moved on. "Following that is HM1 Angel 'Croaker' Sanchez, so dubbed by his skill of keeping all our internal organs inside us rather than dragging on the ground behind us during deployments." He gained some laughs from Team 12 and even Urd, but apparently Skuld and Aiko weren't a fan of dark humor. They scowled at him, and Belldandy stared at him in open worry.

"Don't let Jank scare ya, Miss Tyrdotter," Sanchez reassured. "I've plugged that asshole with enough Quick Clot to patch an elephant, and he still manages to flip off our close friend Mister Reaper and get away with it." He smirked. "I'll be the one patching up these drunk fucks once they decide to start jumping off roofs later tonight."

"Wait, what?" Belldandy cried out, looking between Sanchez and Keiichi in alarm.

"Hey, Man, don't go telling her that shit! You scaring her!" Jackson cried.

Sanchez sent him a dirty look. "You the one I'm worried about most," he said. "Jank's got his sister here to stop him, but yer always trying to impress the ladies doing backflips off roofs."

"The Screaming Man can do backflips?" Belldandy whispered to Keiichi, her gaze wide with something that might have been awe or fear or both. "Will he summon explosions as well?" The woman looked at Keiichi in honest concern, and the man felt himself flush in embarrassment. "Explosions upon backflipping off roofs?"

"Bell, that's not-"

"Why is he wearing a shirt?" Belldandy continued. "I've never seen him in a shirt before..." Keiichi groaned and buried his face in his hands, where muffled laughter surged forth. "Is it to keep his abdomen quiet?"

Keiichi let his hands drop, his face as red as a tomato. "Belldandy, that's not Terry Crews." He whispered.

"Who?" Belldandy looked at him strangely. "I am not certain who you're talking about. I am talking about the screaming man from the videos. He doesn't look agile enough to do backflips, but I suppose if he has enough momentum…" The goddess trailed off, staring at Jackson in a strange kind of scrutinizing consideration, and Keiichi felt a flush of his own start to redden his face.

"Terry Crews, huh?" Urd looked at him with a raised eyebrow, and Keiichi considered himself lucky that Jackson was too busy arguing with Sanchez to pick up on the secondary conversation.

"God damn it," Keiichi groaned, more to himself rather than any of the Norns present and causing Belldandy to once more send him a queer look. "Belldandy, no…that's-you can't just-" He sighed. "That's GMC Brian 'Piper' Jackson. Not the Screaming Man-that's Terry Crews-"

Jackson paused in his argument with Sanchez and looked at Keiichi. "What about my boy Terry?"

"She thinks you're Terry Crews," Braxton shot out before Keiichi could stop him, and Jackson looked at Belldandy with large eyes.

A strange noise came from Belldandy, and it took Keiichi's brain to process the sound as 'Eep.'

"Man, Terry Crews is fucking _LIFE_ ," Jackson announced, again in that loud, deep voice that had so reminded the goddess of Tamiya upon arrival. "That my _dog_ , Girl! Life be good if I can be half the man Terry Crews is!" He flexed for affect, making his biceps strain against the sleeves of his shirt, and Belldandy stared at him, for a moment completely speechless. "Jacked, famous, rich, funny-man, I fucking _wish_ I was Terry Crews!"

This time Belldandy gaped, face disbelieving as she looked from Jackson to Keiichi and back again, uncertain of what to say. "But I—"

"Let it drop, Bell," Keiichi said, his face was a deep beet-red. "Let's-let's finish introductions."

"Yeah," Braxton shot in. "I got a bunch of baked beans that'll go bad if I don't get them in the fridge soon." He leaned over the table to look at Belldandy. "Nice to meet you. I'm John Braxton." The man looked Belldandy up and down, then met her eyes and said, "So are you divine? Because I know a goddess when I see one."

A chorus of groans arose from Team 12. "There he goes..." Sanchez muttered, and Urd and Skuld both boggled at the man with large eyes.

"Johnny Bravo strikes again." Jackson grumbled.

Keiichi scowled, eyes narrowing in anger. "God damn it Braxton, what did I tell you before you came here?" he growled, and Braxton looked at him in confusion.

"What?" he asked, staring at Keiichi in honest bemusement. "I was just-"

"Oh no." Keiichi cut him off. "Braxton, I fucking told you not to-"

"But I was just-" The man brought his hands up in defense, edging away from the Keiichi.

"No," Keiichi glowered at the younger man and took a step towards Braxton. "I warned you all throughout the week _-don't hit on the girls._ And you still come to my house and think you can pull that crap?"

Belldandy rested a hand on Keiichi's shoulder, giving him pause. He looked back at her, a mixture of irritation and confusion on his face. "Let's go into the living room," she said in a low voice, and with a firm grip on his arm guided him out of the dining room.

The others watched the two depart before Aiko sighed and shook her head. McGuinness watched to duo leave with a pensive frown, then directed his attention to Braxton. "John..." he warned, and again the man cringed.

"What did I do?!" He demanded. "It was a question!"

"Man, it was a pickup line and you know it," Sanchez groaned. "Now you gone and ruined the mood for us all!"

"Let's give Keiichi a moment to calm down," Urd suggested. "Until then, let's get the food taken care of, alright?" She sent a pointed look to Braxton. "And when they do come back...maybe it'd be best if you didn't approach Belldandy."

Braxton threw his hands up in bewilderment, still baffled by the hostility over his one comment. "Fine!" he proclaimed. "Fine. I'll keep my mouth shut, okay? Fuck, I'm sorry!"

In the living room, Belldandy guided Keiichi to the Ugly Beast and had him sit down. She didn't release his arm. "What just happened?" she murmured, her voice calm as Keiichi fell into the couch with a heavy sigh. "I have never seen you grow so provoked over mere words before. Is there something going on between you and that man-Braxton was it?"

Keiichi grimaced and sucked in a deep breath. "Sorry," he breathed upon its release. "I just-" He stopped himself and shook his head. "No, there's no excuse...I-fuck." What _had_ come over him? "Braxton's been a pain in the ass for me since you were rescued," he said aloud, rubbing his temples as he sucked in another breath. "He's been pissing me off more and more over the past couple of weeks because he keeps prying into my business and-" He shook his head. "Sorry," He apologized again. "He just doesn't know when to quit sometimes."

"And so that is enough of a reason to spur you to violence?" Belldandy raised an almond eyebrow. "I was led to believe you were a better man than that." Keiichi flinched. "For a moment I feared you were about to strike him."

"I think a part of me _was_." He grumbled, and then sighed. "That's—I just—it's like having to deal with someone who keeps pressing all your buttons on a daily basis, you know?"

"Like an unloved abusive spouse you had to wake up next to every day for ten years?" Belldandy fired back, and Keiichi winced. "You're not the type of man to allow another person's words to drag you down so quickly, Keiichi."

"I know," Keiichi muttered. "I guess I just...maybe I'm just a little...I don't know..."

"Protective?" Belldandy asked, and Keiichi looked at her with a start. "I'm not naive, Keiichi. Did you yourself not just admit to instructing John not to...what were the words...'hit on the girls'?"

"He has a history." Keiichi muttered.

"And so does Urd," Belldandy agreed. "However none of us are helpless. We are not 'fair maidens ignorant to the ways of man'. I feel this has been demonstrated to you several times before."

Keiichi had the decency to blush. "Yeah..." he muttered. "I guess I just...my teammates all have a..."

"Loud personality?"

"Yeah...I guess so."

Belldandy sent him a slim smile. "Loud though they may be, they all seem to be decent men. Even Braxton, though he seems to get on your nerves." She shook her head. "Though I will admit their behavior is at times baffling to me, I do not see any of them as a threat-if that is indeed what you so fear."

Keiichi stared at her for a long moment, then dropped his head with a sigh. "Yeah, you're right." He said. "I guess I was worried about first impressions, huh? I...I was a little worried about Aiko meeting Team 12 way back when I was Braxton's age, too, so I guess some of those old nerves came back up."

Belldandy nodded in understanding, and for a few minutes the duo sat in companionable silence, listening with half an ear to the rambunctious noises from both the dining room and the kitchen. After a while, Keiichi spoke up, "I think I'm good now," He announced. "Want to go back and face those idiots one more time?"

Belldandy stared at him with a raised brow, then took his hand in hers. "Are you?" she challenged, and squeezed the SEAL's hand gently. Keiichi stroked the back of her hand with a calloused thumb.

"Yeah," he decided. "Come on. Let's go introduce those poor souls to _umeboshi_."

Belldandy looked at him in surprise. "You mean you were _serious_?"

Keiichi smiled at her and rose, and still holding his hand Belldandy stood as well. She laughed. "Oh, goodness," she moaned. "Those poor souls won't know what to do with themselves."

"Alcohol," Keiichi replied. "Alcohol fixes everything."

The two rejoined the rest of the crowd. McGuinness and Urd both looked their way, for a moment with such matching expressions of concern that Keiichi and Belldandy almost laughed. Then Keiichi gave them a quick thumbs up _, A-okay_ , and the concern melted back into obscurity.

"Hey, you're back!" Aiko cried. "Just in time, too. Piper's getting ready to fire up the grill." She smiled at them both, face smug as her eyes darted between the two of them. "We were thinking of maybe having a quick snack first to hold us over while he worked his magic. What do you say?"

Keiichi looked at Belldandy. " _Umeboshi?"_

Belldandy looked at Keiichi. " _Umeboshi."_

The duo looked at Aiko, who's smile widened with an almost evil tint. _"Umeboshi,"_ they said together.

" _Umeboshi_ it is!" Aiko cried, and with a laugh moved into the kitchen, withdrawing the small item in question from the fridge. Resting the parcel on the counter, the student pried the vacuum-sealed plastic off the package. McGuinness took one look at the package and recoiled. "Jackson will need my help getting the grill from the truck," he said, and made a quick departure for the hallway. "I'll pass on the pickled plums this time, Aiko. Enjoy Sheila!" He was gone before anyone could get another word in, leaving Urd and Skuld to share a somewhat uncomfortable look.

" _Pickled_ plums?" Skuld asked.

"Yep," Aiko grabbed a fork from a drawer and speared one, popping it into her mouth without hesitation. "They're a treat. We grew up eating them." She offered the fork to Keiichi, who jabbed one, offered it to Belldandy, then jabbed a second one for himself after the goddess took one after a moment's hesitation.

"Hey, those are the sour things, right?" Sanchez asked, and at Aiko's nod he smiled. "Fuckken A! I love those things!" He grabbed one as well, then gestured Braxton, Urd, and Skuld over. "These things are the best! They're like-what were they called-Warheads! Only the sour don't go away after, like, five seconds."

Skuld leaned over to Urd. "What's a 'warhead'?" she whispered.

Urd shrugged. "Candy, I think?" She took one of the offered _umeboshi_ with a perturbed scowl, examining the golden, wrinkled fruit carefully. "It looks like an unripe prune."

"She said it was pickled though." Braxton stared down at the one in his hand, then looked at Keiichi and Belldandy. "This isn't some weird 'culture-food' you gotta grow up with to appreciate, is it? It's not like _balut_ or anything, right?"

"I don't believe so..." Belldandy nibbled at the tiny plum in her hand. "What's _balut_?"

"Best you don't know," Keiichi muttered. "At least for now." He popped the _umeboshi_ into his mouth without another word, and Sanchez followed his example with glee.

Urd and Skuld shared a look, then looked at Braxton. Braxton looked back, just as uncertain. As if on some unknown signal the trio took a bite of the pickled plum.

"Stupid...piece of...shit." Jackson grunted as he worked at the metal lever connecting the trailer hitch connecting the grill to the back of his truck. "Should of fucking..." McGuinness watched him off to the side, more amused than anything else. A sudden noise drew their attention, and the two looked up in time to see the front door of Jank's house flew open with a _bang_.

Together, the two SEALs watched in bemusement as Braxton, face pale and puckered, raced to the front porch railing, leaned over, and heaved, bringing up everything he'd eaten earlier that day. "Aw, come on man..." Jackson grimaced and looked away. "I'm gonna be cooking out here..."

McGuinness made a face and from further inside the house he could hear large, uproarious laughter. "Pickled plums," he grumbled. "Nasty, sour prunes." He shook his head and sighed, watching in pity as Braxton hung off the railing, then turned his back to help Jackson. Whatever was going on inside was something Jackson and himself wanted no part in, and if Braxton had any more sense, he'd stay outside where it was safe as well-at least until the _umeboshi_ was gone.

"Think that asshole got Sheila and the girls to try those damned prunes of his?" McGuinness asked.

"Come on...it's Jank _._ Of _course_ he got them to try that shit." Jackson's face brightened as the trailer hitch came undone. "Fucking finally," he breathed. "I'm just glad I ain't a victim this time around," he said in a louder voice. "It's worth missing Sheila's face eating one a those things knowing I ain't. Feel bad for that Bell-chick though. She seems like enough of a sweetheart that tricking her to eat something like that comes off as mean."

"Speak of the devil." McGuinness watched as someone else raced out the door, this one Belldandy who appeared no more weathered than when McGuinness had dipped out of the house. She trotted over to Braxton, who didn't even bother glancing at her, and spoke to him, then offered him a water bottle. The man rinsed his mouth out, then forced himself up and back inside the house, stumbling a bit as he went. Belldandy watched him head back inside, then looked over to where Jackson and McGuinness stood before trotting over. There were two additional water bottles in her right hand. McGuinness raised a brown brow. "Are those for us?"

Belldandy nodded. "Peace offerings," she explained. "Keiichi thinks he drove you away with the _umeboshi_."

"Well, he's not wrong," Jackson commented, then swore wildly as he hoisted the large grill up onto its wheels and pushed it across the yard away from the cluster of vehicles. "Hey Belldandy, what you want on the grill?"

"I'm sorry?" Belldandy followed his path in confusion as McGuinness twisted the cap off one of the water bottles and took a sip.

"He's asking what you'd like to eat off the grill," McGuinness clarified. "Jackson brought a good variety of meat with him, and since you're out here you might as well call dibs."

"Oh, um..." Belldandy looked nervously between the two of them. "I don't...ah..."

"Are you vegetarian?" McGuinness asked. "I brought some veggie burgers just in case. Keiichi didn't specify if you or the ladies inside followed any specific diet."

Belldandy made a disgusted face, and in that moment the man knew that the burgers would sit forgotten in the freezer. "Goodness no," she grumbled. "Why would anyone...no, no, sorry."

"Why are you apologizing for?" With a grunt, Jackson situated the grill in his designated spot, then moved to join them, taking the remaining water bottle from McGuinness, opening it, and drinking deeply. He chugged half the bottle before speaking. "Not sure what I got?" he asked. "I got burgers, dogs, brats, ribs, chicken..." He smirked. "I can even be convinced to break out the steaks I got marinating if it suits you. What you like?"

"Oh, um..." A brief flash of panic danced across her face. "I...let-let me go and ask the other and see what they want." She looked ready to bolt back into the house like a frightened deer, and McGuinness glanced at Jackson.

Jackson smiled-a friendly smile, one he'd seen the man use whenever there were kids around or when he was trying rather hard _not_ to come across as a large, scary SEAL with a penchant for breaking doors open. "Nah, screw those guys. There's plenty for everyone and I don't see Jank coming out here and giving us water. Come on, I _know_ you gotta want something. What is it?" He looked at her with large, pleading eyes. "Promise I won't tell," he whispered.

Belldandy stared at him, then glanced at McGuinness with large, nervous blue eyes. Taking the hint, he wandered towards his truck, whistling loud enough to drown out any whispered conversations. He still caught a hint of it though, "Bra-" And then whistled louder still to drown it out further, instead withdrawing the large, heavy-duty radio he used whenever he was working on his truck from the back seat. When he had the monstrous black beast in hand and had turned back towards the house, Belldandy was jogging away, face red as though she'd just told Jackson her deepest crush.

Jackson watched her go as well, and as McGuinness stood beside him, the man sighed. "What sort of fucked up hell does a person have to go through to make 'em afraid of talking about _food_?" he asked, though the question wasn't directed towards McGuinness himself. He looked sad. "Man... I hope Jank and Sheila can help her out..." he muttered. "Tank... the look on her face... it was heartbreaking."

McGuinness slapped him on the shoulder. "They'll do what they can, and if they ask us, so will we." He rumbled. "Now come on. Let's get this bastard rust-bucket you call a grill started."

XXX

Aiko smiled, watching Skuld with laughing eyes as the two of them sat down on the Ugly Beast with paper plates loaded with chicken, baked beans, and salad with bits of egg and potato in it. "Potato and egg salad, huh?" she asked, cracking open a beer as Skuld shot her a glare.

"Shut up Sour Patch," she growled. "Magilla said it was a fucking _salad_ , okay? Who the hell adds mayonnaise to a salad? That's disgusting."

"Aww..." Aiko showed little sympathy. "Is Chi-Chi Huahua still _sour_ about the _umeboshi_?"

"Don't you start!" Skuld snapped. "Bad enough I let you and that ape of a brother of yours trick me into eating that-that _thing_ , but I'll be damned before I allow you to follow his fondness of nicknames."

"But it was only _one_ ," Aiko emphasized. "And Belldandy had one too, and she didn't mind it!"

Skuld stared at her, contemplating the wisdom of throwing caution to the wind and shoving the plate filled with chicken, baked beans, and salad that was _not_ egg or potato salad in the college student's face. After a brief battle of conscious, the angel on her shoulder succeeded and instead she jabbed a chicken thigh with her fork. Repeatedly. "Belldandy's also been living in Japan for the past ten years." She growled. "Whereas I don't go around licking lemons because I enjoy the flavor."

"At least you ate it." Aiko sent her a smug smirk, then sent a sidelong glance towards Urd. "I don't think I've ever seen a woman move so fast to the bathroom. She fucking _flew_ out of the kitchen."

"Wouldn't be surprised if she did," Skuld muttered, voice low as McGuinness passed with a plate of burgers and hot dogs in hand. Her eyes trailed after him in interest, and as the man took a seat in one of the folding chairs in the living room he looked back at her, perhaps sensing her gaze. She averted her eyes. "That stuff was bad, I'll admit, but not the worst thing I've ever eaten." She looked back at Aiko, this time in disgust. "And you and your brother ate that shit like it was candy!"

"Sanchez too," Aiko remarked. "But then again, he loves lemon and lime, so that makes sense. It tastes better combined with other foods-especially in _onigiri_." She smiled. "I don't think I've ever seen someone's face pucker like yours did though. With how Urd spoke of ghost peppers, my money would have been on her keeping it down, not you."

"Urd likes spicy food," Skuld grumbled. "I do not. And unless something's changed with Belldandy in the past ten years, she doesn't either."

A hurried rush came down the stairs, and Skuld turned to watch as Urd rushed by with a large, wild grin on her face. "Speaking of which..." she murmured, watching her older sister's retreat with narrowed eyes. "What's she up to?"

"Maybe putting ghost pepper powder in Braxton's baked beans?" Aiko suggested, and Skuld shuddered.

"I hope not," she muttered, then scowled. "Better not be some horrible potion of hers either."

Aiko looked at her in alarm. "Wait, what do you mean?" she asked. "The potion she gave us earlier was fine." She twisted to look back into the dining room, but the adjoining wall blocked her vision. "Should I be afraid? Because I don't like the way you just said what you said. That's something that tells me I should be afraid. Very afraid."

Skuld winced. "Well...maybe?" she asked. "Urd had a-a history."

"You've said that before," Aiko reminded her.

"Yeah, well, it's the truth," Skuld scowled. "She's mellowed out a lot since... well, actually, I guess since meeting your brother, but before then...well...let's just say that despite her best interests, the methods to reach them were always a little...shady, at best."

"So..." Aiko stared at her in earnest, "...like, shady how?"

"Uh..." She looked at Aiko, then over at McGuinness, who was busy devouring a hot dog in three large bites. "Um...emotional manipulation potions?" she threw out. "She always liked to profess she was a 'goddess of love', which is stupid, because she's the Norn of the Past, but..."

"Urd makes love potions?" Aiko stared at her in disbelief, and Skuld cringed.

"In layman's terms...yes?"

"Oh my god." Aiko stared at Skuld in growing apprehension. "Oh my god. Urd's about to roofy my brother."

As if to verify their fears, laughter erupted from the dining room, and sharing a look the two women scrambled off the couch and into the dining room. McGuinness's voice rose behind them, "Aiko, what's wrong?" And then the two were gone, with Team 12's commander thundering after them.

What they found instead was nothing like what either woman expected. Perhaps it was better for that.

More likely, it was far, far worse.

Urd had been drinking.

So had Jackson. Since he'd started grilling, and that been a good hour or so ago. The man was getting up there in the amount of beers he'd knocked back.

With their drunkenness combined, they'd started some horrible, embarrassing show that left Skuld staring in confusion and Aiko cringing. Behind them, any further words McGuinness was about to ask came to an abrupt halt. Because what Urd had in her possession was not a potion, not a pill, not even a can of beer but instead a red bottle of Old Spice _Bearglove._ Cackling madly, she tossed it to Jackson, who'd already abandoned his plate of food. The man caught it with ease, looked to Belldandy, who was sitting directly across from him with a hot dog in her hand, and roared in a loud, booming voice, "OLD SPICE BEARGLOVE IS THE BEEEEEST!"

The hot dog fell from Belldandy's grip as she'd been about to bite into it. It fell to the plate with a clatter, and the brat fell out of the bun it'd been stuffed in and onto the table, rolling to the far end and leaving a trail of smeared red and yellow in its wake. Belldandy didn't notice. She was too busy staring at Jackson, mouth agape. "I _knew_ it," she breathed.

"Oh god." Aiko brought a hand to her mouth, though Skuld wasn't certain if it was to hide laughter or her horror. Keiichi, sitting on the end next to Belldandy, stared at Jackson with wide, disbelieving eyes. "Oh no...Skuld, cover your eyes, you'll go blind." Sanchez stood beside Urd, an arm around the woman's shoulders as the two howled with drunken laughter, and further away stood Braxton, who was fighting to hide the smirk on his face. Jackson continued his Terry Crews impression, then took it a step further as he pulled off his shirt and tossed it aside, putting on a show for everyone as he flexed his muscles.

Belldandy's eyes bulged in their sockets, and the woman stuttered out, "Ex-explosions?!" She looked all at once torn between shielding her gaze and staring, and the combination of that and the heavy flush that dropped into her face was enough to make Skuld worry that Jackson had somehow broken her poor older sister.

"Keiichi, do something!" Skuld cried. "Don't just let him stand there like that!" Keiichi looked to be in a similar state to Belldandy, eyes wide in surprise but frozen in his chair, staring at Jackson as though wondering if the man had lost his mind. He jumped at Skuld's voice, perhaps roused by her demands, and then rose from his chair. Skuld sighed with relief. At least _someone_ had the sense to put an end to this madness.

"Yo, Jackson, knock it off," he said. "You know you can't pull that shit here! Not without these guns out!" Mirroring Jackson's earlier actions, the man pulled off his own shirt in one swift motion and struck a pose.

Skuld's jaw dropped. Next to her, Aiko buried her face in her hands in embarrassment. "No..." She groaned, "I don't want my brother to be a JoJo character. Make it stop."

Keiichi must have heard her, because he looked over at the two, his face as serious as could be, and struck another pose with a cry of "ORA!"

Belldandy looked like she'd stopped processing what she was seeing a long time ago. Blood was beginning to trickle from her nose.

Behind them, McGuinness sighed. "I'm going back to eat," he muttered, turning and leaving the madness before it could affect him further.

Aiko let her hands drop and nodded. "Yeah," she said with a tight voice. "That's a good idea." She hooked an arm around Skuld's shoulders. "Come on Skuld, let's go."

"What-" Skuld looked at Aiko in shock. "No! I can't just let this go on! Belldandy needs my help!"

"It's too late for her." Aiko's voice was flat with sarcasm. "Leave her to her fate. She's beyond saving now."

"Damn it!" Skuld protested, "Let me go, Aiko!" She didn't put up much of a fight.

"No." She dragged Skuld back into the living room. "Let them go and make idiots of themselves. I'm hungry, and unless that can of Bearglove has some kind of crazy roofie potion mixed into it, I don't think Urd's going to pull anything." Under her breath she muttered, "She's already pulled enough as it is."

Together the duo returned to the couch, Skuld muttering obscenities under her breath every time a wave of laughter rose from the dining room. Eventually though, she managed to block out whatever madness was progressing within the kitchen and focused on her meal, taking a moment to savor the flavor of the grilled chicken. Even if Jackson had all the reason of a drunk Loki when alcohol came into play, the man was pretty good with a grill. For a mortal. She'd almost dare to compare it to some of the roasted meals she'd had with Grandpa Odin and Uncle Cernunnos. The marinades used to flavor the meat held a bit of spice that made her tongue tingle but were not overtly spicy, mixed with a tang that reminded Skuld of oranges. It complimented the chicken's flavor rather well, and the skin was a crispy treat she rather enjoyed.

Moving to the salad, Skuld let her eyes drift to McGuinness, allowing her gaze to settle on him. The man was focused on his own meal and didn't seem to notice her looks, which for Skuld was fine. She _wanted_ to observe him in silence, without his knowing, because, admittedly, there was something she found attractive about him. McGuinness was different in some ways from Keiichi and the rest of his crew. Quiet. Yet there was power in his frame and in his build, and no matter where he went he seemed to project that out, and that power was what had so demanded the respect and obedience of his team. _He's humble._ She thought. _He doesn't go around making a show of how amazing him or his team is._

Now _that_ was a refreshing change of pace. Skuld, hailing from a family of warrior-gods herself, was well versed with the arrogance they brought. Uncle Thor was probably the worst, even when he meant well, which was why Loki had so much fun picking on him. Even her parents weren't safe from that arrogance; if they weren't bragging about their own skills-which, admittedly, her mother had stopped after having Skuld-then they were bragging about their daughters and the accomplishments of the Norns. It was _embarrassing_ , and had always been something that made Skuld cringe. Shit, even when Urd or Belldandy did it-usually praising someone else-Skuld was liable to duck out. She didn't like praise or arrogance or talk, because talk was cheap. Anyone could claim they were good at something, but unless they acted on those words, they were about as useless as thumbs on a fish. But McGuinness didn't talk. He let his actions speak for themselves, and as a woman of action herself, she could respect that.

Aiko caught her staring, and lost in her own thoughts, Skuld didn't notice until the woman whispered to her. "You making eyes at McGuinness?"

Skuld almost choked on her food, then twisted to stare at Aiko with wide eyes.

Aiko smiled. "You never struck me as the type to go after the older crowd. And McGuinness of all people? Good ol' Tank himself?" She shook her head in disbelief, but the smile did not fade. In the dining room another peal of laughter rose from Urd and Sanchez. "You should go and talk to him."

"I should what?" Skuld stared at the woman with disbelieving eyes, then risked a glance at McGuinness.

"Go talk to him!" Aiko urged. "I know you're interested in him! You should go and talk to him. Get to know him. He's a great guy, even if he is old enough to be my uncle." She shrugged. "But who am I to judge! You're a goddess, he's a guy, Belldandy's a goddess, Keiichi's a guy, I mean, the potential is there, don't get me wrong, so why not go for it?"

Skuld paled, staring at Aiko with wide deer-in-headlights eyes before looking back to McGuinness. "I...um..." She trailed off, then looked down at her food and proceeded to stuff a fork full of salad-with-egg-and-potato into her mouth, ending the conversation with food.

Aiko stared at her queerly. "Wait..." She murmured. Skuld ate faster. "Wait, you mean you act all tough and mighty, talking 'bout how you gonna kick ass and take names and beat the shit out of anyone who so much as looks at you wrong, but then you find a guy you like and you clam up into a little girl?" She stared at Skuld, and then her disbelief turned into a smug grin. "Oh...Oh I know your type."

"I don' ha' a 'ype," Skuld said between a fork full of beans. Her face was turning red. She looked like she very much wanted to change the subject.

Aiko's smile grew larger. "Oh yes you do," she said, and it came out in a long, slow, purr. "You're the type that acts tough as balls but ain't nothing but a kitten inside, aren't ya?" The smile grew wide. "I bet you don't even know how to talk to a guy, do you? You couldn't tell another man you were interested in him if your life depended on it because the thought alone scare the shit out of you. _Admit it._ "

Skuld swallowed, then turned and looked Aiko dead in the eyes. "Fuck. You." She said. Then quickly returned to Braxton's baked beans.

Aiko shrugged. "Oh well. Guess I'll just have to tell Urd and Belldandy what a pussy you are."

Skuld choked.

Aiko didn't notice. "And to think, you're all bark and no show...damn, what a shame. Kei will never let you live _this_ down."

For a long moment Skuld said nothing. She stared at Aiko with large, round eyes. The woman bit her lower lip, then pursed them together into a thin line, jaw working with such strain that she could hear the muscle and bone creak like an old squeaky staircase. She then set her plate to the side and rose without a word, hiding her nerves behind a mask of steel. "Fine." Her voice held a level of calm she didn't feel. Not with the way her heart was fluttering in her chest. "Fine, I'll go talk to him. Oh Yggdrasil, she felt sick. "And then I'm going to come back here and murder you with a spoon."

"Oh?" Aiko raised a brow in challenge. "A horribly slow murder with an extremely inefficient weapon? So now you're the _Genosaji?"_

"Yes." Fuck it, she'd find out what that was later. With a final glare Skuld turned and approached McGuinness, who looked up from his plate as she drew near. He stared at her in question, and Skuld could feel her heart racing.

"Ma'am?" McGuinness placed his meal to one side of his foot, staring at her in open concern. "Is everything alright? You appear rather pale."

"H-hey you..." Oh Yggdrasil. By the Great Tree's third root. She'd rather be sparring Urd with that stupid 'Brazillian Jui-Jitsu' that her older sister had started teaching her a couple of years back. Maybe eating a ghost pepper and destroying the lining of her stomach. Anything but _here_. "Y-you must be a-a god, because you and I would, would be divine together."

McGuinness leaned back, eyes growing wide before he began to blink rapidly, as though something had fallen into his eye. He shook his head slightly, yet that could have been in as much disbelief as a flat out denial. "Lass..." Skuld could feel her cheeks color as it grew increasingly hot. "I-I'm flattered, but-" The man looked past Skuld, and Skuld kept her eyes glued to the floor. The man coughed. "I believe you should be using those lines on someone a little closer to your age. Not an ugly old brute like myself." Then in a lower voice, he whispered, "Aiko put you up to this, didn't she." Skuld buried her face in her hands in an unconscious imitation of Belldandy, and the large man sighed. "I apologize, Ms. Highkin." And then in a louder, booming voice, "Braxton! Come here a moment."

"What's up?" Skuld peeked through her fingers, watching as Braxton approached through narrow gaps.

"I do not believe you and Ms. Highkin have had a chance to speak much." McGuinness gently-awkwardly-touched her shoulder. "Why don't the two of you entertain each other for a bit? I must speak with Aiko on something."

Skuld heard an almost inaudible "Fuck." From somewhere near the Ugly Beast.

McGuinness left without another word, and Skuld let her hands drop from her face. "Oh goodness." She grimaced, and a piece of her found herself wishing she had Urd's advice for this sort of situation. The mere fact that she actually wanted to consider her eldest sister's advice on such matters made her want to laugh. Or scream.

Braxton looked at her red face but seemed smart enough not to comment on her embarrassment. "So," He said instead, "Are _you_ divine? Because I still think I know a goddess when I see one."

Yggdrasil, and he had the bad tact to use the same pickup line on her as he had Belldandy. _You know what, screw it._ She could feel a fresh blush rise up in her cheeks, then smiled through the flush. "And if I am?"

Braxton smiled. _He has dimples._ Skuld noticed. _How cute._ "Then how about I take you for a ride in my chariot like Mani 'round the moon?"

"Will there be wolves baying at our backs?" Skuld felt some of her embarrassment fade.

"They'll be howling songs of our love back to Sol," he said with a wink, and despite herself, Skuld laughed. It felt good to laugh. It felt honest.

 _I haven't laughed like this in ages._ Skuld realized, and perhaps, for that reason alone, a part of her was grateful to the strange mortal for it. "Tell me more," she challenged, and alone in the living room, with a large tank of a man hunting down a college student outside and a madhouse of drunks roaring in the dining room, the two of them spoke.

And so the night continued.

* * *

 **A/N: Fun chapter. I love Aiko's reaction to the Norns.**

* * *

 _Comments of a Madwoman: The first time I had umeboshi a coworker introduced it to me under the same principle Aiko and Keiichi used on the Norns. I have never tasted something so sour since, and while I will never dare touch another one alone, they are surprisingly good in rice balls._


	16. Chapter 16 - Kindred Spirits

l

-16-

Jackson stared at Keiichi with drunken horror. "Man, I ain't sleeping on yo' ugly-ass, 'light red with rosette pattern' couch. Go fuck yourself!"

Keiichi shrugged. "Okay, you can sleep on the floor then since the guest bedrooms are all taken."

The afternoon had worn well into the evening, and with it, the barbeque was wrapping itself up for those in attendance. Most of Team 12 had enough control not to drink too much if they'd driven to the Morisato house or had forgone alcohol altogether as the designated driver for that evening. At this point, the only exception was Jackson, who'd had a few too many. Currently, his keys were being held hostage by Aiko. There was plenty of room in McGuinness's truck, since he was the DD that night, but Jackson had already made it clear that he didn't want to spend two painful hours the following morning working out how to get to Keiichi's place and then driving back home. That meant staying the night, and with the Morisato house already filled with four additional women, none of whom were sleeping with Keiichi, made for few options in terms of beds.

Now the large man stared at Keiichi in bafflement. "What the fuck, are you-what you mean?" he sputtered. "By who? You got three bedrooms Jank. Who the fuck takes three bedrooms?"

Keiichi raised an eyebrows and pointed to the four women behind Jackson. Good lord, the man had to be heavily inebriated to have forgotten the Norns and his younger sister staying at his place.

Jackson turned and stared at the four women, who watched him with various levels of amusement. "Ah, come on, man!" he groaned. "Are you serious?! Yer kill'en me, Smalls!"

Keiichi stifled a laugh. "What, you don't want to be a gentleman for these poor, homeless women and lone dorm rat of a college student?" he asked, ignoring the glare Aiko directed his way. "You either take the couch, the floor, or, if you like..." Keiichi leaned in close and wagged his eyebrows at Jackson. "You can spend the night with me..."

The larger man leapt away from him as if he was a snake. "Hell no!" he cried. "No Homo, man, no homo!" Neither individual noticed the heavy looks of amusement on the rest of Team 12's faces, nor the way Belldandy sighed in sudden relief at Jackson's abrupt refusal. Aiko smiled broadly, McGuinness looked away with a snort, and Urd stifled a laugh as Skuld and Sanchez snickered.

"Looks like the answer's obvious..." Braxton muttered.

Jackson groaned. "Man, can't I at least shack up with Sheila for the night?" The man looked at Urd, his eyes desperate. " _Please?!"_

"No can do Bud." Keiichi shook his head slowly. "Urd's already rooming with Skuld, and they've got the smaller bedroom. Belldandy and Aiko are sharing the other guest bedroom, which means the only other room is my own, and let me tell you something, Bro." He hooked an arm around Jackson's broad shoulders. "After hanging out with the SERE boys, I ain't afraid a' cozying up with another dude." He blew a kiss at Jackson just for effect, and was rewarded when Jackson screamed like a little girl, threw Keiichi's arm off his shoulders, and backtracked into the couch, falling onto the Ugly Beast in his haste to escape the man.

More roars of laughter, and above it all Sanchez cried out, "Face it, Piper," he said, calling Jackson by his callsign. "You sleeping on the Grandma Couch tonight!" Jackson groaned in misery.

A little ways back from the couch, Urd and Skuld were playing a game of ro-sham-bo in their nightly ritual of who slept in the bed versus who was on the blow-up mattress. After a couple of rounds, Urd pumped a fist in silent victory as Skuld scowled. "And you're sleeping on the floor," Urd whispered, then pivoted with a laugh as Skuld tried to punch her in the arm. Even Belldandy laughed, her cheeks rosy as she swayed gently from one side to the next, displaying all the signs of being tipsy despite no one having seen her have more than one or two beers. If anything, she'd had more _root beer_ instead, seeming to prefer the carbonated drink's flavor to the beers Team 12 had brought with them. And while there was nothing wrong with that, it was still, perhaps, a bit strange to those who knew her to see Belldandy almost downright drunk.

"And I believe it is time for us to take our leave," McGuinness announced. "It is getting close to eleven in the evening, and I think we've stayed long enough." He nodded to Keiichi, who smiled in turn.

"Yeah, sounds good," he agreed. "Thanks for coming over, Tank. We had a good time." He paused and glanced at Belldandy, who was heading upstairs (staggering more like) to retrieve an extra blanket and pillow for Jackson's upcoming night on the couch. "I think Belldandy liked it too," he said in a softer voice.

"She would not be the only one," McGuinness murmured, glancing towards Urd, who was staring openly at the two of them from where she leaned against a door frame. The woman had a fond smile on her face, though judging by the pink in her cheeks, it was hard to say if she even realized she was wearing it. The man averted his gaze to the rest of the hallway, where Braxton and Sanchez were carrying crock pots and coolers in their arms. "Ye' have everything?" This late at night, some of the man's accent slipped into his words, mild though it was.

"We're good," Braxton said. "Thanks for having us over, Jank." He looked over to where Skuld and Aiko were hanging out in the hallway. "Nice meeting you guys," he said. "See you around."

"Yeah, nice meeting you Skuld!" Sanchez cried. "You keep Sheila in line, yeah?"

"I'll keep it in mind." Skuld glanced at Urd who was still staring at either Keiichi or McGuinness with an almost lonely look in her eyes. She scowled, then looked back to the departing remains of Team 12. "Have a safe trip home, guys."

McGuinness nodded. "And ye' have a good night as well," he said. With that, the group of three: McGuinness, Sanchez, and Braxton, departed out the door.

Keiichi closed the door behind them, and then looked to where Jackson sat on the couch. "You stick your lip out any more a bird is going to come and shit on it," the man advised.

"Fuck you, Jank."

Aiko laughed. "You're pouting worse than Keigo after Takano confiscates his Gameboy," she said. "It's a pink couch, Piper. And you're only sleeping on it for one night." She rolled her eyes, cheeks red in her own drunken state of being, though she'd only had two beers.

Belldandy came back down the stairs with the items she'd left to retrieve. There was a perplexed frown on her face. "Ah...Mr. Jackson-"

"Piper. Mr. Jackson was my father."

"Piper then." Belldandy bit her lip. "I went in search of blankets and pillows, but, well..." It was hard to tell if she was biting back humor or anxiety. "...there was only this left. All the other blankets are being used or are in the laundry." She offered the man a pillow in a white sleeve and an absurd, pink blanket that at one time might have been red. It showed signs of age, and additional signs that someone-whoever that someone was-had at one point mixed some type of bleach-based product in with the wash at one point.

Piper took the items with a stony complexion. Then he diverted a glare to Keiichi, who laughed and scratched the back of his head. "Heyyyyy..." he drawled, not without unease. "You, uh...you found my old ship blanket!" He smiled. It looked like a grimace. "From when I was fresh out of 'C' School and on the USS Ronald Reagan! That's-that's... great?" Under his breath he muttered, "I forgot about that old thing."

"This shit's pink, Morisato." Unconsciously, Jackson echoed his earlier statement towards the Ugly Beast. "Why the hell is it _pink_ , Morisato?"

"Yeah..." Keiichi looked away, rubbing the back of his neck self-consciously. "Younger me wasn't that good with washing machines, once upon a time..."

"Bullshit," Aiko called his bluff. "Takano made sure we all knew how to operate a washing machine as soon as we were old enough to start helping out around the house."

Jackson's eyebrows shot upwards. "Oh really?" he said, then looked to Keiichi with large, accusing eyes. "Well then what's your excuse, Morisato?"

Keiichi shot a glare at Aiko, who smiled and blew him a kiss. "I uh... younger me was drinking while waiting to use a washing machine," he said. "So, um, yeah, I didn't separate the colors from the whites."

Jackson narrowed his eyes. "I still smell bullshit," he growled.

"Okay, okay!" Keiichi brought his hands up in his defense. "So maybe I wasn't drinking and maybe there was only one washing machine available and maybe I didn't want to spend my off hours doing laundry all day?"

Jackson groaned and threw the blanket and pillow on to the Ugly Beast. It contrasted the cast of pink on the couch rather well, in all honesty. Not that Jackson cared. "Jesus Christ, get your shit together Jank."

"Well..." Belldandy spoke up, voice hesitant. "I think it's a lovely blanket." She walked into the living room and grabbed the blanket, spreading it open onto the couch. "It speaks of fond memories and the hardships Keiichi's younger self experienced in his earlier years, and it has served him well since his time aboard his first ship." Perhaps in another time, another place, the words might have come out as tender words of affection, one that invoked feelings of warmth and kindness in so great a manner that it affected everyone present.

Yet the world had moved on, and the more it turned, the harder it became. It also didn't help that Belldandy was drunk. Jackson grunted, staring at the couch with a disdainful glare. "Riiiight." He drawled. "Just like the boxers I've had since Basic."

Belldandy turned to stare at him sharply, and then all at once she collapsed onto the couch in a fit of giggles. Keiichi groaned. "And with that folks, I believe it's time we all retire for the night." He watched as on his queue, Skuld walked over to Urd and grabbed her by the arm.

"Let me help you, you can barely even walk," she said as she pulled the silver haired goddess to her feet and started to lead her towards the stairs. As they passed Keiichi, she paused just long enough to reach out and sock him a good one on his arm before continuing.

"Ow! Fucking hell what was that for!"

Skuld said nothing, but Urd wavered and leaned slightly towards him. "That wasss my fault," she slurred, then giggled. "But you deserves it!"

With that, the elder Norn was pulled or perhaps more accurately dragged to the stairs, leaving the confused mortal behind.

XXX

The night that followed would be a drunken one that few would remember, and the results of which would never be appreciated until further down the road, when people had a chance to reflect and laugh on how life worked and could joke about their own tomfoolery without their own feelings getting in the way of that reflection. Jokes that would be made in the presence of others or when alcohol was present, for alcohol was the end all to most stories, where so long as only ten percent of the tale was true, all of it could be considered true in the minds of those relaying the events.

And what, on this fine night, were those events?

Well then...

Belldandy awoke later that night to a sharp pain in her shin. The woman flinched and grunted, adjusting her position in her bed before snuggling up to the man of her dreams, spooning up against him with a warm sigh. Another kick nailed her in the shin, this one just above the previous blow, and again the Norn flinched, wincing a bit as she became more awake. "No more kicky," she grumbled, hugging the person beside her tightly as her hand accidently squeezing something that was most definitely a breast. _Wait._ Some piece of logic stopped her, and checking just to be sure, Belldandy once more squeezed her hand, feeling the soft give of flesh that spoke more of a soft breast than a hard chest. _Wait. Keiichi has breasts?_ When had this happen? _Did Urd give him a potion?_ Her sister had been giving Keiichi a lot of potions over the past couple of weeks, if her mind recalled.

Another kick nailed her in the shin, this time in the same spot as the first strike, and Belldandy hissed, releasing her misbegotten prey in favor of sitting up. She rubbed her eyes, then stared down at her bed mate, rubbing her bruised leg as she stared at the short blue hair in the night. _I didn't know Lind cut her hair,_ she thought, followed by; _Wait, this isn't Keiichi's room._

Grimacing, the woman looked around, blinking bleary, intoxicated eyes as she tried to recognize her surroundings. Next to her, Aiko sighed in relief, free at last of the Norn's agonizing death hug that had been cutting off her air, and attempted to go back to sleep, heels throbbing from where she'd struck the goddess in question with all her might. Unfortunately for her, now that her mind was awake her body chose that moment to burn with a familiar need for relief, and as Belldandy looked around the room trying to make sense of where she was, Aiko groaned into her pillow. _I need to pee._ She thought.

Belldandy muttered to herself, not realizing she'd slipped back to her native tongue. "I should be with Keiichi. Why am I with Lind?" Grumbling, the woman rubbed her shin one last time before getting out of bed and heading for the door, opening it on silent hinges before wandering out into the hallway.

Aiko, listening to her departure, screamed in her head. _No! I need to pee! Why you got to go potty now of all times!?_ The woman strained her ears, trying to follow the sound of Belldandy's footsteps as she departed the bedroom and went into the hallway. _Hurry up!_

Ignorant of the thoughts of the lone, poor college student in her bed, Belldandy wandered down the hallway, passing the bathroom without so much as a glance as she stumbled towards Keiichi's room. _I was with Keiichi._ She thought, mind muddled and thick, half-asleep and still drunk from...whatever it was she'd been drinking earlier. Mead? Was it Mead? Mead always knocked her on her ass. She always had a tendency to overindulge in the drink due to its sweetness. Strange. She wasn't aware American mortals knew how to make mead, since it was almost an exclusive Norse alcohol. But that wasn't important right now. What was really important was finding Keiichi. _How'd he switch with Lind like that?_ She wondered. And why _Lind_ of all people?!

The goddess wandered down the hallway and to the stairs, completely missing Keiichi's room. She paused at the alcove, looking down the dark descent before turning and wandering back up the hallway. She missed Keiichi's door a second time, then passed her own room, where a tired, drunken Aiko was throwing mental curses at her as she passed the door, wandered past the room Urd and Skuld were using, and approached a back cabinet that rested at the end of the hallway. _Here we are._ She opened it, then stared at the empty shelves in confusion, wondering how Keiichi's room had misplaced itself in the past twelve hours.

"Froggy?" Belldandy squinted into the shelves, yet Keiichi was nowhere to be seen. Groaning softly, the woman shut the door and wandered back down the hallway, this time opening every door she came across and peering inside. "Froggy?" She opened her sisters' room, yet nothing but two pairs of gentle, feminine murmurs met her ears. Nope. She closed it and moved on. "Froggy?" She opened the bathroom, then stared at the toilet in mild confusion, wondering why The Screaming Man wasn't attempting to greet her in a fit of Old Spice on the back of a tiger. She closed it and moved back to her room. "Froggy?" Wait, this was Lind's room. At once she closed it, hoping she hadn't woken Lind, and moved on.

Aiko, frustrated, her bladder burning, screamed into her pillow.

"Froggy?" She opened the final door that came right before the stairs, and was rewarded at last with soft snoring from the lone resident inside. _There_ he was. Goodness, how silly of her. She must have been rather drunk to have missed him. _Here we are._ She thought, breathing a sigh of relief. _I was getting a bit worried for a moment._ The woman entered the room and closed the door behind her. _Perhaps in my drunken state I mistook the guest room Lind was sleeping in for mine?_ She wondered, then cast the thought aside with a mental shrug. It mattered not. She'd returned to her bedroom, with her man, and that was the important thing.

The woman walked towards the bed, and then with a gentle sigh flopped herself down on top of Keiichi's sleeping form. Keiichi, a man who'd learned to sleep through mortar attacks on FOBs and would probably one day die in his sleep from such an attack bringing the building down on his head, did little other than grunt, squirm, and settle once more beneath the new weight on top of him.

By this time, Aiko was completely awake and miserable as she awaited her 'bedmate' to finish her business and switch out with her. Aiko followed Belldandy's path with strained ears. She had to listen for the soft sound of doors opening and closing, for the woman's footsteps were so light they seemed nonexistent; as though the woman floated rather than stepped, for the wooden floor never groaned against her weight, never protested against her steps. It was only the peculiar word she used: "Froggy?" That helped Aiko track her presence, and though a piece of her was certain the woman was no longer searching for the toilet, she now no longer wanted to get up for fear of the Norn walking in on her while she was using the facilities.

What was 'froggy' again?

She listened to the woman open Keiichi's room, _Speak 'Froggy' and enter,_ and went inside, then heard the squeak of the bed next door as a weight settled onto it. _Oh god._ A part of her thought. _She's going to sleep with my brother and I'm right next to them._ She shuddered, trying to drown the sudden mental images that wanted to pop into her head, and then her body reminded herself of what else she'd been neglecting. _Fuck. Bathroom. Shit. Fuck. Piss._ The college student rose with a soft groan, and no longer caring about anything the goddess did to her brother, made her way to the bathroom in a rush.

A short time later, with relief Aiko emerged from the bathroom. She looked around, mind fuzzy with either exhaustion or drink-this late at night it was impossible to tell the difference-and began to make her way back to the bedroom. And it was in just such a way that, in an amusing sense of irony, Aiko peered first into the room she shared with Belldandy and looked around. _The bed is empty._ She thought. _That's not right. I was sleeping with someone._ She narrowed her eyes at it, in that moment forgetting how she'd listened to Belldandy go into her brother's room. _Can't sleep here. Must be the wrong bedroom._ She looked to the one neighboring it closer to the stairs. _That's Kei's room, and I always took the bedroom farthest from his room._

Why was that again? Ah, that's right. She didn't want to hear her brother fucking his wife. That's why. An involuntary shudder worked down her spine, and grimacing Aiko shut the door and moved further down the hall. A small piece of her didn't feel right about the whole thing though. Why did she feel like that middle guest room was supposed to be her room? It didn't make any sense.

Shrugging, she cast the thoughts aside, opening her bedroom and peering inside. Right. Back guest bedroom. Smallest room in the house, so there was only really enough room for a twin bed, and she'd had to share it with... with... Belldandy! That's right!

...Had there always been a bunch of stuff on the floor?

Carefully, Aiko made her way into the bedroom, being careful to shut the door as silently as possible before tiptoeing around the blow-up mattress with Skuld and to the bed with Urd. At this point, her body was starting to beg for sleep again, and she could feel her eyelids drooping like a pair of lead weights against her eyes. Sleep sounded real nice right about now, and with a sigh she crawled into the bed and scooted up to the person next to her.

She felt the woman beside her adjust, making room for her on the small bed (it felt smaller than before, strange) and then felt 'Belldandy' pull her close, wrapping an arm around her and pulling her into a gentle embrace that wasn't _near_ as tight as it was before. Aiko sighed in resignation. _This is my life now._ She thought. _Why couldn't she just sleep with my brother and give me the bed?_ And then she too, after some measure of difficulty, drifted off to sleep.

XXX

Jackson moaned and buried his head further into his pillows, trying to drown out the noise emanating from somewhere around the house. It sounded like knocking. "Go 'way," he grumbled. "Don wan' any." His head was pounding and his throat felt uncomfortably dry. Grimacing, he buried his head under his pillow and tried to drift off once more into the sweet oblivion of sleep, and just felt it's tender tug when a knock, this one more forceful, once more pulled him to the waking world and it waiting pain.

"God Damn it," he groaned. "Someone get the door!" He winced at his own voice, drawing the lone comforter that served as his bedding up over his head. Yet the house was silent. He heard no movement from the floor upstairs nor anyone rushing towards the door from the dining room or neighboring kitchen. Everyone was asleep. Everyone but him. "Not gonna get it," he said through gritted teeth. "Not gonna get it. Not gonna get off this ugly-ass couch just to answer some fucking Jehova's witness. Fuckers can piss off right now before I-"

A third knock. Angry. Loud. Demanding. "Someone get the fucking door!" Jackson bellowed, and was answered once more with silence. The fourth knock wasn't so much a knock as it was something crashing into the doorframe, perhaps warning the residents 'if you don't open now, I'll force my way inside.' "Oh _hell_ no." Jackson rolled out of the Ugly Beast, all at once angry and upset. "Motherfucker asking for it now. Who the fuck they are, smashing into a door like that?" The man stomped into the hallway and approached the door just in time to see it shudder on its foundation.

"This bitch," the man growled. Had he been a younger man, one who'd yet to enter the harsh world of ad-hoc deployments and at times hourly gun-fights with terrorist insurgents, Brian Jackson would have taken the shuddering door as a sign to proceed with caution or, better yet, to get a shotgun, hole up, and call the police. As a man who'd grown up in a ghetto, he'd seen his fair share of murders and robberies, and even had a younger brother doing time for gang-related car theft.

Yet the Naval life, in particular life as a SEAL, had somewhat jaded him over the long years since enlisting, and having lived in Virginia for a good many years-Virginia, with its broad forests and large coastland-had changed his overall attitude towards anyone who came to his front door. Now, he was hung over. Now, he was irritable. Now, he wanted to tear someone's ass up for waking him at fucking seven in the morning on a goddamned Saturday. The man paused at the door, having just enough sense to look through the spyhole and ensure that the person on the other side wasn't armed, and saw a woman with a shock of blue hair standing outside.

"I know you're there," a muffled voice came to him from across the threshold. "Open the door now or I'll knock it down."

This of course, did not sit well with Chief Petty Officer Brian Jackson, and so with a snarl on his face, his mind shifting into 'pissed-off Chief' mode, a mode that left many a sailor fleeing in terror, for no man was so salty as a higher-tier enlisted Chief. The man unlocked the front door, threw it open...

And met the most beautiful blue eyes he'd ever seen in his entire life.

All at once the fight went out of him, and instead Chief Brian "Piper" Jackson stared at Goddess First Class, Special Category Lind and felt Cupid's arrow of love strike him in the heart.

The woman on the other side of the door froze, and Jackson watched her eyes widen. Oh lord, he could gaze into those eyes forever. _They're like glaciers. That bright blue of an underwater glacier._

"Oh no. Wait, you're not-" She looked around, and Jackson felt a piece of him leave with that broken gaze.

 _The eyes are the gateway to the soul._ He thought. _And she just broke in and stole it._ His heart fluttered in his chest, and his breath came short, making it difficult to breath. He watched her turn, watched her glance over her shoulder, and in the gentle rays of the Sunday morning sun her actions seemed slow. Deliberate. A form of art that stole his breath with the way the light played with her hair, danced on her white clothes, colored her face in ways he'd never seen on another person before.

"I apologize, I must have the wrong address," the woman said, looking back at Jackson with furrowed brows the same shade of pale blue as her hair. Pale blue. Blue like the sky when he was jumping from a C-130, and with a shine so bright it could have passed for crystal.

 _Like florite,_ he thought. _It's shiny like florite._ God, what he wouldn't do to run his fingers through that hair. He likened it to silk; long and smooth and luxurious, as though blessed by a goddess herself.

"Forgive me, I thought this was the Morisato residence." The woman's voice was soft and apologetic, and she sent him a worried glance as she edged away from the front door. "Uh..."

 _Baby, you must be an angel from heaven, cause I'm falling hard for you._ Jackson continued to stare, and across from him, the woman with the strange, outlandish garb and the shocking blue hair that reminded him a bit of Aiko began to fidget.

"Um...I'll-I'll just be going now." She turned to leave, her stance now somewhat anxious, and Jackson found himself reaching out to her.

 _Wait...Don't go._ He thought. _I just want to—_ His hand touched her shoulder, and the cloth felt strange and outlandish against his fingers. Soft like cloth and yet cold like steel. And then all at once the Woman in White had grabbed him, maneuvering him in an armbar with such a natural sense of ease and skill that he could feel himself melt inside. _She's touching me!_ A piece of him screamed, overjoyed by his current predicament. _I've been touched by an angel! And..._

 _And it fucking hurts!_

 _"_ Why are you touching me?" That scowl had returned, and the anxious, nervous, adorable angel he'd seen vanished in place of a gorgeous, ass-kicking Valkyrie who looked close to breaking his arm.

"Ow." That was the first word out of Jackson's mouth to the woman of his dreams. "Ow. Owowow _owwwww!"_ The second, more understandable word was, strangely enough, " _BEARGLOVE!"_

And to his surprise the woman released him. She was also now staring at him as though he had some strange kind of plague, but at least his arm wasn't about to break. Not that he'd mind if she broke it. Hell, she could come over and break all his bones if it meant her touching him. Just not that bone down at his cro-

"Goodness, you must be one of the mad ones." The woman grimaced and recoiled from him, holding her hands away from her as though she'd touched something soiled. "This must not be the place. But I was so certain I felt-"

"No!" Jackson yelled, and watched as the angel with the blue eyes jumped. "No, I mean yes, I mean, this is the Morisato residence, I'm Brian Jackson, how do you do." He smiled and held his hand out to her, and the woman flinched away from it. She stared at it as though it was a dog that would bite her, then back at Jackson. The smile on his face didn't fade.

"Ah..." With a bit of hesitation, the woman reached out and grasped his hand, the grip firm against his own. "How do you... do?" she said. "Are...are you a friend of Morisato's?"

"Yes!" he screamed, and the woman flinched. "Yes! Yes _Ma'am!_ The best friend! The only friend! And he has never told me anything about a woman of such beauty as yourself. How are you doing, Miss..."

"Lind." The woman eyed him, sending him a smile that his rational mind would have translated to 'strained' but his lovesick self took and cherished like the stars in the sky. "Ah... I-I am a... friend? Yes, I believe so... I am a friend of Urd's."

"Oh." Jackson's mouth formed in a large, exaggerated 'O'. " _Oh!_ So you must be from the UN as well! So you know Skuld and Belldandy too, right?"

"...Yes?" She looked very much like she did not want to admit to this fact, though once again, Jackson missed any signs of her discomfort.

"Hey, that's great!" He beamed at her. "You come to the right place then! Everyone else is upstairs asleep still, but if you want, you can come on in and I'll get started on some breakfast while we wait. Maybe, you know, chat and get to know-"

It was at that inopportune moment, that a scream echoed throughout the household, emanating from the upper floors and flooding outside and down the stairs, causing both Jackson and Lind to jump. It was Skuld, of course. Skuld, waking up to the results of last nights drinking and good fair. Skuld, who'd just discovered her sister sleeping with Keiichi's sister. And her response given what she awoke to was reasonable: one of shock, horror, and disbelief. "WHAT THE FUCK?!"

Upstairs, Urd and Aiko awoke with a pair of twin screams of their own. Screams that grew shrill and loud as their attention drifted from Skuld's screams and to each other, wrapped arm and arm in a lover's grip that left them attempting to separate in a wild tangle of limbs.

"Holy shit what the fuck, how the hell did you-"

"What the fuck am I doing in here? Where the fuck am I, what the hell!"

"Oh Yggdrasil, oh gross, oh Heavens, this is nasty oh by the sweet fruit of the Tree of Life, oh-"

The combination of their clamoring protests intermingled with Skuld's waking scream were enough to awaken Keiichi and Belldandy with a start from where Belldandy had passed out on top of Keiichi. Sadly, the position was most unfortunate for the man in question, for as Belldandy awoke with a yelp her right foot crashed into his chin with a good, solid kick. Keiichi, ever the man of action, responded in turn by knocking the individual on top of him off his bed, his mind not processing who it was until Belldandy cried out and toppled to the floor, hitting the wood with a heavy _thud_ that caused Jackson and Lind downstairs to wince.

It took a moment for Keiichi's mind to catch up with the rest of his body, and when it did he swore loudly. "Oh fucking shit, Bell?" He looked over his bed, staring down at where the woman had rolled herself onto her back with a moan, legs sprawled out in the air. "Fuck. _Fuck._ Are you alright? Shit, I'm so sorry, I didn't-what were you doing in my bed?"

Belldandy groaned and moved to a sitting location. "I don't... know?" she said, rubbing her head with a grimace, then looked up at Keiichi. "I... I remember going to sleep in my bed, so how did I..."

The two flinched as an ever-maddening protest rose in the hallway. "Is that Cerberus?" Belldandy grumbled. "I hear the barking of three bitches."

Keiichi stared at her with widening eyes. "Did you just-" He paused, listened, and fell silent as he identified one of the voices as Aiko, clearly arguing with Skuld and Urd over some unfortunate predicament. "No... no, I take it back," he muttered, then made a face as he looked at his alarm clock. "Man, it's not even seven yet..." He sighed and rubbed his temples, feeling last night's drinking catching up with him. "So much for sleeping in."

"Indeed." Belldandy picked herself up and sat next to him on the bed, and for a moment Keiichi was tempted to pull her into a hug- _good morning Beautiful and welcome to the start of the rest of your life-_ and then decided against it. They both sighed in relief when the morning rabble of siblings didn't come barging into Keiichi's room but instead back to their respective bedrooms, throwing curses and barbs at each other like a trio of angry, screaming cats.

"I suppose this means we must greet the new day." Belldandy sighed and buried her face in her hand, then surprised Keiichi by leaning into him. The Norn sounded very much like she wanted to curl up and go right back to sleep. Perhaps in Keiichi's arms.

"Guess so," Keiichi replied, his own face dour. Then, in a burst of spontaneity, leaned over and kissed the woman on the cheek. Belldandy went rigid. "Morning."

A deep flush darkened the woman's cheeks, but he wasn't blind to the smile she was fighting to hide. "Good morning, Keiichi."

"So... I couldn't help but notice…" He glanced sheepishly over at the woman as he reached back and scratched the back of his head. Belldandy looked back at him in confusion. "That you don't wear panties?"

"No," Belldandy replied. She seemed more embarrassed by the kiss than the revelation. "I don't. Do you?"

"What?" Keiichi looked at her with a start.

Belldandy looked back with furrowed eyebrows. "What?"

And so began the new day.

XXX

"So... you're here early," Skuld said. "And... you're uh, still dressed in your uniform, too."

It had taken the group of sibling sets a good fifteen minutes to calm down enough to change clothes and gather downstairs. It was an awkward time frame of covert glances and grimaces and shudders-at least for the Norn siblings and Aiko, the latter of which would blush and stutter and mutter whenever she ran into Urd. The fact that Urd, being the person she was, did little aside from smile and wink at poor Aiko did not help matters, and her calm over the whole matter spoke of a chance at relentless teasing further down the road. It made Aiko glad she was leaving on Sunday.

Then there was Lind. Poor, poor Lind, whose experience with mortals was limited at best, suddenly finding herself shadowed all throughout the house by a large beast of a man who watched her with stupid smiles and moon-eyes.

An awkward fifteen minutes, indeed.

"Yes," Lind replied, shuffling as she tried to ignore Jackson's love-sick eyes. "I... was not expecting you to have, ah, company."

"Yeah, well, that's what happens when you visit a family home on a holiday weekend." Keiichi held an icepack up to his chin, sinking into the Ugly Beast beside Belldandy. The lower half of his face was swollen and red from where Belldandy had accidentally kicked him. It hurt like a mother, and he was a little worried about how his jaw cracked when he opened his mouth too wide. "Thought you were coming on Sunday."

"I misjudged my..." She glanced at Aiko, perhaps preferring to look at the youth with hair of such a similar shade of her own to the SEAL pining away in a dining room chair off to one side of her. "...travel time."

"Well you might as well go back then." Skuld crossed her arms over her chest. "Because I'm still not going back until Sunday, and that's a good twenty four hours away. I meant what I said about a _week_ , Lind."

"Or you could hang with us for the day," Urd suggested, ignoring the glare Skuld shot her way. "By the time you get back home, you'll just have to turn around and come back anyways, and that kind of travel can be exhausting, even for someone like you, Lind."

Aiko leaned forward from her place on the other side of Keiichi. "You're from the... _UN_ , right?" She winked at Lind, who stared at Aiko in confusion.

"Yes, she's from the UN," Urd supplied her. "She's from... Greenland, where there aren't that many people, and she's never been to the States long enough to gain a feel for the culture."

"Greenland..." Jackson sighed. "Doesn't the Air Force have a base up there? Man, I'd gladly switch to the Air Force if it meant going up to Greenland..."

Lind cringed.

"Hey Jackson." The man looked up at Keiichi. "You know that Green Dot training we accidentally attended with the SERE dudes that one time?"

"Yeah." The man straightened, and some of the old Jackson began to shine through. "What about it?"

"You're acting like a red dot. Chill."

"I'm acting like a..." For a moment a look of incomprehension fell across Jackson's face, and then brightened as realization dawned on him. "Oh. Oh fuck. Sorry. Shit." The man rose at once. "Hey Belldandy, a little bird told me you like cooking. Want to help me whip up a quick hangover breakfast for everyone?"

"Red dot?" Belldandy stared at Keiichi in confusion, then narrowed her eyes. "Wait, a bird said what?"

"That was me," Urd cut in, directing the focus away from Keiichi. "Come on, let's go Bell. You help Jackson make some breakfast and I'll whip up my special hangover cure for everyone. Sound good?"

"I suppose?" Belldandy rose from the Ugly Beast, then sent one final, confused glance to Keiichi, still wondering what a 'red dot' was supposed to be before allowing Urd to drag her off towards the kitchen behind Jackson.

As soon as Jackson left to follow, Lind sighed in relief. Keiichi grinned at her. "Sorry about that," he said. "Jackson comes off strongly to anyone who first meets him, but he's a good guy. Really."

"So you're a god too?" Aiko cut in, bouncing in her seat beside Keiichi. "Nice hair by the way."

Lind started, taken aback by the sudden question. "Ah... yes. Yes I am..." She looked to Skuld, eyes pleading, yet the woman in question did little other than lean back and smile, taking glee in the Valkyrie's discomfort.

"Its okay, Lind. Aiko knows. She's my little sister, by the way," Keiichi threw in, then looked at Aiko. "Lind's a Valkyrie. She's part of some kind of godly military unit." He smiled. "She got a special duty assignment watching Urd after Urd went wild trying to rescue Bell."

"I see..." Lind murmured, looking between the two of them with interest. "Interesting. I was not aware that blue hair was a genetic trait associated with mortals." Skuld snorted, biting back laughter and growing red in the face as a result. "It looks good on you as well."

"Wait, her hair is-" Keiichi grunted as Aiko's elbow dug into his ribs.

"Speaking of..." Aiko looked at him in renewed interest. "You know, you still owe me that story..." She trailed off as Keiichi shook his head.

"Not know," he said. "When Jackson's gone, maybe, but nothing until then." The SEAL looked back to Lind. "Jackson doesn't know about you guys, and that's something we're trying to keep quiet about, too. So, for safety's sake, everyone here that's not a mortal is from the UN."

"Except Belldandy," Aiko reminded. "Don't forget, she's a human traffic victim."

"Yeah..." Keiichi sent his sister a glare. "I couldn't forget that even if I wanted to," he muttered.

"I...see..." Lind looked between the two siblings with a raised eyebrow. "And... what is the UN?"

Skuld laughed. "Oh Yggdrasil, you poor, clueless thing." She shook her head. "Okay, fine. I'll take pity on you this one time. What the UN is doesn't matter-you can look that shit up in Yggdrasil's archives when you get home. Just know this: you're part of the UN as..." She hummed in thought, a finger tapping against her upper arm. "as a...well, I wouldn't say _spy_ , but... we need an excuse for your hair and outfit so... OH! I know!" She snapped her fingers, then looked as Lind with a wild grin. "You're running a sting at a Con! And part of it is dressing up so you aren't so easily recognizable, and you just came back from your shift in order to pick me up, and, admittedly, to get away from all the creepers who keep hitting on you at the convention! It's perfect! It'll explain why you aren't dressed like the natives _and_ why you have hair that looks-" She looked at Aiko. "Like an... outlandish haircut."

"Okay..." Lind's brows furrowed together in concern. She wasn't certain she approved of the way Keiichi buried his face in his hands with a pained moan. "So... what is a Con?"

This time it was Aiko's turn to laugh. "Listen, if Piper asks, just tell him you're cosplaying Rei Ayaname, okay?" Keiichi turned to look at Aiko with a start, then switched to observe Lind with such scrutiny the Valkyrie began to squirm.

The SEAL grinned. "I can see it."

"See what?" Lind stared at the two siblings in growing confusion. "Who is Piper? What is 'cosplaying Rei Ayaname'?"

Skuld sighed and shook her head. "Just go with it, Lind."

"Go with what?!" Lind looked between the two siblings in bafflement. "What are you all talking about?!"

"Welp." Keiichi propped his hands behind his head and leaned back into the Ugly Beast, a large smile on his face. "We're doomed." It earned him another jab in the ribs from Aiko. The man's smile grew thoughtful. "Actually...since you're here, think I can talk with you in private later on?" The man grew serious as he looked to Lind, dropping his hands back into his lap. "It's...I need to talk to you about something personal."

"I...don't see why not." Lind said, her tone growing slow and thoughtful as she watched him. "This isn't about, well..." She looked to the kitchen, and catching her meaning, Keiichi shook his head.

"No, not-it's something else. Let's...talk outside."

Aiko and Skuld shared a look but said nothing, and frowning, Lind stood with Keiichi and followed him out to the front porch. The two younger women followed them out with perplexed gazes, then looked back to each other. "So..." Aiko began. "Starting bets. Belldandy, Jackson, or Urd?"

"Belldandy," Skuld affirmed. "Your brother doesn't have any reason to speak about anyone else. Not with Lind, anyhow."

"That's one bid for Carrie, and I'll place my bet on...

"Wow, wait a minute." Skuld stared at Aiko in confusion. "Who's 'Carrie'?

Aiko's grin was wicked. "Who do you think?"

XXX

"Sheila, come on, I'm begging you: Hook. Me. Up." Jackson had cornered Urd as soon as the Norn had left to grab her potions from where she'd come to store them in the kitchen cabinet, behind the expired cans of creamed corn and dried beans. The food items were old and covered in dust, and were of so little appeal to anyone in the house that Urd knew the potions behind them would be safe from tampering. Nobody would ever send a second glance to a bunch of bottles resting behind dusty cans that had never seen the light of day, and Urd doubted that even someone actively seeking her potions would give the bottles a second glance; it was so overt it was covert.

Now, with the base for her hangover cure in hand, the woman closed the cabinet door and turned around, finding Jackson all but in her face. "Wow, what?" Urd looked at Jackson in confusion. "Piper, what are you talking about?"

"Lind, Girl!" The man looked over his shoulder towards Belldandy, yet the woman was humming to herself, seeming to dance as she gathered ingredients from the fridge. Some of the steaks Jackson had prepped but had never been consumed rested on a plate near her elbow. The man looked back at Urd, gaze imploring before lowering his voice and continuing. "What's she like? What's her favorite color, favorite food? What kind of a guy does she go for? Come on sister, I'm _dying_ here!"

"Wait, why are you coming to me for all this stuff?" Urd demanded. "What makes you think _I_ can hook you up? And with _Lind_ of all people? You met her what, half an hour ago?"

"'Cause you her friend, Girl! She said so herself!"

"Wait, what?" Urd froze, staring at Jackson in shock. "Her friend? _Me_?" Her voice came out as a disbelieving squeak. If not for the fact that the hangover potion's base serum was nestled in her arms, Urd would have dropped the large bottle in her bemusement. Unnoticed by either of them, Belldandy was sending quick, furtive glances back at the two of them, hiding her amusement behind a soft hum as she went about her business.

"Yeah!" Jackson nodded in emphasis, a large, ear-splitting smile on his face. "She introduced herself as 'I'm a friend of Urd's!' So come on, please? What you want in return? I'll grill you a steak, I give you my marinade recipes, I'll-I'll, fuck, I dunno, what do you want from me?"

"Wow, wow, calm down Piper." Urd raised her hands in defense. "I don't- _Lind?"_ She glanced over Jackson's shoulder towards Belldandy, yet the woman was humming away, for all intents and purposes ignorant of their conversation. Urd dropped her voice as well. "You got a thing for Lind of all people?!" She shook her head. This was just too much all at once. "Why do you- _what?"_

Jackson sighed and rubbed his face. "Okay, look. I got a-a _thing,_ okay?"

"A thing."

"Yeah, a thing," Jackson agreed. He looked uncomfortable and embarrassed. "It's-listen Urd, don't take this the wrong way or anything, but, I got a...look, I like a particular type of woman, and, well, Lind is that type. For me."

"Riiiiight..." Urd trailed off, staring at the SEAL with a raised silver brow. "That type of woman being...what?"

"Well...it's, uh..." He stared at Urd, then rubbed his neck before letting his hands drop to his sides. "Ah...it's-" The man grit his teeth and looked behind him at Belldandy, then gestured Urd towards him with a quick hand motion.

Her own curiosity peaked, Urd leaned forward, allowing Jackson to whisper in her ear. The man's words caused her eyes to widen, and as he pulled back Urd stared at the SEAL with large violet eyes. "Se-" She looked over at Belldandy, then lowered her voice to a harsh whisper. "Are you serious?!" She demanded. "Lind is- _really?!"_

Jackson winced but nodded, and Urd sucked in a deep breath, releasing it all at once as she let her head thump back against the pantry door. "Okay," she muttered. "I can't believe I-okay. Fine. But only because it's you, Piper. Just... don't do anything to tarnish my name, okay?"

Jackson's face lit up like a beacon, and his smile was gleeful and eager. "Got it, promise." He agreed in a rush. "Now spill the beans. What you got?"

This time Urd smirked. "Okay, so admittedly Lind is a hard one, but..." Imitating the man's earlier gesture, the Norn waved Jackson near, whispering advice and instructions into his ear that left the man overjoyed as he pulled away. "But take it slow, okay?" Urd finished. "I'll tell you right now she's not used to that kind of attention, and you're liable to scare her away before you ever get close if you rush in."

"Okay, yeah. Got it." Jackson nodded like a dutiful student, the smile he wore looking like it was ready to split his face in two with how large it was. "I'm gonna go… go talk to her."

"Take it _slow_ ," Urd emphasized. "Or you won't last five minutes with her."

"Got it, got it." Jackson was already turning to head out of the kitchen, his mind so visibly lost in thought that Urd could almost track the gears turning in his head. She sighed and shook her head.

Belldandy came to stand next to Urd as they watched Jackson depart. "He's rather adorable for a giant screaming man with explosions, wouldn't you agree?"

Urd looked over at her blankly, and Belldandy sent her a smile that was almost smug. The elder Norn narrowed her eyes. "You scamp," she grumbled. "You heard the whole thing, didn't you?"

Belldandy didn't answer, instead asking, "Do you think he has a chance?"

"With Lind?" Urd looked at her sister. Belldandy nodded, and Urd turned back towards where Jackson had disappeared off in search of Lind. "Like a snowball's chance in hell."

XXX

Keiichi shut the door firmly behind him as he and Lind stepped outside onto the front porch. The morning was still crisp and cool; around fifty, maybe fifty-five degrees out, if Keiichi took a guess. It was enough to make the hair on his arms rise in goosebumps. Yet the rising sun, well past the point of a sunrise and displaying its golden self above the tree line now, was warm, and its rays were welcomed. The man took a deep breath, for a moment exhilarating at how the chilled air prickled his lungs, then moved over to the wooden banister that surrounded the porch's perimeter.

The wood was cold and damp with morning dew as he leaned against it, yet Keiichi found he didn't mind it, instead taking it in as his gaze looked out across his yard. The Chevy was parked off to one side around the right hand side of his house, and its nose edged into his gaze as he surveyed first the truck, then Aiko's beaten Blue Bell, and finally Jackson's black Silverado. The man's large grill, a giant metallic beast with a trailer hitch, stood off in a rock bed fifty feet from the wooden porch, and he could see where condensation had formed upon its stained metal top. Past the cars and down his driveway, a tree line of the surrounding forest encroached upon his view, leaving nothing but brown trunks and smaller bushes in its wake. Somewhere further off and closer to the road towards where his driveway stopped, he heard a car drive past.

Lind moved to stand on his left, imitating his posture as she too leaned forward on the wooden railing, unperturbed by the moisture seeping into her uniform. Keiichi watched from the corner of one eye as her head swept across the landscape, taking in the trees, the vehicles, the barbeque, and the long field of grass that comprised the rest of his lawn, then seemed to focus on something farther off to his right. He turned to track her gaze, finding it resting on a section of forest where several trees had fallen last spring during a bad storm. It created a patch of deep shadows from where the branches of one of the fallen evergreens covered it in shade. At first he missed what had so caught the Valkyrie's attention, yet as he was looking away his eyes caught movement, and doing a double take he caught sight of something descending further into the forest.

"Did you see it?" Lind asked, focused on the small cluster of fallen trees.

"Not what it was," Keiichi admitted. "I only saw some of the bushes moving."

"It was a big cat," Lind replied, staring off at the fallen trees for a moment longer before turning to Keiichi. "Ah…large, brown coat, long tail." She shook her head. "I'm…not well versed on the animals of this region."

"Mountain lion," Keiichi supplied. "They're pretty rare this far east, but there's a roamer passing through the area. I saw it a couple of weeks ago. I think it might be looking for new territory."

"A roamer?" Lind looked at Keiichi in confusion.

"Yeah." The man nodded. "It's what I call 'em, anyway. Mountain lions were wiped out in Virginia a long time ago, but the conservationists hippies want to bring them back from the brink of extinction, and so have begun tagging them and tracking their movements. This one probably came west across the Appalachians and maybe down through Blue Ridge before making its way here. They're a lot more common further west. " He shrugged. "A friend of mine, Joe, he told me about them. It's illegal to shoot one without a permit, which Virginia doesn't offer for mountain lions, and if it's tagged you can't shoot it period due to interfering with conservation efforts or whatever, but if you saw a mountain lion this close to home, I might need to make some calls. Last thing I need is for a mountain lion to make my little chunk of woods part of its territory and then mistake me for a deer when I'm out for a walk. The things are dangerous."

"I see, " Lind murmured. She looked back toward the fallen trees a moment longer, yet when it became apparent that the cougar had departed the Valkyrie turned back to Keiichi. "You wanted to speak with me?"

"Hm? Oh, yeah." He'd gotten distracted with the puma. If it was the same one from before though, and it really _was_ making its territory near his house… the man pushed the thoughts aside for another time. "Yeah." He fell silent, his attention once more focused on the lawn outside his front porch. Gathering himself, he spoke up. "Belldandy needs help," he grumbled. "I hate to say it, but... even I know when I'm out of my league, and..." Without thought his mind returned him to the Friday night of Belldandy's nightmare, now more a sensation of feelings and clips of images rather than solid memories. The crumbling door to the guest room. The twisted hunk of metal flying so close to his head he could feel its breeze. Skuld collapsed in his room. Urd dropping like a doll whose strings were cut. The naked terror on Belldandy's face. That pit in his stomach twisted itself into a knot, and for a moment he felt ill. _And it happened again._ He remembered. _It happened again and you got a broken hand for it and Aiko got a broken nose._ And wasn't that the kicker. Aiko, whom he'd hoped would have a chance to speak with Bell, had been the one most injured by the event. Aiko, who'd been the only one to drag Bell back down to reality.

 _This can't keep happening. Aiko won't be around here whenever Belldandy loses herself like that and I can't expect Urd to be around to shield me from the after effects._ He bore his teeth in a grimace. "What do you guys even do in a situation like this?" he asked. "If she was human I'd take her to a therapist so that she could work this stuff out. I mean, the offer's been made and everything, and a part of me thinks it'd be a great idea but... I can't really take her to some mortal and say, 'Oh by the way, she's a goddess who was forced to play out the sick fantasies of a pedophile's porno films as a nine year old for ten years, have fun.' It doesn't work that way." His shook his head in disgust, grabbing the wood and digging his fingers into the weathered grains. "You said that people are trying to figure out what to do for her, right? Why are they taking so long?"

"Belldandy's situation is unique in the fact that it's never happened before." Lind sounded about as pleased with the whole thing as Keiichi. "Because of that, no one is certain how to go about it. They know that they need to assign a healer to her, but because of Belldandy's position, no one is certain _which_ healer to assign. They're working on at least getting a temporary one prepped to come down here, but the wish you made... the wish _she_ made complicates matters further."

"What do you mean?" Keiichi looked at her queerly. "What's her position got to do with getting her help? It's been two fucking weeks, Lind. Had she been mortal the first thing that would have happened after rescuing her from Aoshima would have been getting her to a hospital, first to get a physical diagnosis and then to get a mental exam. She's a fucking _goddess_ , Lind. All of you are. You guys are supposed to be better about this sort of shit than us."

The look Lind cast his way was strange and unreadable, and Keiichi felt a lump form in his throat. Something in what he'd said had crossed some unknown line, and Keiichi all of a sudden felt like he was about to meet a firing squad. "Have you spoken with Urd about the videos?" Lind demanded, and Keiichi stared at her with a start.

"The videos-what does that have to do with anything?" Keiichi glanced at her from the corner of his eye, yet the Valkyrie remained fixated on some far off point in front of her. Her face was hard, perhaps even ridged.

"Answer the question, Morisato." Lind replied, and when once more she looked at him the man felt himself shiver. There was fire in her eyes. A peculiar glow to them that almost made them appear gold in the morning light.

He sighed and dropped his head. "I tried once, but she wasn't very forthcoming." His mind drifted back to that first Monday, with him nervous over his upcoming interrogation with McGuiness and Urd admitting she'd not slept well. "I guess it kind of... fell off my radar after that." _Or Urd clammed up like a shell._ He thought. She hadn't spoken to him about it, hadn't spoken of that night, and had acted like it and all of Belldandy's nightmares were something that didn't exist during the daylight hours; a monster under the bed that only appeared after all the lights were off and everyone was fast asleep in bed.

 _But that's how it's done._ He reasoned. _You don't force a person to deal with that kind of thing. You let them come to you in their own time. You can't push it, 'cause all it does is shut them down when they ain't ready to deal with it._ He frowned at his own internal monologue, then challenged it. _And it's thoughts like that which led to you drinking and Deb leaving you. Don't let that happen again, asshole._

As though touching on his inner thoughts, Lind brought a fist back and nailed him in the same arm that had become so popular as of late. The limb, already purple from the amount of Norns and younger sisters who'd continually hit him throughout the past two weeks, exploded with fresh pain. Keiichi yelped, and then snarled, "Will you guys stop fucking punching me?! Do I look like some sort of divine punching bag?" He recoiled and rubbed the area before throwing an accusing look at Lind.

Lind stared back, unamused. "I told you to speak with her about it." She sounded irritated. "Urd won't let you know something is wrong until she can no longer hide it, and both you and I need to speak on what we saw as well."

"Okay, yeah, I'm not going to deny that, but what does that have to do with getting Belldandy help?" Keiichi scowled and rolled his sleeve up, examining his arm before huffing indignantly.

"How can you expect to help Belldandy when you won't help yourself?" Lind asked, and her gaze was sharp and unrelenting.

Keiichi flinched. "How can I-Lind, that's not fair."

"But it's true," she replied. "You refuse to face what she has experienced after viewing the videos she was forced to enact. After coming to the truth of what awful deeds she was forced to perform, you choose to ignore it, to pretend it doesn't exist, to bury it in your psyche where it cannot harm you but instead lies and rots while Belldandy attempts to recover on her own accord," she accused. "And while her own health is delayed, yours will begin to degrade as well because of what you saw on those tapes." She shook her head, and for the first time Keiichi realized how upset she was. "What good can you be to her if you refuse to speak of what so brought her to that state in the first place?"

The man grimaced and leaned away from the Valkyrie, face taunt and pained. "Okay, okay!" he snapped. "Shit, you don't pull punches with this sort of thing, do you?"

"Not with matters such as this," Lind said. "If you want to help, speak with Urd about the videos. Speak with me. Bring it out in the open where its power holds no sway, because right now, you're all Belldandy has, and she _needs you._ " The woman fell silent, staring at Keiichi long and hard. Keiichi dropped his gaze, unable to hold it, and Lind continued. "I am doing what I can to ensure Belldandy acquires a healer, but it's difficult, Morisato. I don't know what you know about her, but Belldandy is a special goddess. All the Norns are. And because of that there are certain policies that have to be followed, and even as we speak right now there are roughly fifty Healers all vying for the opportunity, the _honor_ , of treating her." She bore her teeth in a snarl, tearing her gaze away from him.

"Fifty…" Keiichi's voice came out weak, and he stared at the woman in shock. "Wait, Fifty? As in _fifty_ doctors?!"

"If that is what you call your healers in this era." Lind sent him a sidelong glance. "Doctors, shamans, medicine men, whatever term you prefer, there are fifty of them all arguing amongst themselves and powers much greater than me for the opportunity to care for her." She sneered in disdain. "I have seen it, and it is pathetic; their own selfish desires are hurting the one who needs their care the most, and the infighting is left for higher leadership to determine who would be the best fit, with others arguing against that case whenever a possible candidate is found." The Valkyrie shook her head. "I've been doing everything I can on my end, but when it comes to the healers, they look and me and see a know-nothing; I am a grunt, one more fit for fights against demons rather than healing gods, and any questions asked are ignored."

Keiichi turned to observe the woman more fully. "What are-what position does Belldandy and the others hold that would cause _fifty doctors_ to want to care for her?" he asked. "Are they some kind of royalty? Is that part of what being a 'Norn' is? Some kind of divine royalty?"

"No." Lind scowled and looked at the wood, scratching a nail against the grain. "No, it's not... it's a bit more complicated than that. Royalty is a mortal term and doesn't exist among the divine." She shrugged, all at once restless. "But it is not my place to speak on that. If the Norns have not spoken of their family, than far be it from me to speak in their stead."

"What, will you get in trouble if you tell me about them?" Keiichi sent her a sidelong glance.

Lind sighed and shook her head. "I wouldn't know," she said. "But I _do_ know that I would be rather upset if I found out someone who was only an acquaintance spoke of my family as though they knew everything there was to know about them." She looked directly at him. "Wouldn't you?"

Keiichi winced and looked away. "Point taken."

Fifty doctors though... fifty _fucking_ doctors _. All for a goddess-no, to them she'd be just another woman-all for a woman who suffered ten years at the hands of a creature with all the significance of an ant._ While Keiichi knew next to nothing about... wherever the gods came from-Heaven or Space or some sort of Dreamland beyond the reach of mortals-he was willing to bet that fifty doctors vying to treat one lone woman was out of the ordinary. _How often does a god need to see a 'healer'?_ he wondered. _Do they even?_ Hell, for all he knew, maybe these 'healer' gods were so out of the business that the idea of anyone getting sick was worth fighting over. The SEAL made a face. The thought made his stomach churn. _And until they place their petty arguments aside, Bell is relying on_ you _for help, Bucko._ An annoying voice popped into his head. It sounded too much like Aiko for him to simply ignore. _You're her hero, remember? Her 'froggy black knight', the man who whisked her away from an evil tower like Rapunzel and chased away her nightmares like Prince Charming. And for what? You're too pussy-whipped to talk about some nasty videos you saw on accident? And with Urd and Lind, of all people? One of your closest friends and a goddess who's seen some nasty shit in her line of work too? You useless chickenshit._

At length he sucked in a deep breath. "This... is going to take some time to take in." He was shaken, but damned if he knew why. _It's because even amongst the 'heavenly elite', Belldandy is a big deal. Lind hinted at it enough that even you can't mistake it,_ that same voice whispered in his ear. He groaned, letting his head drop. _They all are. Even the Poodle, and here you are sitting around with them and having dinner with them like they're your buddies from the Hippie Lands of Oregon itself._ "I... fucking shit, I need a moment. I need to calm down, Lind."

Lind stared at him for a moment in silence, then inclined her head. "Stay out here and get some air," she advised. "I'll be right back." He watched her depart from the corner of one eye, heard the door open and shut, and then Keiichi sucked in another deep and long breath.

What was he to her? Him, a man, a mortal, whose life would pass her by in a matter of years? What did she see when she looked at him? Fuck, was it what Skuld saw whenever she looked at him? What about Urd? Belldandy? How did they fit in this big ugly picture that had just been painted for him? _I'm in love with a goddess._ He thought. _One of my closest friends is a goddess. And here I am... a simple-minded mortal with no idea of who or what they really are. I know they're Norns, but in the grand scheme of things, what does that mean to me? What does that mean_ for _me?_

The thoughts circled and churned within his mind, sinking into the crevices of his brain and blocking out all other thoughts. He shouldn't be worrying about this. The SEAL knew that, yet he could not shake it. His body broke out into a cold sweat, chilled by the cool air, and every time it felt as though the thoughts would ebb like a riptide it would return, stronger than ever and pulling him back under before the man could escape. The thoughts were damn near despairing in the raw reality presented to him, and as such Keiichi wasn't even aware of Lind's return until the goddess pressed something warm into his hand.

The man looked down, stupefied, and found a mug of tea in his hand. He stared at it in bemusement, watching as a tiny bag bobbed up and down in the hot, amber liquid. A pleasant scent of mint wafted from the steam it produced, and the man looked to his side, finding Lind with a similar mug in her own hand. "Let's sit," she instructed, and while her tone was gentle it held a note of authority that reminded Keiichi of McGuinness. She moved to the steps leading to the yard, and he followed her, if only out of the discipline instilled ages past. The man plopped down heavily beside the Valkyrie, and again came a long moment of silence. "Breathe Morisato. You're fine."

He _did_ breathe, and what he smelled was Evergreens and mint, a sharp scent that cleared his head in a manner that was almost painful, like having a bucket of ice water drenched on his head. He grabbed hold of that sharp, clean scent with all his will, and as the silence passed so too did the sense of calm return. When he felt more in control of himself, the man blew on his tea, then braved a sip. _It'll taste like pine needles and spearmint._ He predicted. _And I'll be taken for another ride again, just like last time._ Only this time it didn't. This time it tasted just of mint, and that not very strong. The SEAL was almost disappointed it was just regular tea.

"Mint always calms me down when I'm feeling overwhelmed." Lind spoke up, and he looked over at her, taking in the woman's peaceful disposition. The Valkyrie's eyes were closed, her face serene from where her head was tilted up at an angle, allowing the sun to hit her face and cast it in a warm glow. "My commander introduced it to me when I was still an acolyte among the Valkyries-no rank, no training, all hands and knees and terror as I scrambled to accomplish whatever tasks they assigned to me." She took a sip from her own mug, and as she opened her eyes an almost forlorn smile appeared on her face. "That was a long time ago. Now it's reached the point where I've surpassed her in rank."

Keiichi latched on to the new subject matter like a man on a lifeboat. "Was she part of your unit?"

Lind nodded, eyes distant and thoughtful. "We... lost her a good while ago," she murmured. "But let's move to lighter subjects. It's too early to converse on such morose topics." She lapsed into silence once more, and this time when she spoke there was a note of amusement in her voice. "Tell me some of your experiences with your team."

He looked at her. "Will you give me one of yours?"

"If it's a good story."

"Well..." Keiichi leaned back in thought, rummaging through his mind for any tales worth speaking on. The mint had done its job of soothing his nerves, and the idea of a story was a welcome distraction in light of their earlier conversation. "There was this one time back a couple years ago where I got hit on by a Ladyboy in Thailand..."

Both of Lind's eyebrows shot up in interest. "A what?"

"Tranny." Keiichi clarified. When Lind's puzzled look did not go away, he elaborated. "A guy dressed up like a lady, acts like a lady, thinks like a lady... basically claims to be a lady in every way but the junk in the trunk."

Lind twisted to face him, her eyes wide. "Tell me more." She demanded.

And so he did. He spoke of the rather... handsome, masculine woman who'd approached him one evening looking to buy him drinks, with Keiichi himself being too inebriated to recognize what was standing in front of him. "Don't get me wrong or anything-she was pretty and all, but I was already married at the time and I wasn't big on the whole stuff downstairs bit, and I think she had a bit of facial hair that she forgot to wax off that night." It was the first time he'd ever heard Lind straight up laugh. "McGuinness, my commander, ended up getting me out of that fix-though I was too drunk to remember how he did it. She was looking for a date and wouldn't leave until she got one." What he did remember was the hangover the following morning, and the way Team 12, Sanchez in particular, sang off-tune love songs for the remainder of the TDY. "By the time we left for home, even the Air Force Ravens guarding the plane back home knew about me. I spent the entire trip in the back of a C-17 listening to Spanish ballads sung in my honor. Had one dude even ask me out on a date, though I'm pretty sure he was joking."

Lind chuckled, an easy smile on her face. Her whole disposition seemed more relaxed now that they were swapping stories, and in turn Keiichi felt his own tension melt away too. It'd been a while since he'd had the opportunity to swap stories with a foreign service member. "You got me there. Never had someone that... interesting hit on me." She said. "You win, I'll tell you a story. This was from way back-let me see...a hundred and eighty, perhaps ninety years back, just to give you an idea." The smile grew into a toothy, silly grin. "Valkyries are a military unit, just like any other force," she started, "and likewise, we tend to hit it hard when we're off-duty, just like everyone else."

Lind's story was of one such particular party, where her unit had gotten the bright idea to perform a 'roof stomp' of a high ranking VP's visit. "This guy was super up the Chain. I mean, he was _huge_. He'd come to visit us and assess our base because about a month earlier we'd been given some bullshit award for high performance or what not. My unit had just gotten back from a recent deployment playing peek-a-boo and tag with a bunch of demons, and, well..."

"You were a little rough around the edges still," Keiichi filled in.

"Exactly." Lind bobbed her head in agreement. "We needed some R&R to help readjust to 'normal society' again, and with the VP on base, that R&R was pushed back. They wanted us to march past his quarters as a show of respect and to help highlight how wonderful the base was."

Keiichi winced. "I don't know if I'm happy or sad to hear that military bullshit extends up to the gods."

"Common sense isn't common in the military."

"It never is."

Lind continued. "So we marched. We marched, put on our gameface, all that shit, and oh weren't we the pride and joy of the Wing back then. And right afterwards, as soon as we were released we banded together and got _totaled._ In the midst of it all, our OIC decided we hadn't shown the VP a proper Valkyrie greeting, and so came up with the bright idea to go on a 'roof stomp' of the quarters the VP was staying at. You ever done a roof stomp before?"

"Can't say that I have."

"It's how you and your squadron have a 'meet and greet' with a new commander. You go to his place, climb up onto his roof while he's gone and just start stomping up a storm. It's an informal way of saying 'welcome to the family, from us to you', and on occasion it's done during other special occasions as well."

"Sounds like a hell of a party."

"Yeah. There was a lot of alcohol involved."

"When is there not?"

"That's just the start." Lind's face was bright at the old memory, her speech animated as she recalled the event. "We ended up stomping up such a storm that at one point, someone-I forgot who-was afraid we'd actually bring down the roof. We'd gathered a huge crowd by then, all of 'em only half as drunk as us, and they were hooting and hollering and egging us on, and then here comes the VP, just waltzing up to the house in surprise with his wife on his arm. And you can tell right away the VP has absolutely no fucking clue what's going on. He's on the edge of losing his shit, but then you look at his wife, and she's just breaking into laughter over the whole thing. I remember thinking 'ah, she's a Prior! She knows what the deal is!' and somehow her laughing just made us stomp harder and him get angrier, 'cause even if he's a VP, the military branch he served in wasn't the same as the Valkyries. He was an Aesir, and they tend to do things a little differently from we humble Valkyries."

The woman chuckled, then took a sip from her mug. "So you've got half the base at this visiting VP's quarters, watching a flight of Valkyries so fresh from a deployment you can see the sand on their uniforms and who are all drunker than Pan at a party and stomping on a roof. The guy's wife is laughing along with everyone else and isn't trying to calm him down or explain anything, and this man is getting angrier by the second. And what does he do? Jank, I shit you not, the man pulls off his right _hand_ and fucking hurls it at us. It hit Gunnr-the Valkyrie next to me-square in the jaw and knocked her clean out. And I swear to Yggdrasil, that fucking hand was flipping us off."

Keiichi erupted into laughter, and Lind joined him. "W-what the hell? Was it a real hand?" he stuttered out. "Or was it like 'Thing' from the Addams Family?"

"Fake hand," Lind shot out between laughter. "And so what _we_ do, what we do is grab Gunnr, grab the hand, and fucking _run_." She laughed harder. "What's more funny than watching an Aesir throw his own hand at a bunch of Valkyries? Watching that same man chase those same drunk-ass Valkyries half-way across base trying to retrieve the hand he threw at us. At some point he started screaming we were stealing his property. We thought it was a shining gift from him to our unit displaying his appreciation for the hard work we'd done playing with demons."

"Did he ever get it back?"

Lind looked at him with an ear splitting smile. Keiichi returned it. "A wise woman once said 'one man can only chase one woman at a time, though he may strive for more'. We split up. He tried to get the whole base to hunt us down."

"Where is it now?" Keiichi asked.

"I'll take that knowledge to my grave," Lind replied. "But it's safe, it's secret, and whenever I see it, it remains flipping everyone off. It's a good luck charm amongst our squadron now. You kiss the birdie before a deployment to ensure you come home safe."

Keiichi chuckled. "I think you win this round," he murmured, then downed the rest of his tea. God damn. He never thought he'd drink so much fucking tea in his life before Belldandy entered his life. Takano would be proud of him. Then probably scold him since it wasn't green tea.

 _"Well, at least you tried, Dear."_ Takano's voice rang in his ears, and he smiled as he imagined his mother's irked expression at him. "I think I'm doing a little better now," he said, looking out into the forest and listening as somewhere far off, an eagle shrieked. "So...I think we've got some time before Jackson or Urd hunt us down if Aiko can keep them away." He took a deep breath. "How about we talk about those videos."

The look Lind sent him was first surprised, then pleased. "You don't want Urd to join us?"

The man thought a moment, then shook his head. "No," he admitted. "No... this is a bit more personal for her. I want to work a couple of things out in my own head before approaching her with this. It's-I know-" For a long moment he fell silent, then Keiichi sighed and tried again. "I know what it's like... that anger, that horror... knowing something so bad befell your younger sister without you knowing it and only finding out until _after_ the deed has been done. And... I know the anger that rises towards anyone who tries to relate with you on the subject, too."

Lind beheld him in silence, and the man took a deep, soothing breath, fiddling with the string of the tea bag. "I want to make sure I can keep my cool before speaking with her. That... we both can, when we finally corner her about it, because as soon as she hears the word 'video', that anger is going to come back, and we're going to be the closest thing she lashes out at."

He glanced at Lind, and the woman dropped her gaze to her mug. "You're right," she murmured. "I... saw her anger. That night." She swallowed before sucking in a deep breath. "It is a thing of terror, I will admit. Level heads will be needed to soothe it, for it is a creature with a will of its own, and it is terrible."

Keiichi thought back to Belldandy and her night terrors, Belldandy and her sudden flashback with him and Aiko, and thought he could relate. _Just like Belldandy's fear._ He was willing to bet. "I want to be that level head for her," he admitted. "For her and Belldandy too. And you're right. I can't help Belldandy, or Urd for that matter, if I can't help myself, so...let's start talking."

Lind stared at him for a long time, then dropped her gaze back to her mug. "As you say," she murmured. "So... what happened when you saw the videos?"

"Well... I'd been searching for Belldandy, and..." Keiichi began to speak, and Lind listened. And when Keiichi could speak no more of the subject Lind took his place. And so they continued, back and forth through the early morning, discussing the pain of bearing witness to what could not be corrected. Inside, a pair of younger sisters who bore no relation to each other entertained a man desperate to speak with the woman of his dreams, while in another room a pair of older sisters gossiped and bickered, trying to make up for precious time and moments lost in the span of ten long, painful years.

* * *

 **A/N: The Ugly Beast seems to elicit many types of reactions. It almost has a life of its own.**

* * *

 _Comments of a Madwoman: The Valkyrie organizational structure is based more off Air Force structures than it is traditional Army. Mostly because the Air Force likes to do things weird and they were the ones to come up with Roof Stomps. Had a lot of fun writing Jackson's ridiculous descriptions of Lind from his perspective. His character is starting to grow on me._


	17. Chapter 17 - Kindred Spirits

l

-17-

The remainder of Saturday continued at a more relaxed pace, though to call it 'uneventful' would be to invite demons. For all that was discussed between Keiichi and Lind, when they went inside an hour later, it was with a strange, relieved sort of peace that spoke of a weight that had at last been lifted from one's shoulders. If either Aiko or Skuld noticed it, they chose not to comment, and so instead sat back and watched as once more Jackson, eager to speak with Lind after his own discussion with Urd, assaulted the poor woman with questions. When Lind had looked to Keiichi or even Skuld for help, she found the two of them conspicuously absent, leaving her to fall victim to Jackson's attempts to relate to her.

Urd still had a dose of her hangover remedy left over for Keiichi, the others having consumed their own bit of the potion during the SEAL's long hour with Lind, and he consumed that and the breakfast Belldandy had created from the eggs and leftover steaks the previous night with gusto. After a good breakfast and a hangover-free head, the rest of the morning into the afternoon was treated with a bit more enjoyment. Lind learned a bit more about 'American' culture as the day progressed, and with it came away with a variety of observations that may or may not have been factual truths.

Keiichi broke out his video game console from the gorilla box and hooked it up for Aiko and the Norns to enjoy, and Lind watched in open curiosity as Aiko challenged first Keiichi to something she dubbed as 'Street Fighter', and then used a virtual avatar of someone called 'Vega' to destroy Keiichi's avatar of 'Ryu' without mercy. After winning three consecutive victories against him, Keiichi handed the controller off to Belldandy. Belldandy selected a woman with hair buns called 'Chun-Li', and after losing the first round was quick to catch on and knock out Aiko's character in the second and third round. Aiko handed the controller off to Skuld, who appeared uninterested in the whole affair and chose a character at random; a large, hulking avatar called Zangief. The woman then proceeded to button mash a just as random victory on Belldandy, who was caught off guard before wising up and playing more defensively, and then Skuld too was defeated.

Then Skuld handed the controller off to Urd, and it was during that time that Lind learned a bit more about the Norns, too. One was that Belldandy was competitive. The other was that Urd was competitive in _videogames_. "Bell, know that I care about you, but also know this: you're going down." Urd selected a character called 'Cammy', and Belldandy stuck with Chun-Li, choosing a stage and watching as the opening cinematics played out.

"That's nice," Belldandy replied. "The important thing to remember when you lose is that you had fun and it's just a game, right?"

"Wrong." Urd replied, and as the television proclaimed _"Ready? Fight!"_ The two characters launched themselves across the screen. The avatars threw an impressive amount of punches and kicks, all of which were parried or in some cases countered by the opposing character. Small bits of health began to ebb away from the red bars on the top screen, and despite herself Lind leaned forward from where she stood behind the Ugly Beast in interest, listening with half an ear as the two sisters threw loving, polite, heartfelt verbal jabs at one another whenever a virtual blow connected with their avatars. The two characters' health decreased at an almost equal pace, and as the clock ticked down towards zero the match ended in a sudden and startling double knock out that left Keiichi and Aiko roaring.

Only Jackson appeared uninterested in the whole affair. "This is boring," he grumbled. "I'd rather be playing Madden or doing some real sparring. Watching this shit is about as interesting as watching paint dry."

"Sparring?" Lind glanced at the man in interest, her mind at once recalling the strange series of moves Urd had used on her that had left Lind with such a crippling defeat in Japan. "What kind of sparring?" Sparring could be good. Sparring could lead to the revelation of more strange, mortal arts. Sparring could lead to her learning how _the fuck Urd almost choked her out._ Which could lead to a counter. Which could lead to a rematch with Urd. Which could lead to her paying Urd back for almost choking her out when _she_ was the Valkyrie and Urd was the civilian.

Maybe she was just a tad bit salty about that incident still...

Jackson smiled at her, teeth bright against his skin. The man looked delighted to talk on the subject. "Oh, just some MMA stuff I've picked up over the years is all. You know, a little Brazilian Jui Jitzu here, a bit of Krav Maga there, with some boxing and Muay Thai to tide it over." His eyes sparkled with interest. "You practice?"

Lind looked at him with a start. "Oh, ah..." Yes, yes she did 'practice', but usually it was with an ax or on other Valkyries in the air. And all of those practices were specific to Asgard. None of them originated from Midgard. "Um...none-none of the ones you mentioned."

"Like what?"

Oh. Damn. Shit. "I'm a-a practitioner of the Twenty-Seven Mantras of the Elder Futhark," she confessed. "It's, um..."

"It's from Greenland," Skuld popped up, having lost interest in the match between Belldandy and Urd after a tie was declared for the second round and the two siblings moved to the third and final round. "It's... very exclusive to Greenland. The ah, Vikings came up with it after an old tale speaking of one of their ships wrecking in China and meeting a bunch of monks."

Jackson looked at Skuld with a start. "Wait, seriously?" he asked.

"Yep!" Skuld nodded in a rush. "They got lost in a bad storm coming from the Middle East and instead wrecked off the coast of China. From what I know of it, they tried to raid a near-by temple and instead got their asses handed to them by the monks who lived there."

"Really?" Jackson squinted at her in disbelief. "You're making that shit up." He looked to Lind. "Is she making that up?" he asked. "Because it sounds like she's making that shit up."

Lind shrugged, at a loss at what to say. Some of it touched on a bit of truth; if the word 'Viking' was replaced with 'Aesir' and 'wrecking near Chinese Monks' with 'erroneous descent near a man named Bodhidhrama on Midgard.' "Close enough," she tried, and was rewarded when Jackson snorted and nodded.

"Okay," he said. "Okay. I need to see this." He shook his head, then looked at Lind. "You want to have a friendly sparring match? I promise I-"

"Yes," Lind said at once. "Yes I would. I am curious to see these additional martial arts in action." The Valkyrie looked back to the others, and so missed Jackson's fist pump or how Skuld elbowed him in the ribs. "Let me tell-"

"Don't bother," Skuld cut in. "Belldandy and Urd are playing video games together, and I think there's a universal rule somewhere that states 'Urd will not lose in video games' next to 'Belldandy shall always win a game.'" She shrugged, unconcerned. "We could go outside into the front yard, and I'm willing to bet that the game will crash before a victory is declared and everyone will come out to join us out of curiosity."

Both Lind and Jackson stared at Skuld, who looked between the two of them with a raised eyebrow. "What?" she demanded.

Lind sighed and shook her head. "Let's go outside," she suggested, before turning and making her way down the hallway and towards the front door. Jackson rushed after her, a large smile on his face. After scowling and throwing her hands up in frustration, Skuld followed as well, following the duo outside and closing the door behind her.

The Valkyrie was already moving out to the lawn, and Jackson was right behind her, trailing after her like a large shadow. Skuld propped herself up against the porch railing, in the same spot where, a few hours prior, Keiichi had leaned against while speaking to Lind. "Okay, time to start with some ground rules," Jackson said, throwing a few slow and deliberate punches in the air to warm up his muscles. "First off, no groin hits or face punches. We aren't wearing any protective gear, and I don't want anyone coming away from this missing a tooth or worse." Despite his own excitement, the man's expression was serious and solemn, one Lind sensed as much as saw and chose to take heed with careful discretion. Jackson seemed to be a man who both followed and expected others to follow rules that were laid out, and the tone with which he spoke to Lind exemplified that fact. She liked that, Lind decided. She could respect that. It spoke of a familiar discipline she could relate to, and some of her initial trepidation towards Jackson began to fade.

"Second," Jackson held up two fingers. "Tap outs are a go. An opponent taps," he tapped his arm twice in example, "the other let's go or stops what they're doing, no exceptions." Lind nodded in agreement, and Jackson held up a third finger. "Third, pull your punches. This is a friendly match-we aren't trying to kill each other or actually hurt one another, and going back to the lack of protective gear, I don't want either of us to come away from this hurt."

Lind nodded. _That will go double for me,_ she thought, recalling how frail human mortals could be. _The last thing I need is to punch this man's head off on accident._ The thought alone made her stomach roll, and it was all she could do to suppress a shudder as a mental image of just such an event arose in her mind's eye. "That is acceptable," she agreed, following Jackson's example and taking the opportunity to warm up her muscles with a series of practice strikes and quick katas. Though she didn't want to admit it, her heart was racing, and it had taken Lind a good minute to recognize the signal as excitement for what was to come.

Excitement.

A silly little piece of her wanted to laugh. Excitement. It'd been ages since she'd been excited about anything, and it took a simple match with a mortal warrior to spurn her emotions in such a manner. She wanted to smile but didn't, worried that Jackson might come away with the wrong idea. But actual _excitement!_ A thrill of energy, of welcomed, wanted _anticipation_ over what was yet to come. It was enough to make her giddy. It was enough to make her _dizzy_ , and she loved it!

 _Best not get too carried away now._ Spear Mint, what she'd always attributed to the voice of reason, whispered in her ear. _You'll become distracted, which may lead to an accident, especially with a mortal as your opponent._

 _It's okay to feel a little excitement though, right?_ And that was Cool Mint, a voice Lind was still adjusting to; the voice of lost emotion returned, though now, as had become habit, she deferred to Spear Mint's guidance.

Spear Mint gave no response, not that Lind expected one. Though her angels advised her, when it came to the actual decisions, Lind was still in charge. _It's okay,_ she thought, this time biting the inside of her cheek to stop the silly smile from spreading across her lips. _It's okay this time. I_ want _to be excited. I_ want _to feel._ She'd gone without any emotion other than melancholy and anger for far too many years now, and to feel _anything_ other than that hateful depression was a win she cherished more than any victory against demons. _I want to have fun,_ she thought to herself, or perhaps to her angels. _Let me play, if only for this one day on Midgard._

And so her angels-not just one but two, lo and behold-fell silent, and as they did a fresh voice rang out into the front yard. "How about we make a fourth and final rule to the fight?" Urd cried out, and Lind looked over her shoulder and felt her heart seize. The porch was filled with people. Skuld's sisters had moved to join her near the banister, and the two Morisato siblings had come to sit on the front steps leading to the front door, watching and smiling with large, shit-eating smiles on their faces. "We'll make it a bet, what do you say? Just to make things interesting!"

"What you got, Sheila?" Jackson shouted, and Lind could feel the color drain from her face. Oh Yggdrasil, she was going to fight in front of an _audience?!_ One person she could handle, but all three of the Norns _and_ a pair of mortals?!

 _Somebody shoot me down and bury me right here,_ Lind thought. Now her heart was racing for a very different reason, one that she was comfortable in saying was a rather unpleasant manner.

Then Cool Mint piped up; _Didn't you want to have fun, though?_

 _Cool Mint?_ Lind thought.

 _Yes?_

 _Please shut up until this is over._ Lind closed her eyes with a deep sigh. _Spear Mint, that goes for you too. If I hear one word hinting at 'I told you so' in my head..._

 _Yes Ma'am._ Thank the stars at least one of them knew when to keep her mouth shut.

"So, we'll make a little bet. If Lind wins, you teach her some BJJ." Urd's voice projected across the yard with ease. "I ended up using the moves you boys showed me against her once and I think she's still salty about the loss." Lind immediately perked up at that. "On the other hand, if Jackson wins, Lind goes out on a date with him." And just as quickly she deflated.

"I'll take that bet!" Jackson cried with glee. "It's a win-win in my book!"

"Demons bless it." Lind swore under her breath, then, in a louder voice yelled, "I'm going to bury you in a shallow grave one of these days, Urd!"

"You'll have to beat my family to it!" Urd shouted back, then laughed as Belldandy sent her a reproachful look. "Do you agree to the circumstances, Lind?"

Lind cringed. She could almost feel the gazes of the entire household, Jackson included, resting on her, and under the spotlight Lind moaned in anguish. "I don't have much of a choice when everyone's watching now, do I?" She grumbled, before speaking in a louder voice, "Yes."

Jackson whooped in joy, and sighing with resignation Lind finished her warm-up before turning to face the man in question. _Remember, don't overdue it,_ she reminded herself. _He's a mortal, not a god. It'd be like kicking a newborn puppy._ She watched as Jackson finished his own warm-up before dropping into an unfamiliar fighting stance, resting his weight on back right foot as his left came forward, bouncing on his toes as he brought his hands up to guard his face. _Don't kick the puppy,_ she told herself.

"Whenever you're ready, Blue." Jackson's smile was wild and exhilarated, a reflection of her own inner feelings as Lind also dipped into a fighting stance, bouncing lightly as she shifted her weight from one foot to another, hands up and open and elbows tucked into her sides.

"Don't call me Blue," Lind warned, and saying nothing else launched herself at Jackson. _Mortal._ Spear Mint reminded her. _Mortal, mortal, mortal!_ Jackson pivoted to one side as she came at him, and forcing her speed down Lind threw a light kick at him. He brought his leg up, blocking the blunt of the attack, but she saw his eyes widen in mixed pain and surprise and knew that even that held too much strength behind it.

The man backtracked, maintaining his form as he retreated, then whistled in approval. "Damn, Girl! You got some strength in those kicks. Don't hold back on my account!" There was a note of sarcasm in his voice, and if Spear Mint had been a more physical manifestation in her mind Lind was almost certain the angel would have smacked her. Instead a low, exaggerated moan echoed in her ears.

"Come on then. Don't you know it's rude to leave a woman waiting?" The woman ignored the voices in her head and found herself losing interest in the audience she and Jackson had gathered as well. With it, her anxiety began to depart once more in place of excitement, and when a small smirk began to tug at a corner of one lip she didn't halt its progress. It grew into a smile, yet Lind didn't notice. Didn't notice the smile, the audience, the cries and jeers for the Norns and Morisatos or even the words of encouragement and caution from the twin angels in her head.

There was only her opponent and the fight.

Jackson moved forward and took a practice jab at her. She batted it away with an open palm, and after several more cautionary swings and receptive blocks, Jackson grew more serious. All at once his jabs became fast, his fists lashing out like the end of a pair of whips towards her body. Had mortals always been able to move so fast? Ah, what a blast! Lind's smile grew larger, and her body responded on reflex, batting at fists that would have otherwise left bruises and diverting the power behind them away from her body. She let Jackson lead their dance, wanting to see what he defined as 'limits' before responding in turn with equal power, and watched the smile on his face start to fade into more careful scrutiny, concentrating on her movements as she led him backward.

 _Fun._ Cool Mint whispered. _Fun fun fun funfunfun._

Lind agreed.

 _Don't kick the puppy._ Spear Mint reminded.

 _I won't._ She thought. But that didn't mean she couldn't roughhouse with him still. A fist shot towards her chest in a right hook, and quick as lighting Lind first diverted the blow away from her with one hand and then grabbed his wrist with another, pulling him into her guard where she lashed out with a sharp elbow. The man threw himself out away from Lind at arm's length, narrowly avoiding the elbow's close sweep.

Jackson popped his wrist free of her grip with a swift, firm jerk towards her thumb before she could reaffirm her grasp on him, then grabbed the material of her uniform instead. _No!_ Some piece of her screamed. She was uncertain if it was her angels or her own voice of warning. _It'll be Urd all over again! Don't let him grab your clothes!_ She dove into his grasp, diving and twisting beneath and out of his grip, then smacked the wrist holding her with a sharp blow. The SEAL flinched and released her, and Lind retreated out of his range, watching the man with a bit more caution now.

 _Stay out of his guard. If he grapples you, he wins,_ she thought, watching as Jackson returned to his original guard. _Get behind him._ She began to circle him, and taking tiny steps, Jackson followed her, his body angled in such a way as to present a slimmer profile for Lind to attack. The Valkyrie began to dance around him, having the SEAL follow her first one way, then the next, picking up a small bit of speed each time she changed directions. Whenever Jackson grew bold enough to lash out at her, Lind dodged back, but did not follow through with a counter of her own.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Jackson asked her, yet Lind provided him with no answer, something she could tell unnerved him. "Is this one of those Mantra things you mentioned?" Indeed it was not. Those Mantra were designed for battles against demons, not men, and would more than likely kill him before he even realized what was happening. But she could take certain, small components from each mantra to use in a bit of harmless fun, especially while keeping herself on par with a mortal man.

She was gaining momentum now. Momentum that would have easily come to her had she been combating an opponent on her level, and she could feel it gathering in her legs. Jackson looked more and more confused, and perhaps even a little concerned, yet Lind was not blind to the open curiosity on his face as well. At the last moment she leapt back from Jackson, placing further distance between the two of them, then charged forward, putting the momentum to use and jumping once, twice, and then leaping over his head in a burst of speed.

"Holy shi-" The SEAL didn't have a chance to finish his words before Lind placed a solid foot in the center of his shoulders, sending Jackson sprawling forwards as the Valkyrie used him for a springboard. The woman tucked, spun, landed a few feet away, and the moment her feet touched the ground she launched herself at him once more, the momentum redirected in front of her as her opponent staggered, caught himself, and then turned to meet her.

She just caught his eyes widen in shock when Spear Mint's voice rose once more in her ear: _Don't kick the puppy!_ And the punch she was about to drive into and through his face froze close to an inch before Jackson's nose.

She flicked his nose instead.

Jackson recoiled, eyes large with astonishment, and Lind allowed a small smirk to play across her face. A smirk which immediately vanished when Jackson grabbed her once more, then dropped the Valkyrie in a single, swift motion that somehow pinned her ankle between his knee and drove her back, off balance, and into the grass. She yelped in dismay, and as Jackson pinned her to the ground, he brought a single finger up and tapped her on the nose. "Boop."

Lind stared at him, her own eyes widening in surprise, before she then sighed and tapped his elbow. The SEAL released her and rolled to his feet, then offered a hand to her, which she took with some embarrassment on her part. "You win." She grumbled. The woman could feel heat crawling up her neck and into her cheeks.

"I see it as a tie." Jackson smiled broadly at her. "That was some serious badassery you pulled on me, and I don't get impressed by much." She felt her flush deepen, and the SEAL laughed. "Tell you what, I'll level with you. We'll have lunch together-here, with Jank and the others-and I'll show you how I took you down." Now that the match was over and her blood was cooling, Lind was growing increasingly aware of the amiable chatter rising from their make-shift 'audience'. Urd was screaming something about 'kiss', and Lind wanted to either punch the silver-haired woman in the face or bury herself a mile underground. "If you like what you see and you want to learn more, than you got to let me make dinner for you, and I will personally teach you everything else I know. What do you say?"

It was taking all her self-discipline not to run and hide at that moment. Urd was jarring them on, Keiichi was jarring them on, hell, even _Skuld_ was joining in, though Belldandy at least was attempting to calm them all down-not that it was doing any good, especially with how Aiko was howling with laughter. Lind grit her teeth. "One caveat." She grumbled. "You find out what move Urd used on me and teach me how to counter it."

"Oh?" Jackson raised an eyebrow in question, and Lind sucked in a deep breath.

"I'm going to bury that woman's face in the earth for this."

XXX

Lind did indeed take Jackson up on his offer to have lunch with him and the others. Not that she wasn't going to anyways, given the fact that the Valkyrie was planning on staying through until Sunday, where she could finally, _finally_ drag Skuld back to Asgard and be rid of this horrible company she was forced to keep, yet Jackson still treated it with all the joy of a love-struck teenager sitting with his childhood-crush. From an outside perspective, it could even be viewed as 'cute', despite the fact that Lind still looked rather uncomfortable with Jackson sitting next to her. Yet as lunch was provided-ramen, as so prepared by Belldandy-even the discomfort began to fade. Neither Jackson nor Lind had ever had anything close to authentic ramen before, and that combined with Belldandy's almost natural affinity towards cooking provided a meal that they both enjoyed immensely.

Even Aiko and Keiichi were impressed, and in Aiko's case, overjoyed, with the meal that presented itself, and were both treated to an honest, delighted smile from Belldandy when it grew more and more apparent that everyone in the household complimented the Norn on her skills. "It was nothing, really," she claimed. "I've just had some practice making ramen is all."

"Bullshit," Aiko exclaimed. "I go all over Japan with Grandpa whenever I go and visit him, and I've lost count of all the different types I've tried. Yours is, hands down, the best ramen I have ever had."

"Yeah," Keiichi agreed. "Which really isn't much coming from a girl who lives off packs of instant ramen every day, but I got to agree with her." He ignored Aiko's glare. "Yours is even better than Takano's." He froze when he said that, then looked at Aiko. "Don't you fucking _dare_ tell her I said that." He warned. "I'll lock you up in a shipping container and fill it with spiders, if you do."

"Try it and die." Aiko narrowed her eyes at her brother, then smiled and joined him in laughter.

"Well, I know what to throw on the bed now if you decide to join _me_ in bed tonight." Skuld grumbled aloud, and earned a startled glance from Jackson and Lind as Aiko moaned and buried her face in her hands.

"Can we please forget that happened?" she asked, her question muffled. "It was an accident, okay? I got turned around."

"What? I'm hurt," Urd teased. "You mean you didn'tenjoy snuggling up to me last night? I seem to recall otherwise."

Jackson looked between Aiko and Urd in shock. "Wait, what?"

Aiko looked up at Urd in horror. "No, please don't-"

"You mean my screams didn't give it away?" Skuld asked, one eyebrow raised in question. "I woke up on the air mattress to find those two spooning like a pair of star-crossed lovers in the twin bed."

"Skuld, shut up!" Aiko pleaded. "I told you, it was an accident! I thought it was my room! I was drunk, I-I was half-asleep! Nothing happened!"

"A likely story,"Urd murmured, then threw a wink to Aiko, who went as white as a sheet. "I seem to remember otherwise."

"You were even drunker than me!" Aiko accused, then looked at Jackson and Lind, who were both watching them with unreadable expressions. "Don't believe anything she says!" the college student cried. "They're lies! All of them!"

Jackson blinked and gave a little shudder, like a man who'd stumbled across something foul. "Okay, not gonna lie. A bit too much information," he confessed. "I didn't need to know about who you likes sleeping with, Bengal."

Aiko's face reddened. "But I didn't-she just- _no!"_ she stammered. "I've already got someone, okay! I'm not trying to sleep with anyone!" She pointed to Urd. "And-and what about her? She's the one who's acting like she _enjoyed_ it and everything!"

Belldandy and Skuld looked at Urd, still smiling, then at each other. They shrugged in unison before looking back at Aiko. "It's _Urd_." They voiced together.

"Hey!" Urd protested.

Jackson scratched the back of his head. "I guess it explains why she was never interested in any of us." He confessed.

"Hey!" Urd cried.

Keiichi sent her a look. "Don't sleep with my sister, Urd," he warned. "I'm holding you accountable just like Bravo and the others." His own two cents said, he returned to his ramen, sparing her not a second glance to indicate whether or not he was serious.

"What?!" Urd gaped at him in shock. "Wait, Aiko was the one who slept with _me_ , not the other way around!"

Lind experimentally tried to grab her noodles with the chopsticks that had been provided as an alternative to the fork. She failed miserably. "Don't dish out what you can't take," she muttered.

Following that, Jackson did indeed hold true to his word on showing her the move he used to take Lind down. The man was even generous enough to let Lind try it on him to ensure she understood it properly, which admittedly, was the highlight of her day. "Show me more," she demanded, after attempting the move for close to an hour before feeling comfortable with it on what she judged to be her tenth successful execution of the move.

"Does this mean you'll have dinner with me sometime?" Jackson sent her a sidelong glance. "Not today or anything, but maybe later on?"

"Yes." She decided, because fuck it, if having dinner with a mortal meant she could learn more of this strange grappling art called 'Brazilian Jui Jitsu', then so be it. She'd have something new to take back to the squadron and drill into the heads of the acolytes there, and the advantages the moves presented in a dire combat situation against a demon or even a god were unprecedented. Part of her was already working out a training schedule and how she could integrate it into her squadron's physical training, and so distract was she that the Valkyrie missed the amused smile on Jackson's face.

"It's a date then!" he cried.

XXX

It was close to evening when Jackson hooked his barbeque up to his truck in order to head out for the day.

Belldandy was almost sad to see him go. Despite his large and rather intimidating looks, the man was a joy to have around. She'd had quite a bit of fun with his presence in the household, and even Lind's frosty personality had melted a bit after their small sparring match in the yard. That alone had been entertaining, especially after her rounds against Urd in street fighter had come to an immediate halt when the game crashed near the end of the final round. Something about the console overheating or one of them hitting a previously unknown bug or some other such nonsense. It was probably that Urd had thrown a bit of her magic into the console and caused it to short out because she couldn't stand the disastrous idea of losing to Belldandy.

Maybe.

Regardless, with Jackson's departure and a quick dinner, the evening dwindled into a peaceful night. Skuld managed to repair the videogame console, and Urd took the opportunity to introduce Lind to videogames, and like Keiichi had not too long ago, introduced her to the harsh world of Lothrick.

Belldandy watched the trio from the hallway sect leading into the living room, tempted to join them but deciding to hold off. With the others distracted, now would be a good opportunity to-

The goddess grimaced, feeling a shudder work through her body as her muscles tensed in an almost reflexive move. Yggdrassil's roots, she didn't even want to _think_ of it, and she was to speak on it? The woman pulled in a soothing breath, hoping to slow the sudden, rapid pace of her heart, and still tense, she moved into the kitchen.

Aiko was at the dining room table, storing food away in Tupperware containers that she intended to take with her back to the dorms. "Aiko?"

The student looked up, then smiled at Belldandy. "Hey Carrie, what's up?"

Belldandy paused, for a moment confused on the strange term of address. "Who is-"

Aiko waved her off. "Don't worry about it. Think of it like a term of endearment, like how Kei and Team 12 like to call Urd Sheila." She popped a lid on a plastic Tupperware container with a blue lid, then moved to pop it in the fridge.

"I see..." A term of endearment? No one had ever given her a-a _nickname_ before. Nothing that wasn't a shortening or mispronunciation of her full name. _Something else I can claim as my own._ She thought. _Something untarnished by Aoshima and his poison._ "You and Keiichi seem to share a fondness for nicknames."

Aiko beamed. "Yeah, well, when people always mispronounce your name, you find ways around it."

The Norn tilted her head to one side in curiosity. "Is that why Piper calls you 'Bengal' at times?"

The younger woman looked away, embarrassed. "Yeah," she admitted. "Tigers are my favorite animal-Bengal tigers in particular. Takano-that's our mom, by the way-she ended up befriending some staff who worked at the San Francisco Zoo." The woman's gaze grew distant at the recollection. "After I was raped, I became really withdrawn from everyone around me: I didn't want to talk to anyone, be around anyone, nothing. I just wanted to be left alone, and it made speaking with therapists and my case workers a no-go. Even calls from Kei or Meg didn't do it for me." She shrugged her shoulders at the memory. "But Takano is a resourceful woman, let me tell you. I don't know what she did, but she pulled some crazy strings for me one day. It was..." The woman stopped what she was doing, instead choosing to lean on the fridge as she crossed her arms in thought. "Gosh, A Monday, I think. I was supposed to go to school on a Monday-that's right, because I remember how much I was dragging my feet back then-and instead of going to school, we went to the zoo."

She looked at Belldandy, a small half-smile on her face. "Now, Takano had been trying damned near anything to get me out of my shell back then, and the zoo was one of the things that had shown maybe, I don't know, a spark of interest from me? I can't remember. But when we went in past the gates, we didn't go to any of the exhibits or sections of the zoo. Instead, I remember Takano meeting with some folks I remember as 'Karen' and 'Steve', and they took us into this 'staff only' section of the zoo." The smile on her face grew furtive, and her eyes danced with excitement. "I got to play with tiger kittens." She whispered. "One of the tigers there, a Bengal named 'Sundara', had had kittens a couple of weeks ago, and Takano got in good with the folks looking after them and got me in to play with them."

"And they were so cute!" She cooed. "You knew they were still babies because they still fell over from walking sometimes, but they were also really playful, and a white one fell asleep in my lap, and-" She stopped herself, then rubbed the back of her neck. "Sorry. I get carried away with that story. It's still got to be one of the coolest things that I've ever done." She paused. "...At least, aside from meeting a bunch of literal gods, anyhow."

Belldandy smiled at the younger woman's earnest enthusiasm, feeling some of the joy the memory still brought to the woman. "And so that is why you love tigers?"

"Yep!" Aiko chirped. "Especially Bengals, because they were the ones I got to play with. Plus they're the ones that can have the white coat mutation." She shook her head in amusement. "Kei dubbed me Bengal when I told him one time I wanted to grow up and be a Bengal tiger, and the name just kind of...stuck."

Now Belldandy laughed. "But I thought you wanted to be a dog!" she cried, and Aiko laughed with her.

"Tigers don't get table scraps or belly rubs in a nice warm bed by a fireplace," Aiko reminded her, and Belldandy laughed harder. When the laughter finally faded, Aiko moved away from the fridge. "So, what's up?" she asked. "I know you were coming in here to ask me about something, but I don't think it had anything to do with tigers or wishes."

"You are correct," Belldandy said, surprised to find that in the light conversation they'd had, the initial tension leading up to speaking with Aiko had all but vanished. _Banished by a white tiger..._ she thought, and for whatever reason the thought made her smile. "I was wondering if you would like to...talk."

Aiko paused, and Belldandy could almost see the visible change in her attitude. The silly college student began to fade, and in its wake was an older, somber woman whose hair was at odds with her expression. A woman aged and wizened by the unfortunate circumstances of her youth. "Yes," she said. "I'm always available to talk. Doesn't matter when, doesn't matter what." She leaned to one side, peering down the hallway with a slight frown. "Do you want to talk upstairs?" she asked. "In your room, where we won't be interrupted?"

Belldandy stared at her, startled. The idea of someone interrupting the two of them, or perhaps even overhearing them had not been something she'd thought of. Not with how everyone was gathered in the living room. Yet now that it was brought to her attention... the thought of being interrupted after finally working up the courage to speak with Aiko made her skin crawl. "Yes," she agreed. "Yes, I think that is a good idea. Let's head upstairs." Upstairs to her bedroom. Not a guest bedroom but _her_ bedroom. With a lock she could use at any time and spells she could cast at will without fear of negation. Not Aoshima's room. Not a room that had no lock. Not a room that she did not feel safe in. _Safe._ Now there was a term she'd never attributed to on area before. _My room is 'safe'._

Aiko nodded. "Let's go, then."

Together the two women departed for the second floor, and when they passed the living room only one person noticed. Belldandy waved Skuld back when the woman looked up at her in curiosity, and when her younger sister frowned, she brought a finger to her lips. For a brief moment she feared the younger Norn would follow after, uninterested as she was in the ongoing interactions with the others. She moved to rise, and Belldandy shook her head, urging her to stay with the others and sending a silent prayer that the young woman didn't draw their attention.

Finally, after a moment of internal debate, Skuld settled back down into her spot near the end of the Ugly Beast, though she still looked displeased. Belldandy mouthed a silent thank-you, and together she and Aiko ascended the staircase, followed only by Lind's increasingly frustrated snarls as once more, her avatar was struck down by a large lizard made of crystal. They proceeded into Belldandy's room un-harassed, and Belldandy shut the door behind her with a sigh. For a moment she considered locking it, then decided against it and instead went to the window, opening it and allowing the night breeze to hit her face. It felt cool against her skin, but she felt a small draft of warmth that hinted at the summer yet to come. _It'll be a hot one,_ she thought, and frowned. There was a rancid odor to that breeze, one that played havoc on her nerves and made her want to retch.

Instead the goddess shut her eyes and grimaced, ignoring the sickly-sweet scent of... carrion. That was a carcass she was smelling, and an old one, too. Perhaps a deer carcass, or maybe even a bear. Something that had been left out and improperly stored, or perhaps forgotten by some predator that'd been chased from its kill. _Like a wolf's den,_ she thought. _That bodes ill._ Belldandy didn't like wolves. They bore with them too many ill omens. She could handle corvids and serpents, bears and 'tigers', yet Belldandy drew the line with wolves. It had been a wolf that had taken her father's hand and it was a pack of wolves that threatened to devour the Sol and Mani even as now, they were chased endlessly across the sky, never allowed to rest for fear of being caught and consumed.

The bed behind her groaned, and Belldandy turned to look back at Aiko. The woman had moved to sit near the foot of the bed, and was watching her with intent eyes. She had a small brown teddy bear in one hand, dressed in a sailor's crackerjack blue uniform whose color was dull and faded with time. It's nose was beaten into an old, leather husk of what once was, and there were areas on its uniform that had been torn and carefully sewn back together with the unskilled hands of a child. She stared at it, forgetting the scents at the window, and Aiko sent her a sheepish smile.

"Sorry," she said. "It's silly, I know, but I need Keiichi with me whenever I talk about this stuff in length." She hugged the bear to her chest, and Belldandy frowned.

"But... Keiichi is downstairs." The woman's brows scrunched up in confusion, still eyeing the old stuffed bear. Hadn't Keiichi mentioned something about a bear for Aiko?

The woman on the bed shook her head. " _Kei_ is downstairs," she said. "Keiichi's here with me." She tapped the bear's sailor hat in emphasis. "It's, um..." She scowled, looking down at the bear. Taking a deep breath, she continued. "Nothing leaves this room, right?"

"Yes," Belldandy agreed, and nodding to herself Aiko continued.

"Right, so..." Again she scowled. "I'm just gonna come right out and say it. I blamed Keiichi a lot for my rape." She took a deep breath and held a hand up as Belldandy's jaw dropped in surprise. "Hear me out before you judge, then tell me if any of it sounds familiar, okay?" She stared down at her bear, playing with a frayed seam on the little bear's coat. The girl bit her lip. "So... first off, let me say this. I love Keiichi. I adore him. He's my big brother, this awesome guy who's in the military doing cool things like jumping out of planes and kicking ass. He was already a grown man before I was even ten, and I grew up idolizing him because our parents were proud of him, Megumi was proud of him, and so in my mind, he was pretty much a hero, you know? Just that cool older sibling you looked up to and wanted to be just like. That person that you listened to and followed and emulated in the hopes of turning out just as cool as him."

Aiko fell silent, her gaze long and distant as she continued to play with the seam. "He was my hero," she repeated. "And... when I needed him most, he was gone." She looked at Belldandy, and the goddess flinched at the pain that dwelt in her eyes. Even now, a woman grown and well past the events of her childhood, the wound was still a visible scar that managed to hurt. Maybe without the same severity of an open, infected sore, but when the weather was bad, perhaps, or nightmares ran prevalent, the scar still throbbed.

"I was raped," she said. "Nine years old. Didn't even know what sex was. 'Fuck' was just a word my friends would sometimes whisper and giggle at when we were certain no one was listening. Stuart... the one who-who did it, was a friend. He was always 'Uncle Stu' to me and Megumi, and he'd always bring us treats or toys whenever he dropped by our house for a visit. Sometimes he'd stop by our school when work kept Takano and Keima busy, and sometimes he'd offer us a ride home so we wouldn't have to walk the three miles separating our house from the nearest school. Sometimes... especially when Keiichi was still in high school... sometimes Kei would be with him too, and during those times Megumi would say 'yeah sure' and the two of us would climb in together. Megumi would always walk from her school over to mine to walk me home, and once... once she told me not to get in with Stuart when he was alone or with a stranger. And for the most part, I listened. But with guys like him... it only takes one time, one opportunity for them to strike, and they'll wait for it for years if that's what it takes."

Again Aiko fell silent, and feeling her heart go out to her, Belldandy moved to join her on the bed. "You ever hear of something called 'Murphy's Law', Belldandy?" She glanced over at the woman in question, who shook her head. "You might have another name for it. It's an adage, a saying we have. One that states, in laymen's terms, 'anything that can go wrong, will go wrong', and usually all at once." She looked back down at her bear. "Keima and Takano were working overtime. They wanted to earn enough money for the family trip up to see Kei graduate Basic, but the current funds we had were a little low at the time. Megumi, my older sister who was in high school at the time, was helping out as well at a part-time job, and Deb, a family friend, was in a study group back at the high school." She sighed. "I didn't have a cell phone back then-those were still considered a new thing by my folks, and they weren't about to spend money on a burner phone just for a ride home. And that was okay. I grew up with that, and the thought of calling someone for a ride or even asking a teacher for help never crossed my mind when it started to rain after school." She made a face. "Hell, I could have even waited it out at a youth center for Deb or Megumi to finish and come pick me up, but..."

"Murphy's Law?" Belldandy suggested.

Aiko nodded. "Yeah," she whispered. "Murphy's Law. So I stuck out my lip and delt with it, because that's how we were raised, and I started to walk home. And it wasn't a drizzle, Belldandy. It was a downpour. I was soaked to the bone fifteen minutes into the walk back, and I remember feeling where a blister was starting to form on my right heel from where it rubbed against the shoe with each step." She laughed, and it sounded bitter. "It's funny, the stupid things we remember, right?"

Belldandy said nothing.

"So it was around that time that I heard a honk from behind me, and here I am thinking to myself, 'oh thank god, It's Megumi or Debra or maybe even Keima, and instead who comes to pull up beside me but none other than Uncle Stu himself, all by his lonesome. 'What are you doing out in the rain?' he asked me. 'You'll catch a chill! Hop on in and I'll take you home.'" She shrugged, and it came across as resigned. "I wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth," she said. "Megumi's words never even came back to me until later, and by then we were so close to home that I figured, 'one time can't hurt'. But it did. It hurt a lot."

Her voice faded into a whisper, and the girl clutched 'Teddy-Keiichi' tighter. "But... he took me home, just like he said he would, and... well... no one was home. And why would they? Everyone was busy at work. But I had a house key for these kinds of situations, even if Stuart-" She stopped and blinked, and perhaps in the light of the room Aiko's eyes appeared a bit brighter than before. "Stuart didn't, but he was a family friend. Uncle Stu, who took me home after I was chilled to the bone and wanted to make sure I was good and dry before heading out. Nothing strange about it, sounded perfectly logical to nine-year old me, so come on in Mister Dracula, what would you like for dinner?"

The woman rubbed her face, then her eyes. "Sorry, allergies," she murmured. "My eyes and nose always start to run in the spring from seasonal allergies. Don't mind me if you hear a sniff or two." She visibly swallowed before continuing. "He sent me up to my room. 'Change into something dry and I'll put some tea on the stove to help warm you up.' Okay, sure, nothing strange there. And so I went upstairs and did just like he told me to, but..." She bit her lip. "I only had a shirt on when he came in. 'I just want to check up on you,' he said." She cleared her throat. "And, well... I'll spare you the details but... yeah. That's how it happened."

She spoke in a rush, blasting through the rape itself as quickly as she could without skipping it. "But... well, it was awful, because the entire time, I kept-I kept." She stopped herself and took several long, deep breaths. "When I started to feel scared. That, that something was wrong... I told myself, 'it's okay, Keiichi will come. It's okay, Keiichi will save me'. Because Keiichi was my hero, my older brother. Keiichi was always there for me, and he wouldn't let anything bad happen to me." She shook her head, drawing her legs up to her chest and resting her chin on her knees. "But he never showed. He never showed up, and so... at some point it was no longer 'Keiichi will save me' but 'where is Keiichi', and then, later still, 'why'." She looked at Belldandy, tired and sad all at once. "I learned some hard truths that day. Truths that the little girl from back then wasn't ready to handle."

For all the words she spoke, her cheeks remained dry, the tears left unshed. "I blamed Keiichi for that, a long time ago. Because I couldn't handle it. Because I didn't want to admit that something bad happened to me, and I was the victim of opportunity for a-a predator. A wolf that chewed me up and spat me out like red riding hood without a huntsman to save her. It's all lies, I know that now, but back then... at that time..." She sighed and rubbed at her eyes again. "Damn allergies," she sniffed. "When he brought me this silly old thing, I remember thinking to myself 'this will be Keiichi from now on. And my brother is Kei, because he won't always be there for me." She stared down at the bear and sighed. "A therapist had to tell me this, but the me from way back then was trying to get rid of the association between Keiichi and the event. So Keiichi became 'Kei' and the bear became 'Keiichi', who'd always be there for me to cry on or scream at or hug or throw; something for me to love or abuse without hurting anyone else."

Belldandy stared at the woman before her, then drew her into a tentative hug. For a moment it seemed that Aiko would resist. That she would pull away on the grounds that she was fine or perhaps that she didn't need to be comforted. That she was supposed to be the strong one for Belldandy's sake, as she'd worked through her issues whereas Belldandy was only just now ready to touch on the subject. Yet she didn't, and with a sigh, leaned into the woman's embrace.

For a moment they were silent, and in the quiet of the evening Belldandy heard the gentle sounds of nightlife as nocturnal creatures went about their business. Owls, insects, the occasional croak of a raven or crow, and if she listened carefully, even the long howl of something that might have been a dog, might have been a coyote, and whispered to Belldandy of a wolf crying a lonesome tune.

"I believe I understand what you're telling me," Belldandy murmured, recalling the start of her own event with some difficulty and feeling her throat threaten to lock up as a consequence. "On the reason why..." Her voice trailed off, and she could feel a bubble in her throat, a bubble that she knew would lodge there and make her voice tremble and break, like that old and beaten car that Aiko had somehow driven from North Carolina and up into Virginia. Yet Aiko didn't rush her. Perhaps the woman knew how difficult it was to start a tale, especially one of such length and complexity as Belldandy's.

The Norn closed her eyes and sighed. _You can do this._ Some tiny little piece of her whispered in the depths of her mind. _Aiko opened up to you without expectation. She spoke with you, a stranger she knows not, and touched on the most innermost feelings that dwelt in her heart without fear of your judgment. You. A goddess. One with power and strength insurmountable. And here you sit beside her, unable to voice a single sentence? Are you truly so weak?_

 _Will you let Aoshima's memory control you so fully?_

The thought made her stiffen, made her breath in sharply, and caused Aiko to look up at her in concern. _Concern for you, not herself,_ that voice told her. _Speak now, or forever hold your peace._

Belldandy closed her eyes. "I... I was working at what, in your language, translates to the 'Goddess Relief Office' when... 'Murphy's Law', as you so dubbed it, played it's game with me. We... I am one who grants wishes to people of worth, and... I had been waiting on your brother's call to summon me in meeting." The woman glanced at her companion, finding Aiko watching her with an unreadable expression. "He was..." She chewed on her lower lip, searching for the words with which to describe Keiichi's candidacy. Such a thing was a sensitive subject for mortals, and generally discouraged from speaking on in the Midgard, yet she felt that Aiko needed some sort of background, to be able to come from a point of familiarity and understanding where Belldandy could better communicate her experiences. "I will not go in-depth on what qualifies for a candidate, but... Keiichi was one we had been watching for many a year, and after following his life for so long, I was... eager to meet him."

The woman sighed and closed her eyes. "We commune with those deemed fit for our blessing via some form of earthly communication. A pigeon or falcon that is one of us in disguise, a telegraph diverted through the carelessness of its operator, a wrong phone number that connects us to our clients... whatever is the regular of that society's time frame. A rider on horseback? We are the rider. A spy with intelligence? We are that spy. It is our duty to adapt with the community and find a way to communicate with that person we are to meet, and during my last day at the-the GRO, I was awaiting your brother to call a wrong number."

"I cannot describe to you the amount of... anticipation I felt while awaiting that call. The GRO is a difficult position, even amongst ourselves, for as more and more time passes it grows increasingly difficult to follow a candidate through the initial screening process and into the main line. All too often an event happens that destroys the eligibility, and for many, the candidates they followed were lost through some misfortune or mishap. Because of that, we cherish the ones who manage to maintain their eligible state, and Keiichi was... well, I thought he was special even before his period of influence was pushed back."

The goddess fell silent, her gaze long and thoughtful. "Perhaps... perhaps my enthusiasm to meet Keiichi was what led to my own downfall." She smiled, and it was long and forlorn. Lost even. "I received a call. A 'wrong number', as you would say, and I had been so eager, so certain it was Keiichi that I was shocked when the data of the person on the other end was not one I recognized." She scowled. "I remember reading the name that appeared to me and the confusion that befell me. Who was this man? This..." She grit her teeth, than spat the name out like a wad of phlegm. "Toshiyuki Aoshima." She grimaced, then continued. "He was not one of mine. Was he a candidate for someone else? Someone who was absent during his period of influence and had been fed down the chain to another goddess?" She shook her head. "We have a... process that must be followed when we receive an unknown candidate. Each one is assigned a case number, yet this man... this 'Aoshima', had what surmounted to an error code."

The woman pinched the bridge of her nose, squeezing her eyes tight. "I was a fool." She confessed. "A strange candidate with an error code calling upon us? When no one knew his name or had access to a case file? The warnings were there. All of them. Yet in my own anticipation over your brother's call, fearing I might miss it if I dallied any longer... I forwent the procedures we were to follow for such a circumstance and descended to meet him."

"Come into my parlor said the spider to the fly," Aiko muttered off-hand, and after a moment's pause, Belldandy inclined her head in agreement.

"Yes. Unfortunately," she said. "I... scared him upon appearing to him. Looking back on that now, I wonder if perhaps I should have... ah, what is the saying you have? Ah yes... perhaps if, at that time, I had been wise enough to place 'the fear of god' into him, my predicament would have been more fortunate for me, but as it were..."

"Do gods working in this... 'GRO' normally scare the pants off people?" Aiko asked.

"At first, yes," Belldandy nodded. "And for some of the more... hmm... _aggressive_ would be a good word for it-for the more aggressive deities, they have no qualms of terrifying their clients." She shook her head. "But I have never enjoyed such things, and so upon my descent my immediate reaction had been to alleviate his fears." Her mind drifted back to the terror on Aoshima's face upon her first meeting, and how it had grown near mindless until she'd soothed him. Then curious. Then... _hungry._ "Perhaps, if I was to count, that was my second mistake. A man does not stab a tiger unless he knows it cannot hurt him, and during that time I could almost see his mind playing at the prospect of a wish for himself." She grimaced, and the breath she drew in held a shuddering tremor to it. "There are... reasons that we watch our candidates so closely. Granting a wish to the wrong person could lead to disastrous results, and that man... Aoshima, he..."

All at once Aoshima's leering face returned to her. Even now, his face was still a strong and malignant phantom in her mind, and when he spoke it was as if he was standing right in front of her. _"You belong to me now. Mind. Body. Soul._ Everything _."_ The Norn broke into a cold sweat, releasing Aiko in favor of wrapping her arms around herself. Her heart began to race, and a creeping terror crawled up her spine, raising the hair on the nape of her neck as the woman buried her face in her arms. Aiko reached out to her, concerned, yet somehow sensing the student's intent Belldandy stopped her, raising a hand sharply and gesturing her back. She instead sucked in a shallow, rasping gasp, where it tore from her throat in a harsh bellow. Her fingernails dug half-moon grooves into the flesh of her arm, and Belldandy concentrated on the small jabs of pain they brought with all her might.

 _I belong to no man,_ she told the voice. _I am my own person, and you are less than a ghost._ She peered up past her arms, glaring into the room and out towards the window. _Even Mani's wolves have more substance than you. Begone you pitiful, soulless bastard._

 _You're a slave._ Aoshima's voice was starting to fade. _Even if you don't want to admit it. A slave to me, just like those kids, and now a slave to your memories. But hey, what the fuck do I know? We're all a slave to something..._

Belldandy blinked and shuddered, and the remnants of Aoshima left her from where she sat on the bed. Her heart was racing a mile a minute, and she focused on the window, going through the exercise Keiichi had taught her to help slow it down. When it had slowed enough to where Belldandy thought she could go on, she continued. "He enslaved me. 'A goddess to do with as he pleased for all eternity'. That was it. His wish."

Aiko sucked in a sharp breath, recoiling. "He-"

The goddess nodded. "It was every bit as bad as it sounded," she admitted. "And when I called for aid... to verify the wish was valid, hoping, _praying_ that it had failed, I discovered that it had gone through. Yggdrasil, the World Tree... the very system I monitor and watch over with my sisters... an entity I thought I knew as well as my family had-had..." She trailed off, blinking. Her eyes were starting to burn, much to her surprise, and here she'd not even touched upon the atrocities her ex-husband had yet committed against her. She swallowed and tried to go on, yet found she was unable to as a wave of unwelcome grief fell over her, drowning any more attempts to continue.

She shook her head, and Aiko wrapped her arms around her in a hug. She was a small enough woman that such was a trial for her, and so the young college student leaned into her, rubbing her back in a gesture of comfort. "Let's stop there for now," Aiko decided. "I think I might have underestimated how large your story is."

Belldandy nodded wordlessly, biting the inside of her cheek so hard that she tasted copper. "I will tell you." Her voice came out a thin rasp, one so heavy with strain and emotion it was unrecognizable to Belldandy's ears. "I need to."

"Wow, hang on a moment here." Aiko's voice was soft, but scolding. "You don't _need_ to tell me anything. Not if you don't want to. If you want, we can stop all this right here and leave it at that."

Belldandy looked at her in a mixture of surprise and confusion. The look on Aiko's face was one of wary trepidation and experience, and the goddess shook her head. "You misunderstand," she said. "I... I need to speak on this subject." Her voice was growing a little stronger now, though it still wavered in her throat. "I must. If for no other sake than my own. But I cannot- _will not_ speak of it with Keiichi. Nor my sisters." She took in several deep breaths, willing her voice to be stronger. "They-they do not understand. They cannot come from a place of empathy for me... and I fear my words would drive them to misplaced guilt."

"Right. Right, I-I understand," Aiko said. "And I'll listen!" she exclaimed. "I'll listen... just... you know, so long as you're willing to talk to a silly mortal with dyed hair that may not fully grasp the whole... 'goddess' thing. I'll listen for as long as you want, but... you need a therapist, Belldandy."

"A what?" Belldandy twisted to observe her in confusion.

Aiko frowned. "A therapist. Someone who...I guess a doctor for the psyche?" she tried. "Do you guys... have someone like that where you're from?"

"A doctor... do you mean a healer?" Belldandy asked. "A divinity of the 'third-category'? A Tic?" Aiko stared at her blankly, and Belldandy pursed her lips. "We do have-they are of the 'third-category' sect. Those deities who care for the weak and ill or those who fall to misfortune."

"Do you have a..." Aiko waved her hands about, searching for the proper words. "A... 'mind-healer', maybe?" she ventured. "Because... I'll be honest, Belldandy, you need professional help. I'm a college student with a major in computer technology and a minor in finance. I... was raped, and I can relate to you and listen, but... I can't help you. Not in the way you need." She stared at the goddess with earnest, worried eyes. "That's not to say I don't _want_ to!" She said quickly. "I do! I really do, with all my heart, because you went through some horrible shit just like me, and it's something no one should have to deal with. But the extent of my capability to help you is limited."

"A healer..." For a moment Belldandy's gaze grew distant and thoughtful. "The thought has not occurred to me." She admitted. "I..." She pursed her lips and hummed. "I will broach the subject to Skuld and Lind before they return home."

Aiko sighed with open relief.

"But until then... will you allow me to speak with you on the subject?" Belldandy looked over to the younger woman, and Aiko nodded with fresh vigor. The goddess smiled, and with it came a sense of relief that was almost profound in its sheer strength. "Thank you, Aiko."

"Thank _you_." Aiko said in turn. "For trusting me. You know. With your story." She looked down, where the little Navy teddy bear still rested in her lap. "It takes a lot of willpower to open up to someone, especially if it's a topic like this," she whispered. "And you're trusting me-some crazy girl you barely know, and a _human_ at that-with something like this." She steeled her face. "I won't let that trust go to waste, Belldandy. That's a promise. From me to you, that's a promise."

Belldandy regarded Aiko in silence, for a moment at a loss as to what to say. _Mortals truly are a group of strange creatures, s_ he thought, and despite herself her mind thought back to Aoshima and his posse, then to his work associates among the Yakuza and even the guards and servants who interacted with Belldandy herself. She thought of Keiichi and his accepting, welcome behavior, and of his team with their loud and boisterous personalities. And here was Aiko, who fit in amongst that same class, staring at her with a determined and decided expression on her face.

All at once Belldandy's face broke out into a smile, and a strange noise rose from her chest; perhaps a laugh, perhaps a sob, perhaps a mixture of both. She grabbed the girl in a tight embrace that spoke of more joy than comfort, and with a startled yelp the two of them fell back on the bed, dissolving into a fit of giggles and laughter as the sober moment was broken.

 _I will overcome this._ Belldandy thought to herself, giggling and laughing next to a young college woman with short cropped blue hair. _Not alone, no, but together. With these strange people I might see as 'friends'. With these strangers I might know as family._

 _My family. My friends. My life._

And deep within her breast, something forgotten began to stir.

* * *

 **A/N - A quick explanation on the "Third Category". We know that with the Gods, First and Second categories are the Administrative and Commercial groups and Special Duty are the military types, such as the Valkyries, I did not think it was appropriate that Gods who are healers have one of the currently known categories, hence the Third Category was hatched. Nena supplied the nickname for this group.**

* * *

 _Comments of a Madwoman: Never underestimate what can be achieved with something as simple as a little human compassion and empathy. Be kind to those who come seeking to open up, as the internal war they rage is difficult for them to overcome and to share with another person._


	18. Chapter 18 - Sgt Pepper's Lonely Heart

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 **Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band**  
 _"Tired are your splendid soldiers_  
 _Tired are they,_  
 _Here they go,"_  
 _-Fall Into Me, Alev Lenz_

-18-

"So it sounds like the move Sheila used on you was the _De La Riva,"_ Brian peered over at Lind from the counter banister of his kitchen, two wine glasses in hand which he set down. "It's a bit more advanced than the moves I was showing you. It's still possible to counter it, though we'll need to speak with Angel for advice. The _De La Riva_ is one of Angel's favorites, but then, he grew up learning BJJ, so for him even the most advanced moves come easily to him," The man popped the cork off a wine bottle and then slowly poured the contents into the waiting decanter that was sitting in the sink. He glanced back over his shoulder at Lind when the bottle he was holding was empty. "He was the one who really got us all into it, in all honesty. Keiichi's okay, but he has some Judo experience, something about his father passing down a family art, and grappling on his back is some kind of big 'no-no' for him since Judo is more about being on top of an opponent rather than beneath them. He says it feels unnatural to him,"

"I can relate," Lind muttered. Sitting on a backed wooden barstool, she watched as the SEAL picked the decanter out of the sink, swirled the contents around a bit, then started pouring them each a glass of red wine. "We are taught to remain on our feet at all times in combat. Find a stick, find a wall, find _something_ to lean on or place your back against, because as soon as you fall, you lose the advantage," The man handed her a glass, and Lind accepted it with a courteous nod, her eyes straying to her surroundings as the man turned towards the steaks.

Brian Jackson's house was a small home that held a level of tidiness to it that spoke of habit rather than a rush clean. It was a single story house, located in Naval Station Norfolk's residential area. It was almost tiny in comparison to Keiichi's large house, yet something about the way Brian had decorated it had left Lind with an immediate cozy feeling upon entry. Picture frames of what she assumed were family and friends decorated the walls side-by-side with tapestries from what the Valkyrie assumed were the locations he'd deployed to: Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, and even India and Nepal intermingled with traditional art pieces ranging in style from Thailand to Korea, Japan and Burma, Indonesia and the Philippines. Vases decorated with colorful patterns rested beside long lines of hard and soft copy books, and in the living room's threshold ornamental _janbiya_ hung from sheaths adorned in silver and precious gems.

In the kitchen, a shelf with a glass frame rested a long row of German beer steins of decorated complexity, with Russian dolls of a bright red sitting in the shelf above from where they beamed at her. Long garlands of small, red peppers dangled from a wire mesh basket filled with apples and oranges, pears and bananas, onions and tomatoes. Magnets that declared various country names lined the small, white fridge located in the kitchen's center, and mugs hung from hooks that had been inserted beneath upper-level shelves, dangling and displaying pictures and catchphrases and art that had been printed onto their porcelain surfaces.

The entire atmosphere of the house spoke of a man well-traveled, and a part of Lind admired Brian for his freedom; though she was a deity herself, travel was limited as a Valkyrie due to the armistice between Asgard and Niflheim. Deployments were always lying in wait to the DMZ that comprised the borderlands between the two realms, and those areas were at times the most dangerous, for they crossed the 'Wasteland'. An area once ripe with vegetation and forest, the First and Second Interspecies War between gods, demons, and even allied jotun and spirits, had turned the area to a vast desert. It was in such a location that the DMZ and surrounding borders grew slim, their lines blurry, and in such a location that fire fights often erupted from god and demon alike, both uncertain on where their territory started but certain the other party was wrong.

Even now, though she was relieved from deployments due to her 'Special Duty' monitoring Urd, she found travel difficult, if only for the fact that she was limited to wherever Urd went. _You could always pull an 'Urd'._ Cool Mint joked in her head. _You know, go out investigating something, stumble upon a can of worms with 'demon' written all over it, over-react and bring out your tendee manifestation, get yourself banished from Asgard for a couple centuries...then you'd have all the time in the world to travel!_

Cool Mint had a sense of humor. Lind was still uncertain what to think of that.

"Pepper?"

Lind looked up sharply. "What did you say?"

Brian stared back at her in confusion. "I was asking if you wanted some pepper," he held up a little glass jar filled with large black peppercorns. "Some people aren't much for the spice so I figured I'd ask before adding it to the steaks." The man raised an eyebrow. "You good? You look real pale all a' sudden,"

"Fine," Lind snapped, then recoiled at her own tone. "Sorry, I just-I'm fine. I... I misheard you, is all,"

Brian frowned, still uncertain. "If I said anything to insult you, I apologize. It wasn't intentional,"

Lind was quick to shake her head. "No, no, it wasn't anything you said. I was... distracted. I thought you said something else."

Brian watched her a moment longer. "If you're sure…" he said, then turned back to the steaks he'd brought in five minutes before. "So tell me about yourself! You're from Greenland, right? What's it like up there?"

Lind thought back to the quick research she'd done through Yggdrasil's archives covering the Midgard country. The woman had been surprised to learn that it was connected to the frost giant's realm of Jotunheim by some small portal buried under the tundra. Lind had been born in Jotenheim and actually had a bit of jotun blood in her veins, which was what some in her unit liked to joke was the source of her insane strength. _Maybe she's born with it. Maybe it's giantsblood._ "Cold," Lind said, rousing herself from her thoughts as she caught Brian glance back at her. "And dark more often than not,"

Brian snorted. "Yeah, coming from a tundra landscape, I guess you could call it cold." He smiled at her. "Greenland's close to the Arctic Circle though, right?" he asked. "That close, don't you have sunlight at weird times?" He gathered two plates with a pair of large, T-bone steaks over to the counter top.

"Summer's midnight sun," Lind agreed, recalling her own childhood with Sol's chariot always skating the horizon as she made her run. "And then winter comes and we see sunlight for three, maybe four hours every day,"

"Damn." Both of Brian's eyebrows rose in surprise. "And you grew up with that?"

Lind nodded. "There were times we couldn't leave the house because the snowdrifts were so bad," She confessed. "People could get lost in the storms, where they could have died to anything: exposure, walking off a cliff, falling into the ocean, even being consumed by beasts if they sought shelter in the wrong cave,"

"Shit." Brian winced. "God damn. You gotta be tough to grow up in a place like that,"

"I supposed..." Lind trailed off, hearing a strange pounding from the far wall of the living room. She looked in the direction the noise was coming from, frowning as a hearty 'thump' came through the wall.

"Yeah, sorry about that. The walls in on-base housing are pretty thin and my neighbors can get a little loud on the weekends." Lind looked back to Brian, who waved off the noise. "These houses aren't in the best condition. Military contracts and lowest paying bidder and all that jazz."

"Right. I see..." The woman flinched as another heavy _thump_ collided with the wall, followed by a low scratching that sounded almost as though something was skittering against the wall. It made the hair on her arms stand on end. Then came a low, muffled voice from the other end of the wall, and the noise faded as the person on the other side moved away.

"If the housing is so bad, why don't you live off-base like Ja- Keiichi?" Lind asked.

Brian shrugged. "Convenience, mostly," he confessed. "I'm a lone man with a big paycheck most days, and I don't really feel like moving off into the woods where there's housing available thirty minutes from base. Plus it's easier to just drive ten minutes from my place to the office every morning." The man took a sip from his wine glass, the atmosphere between the two of them amiable. "So how long have you known Sh- Urd?" he asked. "We've known her for going on five years now and still know jack shit about her. She's a pretty tight lipped lady, from what I can tell."

 _That makes two of us,_ Lind thought, taking a sip of her own drink and fighting off a grimace. The wine was too sweet for her liking. "I suppose close to ten years now?" she said, drumming her fingers against the tile of the countertop. "She is... a difficult person to deal with," the woman said. "But what of yourself?" she asked, trying to divert the subjects away from herself and any other divinities. "You've said little of your own story."

"My own story, huh?" Brian chuckled. "Not much to tell, really. Grew up in Boston, Massachusetts with an older sister and a younger brother. Dad was a cop, got shot by a thug during a response to a gang fight and died on the spot. Mom ended up working two jobs to support us. She wouldn't even let my older sister drop out of high school to help her. Neighborhood started taking a nose dive as the local gangs got bigger and Mom told us to GTFO as soon as we graduated high school. I went to a Marine recruitment center the day after I graduated. It was closed though, and by chance a Navy recruiter saw me and called me over. He got me to sign on the dotted line and a week later I was going through MEPs and then on a plane to Great Lakes. And here I am now." He waved a hand around him, gesturing to his house.

"When that SEAL recruiter talked to us early in Boot Camp, I was hooked. As soon as I made rate, I volunteered. Since then, I been all over the place. Done my time and more in the Middle East, seen a hearty chunk of Asia, been stationed in Italy, even did a tour or two in Africa. About the only places I haven't gone has been is South America and Antarctica, and one I'm planning on backpacking through and the other's too cold for me to care,"

"So you've been all over the world?" Lind asked, her own curiosity peaked.

"Yeah, I guess you could say that." The man smiled in reflection. "I enjoy traveling and learning about other cultures. Every place is just as different as it is alike, and everyone's got a story to tell if you bother to sit and listen. That's why I was asking about Greenland. The farthest North I've ever been has been Alaska to visit some buddies a' mine, and that was in the summer season where there wasn't any snow. Bunch of mosquitoes, yeah, hell _all_ the mosquitoes, but nothing like the snow drifts or crazy storms like you were describing,"

"A traveled man with many of his own stories." Lind sent him a sidelong glance. "And you choose to converse with a woman who picked up knitting in her youth for no other reason than to keep herself from killing her family members during the stormy season."

The SEAL laughed, and Lind felt her cheeks grow hot. "Hey now, don't be like that!" Brian cried. "Ain't nothing wrong with knitting. You want to know something weird about me? I can play the clarinet. Like, real good. Mom paid for lessons for me when Dad was still alive and everything." His smile was embarrassed, and on such a large man like Brian it was endearing. "I, uh, even thought about majoring in music in college when I was still a kid. You know, get so good you can play in an orchestra at an opera house? That was a... thing, back in the day,"

Lind took that moment to observe Brian, taking in everything from his dark brown skin of his bald head straight down to the thick, neat beard that covered his chin in tight ringlets. Even now he presented an intimidating figure. A large, tank of a man who had to be well over two hundred fifty pounds of muscle on the closer edge to three hundred. His biceps strained against the violet dress shirt he wore whenever he bent his arms. The Valkyrie tried to picture him playing a clarinet in an opera house to a conductor's dancing hands. The picture wouldn't manifest. The SEAL winced. "Ah, come on, don't look at me like that!" he cried. "It's not _that_ weird,"

 _No stranger than a rough and tough Valkyrie who knits._ One of her angels whispered in her mind, yet at the moment Lind was too distracted to bother differentiating between which they were. "You'll have to play for me some time," she said instead.

Brian made a face. "Not tonight," he said. "I'm out of practice and I need to dig the ol' girl out of storage." Then he scowled. "And only if you promise not to tell anyone else," he whispered. "Word gets out I play clarinet and Sanchez will _never_ let me live it down."

Lind thought of Urd and shuddered. "Only if you don't speak of knitting to Urd." She doubted Belldandy or even Skuld would give two shits about her being able to knit. But Urd... Urd was the type of person who would use anything and everything she learned as ammunition for later, and the idea that someone like her would start talking made her want to cringe.

"Sure-"

" _Help me if you can, I'm feeling down,_  
 _And I do appreciate you being 'round._  
 _Help me get my feet back on the ground_  
 _Won't you please, please help me?"_

Lind jumped as the song emerged from one of Brian's pockets, followed by a series of consecutive hums. Brian swore. "Fuck. Sorry, pardon me, that's McGuinness, my boss. I need to take this real fast," The man excused himself to the neighboring room, and Lind watched him go, a strong feeling of _déjà vu_ engulfing her.

 _I know that song from somewhere._ She thought. _That tune..._ Without thinking, she began to hum softly to herself. She didn't know the words to it, but the tune... the _tune_... something about... "Mist," she breathed. "Mist used to hum that song." Her heart seized as though gripped by a vice, and the woman leaned onto the kitchen counter, gripping the porcelain tiles with such strength they cracked. _Mist knew that song. Mist and-_

 _(yOu knOw thAt SoNg tOO?)_

With a gasp Lind stood at once, for a moment forgetting where she was. A strange, sudden feeling of claustrophobia enveloped the goddess, and the woman looked around, the edges of her vision dancing with the black spots the proceeded tunnel vision. It felt like the walls were moving towards her. Trapping her. Forcing her into a corner with an opponent she couldn't see but could sense. _Calm down._ Spear or Cool? _That was ages ago, calm down._ Which one? _That thing was killed._ Could they sense it? _The base was demolished._ Did they know the danger it brought? _Mist and the others are back home. There's nothing here but you and a mortal._

Except there wasn't. There _wasn't_. There was something else here, in the room with her, dancing just on the edge of her vision ( _hallucinations)_ and she could hear its talons scratching on the wall ( _you're hearing things)_ and it was _behind her_ and-

The Valkyrie grabbed the chair stool and whirled to face her opponent, bringing the stool up to defend herself.

The space behind her was empty. Just like she knew it would be.

 _You're overreacting. See? Nothing there. Put the stool down before Brian comes back._ Spear Mint. It was Spear Mint, she was certain.

But was it really?

How did she know? It could imitate voices and pass them off as its own in an effort to get her guard down. She'd seen it. She'd _experienced_ it. _It's a trap._ She thought. _It's trying to get my guard down. Cool Mint, where are you?_

 _I'm right here. Right here with Spear Mint. We're both here. We're both fine. Nothing is here aside from you and Brian. You're_ safe _Lind._

She was _safe_? How could they say that? How could they _believe_ that after everything she'd gone through? _I know what I sensed._ She threw back. _Spear Mint, you know it too. How can you be so calm?!_

 _You aren't looking to reason, that's why._ Spear Mint scolded. You _'re having a panic attack because of a random occurrence that has no relation to your past. Calm yourself and put the stool down._

 _Yeah._ Cool Mint chirped. _Calm yo' tities. You're panting like a dog in the summer, but there's nothing here. We're_ alone _Lind._

Was she? The woman glanced around her once more, taking the time to scrutinize her surroundings. Brian's voice was a low, continuous murmur in the hallway, and one who sounded unconcerned with the idea that there might be something else in the house with them. Doubt began to creep up the back of her neck. Had she been wrong? Was there really nothing in the house with them? _Why would there be?_ How _could there be? You would have seen more signs of it by now if that were the case._ With some reluctance Lind put the stool back down, glancing at the cracked porcelain next to it without recognition. When had the counter tiles cracked? Had that been her action or the deed of something else? What was _wrong_ with her?

The woman tugged on the long strand of hair that was her _Shi Baku,_ biting her lower lip with dismay. While the tug was comforting, the Valkyrie was still troubled. Lind's memories that had so warranted a _Shi Baku_ were fragmented and blurry; something the Tics claimed was her mind's attempt at protecting itself from what she'd experienced. _They also said that an outside event could trigger a memory._ She recalled.

But there wasn't any memory, right? Just- _sounds_. Voices. Noises. Nothing from that actual time.

"Hey, sorry about that." Brian emerged from the other room, and startled, Lind wheeled to face him. "That was-" He stopped mid-step, eyebrows shooting up in surprise as he saw the expression on her face. "Hey, are you alright?" he asked in concern. "What happened?"

 _Out. Now._ Spear Mint whispered. _Bathroom._

 _Bathroom._ Cool Mint agreed.

"Bathroom." Lind stormed past the large man, brushing against his shoulder. He stumbled back, but Lind didn't give him a second glance, rushing further down the hallway and towards the bathroom the SEAL had pointed out to her earlier in the evening. The hallway lights were off, and in the darkness Lind thought she saw the tail of something large and ominous slither into the master bedroom. She froze, her heart in her throat, and then the lights flipped on.

Nothing.

"Lind, what's wrong?" Brian asked behind her, and this time she turned so fast her elbow bumped against the wall. The man reached for her, and she backpedaled, hearing a quick and rapid thrum in her ears. "Wow, hey, easy." The man held his hands up, as though trying to prove he was harmless. "What's going on? Did something happen? What did you do?"

"Nothing," Lind breathed. "Nothing, I-bathroom." She turned nearly bolted down the hallway, darting into the bathroom and almost slamming the door shut behind her. She was panting again, and against the high thrum of her pulse she almost didn't hear Brian's pounding feet as he chased after her. She leaned into the wood and locked the door, ignoring Brian's muffled concern from the hallway. _Something is wrong. Something is very, very wrong._

 _"Lind, what is going on?"_ Brian's voice almost didn't register in her mind. " _What are you afraid of?"_

She ignored him, instead slapping a hand against the wall as she groped for the light switch. She found it after a moment of searching, then moved to the small sink inside. _"Lind! What is going on?!"_ Upset now. Perhaps even a little afraid. Maybe even angry. Still, she didn't reply, and instead turned on the faucet and leaned over the sink, cupping her hands under the cold water and splashing it into her face-

 _-And she was cold and shivering lying on a stone floor that smelled of piss and shit and fear and death, and-_

A hand flew up and punched into the mirror before her, shattering it with cobweb-cracks. "No." She grit her teeth. "No. _No."_ Her shattered reflection looked drawn and pale, less like a person and more like a phantom summoned from beyond. "Calm down," she told it. "This isn't you. _Calm down_. Yet the more she tried the harder it became, somehow spawning the opposite of her intended effect. "Nothing happened. You're fine. Even the angels say your fine. _There's nothing here."_ She grit her teeth, and in the mirror her broken reflection snarled back at her, eyes bright and golden like that of a beast.

"Oh _fuck,"_ she whispered, and closed her eyes and leaned forward. "You aren't in danger," she hissed. "Stop. There's no reason for this! Calm down before you lose it, Lind!" She sucked in a deep breath, yet even that failed as a bubble of panic was swallowed with it, and the air released from her lungs came long and loud and anxious. _Help._ She cried. _Spear Mint, I need your help. Help me get this back under control,_ please _._

She didn't often call upon her angels outside of battle, but with her own internal war starting the woman found she needed all the help she could get. She didn't so much as hear as she did feel a small _click_ in her head, and when she opened her eyes again she saw they were light blue once more. Relief surged through her with such force she felt nauseous, and swallowing it down the woman dropped her gaze to the sink.

 _"Lind? Damn it, Lind, what did you do? Where are they, Lind? Answer me!"_

Brian's voice had taken on a strange, gravelly pitch to it. It was commanding, and unlike any tone she'd heard from the man before. The sound was almost unrecognizable from the man she'd been speaking with minutes earlier. Running her hands through her hair and giving the _Shi Baku_ another tug, the woman ignored him, instead moving towards the toilet and flipping the lid down, sitting on top of it as she propped her elbows on her knees and rand her hands through her hair.

The door handle jiggled. She ignored it along with Brian's cries.

"What the fuck is going on?" She whispered, leaning back and feeling something loose graze her head. The woman recoiled as though she'd touched something unpleasant, then twisted to look behind her and felt her heart skip a beat.

A chandelier.

A tiny, decorative little chandelier made of seashells, it hung suspended by a thin plastic cord. There had to be over one hundred of the tiny little shells, each as small as a fingernail. Someone had taken the precarious time to drill small holes through the delicate items, and they rested atop each other in long, spiraling columns, descending in a tight coil of drapes from the outside working inwards. The shells still maintained their original color, and as Lind examined it she saw stripes and spots, patterns and squiggles, lines and cracks upon their many surfaces.

Slowly she rose, and in that moment everything else lost significance: Brian's shouts, the rising pounding on the door, the hallucinations that had led to her anxiety, everything. Gone. But for these tiny little shells, which she reached out and grazed with a gentle, trembling hand and which tingled and cackled softly back to her. _A chandelier. I've seen this before. I know this. I know this because...because-_

Demons.

 _And the music was pounding; roars and shrieks and cries of creatures she had no name for drowning out those of her comrades. The demon pulled off the hood she was wearing and the first thing she saw was that chandelier, that fucking chandelier, so prized by demons because-_

"Seashells are prized among demons because of their rarity." She almost didn't recognize her own voice, and in the sudden silence of the bathroom, it came across as deafening.

 _"Do you like it?"_ That voice. She knew that voice. It was ( _Brian)_ the demon who'd first spoken with her. Those had been his first words and next he'd say-

" _It was a gift. From-"_

 _She needed to get out, get out, get_ out _and find her team. They took Mist and Gunnr and had dragged them off someplace else but there were three demons in the room with her and they were armed and-_

" _Tell us how you got here." The man pointed at the map hanging on the wall beside her. He was terrifying, that man. That demon. Him with the deep gravelly voice that could be kind one moment, cruel the next, turning at the flip of a switch and she wanted to leave, wanted her comrades, wanted to be free from this nightmare and- "Point it out. What direction did you come from? What is your mission here? Tell me, Lind. Tell me,"_

 _"Tell me!"_

 _She looked at the map, then back to the man, and her eyes were drawn once more to the chandelier that hung beside his desk. A fist slammed into the metal wall they'd forced her against, and she cringed back as the demon towered over her, glaring down at her with a snarl. "Did I tell you to look away from the map?" he demanded. "Did I tell you to look at_ my _desk, you sniveling piece of shit? Eyes back on the wall."_

 _She didn't move. She couldn't. She was too scared._

 _The man glowered at her, and then his face broke into a large smile. He laughed. "Can you believe this kid?" He looked back over his shoulder at the guards standing on either side of the metal door. "The brat's as dumb as she is deaf. She can't even follow simple instructions. No wonder the rest of her team ditched her. I mean, who wants to deal with a Valkyrie without so much of a scrap of discipline? That's the type of person who'll get her team killed in the field."_

 _Her eyes widened. "No, that's not-" She took a step towards him, and the demon spun and struck her. Pain blossomed in her cheek, and she fell back against the steel wall, for a moment seeing stars in place of the demon that was her interrogator._

 _"Well then you better start fucking listening then, shouldn't you!" The demon cried. "A few simple requests. 'Stand up.' 'Sit down.' 'Stand against the wall.' 'Tell us your name.' Simple shit. A fucking human could follow that without trouble, yet for some reason you have trouble with it."_

 _She looked back at the map, tears dotting the corner of her eyes. She felt overwhelmed. Scared. Alone. "I-"_

 _"No," the demon said. "Fuck the map. Look at me... LOOK AT ME!" He pinned her between his arms, and with a cry she looked back up at him. The man leaned in close. "Now, you better start shaping up, little girl, or I'm going to have to call Triple Six back. Do you want that? You know how bad that thing is, and so do I, and it hurts me, knowing I've got to leave a monster like that in here with you. I mean, you're a kid. A little girl. It's horrifying. But you just don't fucking_ listen _when I talk to you, and my boss, he tells me I have to call this thing up when you don't follow instructions." He stared down at her, eyes large and earnest, then jutted his chin towards her. "Look up."_

 _Trembling, she did as he said, and there it was in all its glory, all its horror, hanging from the ceiling like a fat and bloated maggot. Its talons dug into the plaster, holding it in place, and it stayed stationary, curled into itself,_ _looking for all the world like it was asleep_ _. As though sensing her gaze it began to stir, and one end of it dropped down, hitting the shower curtain railing and knocking it to the floor. It swayed back and forth, not so much squirming as it seemed to be stretching. Searching. She screamed and it moved towards her, observing her with no visible eyes from a fleshy carapace that held a sheen like oil in water._

 _She retreated from it, and behind her the bathroom door flew open, and there was the demon again in all his glory. "Why are you so scared?" He asked again in his gravelly voice. "I was only asking a couple of questions. What's wrong with that? Why did you feel the need to lie to me?"_

 _Like the times before she didn't answer him, and instead grabbed the chandelier from where it hung, ripping it from its lone suspension. The demon cried out in dismay, and she hurled it past him, back into the hallway where he dove after it and creating an avenue of escape for which she took advantage of. She ran out of the bathroom, and the thing behind her dropped into the bathtub before slithering out, talons skating on the porcelain floor._

 _The demon bellowed at her in the hallway; a deep gravely sound that was almost primal in nature, the shattered remains of broken seashells cradled in his large hands. "That was a gift, you wretch!" He roared. "You'll pay thrice for that!" He lunged at her and she dodged, sweeping beneath the bend of his arms and bolting down the hallway of the camp, the white plaster walls melting into cold steel as she passed cells lined with eyes, all of which watched her in naked terror. The owners of those eyes shouted to her, but if they were curses or encouragement Lind could not tell. She'd grown deaf to their words long ago._

 _"Help me!" she screamed, and the voice that emerged was that of a younger woman, one scared and injured as she fled from her pursuers. "Spear Mint, help me! Don't let them get me!" She could hear the scratching claws of the monster at her back, could hear it racing along the walls and the ceiling as it lumbered after her, and felt a defeated tear bud and trickle down her cheek. "It's going to get me! Don't let it get me! I don't want to die! I don't want to-"_

 _Something dropped in front of her. Something large and insect-like in nature. A part of it reared upwards, and a head like that of a beast glowered down at her with three sets of eyes. Long antenna tested the air as it examined her with a queer sort of intelligence, and she stopped and turned back down the hallway. "It's going to-" a horrible shriek filled the air, and she felt a familiar tug. "Spear Mint!" And then pain._

 _Pain._

 _Oh so much pain._

 _Pain from her angel._

 _Pain from her chest._

 _She looked down, finding a sword buried to the hilt in her chest. She followed it up, to the owner, who stood in front of her with an expression like pity. "You just don't listen, do you?" he asked, then jerked the blade forward. She followed with a wail, and the demon leaned close and hissed two words into her ear:_

 _"_ Wake up!"

Lind's eyes flew open to a shadowy figure hanging over her. _It's here._ A scream tore from her throat, and without weapons or allies at her side she lashed out, striking the entity hovering above her with a closed fist. A pained yelp arose as her fist hit something soft, and then the person she struck went crashing to the floor.

Lind scrambled up from where she was laying, climbing up the back of the couch as she tried to distance herself from the person in question and in the process bumping into something soft. She cried out once more in terror, and a pair of gentle hands came to rest on her shoulders. _You're safe._ A voice whispered in her mind, yet it was not her own, not her angels, and something altogether foreign and alien in and of itself. Panting, she glanced behind her, fully expecting to see the creature that had stalked her in her nightmare and instead finding something else entirely.

A tattooed angel.

A tattooed angel with a black wing.

She stared at the creature in astonishment, her mind not fully processing what she was seeing, and from the top of the angel's black wing another smaller angel popped up. Cool Mint peered down at her in open distress, and after a small gesture to her new friend floated over the wing and onto the couch. The Stranger released Lind and backed away from the couch as Cool Mint took her place. She walked-not floated but actually _walked_ -around the Ugly Beast and to the front, kneeling down beside a silver haired goddess, who groaned before picking herself up.

"Urd?" Lind didn't like the way her voice wavered in her throat, her nerves still high and screaming that she was still in danger. She looked around, not recognizing her surroundings. "Urd, where am I? This-I was with Brian and-where's Spear Mint? Where's my angel?" She wrapped a protective arm around Cool Mint, who continued to look at her in alarm, then looked back to Urd, who rubbed her cheek with a grimace.

"Calm down, Lind." Urd's words came out thick and odd, and it took Lind a moment to realize it was because of where the Valkyrie had struck her. The Stranger helped Urd to her feet, supporting the woman with one arm wrapped around her shoulders. "You're in Keiichi's house, remember? You were spending the night with us."

 _You had a nightmare._ Cool Mint's voice echoed in her mind, still scared. _You wouldn't wake up and Spear Mint was in pain so I ran for help._ The angel's wing was drawn tightly around her in an unconscious gesture of fear. _The only person who heard me was World of Elegance._ She pointed to The Stranger in question who met Lind's gaze with a calm and steady gaze of her own. _World of Elegance woke Urd up and she came to wake you up, and then you punched Urd in the face._ In a softer voice she added, _I'm glad she woke you up. Even if you did punch Urd in front of her Other Soul._

"Spear Mint?" Lind twisted to look around her, still having difficulties gaining her bearings. The angel was nowhere in sight, however, and she felt a spark of the fear so permeable in her dream return to her.

Urd shrugged. "As far as I can tell, she's still in you. World of Elegance was trying to draw her out when you punched me." The Norn's words were growing harder to understand as her cheek began to swell, and the goddess rubbed it gently. "Let's go into the kitchen. I need some ice and you look like you need a potion."

"No."

The woman paused and looked over at her in question. "We need to send the angels back," Lind emphasized. "They could be-" She stopped herself, feeling a horrible sense of dread drop into the pit of her stomach. _That was a dream. It wasn't real, remember? "_ Keiichi could see them," she said instead. "I-I'm not comfortable with him seeing my girls."

Urd frowned, for a moment considering Lind's words. "I'll... keep an ear out," she replied. "My ears are pretty sharp- I could hear your heart racing the moment Elegance woke me up- so I'll know if one of the others wakes up. Soon as I hear something I'll have the others go back, no harm, no foul. But I don't like how scared your angel was, and I want to make sure her sibling's okay before we go back to bed. Will you trust me to examine her real fast?"

Lind stared at her, first surprised and then suspicious. _It could be a trap._ Some piece of her hissed. _Didn't they use to pull shit like this on you and the others? So they could learn more about you? So they could dig into your head?_

 _That's not it._ Cool Mint leaned in close to her. _They want to help. Urd's not a demon. If she was she wouldn't have an angel, and World of Elegance really wants to make sure Spear Mint is okay. Please?_

Wonderful. Lind clenched and unclenched her hands. They felt damp. Everything felt damp, actually. Like she'd sweated through her clothes in a high fever. _Cool Mint trusts but I don't._ Half for and half against. She was at a standstill, and Lind doubted she'd be able to get herself to move even if she demanded it. _There must be something I can-_ "Seashells."

A silver brow raised in question, and Urd stared at her in confusion. "What about them?"

"What do you think of them?" Lind replied. She rubbed her brow. "Just... humor me,"

World of Elegance tilted her head to one side, indicating her confusion, and Urd scowled. "Of all the stupid... I don't know. They're fucking shells!" She threw her hands up in frustration. "I mean, I guess I can use them for bases in certain potions? Otherwise who cares?"

Lind stared at her a moment longer, then sighed and inclined her head. "Alright," she muttered. "Let's go."

Urd sent her one final queer look, then turned and headed into the hallway. Lind trailed behind her and World of Elegance, grateful for reasons she could no longer recall when the woman flipped first the hallway light on, then the dining room and kitchen light on, illuminating the adjoining rooms in a gentle glow.

The Norn approached the dining room table, pulling out a wooden chair and orienting the back towards the table. "Sit," she instructed. "Take your shirt off. I want to get a look at your back." Lind eyed her sharply, and Urd scowled in turn. "I need to examine you before I make a potion," she explained. "I'm not just going to whip some random ingredients together based off superficial signs. You were hurting pretty bad if your Other Soul cried out for help, and I want to make sure it's nothing serious."

"It's not." Lind frowned, staring past Urd and to the chair in reluctance, then stumbled towards it when Cool Mint gave her a hearty shove. The Valkyrie grunted, then sent a glare towards her angel, who returned it with a rebellious one of her own. Grumbling to herself, the woman moved to sit, dissolving her blouse with a simple command and sitting on the wooden chair, hugging the back end. "It's just an old injury from a past incident."

Urd hummed in agreement that was anything but, and Lind tried not to flinch as cool fingers pressed into her back. She didn't like feeling so exposed, especially outside the wire as she was now with no allies to watch her back. She didn't like leaving her angels exposed outside of Asgard, where someone or something hostile could ambush them when she was most vulnerable. And more than anything else, she didn't like appearing so weak to a Civilian, regardless of her slow growing friendship with Urd.

"Well, I'm not seeing any signs of a virus or malicious code on the surface..." Urd murmured behind her. "Will you call your other angel out?" Lind looked over her shoulder at the woman, and Urd sent her a neutral gaze, something Lind had always associated with the Third-Cat healers back in Asgard. "You have two angels, Lind. Cool Mint isn't showing any exterior signs of injury or pain aside from fear, but given that she is part of a set, I'm only seeing half of the Other Soul. Your other angel might display signs that could hint at something deeper. If so, I need to understand what those symptoms are so I can give you a proper potion."

Lind sighed and relented, acknowledging Cool Mint jumping to sit on the table beside her, wing folded but relaxed at her back. _Good to see at least one of us is at peace with this situation._ Lind thought.

 _Urd will help,_ Cool Mint replied. _And so will World of Elegance._

Lind scowled and let her forehead thump against the wooden backrest. _I wish the rest of us had the same unwavering faith you did, Cool Mint._

 _You do._ The angel caught and held her gaze. _Otherwise I wouldn't believe they could help. You just think you've grown too hard to hold any faith in a person like Urd anymore because you no longer trust yourself._

Taken aback by Cool Mint's choice of words, Lind could think of nothing to say in response. Instead she held her peace, and with a breath, brought Spear Mint out into the open, closing her eyes as she awaited Urd's response. Cool Mint leaned over and squeezed her arm in support, and the grip was warm; warmer that Urd's hands.

"Hello," Urd said to Spear Mint. "I'm Urd, and this is World of Elegance. We'd like to do a quick examination of you after Cool Mint exhibited signs of distress to us earlier this evening. Will you allow us to take a look at you?"

Again, curiosity overcame discomfort, and Lind looked back over her shoulder once more, finding a scowling Spear Mint regarding Urd with suspicion. The angel's lone wing was spread up and out, and her hair visibly stood on end like a cat attempting to make herself look bigger to a perceived threat. Urd remained unflustered, though Lind was certain the goddess recognized the angel's body language as hostile. "Calm down, Spear Mint," Lind instructed. "Cool Mint's saying we should trust them, and I'm with her on this one. Urd hasn't done anything suspicious since waking me up." The angel looked back at her, wing fluttering in distress, then sent an upset glance to Cool Mint, who hopped off the table top and approached her twin.

As Cool Mint calmed Spear Mint down, Lind looked back at Urd. "The way you're acting, I'd have mistaken you for a Tic, once upon a time,"

"Well, I wasn't always a Norn," Urd replied, approaching Spear Mint when the angel's body language grew less aggressive at Cool Mint's coaxing. "And we all had dreams as children." World of Elegance approached with a chair, then positioned it with the back facing towards her, allowing Spear Mint to sit with her wing unobstructed. The angel took the offered chair with a perplexed frown, then gestured towards World of Elegance. This time it was the black-winged angel's turn to frown, then shared a look with Urd.

Urd pursed her lips. "I'll tell you while I'm examining you, okay?" In an unconscious gesture that spoke of their connection, Spear Mint, Cool Mint, and Lind all nodded, and sighing to herself Urd kneeled down to get a better look at Spear Mint's back. "Scar tissue along the right shoulder blade, sixteen centimeters in length...width five centimeters..." She murmured, fell silent, and then spoke a bit louder. "So, I wanted to be a healer when I was younger. Did everything necessary for it, too: Became an acolyte, studied medicine, alchemy, biology, mentored under a willing healer in the Third Category..." She frowned, sending Lind an uncomfortable frown. "You can put your shirt on, by the way. Unless you're... you know, an exhibitionist,"

Lind groaned and flushed. "Don't change the subject." With relief she summoned her blouse onto her person once more, then repositioned herself on the chair to watch Urd work. The woman was surprisingly adapt at her examination, working with deft hands as she pressed gentle fingers against Spear Mint's right shoulder blade, pausing on occasion to mutter something aloud to her own angel before continuing.

"But it seemed other forces had different plans for me. Turns out not many gods want to trust a woman whose angel has a black wing, and I was pressured and harassed endlessly by my peers." She sighed, glancing over at World of Elegance. "I wasn't as comfortable with who I was as a person back then, and admittedly, it's rough when you're working as an intern with a patient who's heard rumors of you from nurses and doesn't want you touching them, even harder when you get blamed for accidents or mishaps,"

The goddess straightened, leaning over so Spear Mint could meet her eyes. "You've got a small bit of irritation around your scar tissue that could manifest into infected crystals if left unattended. I can make a quick remedy to slow the process if you want, but you'll need to see a proper Tic for a better prescription. I don't have the equipment necessary to run a full diagnosis that would tell me exactly what you need. Is that okay with you?"

Spear Mint frowned but nodded after a moment's consideration, and Urd moved to the kitchen, continuing her story. "As if that wasn't bad enough, the higher ups had recently come out with the new policy that Third-Category divinities needed a first-class license to legally practice medicine. You know, to ensure they couldn't lie about malpractice. Keep them honest with their patients. I balked." She removed a series of glasses and vials from the pantry, then grabbed various glasses and bowls from the cabinets, setting them out before her as she began to mix the potion. "I'm pretty sure you can guess it by now, but I lie a lot. A first-class license was intimidating to me, but at the same time, I _really_ wanted to be a Tic. It had... become something of a dream. You know. Make something of myself and do some good for the world, despite what society had made me out to be. I wanted to help people. Get rid of the nasty stigma that came with an angel with a black wing-corrupted blood. Belldandy convinced me to test for First-Class. She thought... no, she _knew_ I could make it, and well... little sister, gotta be a good role model, go through with it and show her how bad-ass her sister was."

"You're Second-Class though..." Lind narrowed her eyes. "You bombed it?"

Urd hummed in agreement, then poured the contents of the elixir she was preparing into a glass. She grabbed a clean wash cloth from another drawer, then beckoned to World of Elegance, who took them both and approached Spear Mint. "It was...how do you say, _encouraged_ that I drop out," she confessed. "I can't say how, who, or why, but... well, I never believed in blind honesty anyways. Always seemed like an intentional flaw to me, so... yeah. I bombed it. Dropped out. Sabotaged myself. After working my ass off and gaining almost all the credentials necessary to be registered as a Third Category goddess-a legal healing practitioner meant to serve any of the wounded, regardless of make or model, race or species I just... gave it up."

Lind grimaced. "Yggdrasil's roots, Urd. How long ago was this?" She'd mentioned the _Verum_ clause, an act established _centuries_ ago, all the way back to when she herself had been an acolyte in the Valkyrie's Fighting Wings program.

Urd moved over to sit beside her, yet her attention was focused on World of Elegance. The angel was applying the potion she'd made to Spear Mint's back, and some of the tension had eased out of the one-winged angel's face. "I'd say about the time Skuld was still a toddler," she admitted. "And... it wasn't all for naught. The current Fates running admin on Yggdrasil were getting close to retirement, and they were looking for some folks to take their places."

"The Moirai, right?" Lind looked over at her companion, watching Urd's expression carefully, but the Norn's face was a blank sheet, displaying nothing of her internal thoughts. "I remember them. They were the last trio of sisters to govern Yggdrasil, and there'd been word throughout Asgard searching for..." She trailed off, staring at Urd in growing recognition. "Wait, you can't mean they... you just said yourself that Skuld was a babe still. They wouldn't have really..."

Urd shrugged. "Skuld would have had the least training required since she governed the Future as the youngest. And it's a requirement that three _sisters_ -not brothers or men or unrelated women but _sisters_ -govern the World Tree as the acting Fates. Everything following my drop out happened so fast it was like being caught up in a tornado. Even Belldandy was caught off guard by it all. I don't think I ever recall seeing her so upset before. Not even Aoshima... she _raged_ , Lind. And not even on her own account. Her domain was the Present, and of all of us, she'd be the least affected by the change; she could still go and work for the GRO, doing quick checks on her section of Yggdrasil to ensure no gaps in time opened up to affect those in her 'present'. But for Skuld, who'd never know any other job? For me, who was denied her own career?"

Urd shook her head. "Belldandy had been gunning for me more than anyone else I knew. She was the one who'd give me a pep talk whenever I let my peers get to me. She'd wake me up when I studied through the night and was about to miss a class and made me tea and meals when I forgot to feed myself. Shit, there were times it seemed like Belldandy wanted me to become a Tic more than me. But I took strength in that. I wouldn't have gotten half as far as I did if not for her." The Norn fell silent for a long moment before speaking again, and when she did it was in a whisper. "Never let it be said that Belldandy doesn't have a dangerous temper. She doesn't want to admit it, but she got the worst of both her mother and father with that, and those two both being War Deities who thrived on that emotion. She keeps a tight lock on it, but when it escapes her..."

The woman lapsed into silence, saying nothing more on the subject. When she did speak again, it was with an apology. "I'm sorry about the slur I called you in Japan," she said. "I didn't realize you'd lost a wing."

"It's not something I advertise," Lind replied, then after a moment's hesitation added, "and I apologize as well. I let my anger get the better of me, back then. It was a... petty move, on my account."

Urd nodded, and finished with the potion, World of Elegance returned it to the kitchen. "The nightmare you were having... was it in relation to-"

"It was," Lind said. "I was... in a hostage situation with my unit. I'm not authorized to speak much on it, but... there was torture involved. A lot of it. I was lucky to escape with the loss of just that one wing,"

Urd nodded. "You're twin doesn't have any scar tissue though," she observed. "And she's missing her left wing."

There was a question in that statement. An obvious one that Lind was all too aware of. Deities didn't have twin angels. In a manifestation-sense it was an impossibility because of the demands on the deity in question. Supporting two representations of the same half was redundant, a waste of energy, and was liable to drain the god in question before the twins even had a chance to aid them. And yet here Lind was, with a pair of twins that made up for what the other lacked; a right wing. A left wing. A missing piece of the soul.

Lind chose to ignore that question. "I'll speak with a Tic when I return to Asgard with Skuld. I've got a regular one assigned to me for Spear Mint- she's the one with the scar tissue. The infection you mentioned is a more common occurrence than I care to admit." She ignored the imploring stare Urd directed at her, instead watching as World of Elegance and Spear Mint went through a series of muscle exercises for Spear Mint's shoulder. Many of them incorporated the use of their wings, and a part of Lind was a little envious of Urd's angel. World of Elegance's wingspan was large and broad in contrast to Spear Mint's slender and curved wing frame. Built for soaring rather than maneuvering. "Let's talk about something else for now though." She already had an idea in mind, and though Lind would not admit it aloud, she felt a bit safer broaching the subject with the angels-both her own and Urd's-in attendance.

"So... I doubt either of us are getting any more sleep tonight," she began. "Want to talk about those videos?"

For a long moment the Norn stared at her, and even World of Elegance paused from what she was doing to look at them. The silver haired woman shared a glance with her angel, and Lind was almost relieved when a smile spread across Elegance's face and she nodded. "Oh come on," Urd growled, then sighed and bowed her head. When she lifted it, it was to send a sidelong glare at Lind. "You know, you can be an absolute bitch sometimes."

"It takes one to know one, Urd."

XXX

Sunday morning found Lind and Urd passed out side by side at the dining room table, the remaining two chair scattered about without cause or reason and a mess of dishes on the kitchen countertop. Belldandy, the first to awaken that day, was the one to discover them and was just as swift to re-orient the chairs and clean up the soiled dishes. Neither woman so much as twitched until around nine in the morning, long after the others had awakened, ate breakfast, and washed their dishes in the kitchen right next to them.

"And Urd scores again!" Aiko cried, removing the Tupperware containers she'd prepped yesterday from the fridge and moving them into a plastic bag. "First me, now Lind! Who will she sleep with next?"

Belldandy sent her a disapproving glare while fighting to hide her amusement. "Be nice," she scolded.

"Yeah, it might have actually been serious this time." Skuld grinned. "I don't see any alcohol bottles anywhere. You never know, Aiko. Maybe Urd was lamenting over how you dumped her in front of everyone yesterday."

Aiko planted her hands on her hips, scowling at Skuld. "What? So you're saying Lind is the rebound girl?" She snorted. "Urd would have only gone to her because she reminded her of me." She ran a hand through her dyed hair for effect, flipping the short ends with an exaggerated motion, and it was enough to stop Belldandy and force her to look away, shoulders shaking with self-contained laughter. "Lind only _wishes_ she was all this mortal." She made a show of running her hands down her sides and along her hips, which was how Keiichi stumbled upon her that morning.

"I'm going to count to three and pretend I didn't see that happen," Keiichi grumbled. Aiko yelped and froze in place, and as her face reddened, Skuld burst into laughter. The man squeezed the bridge of his nose. "It's too early to imagine what you do in the clubs, Aiko."

"Oh Lord please kill me now," Aiko muttered under her breath before announcing in a louder voice, "Um... gotta put bags in the car! See ya!" She rushed out of the kitchen at a pace just under a run, a plastic bag filled with Tupperware food swaying noisily in one hand.

Keiichi and the others watched her go, and the man rubbed his brow. "At least last night was mostly uneventful." The weekend altogether had been rather hectic, and with Sunday's expected departures, Keiichi was looking forward to some peace and quiet. _Peace and quiet with only Belldandy and Urd._ Now that was a strange concept. It was going to take some adjusting after Skuld had lived with them for almost a month. _No more Poodle._ He had mixed feelings about that, in all honesty. While she was an annoyance most days, Keiichi had grown to enjoy the daily war of wits between himself and the youngest Norn, and admittedly, there had been several instances where events could have turned out very differently if Skuld hadn't intervened. _No,_ he thought. _Don't go there. Don't you dare go there and start thinking you'll miss her. She might find a reason to stay._ The resulting shudder was enough to remind Keiichi why he was glad Skuld was leaving.

"If you all don't shut your thrice-cursed mouths I will personally shove a moldy sock filled with clay down your throats and silence you permanently." Lind's growling voice made Keiichi turn, finding the goddess in question snarling at them all from where she was prying herself up out of the dining room chair. "Anzu's water in a bucket, fucking either wake us up so we can sleep somewhere else or shut the fuck up."

Ah. A morning person like McGuinness. That was something else to remember. "Good morning to you too, Sunshine," Keiichi deadpanned.

Lind looked straight at him, eyes red and irritated from a lack of sleep. "You. You I will force into the darkest depths of Tehome's abyss to be consumed by the eldritch beasts that lurk there if you say one more thing to me." She rubbed her eyes and grimaced. "Where the fuck is the coffee?"

Belldandy stared at the woman from where she'd come to lean on the kitchen counter, peering at the Valkyrie with her chin propped up by one arm. "There is no coffee," she said, staring unflinching at Lind as the goddess scowled at her. "And there will be no black tea for you either if you continue with your profanities," she warned.

Lind narrowed her eyes. "I will shove my boot so far up your-"

"Oh would you put a sock in it!" Urd groaned from where she was starting to wake at the table. "You're the one who kept us up to fucking six in the morning, Lind! Stop threatening my sister and go take a bath before I try and drown you. There will be tea waiting for you by the time you finish."

Lind growled and glared at Urd, who'd done little other than shift herself on her seat so she could bury her face in her arms on the table. "I'll kill you last," she decided. Urd flipped her off, and grumbling obscure obscenities under her breath the Valkyrie departed for the stairs, snarling at Skuld when it appeared the younger Norn was too close to her. Skuld yelped and put her hands up, backing into a wall, and still muttering to herself Lind departed.

"Great, it's Mother all over again." Skuld scowled as she watched Lind enter the hallway and jog up the stairs, then turned back to the others. "You guys are seriously going to send me back with _her_?"

"Yggdrasil needs you," Belldandy reminded, setting a kettle they'd bought a week ago on the stove to boil.

"If you don't go willingly I'll hog tie you and have Lind drag you back," Urd muttered from her place at the table.

"Savages." Skuld shot Urd a glare. "Savages. All of you."

"And yet somehow you're still related to us," Belldandy murmured. "Pity."

The younger Norn moaned. "I wasn't talking about you, Belldandy."

"Just everyone else in the house, I know." Belldandy's head bobbed in agreement. "Which is why it's a pity I've thrown my lot in with them as well. You may as well lump me together with the savage man whom I wished to spend my life with and his savage sister who was discussing technology with you and our savage sister and the savage Valkyrie who reminds you of our savage mother and-"

"Okay okay okay, you can stop now!" Skuld exclaimed, and Belldandy grinned. "You've made your point, alright? Yggdrasil, it's like speaking to Father sometimes!"

Urd grunted from her place at the dining room table.

"So are you sticking around to see Aiko off?" Keiichi asked. "I know she's planning on stealing another free lunch here before returning to campus, but you haven't said when you're heading out."

"What, eager to be rid of me?" Skuld sent him a sidelong glance. "I'm not sure yet. Lind hasn't bothered haggling for a time to leave with me yet, but if I get my way it won't be until this evening,"

"Lind needs to head out early. She's got prior engagements she needs to meet," Urd's muffled voice rose from her arms. "She'll probably try and head out as soon as she gets some caffeine in her. You got everything?" She turned her head to look at Skuld.

"Carry only what is needed, for survival favors the swift," Skuld said.

A look of confusion befell Belldandy. "I don't believe I've heard that one before," she murmured.

"Yeah, I ah, learned it from an associate." Skuld looked away, rubbing the back of her neck. "Anyways, I didn't bring much with me anyways. The van's back in Asgard with most of my ad-hoc equipment back in storage."

Urd gave her a thumbs up before burying her face back in her arms, and Keiichi muttered to himself, "I was wondering what happened to that blasted pedo-van of yours."

Belldandy stared at Skuld a moment longer, then nodded as well. "You've grown, Skuld. I seem to recall you taking your life with you wherever you went."

"Yeah..." Skuld trailed off as Aiko returned from outside. "Stay out of Lind's way until she's got some caffeine in her," she advised. "She's on the warpath,"

"Another coffee whore?" Aiko brightened, and a large smile spread across her face as Keiichi moaned. "Blue hair and a love for coffee. What's not to love?"

"God damn it, Aiko," Keiichi groused.

"You see, this is why you need a coffee pot, Kei!"

XXX

The rest of the morning was spent with Aiko gathering her bags and doing a final sweep of Belldandy's room to ensure she had everything. Lind became more approachable after three consecutive glasses of the most caffeinated tea Keiichi owned, and lunch was a light and simple meal for Aiko's return trip to Raleigh.

It was close to the woman's departure when Aiko hailed Belldandy. "Can I talk to you in private for a moment?"

At Belldandy's nod the two of them headed upstairs to Belldandy's room. "So, do you have a cell phone or a computer?" Aiko asked as Belldandy shut the door behind her.

"Urd has a cell phone," Belldandy recalled. "I'm not sure about a computer, though."

Aiko nodded. "Kei's got a laptop, and if you ask I'm sure he'll let you borrow it." The woman dug into the back pocket of her blue jeans and came up with a scrap of paper. "Here." She offered the paper to Belldandy, who took it and stared down at what was scrawled in curiosity. "That's my phone number and my Skype name," she said. "If you ever want to get in contact with me and talk. I'm always available, and if I miss your call and don't respond in fifteen minutes or so on say, Skype, you can always try the alternate phone number to get ahold of me,"

"Blue eyes, white Bengal?" Belldandy read the Skype name aloud, and Aiko smiled sheepishly. "Are you certain you want to be turned into a dog and not a tiger?" the Norn asked. "Because more and more I'm starting to question your request."

"Oh, what's this, is Belldandy actually _teasing_ poor little Aiko?" The woman smiled broadly at the brunette, and after a moment, Belldandy returned it with a large one of her own. "At this point in my life, I think I'm better just sticking to a human and seeing where it goes. But, you know, if you want to make all the horrible debt I've accumulated through college vanish..." She winked at Belldandy as she trailed off and laughed. "But seriously. Call me anytime you like. Day or night. I'll be there for you, okay?" Some of the humor faded from her voice. "Never think I don't want to talk or that you're being a burden. You aren't, and I'll always be happy to listen, and whenever I come back down here to visit Kei and you the two of us can clean out a pint of ice cream and a gallon of tea while crying in your bedroom. It'll be fun!"

Belldandy groaned. "Oh goodness..."

"There's one more thing, too." Aiko held up a hand, then unshouldered the backpack that held some of her personal possessions. She unzipped the bag, then rummaged around inside before withdrawing another item. "Here." She offered Belldandy the little sailor bear she'd seen last night, 'Keiichi'. "I've... pretty much gotten over my own event," the woman confessed. "And so at this point, Keiichi here is more of a crutch than he is a help... so, I want you to have him."

Belldandy stared at the younger woman in shock. "Aiko, I can't-"

"I insist," Aiko said. "You'll need him more than me, I think. He's a good little buddy, too. Especially when you're feeling alone or overwhelmed. Besides... I've still got something else to help me out." Zipping her backpack up and swinging it onto one shoulder, the woman dug into her shirt, grabbing hold of a slim, silver chain Belldandy had only ever noticed in passing. She withdrew it and let the pendant on the chain dangle from her fingers. "Keima, my dad, gave me another charm that helps too, see?" It looked like a small glass cat. It stared up at Belldandy with tiny blue eyes with a long tail curled under its paws. "It's my little puma-baby. Keima made it for me after finding out what happened to me. It was supposed to be a kitten, but when I first saw it, its tail made me think it was a cougar." The college student smiled fondly before tucking the pendant back into her shirt. "I can't always take Teddy-Keiichi with me, but Little Puma is always with me. She gives me courage."

"I see..." Belldandy murmured. "Are you certain though?" she asked, still staring at the old teddy bear. "I don't want you to feel obligated to give me your possessions, Aiko. And I can see how much it means to you,"

Aiko nodded firmly. "I'm sure," she said. "Really. Think of it as me lending him to you. You can give him back after you've conquered your own demons, and you _will_ , because you're stronger than Aoshima. You'll get past this, and you've got me and Kei and your sisters to help you, and when you do, I'll be expecting Teddy-Keiichi returned to me, okay?"

With tender hands Belldandy took the bear from Aiko, observing the old stuffed animal with its threadbare uniform and all its messy stitches. It was a simple little teddy bear. One that had grown with its owner and still held the lingering remains of emotion that had so endeared it to her. The goddess looked back at Aiko, then drew her into a tight embrace. "Thank you," she said. "Thank you for everything. This will not be forgotten."

Aiko returned her embrace with a hug that was just as strong. "You take care of yourself, okay Belldandy? Remember, you're stronger than this, and you're never alone, _ever_. You've got family and friends who all want to help and we'll all do our damndest to support you." They released each other from their embrace, and Aiko smiled up at her. "Keep in contact, you hear? If I don't get phone calls I'm going to start sending annoying gifs to Kei until he bugs you to call me."

"I will," Belldandy smiled back. "It's a promise."

XXX

Not long after Aiko's departure, Skuld and Lind were the next to go.

Skuld hugged Belldandy tight. "I promise I'll come back and visit as soon as I get things sorted for Yggdrasil back home," she said. "I'll set up a turnover program and put in leave and-"

"Skuld, calm yourself," Belldandy murmured. "Return home and enjoy yourself. Send Mother our blessings. We're _safe_ here." She kissed the bridge of Skuld's brow. "Though I do have a small request for when you return," she murmured, and in a lower voice whispered. "Can you look into a Tic for me? One who is authorized to come here to Asgard to meet with a client?"

Skuld jerked back in surprise, eyes wide, and then nodded eagerly. "Of course," She said. "It'll be the first thing I do."

Belldandy waved her down. "No. The first thing you must do is report to your betters and ensure all is well with Yggdrasil. Once the World Tree is well and the bugs are under control, _then_ look into it for me, alright? I can wait. Yggdrasil needs you."

For a moment Skuld looked ready to argue, and then Belldandy was pleasantly surprised to find the woman stop herself and nod. "You're right," she grumbled. "Fine. It'll be the _second_ thing on my list then. And when I find a Tic, I'm putting in more leave to come back down and visit you."

"Good." Belldandy nodded in approval. She held Skuld back at arm's length, looking the younger woman up and down with a small smile. "You really have grown, though," she murmured. "I'm not simply stating that, either. I don't know what happened to that little girl from ten years back... I don't know what you've faced in my absence, but know this: it has formed you into a strong young woman. I'm proud of you, Skuld." Belldandy pulled the younger Norn into a final embrace, then whispered into her ear. "Now go say good-bye to Urd. Don't let Lind see your tears." She felt Skuld nod against her, and when they parted Skuld's eyes were bright but her cheeks were dry. The woman gave her a wavering smile, then left her for Urd, who was finishing her own conversation with Lind.

"Give me a call after you're done," the elder Norn instructed. "I'm not going to be convinced until I know everything is good, alright?" The woman planted her hands on her hips, scowling at Lind, who returned it with a teeth-borne snarl of her own. Both of them still looked exhausted from whatever had so kept them up at the dining room table the night prior, and the irritation that came with it was starting to break through as the caffeine died down.

"What, so now you're a Nest Mother?" Lind grumbled, and Urd growled and took a threatening step towards her. "Right, right, I understand," she moaned. "I'll contact you later. I've still got your number and it isn't as though I wouldn't be making regular check-ups on you anyways." She glanced towards Skuld as the younger woman approached. "I'm going to speak to Keiichi before departing. Finish your good-byes so we can be done with this place."

Skuld sniffed. "What crawled up your ass and died?" she muttered as Lind stormed past her.

Lind didn't deign her with a response, and following her departure Skuld turned back to Urd. The silver-haired woman gave her a wane smile. "Ignore her. She had a rough night on the Ugly Beast."

"I'm sure..." Skuld grumbled, sending a look to Urd. The Norn smirked, and Skuld sighed. "I wonder about you sometimes, Urd."

"You and about everyone else in the family." Urd grinned.

"You know what Grandpa says about a black sheep every generation..." Skuld's expression grew pensive, and Urd chuckled, stepping forward and embracing the younger woman. Skuld returned it with a tight one of her own. "Are you going to be okay down here?" she asked. "I mean, Bell can contact us, but you..."

"I'll make do," Urd assured. "It's not the end of the world and I've got you and some other contacts I can reach out to in case something happens that warrants attention." She ruffled Skuld's long, black hair, causing the woman to protest vocally. "Get back home. Enjoy yourself. Bell and I will look out for each other, and believe it or not, some of these mortals are actually pretty good people. Stop worrying so much about us."

"Can't help it," Skuld murmured, then sighed, dejected, against Urd's chest. "I don't like leaving you guys down here alone. It's not right."

"I know," Urd's voice softened. "But there are some things that can't be changed. Bell made her wish and I'm serving my time down here. We have to make the most of what's thrown at us, and you'll do more good for us back home than you will down here. You understand that, right?"

"I do." Skuld pulled away, then made a face. "I don't like it, but I do. And I'll try my best. For you and Belldandy. You'll watch out for her, right?"

"I'd be failing as a sister if I didn't." Though she sounded amused, Urd's expression was anything but; a solemn, worn, and tired face that had seen its own series of trials. "Take care of yourself, Skuld. Don't let them work you too hard up there."

"I won't," Skuld replied. "So long as you don't do anything stupid down here."

Urd nodded, and Skuld took a deep breath before pulling herself away from her elder sister. She swallowed, staring up at the older woman, then turned and headed to stand by Lind, who was waiting with her arms crossed twenty feet away from the house. Urd moved to stand beside Keiichi and Belldandy, and together the trio watched as Skuld joined the Valkyrie. The youngest Norn turned to face the trio, and together the duo began to glow with a strange, ethereal light that caused Keiichi to blink and grimace. A moment later, and they were gone, leaving nothing to mark their departure.

Keiichi rubbed his eyes. "I feel like somebody fucking lazed me," he muttered, blinking owlishly before looking at Belldandy and Urd. "That... doesn't cause any kind of lasting damage for mortals, does it? I mean, it was cool and all, but if I knew I was going to be blinded, I'd have brought some shades."

Belldandy and Urd shared a look, then glanced back to the mortal. "You'll be fine Keiichi," Urd assured. "Think of it like a bright camera flash. Your eyes will clear up in a few minutes, but they might be a little sensitive for a while. Might be best to head inside where it's a bit darker,"

"I hear you." The man squeezed his eyes shut, then blinked rapidly. "I'm going to grab some eye drops. You guys good?"

Belldandy nodded. "We'll be fine, Keiichi. Go and tend to your eyes. We'll follow you in a few minutes."

The man nodded, glancing once more between the two sisters, then headed inside, providing them the unrequested privacy neither had asked for. When he was gone, Belldandy looked back at Urd. "Will you be alright with this, Urd?" She asked. "Be honest with me. Please,"

For a moment Urd didn't respond, her gaze still locked on the spot Skuld and Lind had been standing moments prior. "I don't know," she confessed. "It's... it's all starting to sink in now, Belldandy. I can't go home. I mean, you're here too, you and Keiichi both, but... sixty, maybe seventy years tops, and you'll be able to go back." Belldandy approached the older woman, slipping a hand into her sister's grip and squeezing it gently. "But... three millennia, Bell. Three _millennia._ Even though we are immortal, we typically don't make plans past _one_." She gave a heavy sigh.

"Do you regret it?" Belldandy asked, and with a start Urd looked at her.

"Regret what?" she demanded.

"Saving me," the brunette clarified. "Do you regret saving me, knowing your punishment?"

Urd fell silent, gripping Belldandy's hand in a firm but gentle embrace. "No," she said firmly. "I went in expecting a harsher punishment than I was given, and I was prepared to serve it no matter how bad it was. I just..."

"I understand," Belldandy said. "You are like Grandfather in his youth now. _Ganglari._ A wanderer. Yet you've been presented with an opportunity few of us will ever see now; you are bound by no duties, and can experience more than Skuld or I will in half of your travels. You'll be better for it. Wiser. Fitting for the Norn of the Past, wouldn't you agree?"

Urd said nothing for a long time. To Belldandy it seemed like a small millennia in and of itself, and with it came an age old wariness on her face that hurt to witness. Then Urd sighed and dropped her gaze. "Let's go inside and make sure Keiichi's okay."

"Yes," Belldandy agreed. "Let's do just that." They spoke not a word more on the subject, but as they turned back towards the house, Urd slipped an arm around Belldandy's shoulders and Belldandy wrapped an arm around Urd's waist, and together they continued, arm in arm, drawing support from each other.

If Keiichi noticed their quiet later that evening, he chose the wisdom of holding his own silence and said not a word, allowing for the peace to continue into the night, where a household as large as five was decreased to one as small as three, each with their own room.

And in the silence of the night, lying awake and restless as midnight came to pass, Belldandy sighed and sat up. With a beaten teddy bear from a silly girl with dyed blue hair in her hands, the goddess left her room for Urd's, sneaking inside her sister's room and grabbing Urd's cellphone from where it sat on a small table. She slipped out with the same stealth, and Urd never so much as twitched in her sleep as Belldandy retreated back to her bedroom. She closed and locked the door behind her, then crawled back onto her bed, sitting cross-legged on the mattress as she stared down at the slim cell phone.

With a deep, soothing breath she gripped it with both hands, bringing up the keypad on the touchscreen and dialing a number she'd already devoted to memory. Clutching the old teddy tight to her chest, the woman waited with baited breath as first one ring, two rings, then three rings passed across the line. She was about to give up when the phone was answered on the fifth ring.

 _"Carrie?"_ A tired voice traveled across the line. _"That you?"_

And Belldandy smiled. She smiled, feeling tears bud at the corner of her eyes but leaving her cheeks dry. "It's me Aiko," she replied, and perhaps she was a little grateful for the warmth little Teddy-Keiichi brought her. "May we speak?"

 _"Of course, Bell. We can talk for as long as you'd like."_

* * *

 **A/N: If you start getting the song this arc is named after in your head, blame Nena. The chapter was originally named _Lind's Story_. Obviously, we do not own the song _Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band_. The chapter title is truncated because of FF's character limit. **

* * *

_Comments of a Madwoman: Tis the season, and with it comes the start of a new arch. Happy Holidays, everyone. Let's celebrate together, as a family, by allowing a Madwoman to drag you back down to Hell, where demons gossip and monsters roam…_


	19. Chapter 19 - Sgt Pepper's Lonely Heart

l

-19-

Bifrost, the great bridge that allowed deities to traverse the Heavens and the Earth, ended in a large and vast transportation hub known as Himinbjorg. It rested at the base of a long row of mountains at the border of Asgard and was run by a tall and gangly god by the name of Heimdall. In years long past and forgotten, Himinbjorg used to be a simple hall that also served as Heimdall's home, small and with few travelers; it was a waypoint between worlds, one situated in such a location so as to deny entrance to enemy forces-Muspelheim Jotun, originally-who sought to invade the Heavens. The bridge would collapse after it exceeded a certain weight, and the mountains would slow an enemy battalion that would be assaulted by guerrilla forces from hidden, underground barracks.

Most of that still held true: Bifrost could still collapse beneath a set weight and the underground barracks were still manned by soldier-deities under the command of war-gods. Yet with The Great Unification that had happened in the more recent centuries between deities of various pantheons, Himinbjorg had expanded into one of the main transitioning points between dimensions. Young gods of all different makes and models, many without a license yet, served as sentries and customs agents to those who passed through, with Heimdall acting as chief and overseeing all who passed across Bifrost's path.

Now, two new arrivals found themselves swept into the rush of travelers attempting to hurry through Customs and be out of Himinbjorg's crowded-though beautiful-halls. Skuld sighed, eyes rolling up to the expansive stained glass ceiling above their heads. "I hate going through Customs," she grumbled, more to herself than to her companion, who ignored her words in favor of examining the crystal displays hanging from the scaffolding. Each one displayed luminescent blue text denoting specific lanes for guests and residents, and after a moment's search Lind found the one specific to Skuld and herself.

"Let's go," she said, and without glancing towards Skuld, headed off, leaving the Norn to yelp before chasing after her.

"Hey, where are you going?" Skuld demanded. "This isn't the way to Customs."

"Warrior's Path," the woman said. "Valkyries and other war-deities skip the civilian sector. So do individuals accompanying Valkyries. You're accompanying me. Now let's _move_." Without sparing the Norn a second glance the woman continued onwards, and Skuld chased after her before she could be lost in the ocean of deities making their way through Himinbjorg. Lind led the way down an area Skuld vaguely recognized from her childhood, and the line they came to was near-empty in comparison to the lines the Norn was more familiar with. Lind flashed a digital card to the lone man checking documents, IDs, passports, and orders, and within minutes they were through Customs and out into the main hall.

"Crap, I forgot how fast the Warrior Pantheon moves," Skuld muttered. "Last time I was able to get through there that fast was with Mother." She shuddered at the memory, knowing it'd been bad at the time, but not quite the reasons behind it. Which probably meant it had been bad for her. Chalk one up for buried childhood trauma. Traveling with Ansuz could do that to a person.

"Will you report back to your leadership from here?" Lind asked, ignoring the woman's comments as she eyed a terminal leading to a series of Gates leading to various sectors of Asgard. "I will escort you to them if necessary, however I can be convinced otherwise." Skuld looked at the Valkyrie with a start. "I have other obligations I need to fulfill." The blue-haired woman sent her a sidelong glance. "And I despise playing babysitter to a grown woman."

Skuld observed the woman in shock. To her, Lind had always come across as a bit of a hardass when it came to rules. The type of person who was by-the-book with no exceptions for those around her and was liable to hold people accountable when those rules were broken. To hear Lind speak of such a thing was not just surprising, but went against any assumptions Skuld had made over the past years she'd come to know of the woman. "You'd do that," Skuld stated, uncertain if she'd heard the woman properly. "You'd let me just... go? From here?"

"So long as I am certain you will report to your leadership at once." Lind replied. "I will be calling them to ensure you've spoken with them. How long does it take you to travel to your office from here?"

"Only about fifteen minutes or so," Skuld replied. The idea of lying to the Valkyrie never even crossed her mind in her astonishment. "I shouldn't be too long... maybe a few minutes give or take depending on how crowded the walks are."

Lind nodded. "I will call your leadership thirty minutes from now to ensure you spoke with them," she said. "That will be more than enough time for you to arrive at your office in regards to obstacles that may slow you down." She narrowed her eyes. "Do not make me regret placing any sort of faith in you, Skuld. If I call and learn that you have not arrived, I will hunt you down and drag you back to your superiors bound."

Skuld grimaced at the idea. "It won't come to that," she assured. "I'm not Urd. Unlike her, I _like_ staying off a Fighting Wing's shit list."

Lind blinked, then further surprised Skuld with a short bark of laughter. Up until that point, Skuld wasn't certain the woman even _could_ laugh. "Noted," she said. "Than if we are in agreement, you are free to leave. I've nothing else for you."

Skuld stared at the woman a moment longer, then shook her head in slow disbelief. "I don't think I'll ever understand folks like you," she mumbled. Lind sent her a queer look, and the Norn shrugged. "You're hard to read. You've got... layers, I guess? Personas, maybe? You take one mask off and there's another lying right beneath. It's difficult trying to figure you out. Moreso than even Urd, and she lies her face off." She looked to the ground, growing aware in the gathering silence that she'd said too much. "Sorry, just something I noticed," she said. "Anyways, I'll just be-gotta go. I'll, uh, talk to you later, I guess?" She glanced at Lind's face, and what she saw made her shiver for reasons she could not explain.

It was time to leave.

"Later Lind!" Without a second glance, Skuld turned and rushed into the crowd of deities, hoping to grow lost in the tides. She could still feel the woman's gaze on her back when she reached the terminal gates to Yggdrasil, and a final risk back showed the Valkyrie where she'd left her; standing stock still as spirits and deities, guests and locals, all passed her by. They gave Lind a wide berth, though it appeared to be an unconscious gesture. As if they were avoiding something that had been cordoned off. Something dangerous; a wolf amongst sheep that scented a predator in their midst but could not see it. It made the hair on the back of Skuld's neck prickle in alarm.

 _It's her eyes._ She thought. The Valkyrie's gaze still rested on her, even as she turned and walked... rushed through the terminal. _Something about her eyes. It speaks of a beast. Golden-ring eyes like a predator._

 _Golden rings..._

The Valkyrie's gaze haunted her all the way back to Yggdrasil.

XXX

The Sana District of Asgard was one in a constant state of organized chaos. Deities of various pantheons ran to and fro in a mad rush, some with bags on their shoulders and others without. Lind recognized them as acolytes based off the lack of sigils denoting their position Asgard; those younger gods and goddesses training in a specific profession under a god of greater rank. They raced about with the exuberance of youth and the terror of a wrathful master, clutching everything from canisters to technology to vials and paperwork throughout Sana at their master's request. It was a sight reminiscent of Lind's younger days amongst what had become her unit, and the maddening chaos of discipline ingrained with combat arts and tactical advances that had been so drilled into her head.

Those days were long gone now, and at least as an acolyte, Lind was glad to see them over. Anyone who wanted to return to _those_ maddening days was soft in the head and needed to be put away before they could damage themselves further, for surely only a masochist or a demon would miss such abuse.

Amongst these terrorized and stressed deities, other gods and even the occasional spirit walked at a slower pace. Many of them were patients heading from one Tic to another, seeking out the individuals in question who specialized with the specific ailment in question, and amongst the gods at least, there were many. Some of them held a look of terror about them almost identical to those of the acolytes. Those individuals who were not as familiar with Sana as the more regular attendants, and tended to mistake the organized chaos and rushing madness as a sign that something had gone amiss. Exposure to a horrible disease, perhaps, or maybe a chemical spill that would lead to a super virus hailing the onset of Ragnarok.

Lind had once counted herself amongst the latter category of terrified newcomers. However after so many repeated visits to Sana under the instruction of either Higher Leadership or under her own volition, she found herself welcoming the familiarity of the place. For all the insanity presented in the main street, there was an underlying feeling of productivity to it that Lind had grown fond of, and in many ways coming to Sana was likened to a trip back to a summer home. She had friends here. Colleagues. Even amongst the busy acolytes, she saw a few familiar faces, and whenever one such person glanced her way she caught their eyes and nodded to them, and was always reward with a brief, though strained, smile as they went about their tasks.

Now, dodging past acolytes and patients, Lind approached one building in particular. It was one of the smaller centers in Sana, located near the district's outskirts away from the larger chaos of the main area. It had been purposefully built away from the larger centers, given the nature of the Tics that worked there. Here, there were fewer acolytes and even less patients, as the Tics that resided in this area were specialists majoring in a particular series of skills for deities or on occasions, lesser spirits, Jotuns, and even the occasional demon. Few acolytes wanted to work as specialists when there was a larger call for broader-skilled Tics whose skills could be placed to a variety of uses, and most deities didn't require the services of a specialist in Asgard.

Yet Lind was amongst those few individuals who did require a specialist, and now, approaching one building in particular, the woman stopped a small distance to observe it. It was one of the newer buildings; one that had been built with the recent turn of the century and held a sleek architecture of rounded angles and soft corners. It was a two-story building, and much smaller than some of the sky scrapers in the more centralized portion of Sana. It rested bathed in the shadows of its neighboring buildings; one a three-story building and the other four-stories, both twice as old as the smaller building that had been wedged between them.

In the late-afternoon sun the shadows almost appeared to move, yet a second glance proved Lind's eyes were playing tricks on her. The woman smirked and shook her head, then approached the shadowy archway leading inside. "Hello Flora," she murmured. "I have no flowers for you today, but I might yet have a treat for you."

The shadows seemed to draw away at her approach, vanishing inside the open doorway, and beneath the white noise of Sana's District, Lind thought she heard a low, hollow moan. Yet that too proved to be her senses playing tricks on her, and as the woman entered the quiet of the building the noise and moving shadows vanished; further proof of an illusion created by something else. The front lobby was empty when she entered, with a skylight providing a small glow that granted sunlight unhindered by the small building's taller neighbors. The Valkyrie ignored the couches and chairs that had been provided for guests, and instead headed directly to the front desk, an area also unmanned by any deities she could see. There was a small sign-in sheet located off to a corner, illuminated by a small, soft glow, and as she signed in something thumped beneath the desk and scurried away.

Lind raised a brow but said nothing, a part of her uncertain if the growls and hisses she was hearing was from her own mind or from one of the few denizens that called this place home. _Flora's rather antisocial today,_ she thought. _I wonder if Nebo is okay. S_ he could often judge Nebo's moods based off the actions of his angel, who often acted in place of an acolyte by doing minor chores around the building. For Flora to be absent around a regular guest was odd but not unwarranted, given the angel could be quite foul when its host deity was in a negative mood. Because of that, it wasn't uncommon for Nebo to close shop when something came up that upset him.

Today was a possible exception, however, given that Lind had scheduled an appointment with Nebo a month prior. The Tic specialized in the care and health of angels, and had become Lind's main health care provider after Spear Mint had lost her wing. Unfortunately, he was also one of the main Tics being considered for Belldandy due to his age and experience as a High Tic; one of the senior Tics that dwelt within Asgard. Though he was a specialist, his name had been thrown into the hat due to his long history of treating deities, and as of recently the man had been placed under a great deal of undue stress during the proposition period. Most of Lind's information about the ongoing argument between Tics came straight from Nebo himself. The two had grown a strange and at times quarrelsome friendship between Lind's repeated visits to Nebo's clinic, and Lind had become an ear to vent to when meetings grew particularly stressful. Nebo in particular saw himself as a poor consideration for Belldandy's care, given the direction of practice was geared more towards the health of angels and not so much the health of the deity hosting them. Yet while he'd taken himself out of the discussions, as one of the High Tics he was required to attend the meetings. With it came all the ugly arguments he tried to avoid, and as of late the Tic was returning more and more often in a foul mood.

"Nebo?" Lind peered down the corridor leading past the front lobby. Unlike the front, which was illuminated by the skylight, the hallway was dark and black; not the darkness of poor lighting but a deep, heavy blackness that seemed to devour anything it touched. The woman frowned, for a moment recalling the slim shadows of her nightmare and feeling her skin break out in gooseflesh. Then the darkness withdrew at the sound of soft footsteps, and in its place a man emerged from one of the adjoining rooms. _Flora strikes again,_ she thought. _The last meeting amongst the High Tics must have been really bad._

"Ah, Lind, good to see you." Nebo smiled at the Valkyrie as he drew near, and behind him the shadows once more expanded and lengthened, hinting at a creature whose form danced on the edge of Lind's perception. "How you doing, _Kyz_?"

Nebo was a short man, as far as gods went. With a head full of thick, black curly hair and brown skin, he stood roughly two inches beneath Lind, who was a full, terrifying five foot, four inches. The man had a long, handlebar mustache that he wore with a particular amount of pride, but today the bright sparkle of humor that Lind normally attributed to his dark gaze was absent. Another bad meeting, indeed.

"I'm alright," Lind said. "Spear Mint's showing some signs of the old irritation again, and I had a relapse last night in Midgard."

The man's dark brown eyes widened. "I see. That sounds a little concerning. Let's head back and see what we can do."

Lind nodded and followed him to one of the back rooms. "Flora hasn't come out to greet me today," she said. "Another bad meeting?"

"It depends on how you view it." Nebo replied. "Don't mind Moony, she's sulking. They've finally narrowed down the possible deities to the final three. It almost caused a riot. One of the _managgirus_ threw a chair at the _Bel_ leading the discussion." The man spoke with the remains of an accent from a language long dead in Midgard, slurring the Highkin that had become the more common language of all deities into an almost musical pitch.

"Don't curse. You'll be a bad example for my angels," Lind reprimanded. "And a chair? At the lead Tic? Are you serious?"

Nebo shot her a look as they entered one of the rooms, and in the hallway at their back something rumbled in dissatisfaction. " _Kyz_ , I couldn't make this up if I tried. And did I hear right? _Angels_? Plural?" He scowled, squinting at her. "I know my Highkin ain't good and my ears are shot, but I could have _sworn_ I heard 'angels'.

"You're ears are fine, Nebo," Lind assured, hopping onto the bench in the center of the room and letting her feet dangle off the edge. "And stop using your native tongue as an excuse. You speak better Highkin than some of the Valkyries who grew up speaking the language." She sent him a pointed look, allowing a small smirk to alight her face when she saw some of the old mirth brighten the older god's eyes once more. He gestured her on without another word, and the smirk grew into an open smile as she felt the wings of both Spear Mint and Cool Mint rise from her back.

Nebo's mouth dropped in shock, and as the two angels emerged to peek over Lind's shoulders, the Valkyrie watched as the man's eyes darted first to Spear Mint, whom he knew, and then to Cool Mint, a stranger with an almost identical face. "Oh… _Ina Shin'ar, Ina erset la tari…"_ He clutched at his heart, and then looked at Lind. "When…?" He looked back at Cool Mint, and his face broke into a smile of such unconditional joy and love that Lind couldn't help but smile with him. "Oh, _zi ana_ , she's beautiful Lind!" he exclaimed. "Oh, sweet _damu,_ sweet little _ssaratu_ , come here. Let me get a look at you, precious child." He gestured to Cool Mint, who glanced at Lind for permission.

At the woman's nod, the angel floated over to the man, hovering before him as the god took the time to more fully observe her. "Amazing…" he mumbled. "May I see your hand, little _ssaratu_?"

"She's an angel, not a _ssaratu_ , Nebo," Lind reminded, yet Cool Mint offered her hand to the Tic none the less.

It was pale and delicate in his own sunburnt and leathered hands, and he stroked it gently. "Ssaratu, angel, they both mean the same: One who watches. The Other Half. The Nemesis." The smile did not falter. "And now after the trials you've faced, you have not one, but two beautiful ones." Nebo laughed openly when Cool Mint flushed at his comments, then squeezed her hands and released her. "Hold still for me, sweet child. I must examine you like a proper Tic." He circled her, on occasion reaching out to touch some part of her or to request the angel flex a specific limb. "No scar tissue… amazing, no scar tissue!" he exclaimed. "What an amazing thing… when did you first surface, Sweetling? I do not remember you in our last visit."

"She came to me on Midgard," Lind explained, Spear Mint still hovering at her shoulder. "Do you remember when I spoke of the Norn I was assigned to watch? We got into a pretty bad fight on Asgard."

"Yes, I remember." Nebo paused his examination to send a quick glance to Lind. "The one who unleashed her Tendee form on a third-dimensional plane, yes?"

"That's the one," Lind nodded. "Cool Mint manifested when she was kicking my ass."

"Now what was this about swearing?" Nebo asked, and Lind snorted. "Still… she's perfect though. A complete piece to account for what you lost. Cool Mint, you said? Not 'Pepper Mint' to match her twin?" He looked back at Lind, eyes dancing with humor, and the smile on his face wilted when he caught Lind's expression.

"No," Lind said firmly. "Not 'Pepper Mint'. Never 'Pepper Mint'. Cool Mint."

Nebo raised his hands. "Okay, okay _Kyz_ , I hear you. Cool Mint. Got it." He looked back at the angel for clarification, who nodded. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Cool Mint. _Ia mulki_ , I've been waiting years to say that. Do you know what you represent, Sweetling?"

Cool Mint stared at the man before shaking her head.

"Hope." Nebo stroked his mustache, and his laughter was filled with joy. "You represent hope, Cool Mint." The Tic's smile never left his face as he looked back to Lind and laid eyes on her other angel. "Do not think I've forgotten about you, Spear Mint." Nebo beckoned the other angel forward, and resigned, the angel reluctantly made her way from Lind's side. "Yes, yes. You pout like Moony during an eclipse. Do you fear I will give you a shot once more?"

The angel muttered something that only her twin and Lind would have heard, yet Nebo laughed regardless. "Lind said there was a promise of infection near your scar. If it goes untreated than you will be forced to get a shot, yes? Best to nip it in the bud now before it worsens." With Cool Mint watching them both in curiosity, Nebo moved to examine Spear Mint's back. Lind smiled despite Spear Mint's discomfort through their shared link. Nebo sounded like he was back in his more typical good cheer after meeting Cool Mint, which was how she preferred him; the man tended to wear his heart on his sleeve, and his emotions were infectious, which was why he was normally quick to close shop whenever a foul mood hit him.

"What's this? Spear Mint, have you been cheating on me, _Kyz_? You've already been treated! There's only a small hint of infection on you!" The angel squirmed to look at her back, and Nebo grabbed a mirror for her to better observe the scar. The crystals that had begun to scale along the edges of the white scar tissue were dull and faint, a sure sign of a recovering infection. "Who you been seeing behind my back, Sweetheart?"

"That was Urd," Lind said.

Nebo looked at her with a start. "The same Norn who you said beat your ass ten minutes ago?" He demanded.

"The one that helped me bring Cool Mint into existence?" Lind clarified as she nodded. "The very same. I was sleeping in the residence she was staying at when I had the relapse. It was a nightmare intense enough to prevent me from awakening. Spear Mint couldn't manifest and so Cool Mint searched for help. Urd's angel ended up hearing her cries and helped wake me up."

"I see," Nebo murmured, eyes narrowing and he brought his face close to Spear Mint's back. "And this is the same house the other Norns were at, right? Belldandy and Skuld?"

"Yes."

"But Urd's angel was the only one to hear Cool Mint's cries?" Nebo continued.

Lind frowned and crossed her arms over her chest in thought. "As far as I could tell, yes. Why? What is it?"

"Eh, nothing _Kyz_. Just thinking to myself." Nebo dabbed at some of the fading crystal with a small cloth. The shards chipped away into dust at his prying, and the flesh beneath was whole and healthy. Spear Mint, for her part, tried her hardest not to move, but it was obvious she did not enjoy the careful scrutiny. "So you saying she woke you up _and_ gave you a potion? How'd a Norn acquire such a potent tonic? And then figure out how to apply it correctly?"

"Urd made the tonic herself," Lind continued. "Apparently she almost became a Tic before being highlighted for a position as a Norn. Did you ever hear anything about that?"

Nebo's thick eyebrows shot up in surprise. "She must have had quite the master as an acolyte, then. I can almost see where the potion is breaking down what's left of the crystal, it's working so fast." He straightened. "You can relax now, Spear Mint. Lucky girl, your friend's treatment means no shot for you." The angel visibly sighed with relief, and Nebo looked back at Lind. "And I haven't. If she was still considered an acolyte when she and her sisters were considered as Norns, the only Tic to know would have been her master. You know how we hoard acolytes like treasure."

"Why hire help when an acolyte will do twice the hours and thrice the work for no pay?" Lind quoted, and nodded. She'd expected that answer. Masters never advertised the prowess of their apprentices for fear another person might come and steal them away if they were shown to have promise. And amongst Tics, whose professions were amongst the most stressful, any acolyte that showed promise was rarely shown any overt recognition amongst their peers.

"Exactly," Nebo nodded in agreement. "But enough on that, I'm more curious to hear about this relapse. Do you know of anything that could have triggered it?"

Lind shrugged. "I wasn't in Asgard, for one. That in combination with a foreign environment?"

"How foreign?" Nebo eyed her, and Lind pursed her lips, folding her arms across her chest in thought.

"Well… Morisato is part of his country's military…" She murmured. "It could have been that, but…" She looked back at Nebo and shrugged helplessly. "I dreamt. Of what I can no longer say, but I know I dreamt."

Nebo nodded. "What of Cool Mint?" he asked. "How long has she manifested in comparison to when you began to dream once more?"

Lind frowned, drumming her fingers on her arm. "Two… maybe three weeks?" she guessed. "Not long. Last night was the first time I can actively remember having a dream… even if it turned into a relapse."

"That's fine." Nebo nodded. "Remember, a relapse isn't necessarily a bad sign. You're still recovering as well, and any kind of relapse you experience is your mind's way of attempting to sort out what you went through. Even having fully recovered a person can still have nightmares about the event or be reminded of that time from external cueing."

"Right, I remember you telling me that." Lind nodded. "And… I guess I don't know. There were too many external factors to isolate one particular event as the root cause."

"That's understandable." Nebo moved to one of the shelves behind him. "I want you to start recording these events, though. In case it becomes a trend. You said Cool Mint was able to rouse you, right? Keep her on guard in case a situation like that repeats itself. I can't make an exact assessment based off one account, but if I was to judge on this lone case, I'd say that the relapses don't affect her given that she didn't go through the same experiences as you and Spear Mint, given that she hadn't been…" He paused, tapping his foot on the ground. "What is the word…? Not 'manifest' but like an egg in the womb. How do you say… 'incubating'? Bah, that sounds horrible, but I suppose that is what it was. She did not exist when you were held hostage, and her egg only began to incubate after you'd recovered enough basic motor functions to communicate with us."

"I remember," Lind said. "The experimental surgery to artificially grow the parts of my Other Half that were destroyed." She looked at Cool Mint with a mixed expression. "No one said I'd be growing a literal twin from my soul."

"No one did. It was unpredictable. You are the first and only person to give consent to the procedure." Nebo shrugged. "And it matters not. I've not seen you in such good health… in such good _cheer_ since I was first assigned to you. She has done you a world of good, _Kyz._ "

Lind felt a small smile tug at her lips. "You're right," she said. "I've felt… I've felt actual emotions since she manifested, Nebo. Not residue shells that I _thought_ were emotions left over from before, not false attempts to generate joy or anger or love, but actual _emotion_." She looked back at Cool Mint, this time with an expression Nebo had never seen on her face before: affection. "I felt fear for the first time in… Yggdrasil, one hundred years? I almost didn't recognize it at that time. And everything else that's come with it… embarrassment, anger, joy, happiness, excitement, it's almost overwhelming, at times. I get flooded with feelings, and it's like a game trying to identify what it is and then trying to adjust enough to it where I don't alienate those around me by my odd behavior." She laughed. "Between my Special Duty status watching Urd in Asgard and monitoring the training of Valkyries and acolyte-Valkyries with our squadron, I've been… bewildered, stressed, irritated, shoot, I've even been _bored_ , Nebo."

The goddess looked at the Tic, finding Nebo watching her with a large, ear-splitting smile as he listened. "Do you have any idea what that's like? To have been able to sit through meeting after meeting after meeting without any issues for _decades_ , and then all of a sudden you can't sit still because the person droning on is so boring that she's putting you to sleep?" She smiled, then laughed at her own foolery. "It's amazing. It really is, and I love every single bit of it."

"That's wonderful Lind." The man beamed at her. "It sounds as though you really are making a full and complete recovery. Have you noticed any issues other than your sudden emotional recovery?"

Lind looked thoughtful, glancing between the two of her angels. "They're… noisy." She said at last. "In my head. Whenever a decision has to be made, they both want to make their opinion heard, and when they don't agree on something, it's like listening to a pair of children screaming over each other to be heard."

Both her angels had the decency to look abashed by that, Spear Mint looking away with a huff and Cool Mint flushing and looking down at the floor. "Spear Mint has come to be the more logical of the two of them, and Cool Mint… I think it's because she's so, so… young, I guess?-Because she's so young, she tends to defer more to Spear Mint, but if there's something she doesn't like or doesn't appeal to her on a more emotional level, she starts, well… screaming."

Cool Mint's flush darkened, and Spear Mint scowled at the younger twin. "Then of course Spear Mint thinks she's being drowned out, so she'll start screaming too. It's like having a pair of parrots glued to my ears."

Nebo laughed, and both the twins sent an embarrassed look at Lind. "I see, I see," Nebo said. "I suppose that is the price that must be paid for two angels, right?"

"I guess…" Lind trailed off, then brightened at once. "I wouldn't trade it for the world though. They drive me insane and make me the terror of the squadron when it comes to physical training, but I love my girls, loud as they are."

"Good." Nebo nodded in approval. "That's very good." He approached Lind with a small device that she vaguely recognized as a power scale. "Put this on your finger for me?" He held out a pair of open, padded clamps, and she gave him her hand, where he slipped the small clamp onto her index finger. The Valkyrie held the device as Nebo turned to observe a small screen. "How about your energy levels? Have you felt any days where you were particularly fatigued or exhausted? Any days where you felt like your strength was sapped or times where you struggled to train your comrades in the time since Cool Mint's awakening?"

"No," Lind replied. "After the initial surgery, maybe for a while, yes, but I had chalked that up to muscle atrophy after being confined to a bed for so long. But after Cool Mint's actual manifestation? No."

Nebo hummed as he listened to her words, and Cool Mint, ever curious, moved to peer over the Tic's shoulder. Nebo ducked his shoulder a bit so she could get a better look. "See right here?" He gestured to the screen, looking back at the smaller angel. "Right there shows Lind's energy is below average for her." He looked over at Spear Mint. "Could you return to Lind for, about… we'll give it five minutes."

Spear Mint nodded, then drifted towards Lind, descending into the Valkyrie's back as Nebo and Cool Mint returned to the screen. After a minute or two, the god hummed again, stroking his mustache. "Okay, energy is back up to standard levels again. He pointed to the screen for Cool Mint to see. "Right there. See the spike? That's what happens when Lind isn't using her energy to support an angel on the physical plane. It takes a lot for us to summon you and allow you to act autonomously." He looked at the angel. "Now you go and join your big sister, okay Sweetling? Let's see how much energy Lind produces without any angels out."

Cool Mint nodded and returned to Lind as well, and after another couple of minutes Nebo's heavy brows shot up in surprise. "Well that's a change," he stated, then looked back at Lind. "You feel no fatigue when both of your angels are out?" Lind shook her head. "None at all?" Again Lind shook her head, and Nebo returned to the screen. "How about oversaturation when neither are acting autonomous? Have there been any times you've felt overly hyper? Impatient, perhaps? Any times in the past couple of weeks where you can't sit still and need to dispel excess energy somehow?"

Lind frowned. "You just described why I don't have a desk job," she grumbled. "Can I get off this bench and see what you're talking about?"

"Sure." Nebo waved her over, and Lind hopped off the examination table and walked over to Nebo. "If you may, keep the energy display on you for a while longer though. You're showing an unusually high energy signature with both your angels banished." He pointed to the screen, showing where a large spike had manifested on the graph before leveling out at a higher interval. The man pointed to a section about a third of the way beneath the leveled spike. "Right around here is the average energy level for most deities. You're showing an excess level of energy that's bordering on dangerous, Lind."

"And you think it's because I'm hosting two angels?" Lind looked at Nebo with a frown, and the man shrugged.

"It's hard to say without further testing, but based off what we've already gained here, there's a high probability it's in relation to the angels. You said you felt fatigued shortly after the surgery that implanted Cool Mint was complete?"

Lind nodded, and Nebo stroked his mustache in thought. "It looks like your body is attempting to adjust to the demand brought on by two angels," he stated. "It _could_ level out and turn into nothing, and what we're seeing right now is just your body going from one extreme to the next in an attempt to compensate the energy curves. Or it could be something more serious."

"Like what?" Lind sent him a wary look.

Nebo shook his head. "I can't say right now based off the information I have at hand. It's too soon to tell based off this one report. I'll need additional tests before I can make any sort of assessment or hypothesis."

Lind's frown deepened, and Nebo sent her a pointed look. "Don't sulk," he said. "Remember, you're the first of your type to pass through these walls, and so no one, you, me, even the Daitenkaicho, has any idea of what may happen as a result of this. The fact that you literally grew a second angel where everyone else was expecting a new wing for Spearmint is proof of that, and so we have to document everything carefully and ensure no one jumps to conclusions. We take it slow, we take it easy, we take our time."

Lind sighed, exasperated. "I know," she grumbled. "I just hate waiting. Which is funny given the fact that I waited close to a century just to meet Cool Mint and acknowledge the fact that I do indeed hate to wait, but still…"

"I understand," Nebo nodded. "And that will only grow worse with the current energy level you're working with. So here's what we're going to do: I want you to report back here at least once a week so that we can monitor your energy readouts. You refrain from any physical-or magic-intensive work the day prior, that way we can get a more accurate read. Based off what we learn we'll come up with a better game plan after say… six weeks or so." He ignored the despairing look Lind sent him. "Until then, try to refrain from summoning only one of your angels unless absolutely necessary. Either bring them both out or keep them both in; try and treat them as two halves of a whole rather than two individual components, okay? That might help stabilize your energy output, since for the longest time you've been going on one angel."

"Right." Lind tried to hide her scowl and failed. "Okay. Both or neither, got it. But a full day of… rest? Once a week?" She grimaced. "Isn't that a bit… excessive?"

" _Zi kia_ , you Valkyries and your training." Nebo muttered under his breath. "They brainwash you into thinking a day of rest is too much as an acolyte, then expect you to carry the world on your shoulders with a smile when a war is called." The man rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Lind, you work hard enough as it is, and your body needs the opportunity to repair itself. The world does not revolve around Valkyries chucking boulders at each other because they think it instills strength nor cleaning buildings until even the sand looks polished against the light of the sun because you seem to think it is good discipline work."

"Hey," Lind protested. "That last one only happened once. Private Kara pissed me off mightily in Japan."

"You're not helping your case," Nebo said flatly. "What I'm saying is that you need to stop and smell the flowers on occasion. Go out and relax with friends. Take some time for yourself. Stop working yourself to the bone. Maybe a day where you aren't overexerting yourself will slow the spikes in energy a bit and help it even out with your angels to a bit more regular pace."

"I suppose…" Lind mumbled.

Nebo sighed. "You are so difficult some times. Go down to Midgard. Use the rest day to meet with Urd and ensure she's not getting into trouble, if you get too restless. Take some time to learn about a foreign culture. Do something other than throwing boulders and destroying pole arms in mock combat runs, okay? Otherwise I'll have your leadership chain you to a bed and confine you to Quarters for twenty-four hours."

Lind paled at once. "You wouldn't dare," she whispered.

Nebo sent her a level stare. "Try me."

"Okay, fine!" Lind snapped. "One full day of rest. No boulders, no rucks, no drills, no training. Got it. I'll go down to Midgard and make the other Norns' lives a nightmare instead, alright?"

"Good girl." Nebo nodded in approval. "Now, let's get you scheduled. Let's say on… Monday. That will give you all of Sunday to rest and recuperate before reporting for duty the next day. We'll do it first thing in the morning, that way you can get back to your schedule of masochistic tendencies."

"Sweat more, bleed less," Lind grumbled.

Nebo deliberately ignored her. "Stop by at eight and we'll go from there. Do you need an appointment slip?"

Lind sighed, realizing she wasn't about to get any further with him. Any more prodding and he was liable to make it two days of rest. "No," she said. "The squadron recognizes the fact I'm on Special Duty status. Most of them don't bother much with me unless I've already scheduled training for them."

"Good. Then I'll see you next Monday?" Nebo sent her an imploring look, and Lind reluctantly nodded in agreement.

"Then you're free to go."

Lind nodded, taking off the device on her finger and returning it to Nebo. "About Cool Mint though…" The Valkyrie started, and Nebo looked at her in fresh interest. "The others… Cool Mint is a sign of success. A sign of hope. You said so yourself." She stopped and bit her lip, for a moment glancing back at the energy chart that had dropped to the negative now that it was no longer connected to another person. "I mean… with Cool Mint's success, do you think it'd be possible for…"

Nebo considered her words for a long moment, his face somber. "It would depend on their family," he said. "The procedure is still considered 'experimental', Lind, and the rest of your unit is unable to give consent in their current state. You were the only one who came out with an angel still on your person, and even then, it was close to fifty years before you regained the higher brain function necessary to agree to the procedure."

"I know." Lind agreed. "I know, but… do you think, if that consent was given…"

"That they'd recover?" Nebo asked, and his voice was gentle.

Lind nodded.

"It's possible." Nebo continued. "Though it would take an indefinite amount of time. The formula is still undergoing trial and error, and you at least had an angel that could be used to formulate what was lost. But your unit… they're missing that. An angel. That beast you fought while held prisoner consumed everything, and all that was left was the shell. There'd only be a small trace of the _ssaratu_ from which to recreate what was lost, and that could span a millennia. It took you close to a century before Cool Mint was complete enough to manifest, and that was with an angel that had lost one wing. To recreate an angel from something as minor as…dust. Shed skin. Discarded DNA… it's impossible to judge." The man shook his head. "I want to say it's possible. Cool Mint is proof enough of that. But I also don't want to put blind faith in a system still in its R &D phase."

"I see," Lind murmured. "Perhaps it is too much to hope for, just yet."

"No." Nebo shook his head. "Hope is what they need right now. It doesn't account for much in the grand scheme of things, I know, but sometimes the spirit wanders from the body, and even if it cannot commune, it can still hear. Hold faith and pass on the good word, if it pleases you. One Tic's words matter little in the grand scheme of things."

Lind grinned at the man, but it was weak. A small little half-smile more reminiscent of the Valkyrie trying to mimic emotions rather than an actual smile with meaning. "I'll keep that in mind."

"Do that." Nebo moved to embrace her in a hug. "You've got two beautiful angels riding on your shoulders, Lind. You're experiencing emotions other Tics said you'd never feel again. You are proof that there is reason to hope, just as I told Cool Mint." He released her.

"Thanks, Nebo." This time the smile on Lind's face was a bit more honest. "I think I needed to hear that. I'll keep your words to heart. I'll see you on Monday?"

Nebo nodded, and with a final goodbye Lind departed the room. For a moment, as she stepped into the hallway, once more the Valkyrie was engulfed by the eerie sensation of being watched by another presence. Yet a glance around her reveled the shadows were still and the air quiet, and the goddess was alone. Nothing, be it a _ssaratu_ called by the flowers and moon, or a monster from haunting nightmares of buried memories, followed her out of the building.

XXX

The Sana District sat in a large dust bowl of a valley surrounded by mountains and jagged terrain. The original intention of this had been as an initial quarantine. Back in the days where diseases tended to gather and outbreaks occurred en masse, it was easier and at times safer to separate those ill and those working with the ill from other deities by harsh terrain and harsher fauna. It diminished the chance of a new disease spreading into a plague, and during those darker years in early Asgard, the dustbowl had served its design well.

Now, however, with modern medicine at the heights of achievement and Tics needed more than ever to treat the weak and ill, routes and transportation hubs had been built into the surrounding landscape, easing the distance needed to travel for the ailed. Markets had been built up along the edges and wells dug to provide sanitation and water for those within Sana, making life easier for Tic, acolyte, and patient who came to dwell there.

Yet its initial purpose had never been forgotten, and the Aesir had learned nothing if not caution in their many years of life. A sudden outbreak or a chemical attack was always a possibility where good hands worked their hardest, and even the gods were victims to fatigue when worked to exhaustion. Be it through accident or cruel intent, no one wanted to risk an outbreak in an area filled with hazardous materials, regardless of the best laid plans.

As such, amongst the markets on the outskirts of Sana was a small Valkyrie base. It was tiny; smaller even than the marketplace where those stationed nearby gathered their supplies. Another intentional design by the Powers That Be: better to lose a handful of Valkyries who could warn off others rather than an entire Wing of Aesir, Valkyries, and the Civilian deities who supported them as a community. It was an area that drilled regularly for a possible chemical, biological, or radiological attack, where gas masks were a more common occurrence than anyone wanted to outright admit, and for the past century it had been Lind's home of record since being rescued by recovery forces from a clandestine demon's base a lifetime ago.

Camp Uruku had been named after its location near at the base of the Uruku mountains, a place once damned and cursed by deities and spirits alike due to how easily its fell to the diseases of the Sana's dustbowl location. Some had even gone so far as to claim it was haunted by the many souls of restless entities incapable of reincarnating, leading to the formation of Camp Uruku's mascot: The Restless Larvae. _"Death's door is but a wall to overcome. Strength. Integrity. Honor."_ Indeed, if Lind were to judge, the dead outnumbered the living in Uruku ten to one; though it was a small base, it also held one of the largest warrior graveyards in Asgard, and even spirits and the occasional Jotun could be found amongst the many markers located just outside Camp Uruku's gates.

 _Where old warriors come to die._ Lind thought as she walked past the graveyard in question. It was a morose thought, one that put her ill at ease as the Valkyries on shift at the front gate examined her ID and waved her through. It being a Sunday, there were few Valkyries about, most having exchanged the small base for trips into the market outside of base or going for a Gate Hop to one of the larger cities in Asgard. Only those working shifts through the weekend or the rare soul roaming on base were spotted, and those less than a handful. It produced a desolate image of the camp, one that Lind could almost feel as she added herself to one of the few off-duty Valkyries heading about their business on base.

The warrior stopped at a quick exchange mart located near the dining facilities, picking up a couple pieces of fruit and several bottles of water before heading on her way once more. She headed past the Higher Residential and VP area where officers and senior non-commissioned officers lived and then past the Middle Residential area where she lived with the other non-commissioned officers. Past the barracks where the lower-tier Valkyries resided and then past the work centers where most of the Valkyries, Lind included, operated throughout the week.

Lind made her way towards the back near the base of the Uruku Mountains, where a facility was built into a cliff face. One of the original buildings designed to shelter against any local CBRNE threat, it had long since been repurposed into a stasis chamber for the ill and wounded recovering from grievous injuries. The facility wasn't so much an actual building as it was an expansion into the mountain itself, and one heavily guarded by Valkyrie security forces at all times. A special access badge was required just to enter the premises of the facility, and those within were closely monitored for any signs of questionable activity.

It was all for a good purpose, and previous lessons learned had shown the necessity of watching anyone who entered a stasis chamber; those injured warriors within were locked in stasis crystals, their bodies the irregular tendee forms that were more accurate portrayals of the Valkyries or Aeisr involved. The crystals were necessary for the tendee-deities involved, as many of those in stasis were in a state of being where their bodies would start to decay without regular treatment. For those within the chamber, many were in a critical state where a cure was either unavailable or undergoing development. The crystals served a secondary purpose of protection for the deities from outside forces as well, yet even crystal could break under enough pressure, thus calling for additional guards to monitor guests for suspicious activity.

Over the past century, Lind had grown as familiar with the guards on post as she had with the many Tics in Sana. Now, approaching the small guard shed barring Valkyries without a badge from access, she stepped up to see who was on shift that afternoon. "Hail, Private Fulgora, Private Spes." She raised her hand in greeting, and a pair of faces peered out at her from the guard shack.

A smile spread acros Fulgora's face. "Hail Sergeant," she greeted. "Fair weather?"

"As well as it will ever be." Lind dug into her blouse and dug out a badge hanging from a lanyard around her neck. "How long have you been on shift?"

"About eight hours," Spes muttered, dark face framed with hair twice as black. "The weekends are the worst, Sergeant. Nothing to do and we can't do anything but stand guard."

Lind nodded. "Anyone stop by to relieve you for food?"

"You see, now you're assuming people remember we're out here." Fulgora smiled, but it was strained. "Some of the girls on patrol stopped by about four hours ago, but that was right before the Guardsmount. Haven't seen anyone pass by here since."

"Figured as much." Lind offered the bags she'd picked up from the quick mart to the two Valkyries. "Split it between the two of you. If no one's come to relieve you by the time I leave, I'll bring back something a bit more sustainable."

"Thank you, Sergeant," Spes said. "Some of the other visitors have been passing us energy bars from inside, so we're not hurting too badly out here. But having some food that isn't candy is much appreciated."

Lind nodded, and after a quick look at her badge to ensure she had the proper authority to enter, was waved through by Private Fulgora. The woman continued onwards, approaching the facility's second safeguard, an electronically locked door that could only be opened by the badge itself. The badge reader gave a small, sharp beep, and the door clicked loudly as the lock was disengaged. The woman grabbed the door and swung it open, then pulled it closed behind her, listening for the telltale beep and click that indicated the lock was reengaged.

The room she entered was one with lock boxes and various signs warning against magical and electromagnetic interference, followed by a secondary door rigged with a scanner and another posted guard. The Valkyrie stowed her cell phone in one of the lock boxes, withdrawing the magic suppressor that rested inside the cubby and slipping it onto her wrist. From there she locked the box and pocketed the key, then proceeded through the second door and into the main complex area.

The main lobby was comprised of pristine white walls and crystal displays of information, where Valkyries and Tics of various professions went about their business with a gentle murmur. Lind joined the slower rush, passing from one room to the next, down various floors deeper into the mountain and finally to one particular section of the complex that Lind had devoted to her memory. She stared at the door, feeling an almost foreign feeling or trepidation churn in her stomach.

 _I don't like this place,_ she realized. _I've… never liked this place. Not since waking up here. Not in the years since._

 _Why?_ Cool Mint asked, and Lind realized something else in that moment. Lind had never come to this place after Cool Mint's manifestation, and while the memories of awakening in the facility were still accessible, Cool Mint had no frame of emotion by which to connect the area with. Spear Mint could make the connection after having been with Lind for so long, but Cool Mint didn't have that same level of experience yet.

 _This was where I woke up._ Lind replied. _After I was rescued. I'd been comatose like the rest of my unit, and they'd brought us all here._ The woman sucked in a heavy breath, then opened the door and stepped inside, closing it behind her. _They said I awoke screaming and howling like an animal. I don't remember it like that though._

 _No._ Spear Mint agreed. _There was just the memories of that beast and that room…_ In the back of Lind's mind she imagined she heard a fluttering wing, as though Spear Mint had grown restless from where she resided in her soul.

It brought with it a horrid shudder, and an image, a memory, flashed across Lind's eyes. For a brief moment the room disappeared, and in its place came something else: a glaring white room whose ceiling stretched up into eternity with only a single door for entry. A long mirror stretched out along one side of the room, hiding the demons that watched her. A long, segmented body ( _like a centipede,_ she'd thought back then) surrounding her. Clawed limbs, too many to count, pinning her to the floor as she tried to escape. Her eyes roaming the room madly as a horrible shriek filled her ears. Looking up into a black void surrounded by silver teeth and-

The image vanished, and Lind found herself with her back pressed against the door. She was panting, and she could feel sweat trickling down her neck and to between her breasts, only to be absorbed by the fabric of her uniform.

"What was _that_?" Lind rasped. She clutched her brow with a hand that trembled, squeezing her eyes shut before opening them and blinking rapidly. "That was-Spear Mint? Are you okay?"

 _I'm okay._ The angel sounded as shaken as Lind herself. _I didn't like it, but I'm okay. I felt my right wing for a moment, Lind. It hurt. Like it was… bound, and I couldn't stretch it or move it. Like it had cramped up somehow. It's gone now though._

 _I'm sorry!_ Cool Mint this time. _I didn't understand, and I wanted to see and I went into your memories and, and, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to!_

Lind swallowed, then took several deep breaths. " _Ask_ next time, Cool Mint. I'll share what I remember with you, but you need to _ask_. We need to prepare ourselves for those memories." Her hands were trembling as she let them fall to her sides. "Holy fuck grenades, Cool Mint."

 _I'm sorry, Lind._ Cool Mint apologized again. _I didn't know it'd hurt you and Spear Mint like that._ Lind could feel the guilt radiating from the angel. _I'll ask next time, I promise. Sorry Spear Mint._

Spear Mint grumbled something that Lind didn't bother catching, and as both her angels once more fell silent, Lind turned her attention outward once more to the large room she was in. It wasn't so much one room as it was a series of interconnected rooms that had been expanded to house her entire unit under one quadrant. Though the room was narrow, she could see it stretch back to close to one hundred feet. There were five individual stations within the room, one for each member of Lind's unit, to include the station Lind herself had awoken in so many years ago. Behind the final station, one of only two empty beds, was a secondary room that was partially concealed by a collapsible wall.

The Valkyrie sighed as her eyes roamed from one stasis crystal to the next, each lined neatly against the adjoining wall. "I suppose I might as well introduce you to the team, Cool Mint." She pursed her lips, attempted a smile, failed, and didn't bother with a second try. "Cool Mint, allow me to introduce you to the fallen members of Fighting Wings Flight Twenty-four, under the four fifty-ninth attack squadron, four fifty-ninth attack wing, transient unit Uruku." Her arm swept to the stasis crystals before her.

She fell silent, once more observing the stasis crystals before her. The room was quiet aside from Lind herself; none of the technology in the room produced any noticeable noise, nor did the stasis crystals produce any sounds for the miasmic beings resting dormant inside. "I could go on." Her voice was soft in the silence. "I could tell you our flight's history, our victories, our fame, our faults, our defeats… all of it. We have a rich history-a history _you_ are now a part of as well… but with them as they are now, it would feel…flat. Insubstantial. Weak." Lind shook her head sadly. "Our tale is one that deserves to be shared amongst our brethren, yes, but to speak of it now… it's…" She trailed off, at a loss of words.

 _It would be admitting defeat._ Spear Mint supplied. _To abandon our sisters, who sleep as deeply as we once had and who may yet recover._

Lind nodded. "They… _we_ were all comatose when we were rescued. All of us. Major Sanngrior, Lance Corporal Mist, Private Gunnr, and me, back when I was a Private too."

 _All but one,_ Spear Mint continued. _But we never saw Sergeant Rota again after they numbered us and separated us. She was the only one who wasn't recovered._

 _Will you tell me about them?_ Cool Mint asked, and it was a strange request. The younger angel had easy access to all of Lind's memories, having been born of her soul, and on some deep, subconscious level, even held Spear Mint's memories as her own. Yet it was not just the request that was strange. There was something in the angel's tone that spoke of more than a simple question. Something Lind couldn't identify but felt was important.

It made Lind pause, for a moment staring into space in consideration. She shrugged. "I suppose it couldn't hurt," she said. "I've not shared their tales in many years…" She snorted. "The last I spoke of them… the _first_ I'd spoken of them since recovering had been with Morisato." The goddess shook her head. "Perhaps I'm doing them a dishonor. Yggdrasil knows if it was Gunnr or Mist in my place, they'd be raving about the stupidity of our unit and the situations we found ourselves in. Not with the demons, no-not that. But training? Running one hundred miles with a ruck you could barely shoulder because Major Sanngrior thought it was 'fun'? Mist whistling her little tune until it got stuck in everyone's head? Gunnr's ill luck with additional duties?" A small smile swept across her face, there one minute and gone the next. "Yggdrasil, and I was no better-a new Private right alongside Gunnr and terrified of everyone and everything because of what they put acolytes through. And Sergeant Rota grousing over us lower-tier Valkyries, Nest Mother though she was."

Lind shook her head. "We're lucky, Cool Mint. I don't know how much you actually understand about Valkyrie structure but… when an acolyte is assigned to a flight, it is usually the first and only family she'll come to know. We work together, train together, eat together, and sleep together. We build a strong comradery between each individual in the flight, so as to better operate in combat." She paused and thought for a moment, then said, "I suppose in some ways, we're comparable to Morisato and his Seal Team. Cooperation and communication are instilled as early as possible, and we're quick to learn each other's strengths and weaknesses, and then work hard to pair each other with the individual who can best improve on those weaknesses."

Now the Valkyrie chuckled. "Major Sanngrior was big on that." She approached one of the stasis crystals in particular, and rested a hand on the transparent mineral, watching as the miasma form within churned in tight, looping coils. "She was the terror of our little unit. We called her 'Durga' because of how violent she was. For her it was always 'train, train, train'. If we weren't training our bodies, then we were training our minds, if not our minds, out magics, if not our magics, our bodies, and Yggdrasil forbid she find you resting or slacking off." The woman sighed, examining the rigid crystals that encompassed the tendee form within. "She's a terrifying person. I still have never met a woman just so, so _knowledgeable_ about…everything, I guess. There'd be times when Sergeant Rota would convince her to give us some down time to recover, and the Major would bring up just some… random topic about… Niflheim, Jotenheim, demons, spirits, polmil, weapons systems, anything and everything, and she'd start prodding the waters to see what we knew, then go into this whole discussion on how one weapon system worked or how one of the Nine Worlds operated per their doctrine. And this was on top of not just staying on top of us, but running us all ragged with physical training and magical theory as well."

 _She sounds very intimidating,_ Cool Mint said.

 _She is, Spear_ Mint replied. _I feel that if she were to ever meet the Daimakaicho, there would be no more wars; Sanngrior would simply glare at the woman and send her and her entourage running for the hills._

 _You make her out to be a monster,_ Cool Mint reprimanded.

 _In some ways, she was,_ Spear Mint replied. _But her training worked, and I don't think any of us would even be alive right now if not for the skills she instilled in all of us, injuries or not._

 _So that's why you drill the other Valkyries so hard…_ Cool Mint murmured. Lind nodded in affirmative.

"Sweat more, bleed less," the woman stated. "Those were words the Major lived by, and we were terrified of her training regime on a daily basis because of it. If she'd had things her way, Major Sanngrior would have worked us until we couldn't move anymore. Thankfully Sergeant Rota was there to act as a bit of a buffer between us of the lower tier and the Major."

"Sergeant Rota was… a character. She was a particularly salty Valkyrie-one of those who made a life out of the military, but had seen through the bullshit that was attributed to it long ago. It made her very blunt and grouchy, and she drove the Major insane because of it. But as Major Sanngrior's second in command, there wasn't really anything that could be done. The two would butt heads constantly, which worked in _our_ favor because it gave us lower-tiers the chance to sneak off and take a break."

The Valkyrie moved to a separate stasis crystal, the various branching clusters curving upwards and parting like the parted maw of a beast. "Mist was good about that. She could recognize when the Major and the Sergeant were about to get into a debate, and she'd grab Gunnr and me-both of us the new 'babies' back then, and all three of us would slip away. By the time one of them-Major Sanngrior or Sergeant Rota-found us again, Mist would give a warning and we'd be on our faces doing some kind of exercise-some kind of training to make us look busy. Rota would usually leave us be or, better yet, cut us loose, but if it was Major Sanngrior it'd be enough to start some sort of grueling nightmare training once more."

Lind grimaced at the memory. The Major's voice still came easily to mind, _"Who's ready for a ruck march? Grab your weapons, grab your armor, we're going for a run, from here all the way to the Central District. Gunnr. Lind. You two up front where I can see you. Gunnr, you're the flag bearer-what are you-no! Other side, numbnuts! You want to knock out Lind while she's calling cadence? Lind, I swear on Yggdrasil's three roots, if I can't hear you singing from the back of the formation, I will personally stone you. Mist? What are you doing looking around with that stupid look on your face? Get your ass moving! Rota? Rota? Where the hell is Rota?!"_

" _Behind you Ma'am. Might want to pause the run. Captain Herja from the Intelligence flight wants to talk to you. Said it was urgent."_

" _Daitenkaicho's left nut, what the hell is it now?"_

" _She says she can't speak over unencrpyted comms."_

" _Mother of the Blessed Abyss, can I be left to train my fucking flight of fools for five minutes? Rota, take over for me, let's see what that blasted flight wants this time. I swear, if it's another exercise along the DMZ…"_

Lind blinked, rousing herself from her memories. "I'd forgotten that," she mumbled, then looked down at the Mist's stasis crystal. "That… that had been right before we'd received orders to deploy. It was my first deployment. Gunnr's too, and Mist's second." She rubbed her brow, eyes squeezing shut as a sharp pain rose in the back of her brain. With it came more voices from the past, none of which she was prepared for.

" _Pepper, Strife." Lind and Gunnr looked to Sgt. Rota as the Major, a large, intimidating woman with tan skin and angular facial features, left the area. "Get Fog. I need to speak with you all while Durga's distracted."_

" _I got it." Gunnr rushed off, and Lind watched the blonde go, a pensive frown on her face. Rota only used all their callsigns when things were going either really good or really bad, and the woman's tone spoke towards the latter. She looked back at the lone NCO in their small flight of five, watching as Rota, sometimes called 'Sleet' because of her pale and outlandish features, paced the room restlessly. Gunnr returned with Mist at her side, and Rota gestured them to gather close to her._

" _There was an attack on one of our outposts in the Wasteland," she said, voice rough and grating from years of shouting orders. "The Intel Captain couldn't share all the details over the phone with me, but higher leadership is going to be calling for adhoc deployments. Return to your barracks and grab your Mo Bags. Make sure you have everything you need. We're on standby for the Major's word to drop."_

" _What are we going to do?" Lind ventured, not quite expecting an answer._

" _Patrols, mostly," Rota replied. "We're going to be guarding one of our bases and doing convoys with other flights to see if we can weed out any demons that might be encroaching on our territory. We haven't got much intel to go off of, so we're the acting collectors for the Intel folks to pass on to our later relief. The joys of acting First Responders." She looked at the three of them, her face grim. "I know this is sudden, but remember, this is what we've been training for. It's time to put the skills we've mastered through training and practice to use."_

 _She looked between Lind and Gunnr. "Pepper, Strife, this will be your first deployment. The demons along the DMZ have been acting up recently, and we've been receiving word that they've been conducting a multitude of exercises in the past couple of months. There's been a lot of tension along the Wasteland because of that, and a lot more battles because of that tension. You_ will _see combat, and so I need to stress to you the importance of following the Major's orders once we leave Camp Uruku. Keep your heads down when we head out. This isn't about glory. This isn't about bragging rights. Valkyries who get cocky on the battlefield are the first to die, and you won't be the first or the last to fall if you think your youth and training makes you invincible. Remember, there are other ways to die than a shot through the heart or a shot in the head. Do you understand?"_

" _Yes Sergeant." Lind and Gunnr mumbled together, and Rota nodded._

" _Good." She looked at Mist. "Fog, make sure these two have their Mo Bags ready to go. Do a bag drag with them while we still have time to ensure they've got everything and aren't bringing a bunch of useless shit with them. We won't have time to do a bag drag when the orders drop, and I don't trust these two enough to pack their own bags."_

" _Yes Sergeant." Mist nodded for effect._

" _Good." Rota fell silent, looking the three of them over once more with that pensive frown. "You're released for the day. Keep calm and don't waste your energy. We're going to have a long couple of days ahead of us."_

"Why am I remembering this all now?" Lind whispered, clutching her head and rubbing the section of her skull that throbbed. "Cool Mint?" She called. "Is it you?"

For a moment there was silence, then a tentative, " _yes"_ arose in her mind. _I'm sorry, I-I'm trying to understand everything a bit more. Our flight. What you and Spear Mint went through. But everytime I try and draw on the memories it seems to affect you as well, Lind."_ Cool Mint sounded upset. _I'm sorry, I'm not intentionally trying to drag the memories up, they just-just_ happen _, and I don't know how to control them._

"It's okay, Cool Mint. It's alright. I'm not mad," Lind soothed. "Just… hang on a moment, alright?" The Valkyrie looked around, observing the stasis crystals holding her flight's tendee form once more. Most of her memories pertaining to that time… to her flight-had left her following her awakening from her own comatose state, and she'd never shed much light on the possibility of regaining those lost fragments. She'd never even _considered_ the possibility of…

The woman shook her head. _Have I really done them such a dishonor? s_ he wondered. _To never even make the attempt to remember their own sacrifices?_ The thought made her stomach churn, and for a moment Lind felt sick. _I'd have left their memories to rot in my subconscious if not for Cool Mint's digging._ She realized, and felt a wave of anger towards herself for her own selfishness. "Cool Mint… if I asked you to remember that deployment for me… could you?" she called. "If I asked you to try and dig up those memories for me… it would allow me to see what I forgot, right?"

 _Lind, think carefully before you do this,_ Spear Mint warned. _You forgot that time for a reason, remember? The Tics said it was a self-defense mechanism._

"I know," Lind agreed. "And at the time, I had one angel and a severe injury that would have required that mental block. But I've recovered since then. I need to know, Spear Mint. We all do."

 _I'm not sure about this…_ Cool Mint was hesitant as well. _The nightmare… I had to get help in order to rouse you, remember? World of Elegance was the only angel who came to our aid, and at that point I considered even that more luck than cause. If I start rooting around for those memories, Lind… you've got that magic destabilizer on your wrist. I won't be able to manifest and run for help like last time. If I can't rouse you out of it or stop it… if Spear Mint can't stop it… you'll be trapped in your own mind, Lind._

"I know." The Valkyrie took a deep breath, than left towards the far end of the small line of stasis crystals, coming to the collapsing wall and pulling it back. Inside was a meditation room; Valkyrie tradition dictated one be crafted for any Valkyrie suffering a grievous injury. In times long past it was said that meditation would allow a Valkyrie to commune with those who'd passed on while in service. A strong enough meditation was said to draw the lingering remains of those specific individuals, and if the user's will was strong enough, at times a wish could be made to those deceased on behalf of those injured in combat. Over the years the belief had grown more into a superstition rather than an actual practice, but a meditation room it remained none the less. The room was decorated with personal items of Valkyries long since deceased who'd once been a part of Lind's specific unit, and under banisters and decrepit weapons long past their prime, Lind folded her legs beneath her and sat down.

She tugged her _Shi Baku_ in reflection-another tradition devolved into superstition-and then spoke. "I need to remember, Girls. For the Major. For Mist and Gunnr. For Sergeant Rota, whom we never recovered." She scowled, feeling her heart begin to thrum rapidly and feeling her head beginning to throb in tune to her pulse. "I might learn something. Something I forgot. Something I can use to help them. Something to tell me what happened to Rota."

 _Lind, please reconsider this,_ Cool Mint pleaded. _I won't be able to stop it once it starts. You'll be buried under it until it's over._

"That's what I'm expecting." Lind grit her teeth. "Let's do this, Cool Mint!"

And with a line that echoed the ghosts of her past, both Cool Mint and Spear Mint spoke up: _Demons will dance on your grave for your idiocy one day, Pepper._ And as Lind felt herself fall into her memories, a piece of her smiled, for the voice she heard was not of her angels but Rota's, once upon a time in a land far, far away.

* * *

 ** _A/N: Merry Christmas! A day late I know._**

* * *

 _Comments of a Madwoman: Happy holidays everyone. Remember, this story diverges from canon quite a bit, and we're starting to see more of that with Lind's story. This entire arch is more of an interlude between this and the upcoming one, so we'll focus a bit more on this section before moving back to Midgard. Enjoy, as we go on a bit of a world-building tour with Lind and her flight._


	20. Chapter 20 - Sgt Pepper's Lonely Heart

l

-20-

"On your feet, Valkyrie. We're going outside the wire." A bag, heavy with equipment, landed on her stomach, and with a pained grunt Lind awoke and shoved the mo bag off her. She groaned, yet Mist was deaf to her moans. "Did I stutter, Valkyrie? Move your ass before I cut it off and feed it to the demons."

"I'm up!" Lind yelped and scrambled to her feet, hoisting the heavy bag onto one shoulder and stumbling under its weight. "Mist? What happened? We aren't due for a patrol for another three days."

"Firefight," Mist said. "Grab your weapons and med kit, we're providing support fire so Alpha Team can retreat. Comms coming in say two are critical. Let's move. The others are waiting on us."

Lind swore. "Are you fucking serious? We haven't seen a damn thing since we got here, and the demons choose _now_ to spring a trap on us? It's a Yggdrasil-blessed holiday!"

"What better time to strike?" Mist replied. "Hurry up! Time's a wasting and folks are dying 'cause you aren't moving fast enough!"

"Stop exaggerating, Mist." The Valkyrie unzipped her Mo Bag, grabbing several items and stowing them on her person. In comparison to her standard load out on her first three patrols, she had relatively little gear on her. The lightweight white armor that was a Valkyrie's standard uniform while deployed and a large folding ax for easy transportation being the two main things. Water canteens were stowed in quick pockets made of small-room pocket dimensions littered on her right side, with her left side being reserved for last-resort explosives and gasses to help establish a safe route when things went south. A med kit at her back in case of injury, and an earpiece tuned to her flight's frequency for quick communications over a distance while in flight or combat.

"You done yet?" Mist asked impatiently, tapping her foot in a steady tempo.

"Yeah, yeah, let's go. Yggdrasil, you're hanging around the Sergeant too much. You get any saltier an' people are gonna whine you smell like the sea."

"Fuck you, Lind."

"Get in line," Lind retorted. "I'm still waiting for the Major to finish fucking me with security leader."

"Now who's the salty one?" Mist raised an eyebrow, and Lind contemplated the wisdom of dropping a grenade on the both of them right then and there. Reason won over, and with a scowl Lind joined Mist as the two of them departed the barracks.

Five minutes later found the small unit deploying outside the walls of the small FOB they were stationed at. With Sanngrior at the head, they headed south, using a long-dried riverbed as a compass to help keep them on route. They flew high, well above forty thousand feet and into the cloud deck where their uniforms helped mask them from sight. This high up the air was frigid in comparison to the heated desert below them, and for her part Lind was grateful she'd grown up in an arctic environment; Gunnr, her wingman, was so cold her teeth were chattering, and this with the elemental cloaks that came standard with the light-weight uniforms.

A voice screamed into Lind's headset, and the woman winced at the shrill quality it had undertaken. _"Peregrine zero-one, this is Kestrel two-five, do you copy?"_ Looks like they'd finally entered the combat zone holding Team Alpha.

" _Kestrel two-five, this is Peregrine zero-one, we have your frequency, over."_ The Sergeant had taken over comms while Sanngrior guided them towards their destination. _"We are a five-Wing formation ready to cover your six. Currently five_ _mike_ _out requesting authentication. Please state the third letter of the word of the day."_

" _Whiskey!"_ The Kestrel25 shrieked. " _We need immediate close air support and evac, we have three wings down, repeat, three wings down with six hostiles firing on our position!"_ Kestrel25 screamed. _"We are pinned between three large dunes and some small bushes, do you see us?"_

" _Peregrine zero-one egress to MAC, third letter of the word of the day verified and burned,"_ Rota replied. " _Hang tight, Kestrel two-five, we're almost there."_

" _Hur-"_ There was an audible shriek over the comm device, and Lind wasn't the only person to flinch away from the shrill feedback. The only one who didn't flinch was Sanngrior, who began a slow descent out of the clouds, raising an arm and sweeping it down to signal her intent to Mist, who was leading the second echelon comprised of herself, Gunnr, and Lind. Mist followed the Major's example a minute later to maintain distance between Peregrine01 and Peregrine02, and then the three of them descended as well, following the commander's flight path down and into the valley below.

" _Fucking hell,"_ Gunnr moaned into the comm device, and Lind had to stop herself from voicing her agreement. Three dunes and a bush. The entire _landscape_ was nothing but dunes and bushes, and this high up it was almost impossible to identify movement. _"Could they get any more generic? It's like finding a needle in a haystack."_

" _If we don't find them soon, it'll be upgraded to a pincushion," Sanngrior snapped. "If you've got time to whine, than you've got time to search the ground. Maintain a twenty-five thousand foot altitude and start looking for bushes that look like Valkyries. Peregrine zero-two, monitor for magical assaults. If you catch so much as a whiff of demon, order us back up to forty-_ _kay_ _. I'm not taking any chances with this one."_

" _Roger, Wilco, Peregrine oh-one."_

" _Kestrel two-five this is Peregrine zero-one, do you copy?"_ Rota once more attempted to gain contact with the Valkyries in combat and got static in response. " _Kestrel two-five, do you copy?"_

More static, and then shouts. Screams. Someone had either kicked the comm piece in question or was attempting to reach out to their flight. There was a shriek that made the hair on the nape of Lind's neck prickle in alarm, and in her breast Spear Mint stirred with an anxiety so sudden and yet so strong that Lind pulled up. She hovered where she was, and a moment later the others did as well. Mist clutched her chest, face pale as she looked over her shoulder back at Lind and Gunnr, and the question on her face was clear: _Did you feel that?_

Lind nodded, and a few feet below her Gunnr wrapped her arms around herself, shivering. Even the Major and Sergeant Rota stopped their descent, their body language alert and alarmed even with their backs turned towards the younger Valkyries. Sanngrior and Rota shared a look, and at the Major's nod Rota once more sent out a query. _Kestrel two-_ _five, do_ _you copy? This is Peregrine zero-one. We're receiving strange feedback on our comms. What is your position? We needs coords to get eyes on target."_

Static again, but at least that horrid shriek was gone now. " _Kestrel two-five, do-"_

" _Help…"_ The voice that had first come over the comm link spoke up, no longer screaming but pleading. " _Help…"_ Lind felt a shiver crawl up her spine in a manner both different and alike to the anxiety that had swept through her on her angel's behalf. Something about the tone was… _wrong_ somehow. It was… flat, almost. The emotion was gone. The _urgency_ was gone. It sounded somehow both defeated and desolate, dead of emotion and life all at the same time.

" _Strife, are you hearing this?"_ Lind asked over a private comm, and her wingman looked up at her with worried eyes. " _Is it a demon?"_

" _I don't know,"_ Gunnr admitted. _"I know it's starting to freak me out though. Let's make the_ _call, Pepper_ _. I'm getting the heebie-jeebies."_

Lind nodded, about to call out to Peregrine01 when Rota made another call out. _"Kestrel two-five, Peregrine zero-one, we read you and need to re-authenticate. What is the fifth letter of the word of the day?"_ It seemed that Rota was also catching Gunnr's 'heebie-jeebies' and wanted to make doubly sure they were still talking to a Valkyrie.

" _Help…"_ Again the Valkyrie on the other end said in that flat, dead tone. " _Help… Romeo… Help…"_

Another shared look between Sanngrior and Rota. Lind watched the two of them carefully, heart racing in her chest. Were they actually going to consider descending further? Rota bared her teeth in a manner Lind recognized as an approaching argument, and Sanngrior shook her head. _Not now,_ that head shake said. _Any other time, but not now._

Rota set her jaw in a harsh grimace, staring at Sanngrior as though expecting the woman to change her mind, yet instead Sanngrior moved towards her, forcing the Valkyrie back. Rota scowled, and with reluctance spoke once more. " _Kestrel two-five… fifth letter of the word of the day burned… and… verified."_ The woman glared at the major, who folded her arms over her chest expectantly. " _Kestrel two-five… what is your position?"_

" _Help… North… by… two-five, six-three, nine-seven. East by… zero_ _zero_ _one, two one, three one… help._

 _The fighting's stopped,_ Lind realized. _There's no more sounds of fighting. It's not just the voice. It's, it's the words. The lack of sound in the background. We should be hearing other people. Combat or the wounded or orders being shouted or_ something _. But… there's nothing. Nothing but 'Help'._

Her eyes were drawn back to Peregrine01: the Major and the Sergeant, and found a look of consideration on Sanngrior's face. _Oh_ _Yggdrasil, please_ _don't tell me we're actually going towards those coordinates. Please._ Sanngrior spoke to Rota, Rota replied, yet they were far enough away that the words shared were lost in the breeze. _They have to realize this is a trap of some kind. Sergeant please. I know you sense it too. Please tell the Major no._ The Private shot a glance to her comrades under the callsign Peregrine02 and saw her own anxiety reflected on their faces. Mist and Gunnr didn't like this any more than Lind did.

Mist came up over comms. " _Maybe if the Sergeant votes no, we can throw our lot in with her and convince the Major to call for reinforcements."_

" _I don't know, guys…"_ Gunnr came next, and the blonde's gaze was locked heavily on their leadership. " _I don't think Major Sanngrior's going to back down from this one."_

Lind joined the conversation as well. "Think if we come up on comms and voice our concerns it'll work? Major's always saying 'trust your gut', and I feel like I'm about to puke I'm so jittery right now."

" _Standby…"_ Gunnr said. _"It looks like they've come to a decision._ _Guys, I_ _really don't like this. I'm no coward, but even I can tell when things are too peculiar to follow up on. I smell a trap."_

"I think at this point we all do," Lind grumbled aloud. "The problem is convincing the Major the risk isn't worth the reward."

" _Well, at least we can all breathe easily knowing that we'll be visiting the field at the end of the road together,"_ Mist joked. _"And think of it like this: death doesn't recognize rank, which means we can finally get back at the Major for all the years of training and drill."_

"Fog?" Lind asked. In hostile territory outside the wire, they flight was required to call each other by their callsigns as a security procedure. It diminished enemy forces attempts at gaining Intelligence on the flight.

" _Yes, Pepper?"_

"Shut the fuck up. Some of us aren't ready to cross into the Fields of Resurrection yet."

" _Peregrine zero-two, Peregrine zero-one,"_ Rota's voice came up on the main comm, and Lind was spared whatever retort Mist was about to throw back at her. " _New orders are to investigate passed coordinates by Kestrel two-five, over."_

" _Roger Peregrine zero-one, see encrypted comm,"_ Mistreplied.

Over the comm link, Kestrel25 spoke up once more, " _Peregrine zero-two, Peregrine zero-one… help…"_ Lind couldn't suppress a shudder at the voice.

" _Sleet, Fog here, are we really going to investigate this? All of Peregrine zero-two thinks this is some sort of trap."_

" _We're aware, Fog."_ Sanngrior's voice came up instead of Rota's. " _We don't like it either, but before initial comms went down there were Valkyries on the ground in combat. We're doing just as we told whatever 'Kestrel two-five' is on the other end of the comm: investigating the coordinates. We need to have an idea of what is actually going on, trap or none. It sounds like the demons have some sort of 'emulation frequency jamming' magic in their arsenal based off comms. Kestrel two-five seems limited to a set dialogue interlaced with repeated sentence structures that it's recording over unencrypted comms. So this is what we are going to do, Ladies: Strife, make a call back to the FOB. Pass on everything that has happened thus far over encrypted comms and inform them that our next location are the coordinates passed to us in case we go down._ _Rota, you_ _have the_ _coordinates, so_ _ensure they're properly passed on to C2. Ensure they're aware that the coordinates don't match up with Kestrel two-five's last known location. Everyone_ _else, have_ _your weapons out on ingress. We are not going to engage unless necessary; this is purely for surveillance purposes only."_

" _Even if we see the real Kestrel two-five down there?"_

" _If there are demons down there equipped with air defense artillery, then yes. We aren't going on a suicide run, and if we're outnumbered and outgunned, then we pull back and inform higher headquarters of the situation. We proceed from here with caution, we keep Kestrel two-five live to monitor dialogue, and we observe what is at those coordinates. From this point_ _on, all_ _comms are over a secured link, understood?"_

" _Yes Ma'am,"_ Mist said, and in her voice was echoed than anxiety shared by one and all.

XXX

The coordinates took them south, then veered east away from the dried riverbed and into larger, sloping dunes that cast long shadows upon the earth. Bushes began to form in small thickets of briar wherever the land was still solid, and thrice Gunnr called for them to pull up into the cloud deck. Each time was later revealed as nothing but bushes, yet despite the growing irritation with the false alarms, Lind found herself grateful nonetheless. Gunnr's six sense was sharp when it came to sensing others, and she wasn't the only one who couldn't shake the feeling they were being watched, or worse, stalked. Several times Lind had thought she'd seen something moving beneath them, dipping from one shadow to another under the cover of roaming tumbleweed and thick sandstorms, and it put her on edge.

They went on this way for close to twenty miles, and as they encroached on the passed coordinates, N25 63 97 E001 21 31, the flight grew more and more anxious. Gunnr now had a permanent scowl on her face, and Mist had taken to whistling to try and calm her nerves. It was a tune their entire flight was familiar with, but no one knew the words for: some song from an Asgard music band that had grown insanely popular to the point where there was even a small cult following in Midgard. Lind herself had taken to chewing on mint leaves; a technique Rota had shown her in her first weeks with the flight as a way to calm herself when she grew too overwhelmed. The mint worked to an extent, but the knowledge that her flight was literally flying into a possible ambush site still left her nerves screaming. The mint cleared her head, but did nothing to slow her racing heart.

They were only five miles out when the trap was sprung.

There was no warning, no indication, not even a hint that something was wrong. One moment they were flying their formations long and broad; Peregrine01 at the lead with a ten foot interval between Sanngrior and Rota, with Peregrine 02 fifty feet behind them holding similar intervals. Nothing below them but the heavy dunes with their lengthening shadows as the day pressed on. Nothing above them but the thick clouds that masked their presence against the sky. Kestrel25 hadn't spoken up since their last comm check five minutes prior, and as they'd drawn near the comms had been turned off to impede the possibility of radio static giving away their position.

The attack happened faster than Lind was able to follow. A shadow, the loud, audible sound of something tearing into flesh, and then Sergeant Rota's shrieks as she was torn-not shot, not dropped, not driven, but _torn_ from the sky, a cruel weapon like that of a fish hook-or perhaps a harpoon-embedded in her left wing. The woman didn't so much drop as she was dragged to the ground, spiraling and fluttering like mad as she tried to reorient herself amidst the thorned weapon that pulled her down.

"Rota!" Sanngrior was after her without a second thought, wings folding tight against her body as she dove after the woman.

"Shit!" Mist swore. "Oh _shit_! Strife, send current coordinates to C2, Pepper, on my six, we're going after them!" Mist dove after the Major, and swallowing a lump in her throat Lind dove as well, wings almost flat against her shoulders as she launched herself after Peregrine01. Gunnr dove a moment later, and Lind was marginally aware of the woman speaking into her comm piece and wondering if she'd remembered to go secure or not.

It wouldn't have mattered either way. At ten thousand feet more black shadows, those same harpoons that had so easily torn into Rota, shot towards them. They came in a fast and near-constant barrage, an unending stream that promised pain and debilitation towards any in their path. Others would consider it luck that none aside from Rota were caught in the attack. Yet any one of the Valkyries in that small flight would have claimed it skill; a testament to the long days of training that Sanngrior put them through. Their only victim that day was Rota, and she the unlucky one to be caught off guard by the initial attack that gave the others enough forewarning to watch the ground.

With an almost eerie grace that came second nature to them, the pack of Valkyries maneuvered through the weapons. At times the shots went wide, and the women in question needed to maneuver not at all. Other times the weapons came so close as to clip a wing and steal some feathers, or to perhaps send a thrill of exhilaration-or perhaps it was fear mistaken for exhilaration-through Lind's chest as the wicked hooks came so close as to produce their own wind.

Regardless, they descended after their fallen kin with ease, and before Lind's feet even touched the ground Sanngrior was already barking orders. "Set up a perimeter!" Her voice rose like thunder above Rota's screams; the woman was in agony, even after the Major had cut through the steel cable tied to the hook. The cord, too, was a thing of nightmares; a synthetic rope covered in thorns and protruding burrs, promising additional damage towards anyone attempting to remove the cable from the hook it was tied to. Worse yet, there appeared to be some sort of grime covering it; a black sludge that looked thick and oily in the desert sun, and made Lind's stomach roll when she saw where black meshed with red on the injured white wing. _Poison._

"Pepper! Blades up, eyes out!" Sanngrior screamed. "Find the direction those harpoons are firing from. Fog to Sleet-start treating that wound and cut off as much of that harpoon it as you can. Douse it in disinfectant and wrap what remains; we need to get her up off the ground and out of here ASAP. Strife, send word to C2 of downed flight Peregrine zero-one and zero-two. Make sure you pass on that our last known coordinates may be in the threat ring of an emulation jammer. They are not to trust any comms unless they have a visual to back up authentication. Consider all CSAR information compromised from here on out."

Lind scanned the horizon for signs of encroaching demon activity and spotted something at her two o-clock. She squinted, nervously adjusting her grip on the ax that had become her favored weapon of choice. The Valkyrie felt exposed and vulnerable on the ground, yet the idea of further aerial combat with those black fish hooks flying at her terrified her more. The activity was growing stronger along the horizon now, and Lind could just make out a battalion of demons racing towards them. Not on wings, not on the backs of beasts as they were so known for, but in a full-on sprint that spoke of an almost primal nature. "Durga, on my two, level with the ground," Lind announced. "Ten… fifteen?" Their movements made it difficult to get an accurate count. "Fifteen to twenty demons encroaching. Over half are in black plate armor of standard army personnel, the others in lighter, tan uniforms that might be SOF."

A howl rose from Rota, and against her better judgment Lind looked back at the woman. She regretted it at once; whatever poison that black tar was, it was fast-acting. Perhaps some new kind of chemical weapon red forces were developing that the Fighting Wings hadn't been privy to. The woman's flesh had taken on an ugly gray pallor to it, and the veins in the Sergeant's neck bulged beneath the skin, red and inflamed with an infection that hadn't existed before her fall. The Valkyrie's eyes were large in their sockets, and they rolled madly as Rota clawed at her throat.

 _Oh Yggdrasil, it's a CBRNE weapon._ Lind's breath hitched up a notch. They didn't have CBRNE gear on them. No suits, no masks, no shots to administer in case of possible exposure… _Fucking intel said nothing about goddamned CBRNE on the border. We're going to die a short and painful death because they never told us 'hey, bring your heavy gear, the demons are doing some funky shit on the border!'_

Sanngrior caught her staring. "Eyes _out_ Pepper!" she roared. "What's the ETA on those demons? How many klicks out?"

The Valkyrie looked back to the party of demons, her mouth dry. "F-Five klicks out," she stammered. Her ears strained back behind her, and she could hear Rota making a strange choking sound as she fought to breathe. The private bore her teeth in a grimace. "ETA ten minutes."

Sanngrior swore at her back. "Fog, pack the medical gear back up and take my weapon. We've got less than ten minutes to retreat and the skies are no longer friendly. Stow anything you can on your person and leave behind anything that slows you down. It's time for a ruck march. Pepper, update?"

"Eight klicks out."

"Good. Eyes in, all of you." Lind looked back over her shoulder. Sanngrior stood at the center of their small cluster, with Rota's slack and wheezing form draped over her shoulder. "We use the dunes for cover," she said. "Set fire to any brush you come across to help mask our presence initially-they know we're here already and they can see us just as easily as we see them, but the wind is in our favor and will blow the smoke towards them. We can use it for misdirection. Let's go."

With Sanngrior in the lead, they raced northwest, backtracking along the route they came and using the shadows of dunes for cover; those same shadows that demonic SOF had used to stalk them, if Lind were to guess. Even though Sanngrior had made it a habit of running them in full gear for up to one hundred miles at a time, it was still slow going. The sand was made of fine, golden grains that devoured their feet with every step, and it took twice the exertion to move through the loose grains as it did on solid terrain. The only advantage the sand gave them was the lack of a markable trail; the sand filled everything, including their footsteps as they trekked onwards, covering their lone visible trail as they pressed forward.

 _So long as their senses aren't as sharp as the rumors say._ Lind thought, listening as her heart pounded in her chest and focusing on her breathing. It was preferable to the alternate; listening as whatever CBRNE material in Rota consumed her life. _I hope those were just lies designed to discipline us: no creature can smell a Valkyrie covering her scent with the environment or identify her footsteps amidst a river's rapids. Not without aid from magic, right? And the sandstorms the Wasteland is so known for should create enough frequency noise that it interferes with any tracking spells._ A vain hope, but one Lind took stock in nonetheless. She didn't want to dwell on the alternative.

Sanngrior disappeared around a low bend between two dunes, and in a single file formation Mist, Gunnr, and Lind trailed after. Lind, closing the rear, took one moment to set fire to a small cluster of tumbleweed that still had some green to it. The weeds rested in a small cluster close to fifty feet from their original line, and followed around a path of smaller dunes that was less hazardous than the trail Sanngrior was making for them. A quick spell ignited the branches, and just as quickly the small fire went out, leaving in its wake a heavy, black smoke that was quick to obscure everything in its presence. The smoke made Lind's eyes water, and she brought an arm to her face, trying to breathe through the sleeve of her blouse as she ran to catch up with the rest of her unit.

If she'd done it correctly, the smoke would mask not only their scent, but visuals as well by creating a smoke screen. That in addition to the more presentable trail would hopefully throw their trackers off course, even if only for a few minutes; every second counted now until the flight could either escape red forces or find a location to bunker down until rescue forces arrived.

Guarding herself as best as she could against the thick smoke, the woman charged around the bend in the dunes, blinking rapidly as tears gathered around her irritated eyes. Her head down, she didn't immediately realize the flight had come to a halt until she collided with Gunnr's back, causing the private to stumble forwards with a yelp.

Lind stopped, more confused than startled, and looked up.

Perhaps, under different circumstances, Lind would have observed the idea of bunkering down and using the smoke she'd created as cover before looking for some sort of concealment while waiting for enemy forces to pass her by. Perhaps she'd have gotten a stronger sense that something was not right, that the demons who were hunting them-their Stalkers that had tracked them to the ambush site-were in fact a different group of demons from their actual hunters. In another world, in another time, it might have been enough for Lind to stop and at the very least hesitate before rounding that low bend between the dunes, and perhaps with that she would have been spared the scene she'd quite literally run into.

Thrice. Three times they'd fallen into a trap. First by the coordinates passed by the false Kestrel25. Second by the ambush that had taken Rota to the ground, where they were all at once more vulnerable to enemy forces. And now the third time, by allowing themselves to believe that the demons at their back; that mix of Niflheimian Army and SOF, were their actual hunters.

They were just the hounds funneling them into the net.

A man, a demon, stood at the top of one of the taller dunes, his body a black silhouette against the painfully bright sky. He observed them in silence, and above his head close to thirty demons, all garbed like him in the yellows and tan uniform of Niflheimian desert SOF, hovered close to fifty feet above his head. They stared down at the Valkyries in a quiet so deafening it was chilling.

Lind brought her ax up, shifting into an immediate guard position before common sense even reached her. She felt the gazes of the thirty demons reach her and felt her heart race anew as fresh adrenaline surged through her veins. _This is it,_ she thought, eyeing the many demons before her and picking out one that looked like a quick target. _We fight. We fight until there's nothing left. At the Major's command, break formation, target the closest ones on the edge and keep your back to them. Four, maybe five if you're lucky, maybe more if you can take them off guard. None of them have weapons drawn, so-_

"Lower your weapon, Pepper." Sanngrior's voice rang high and clear against the quiet.

Lind stiffened, then looked over the Major in astonishment. Yet Sanngrior's gaze was on the demon on the dune, and she spared not a glance towards the young private. "Put it down. We're surrounded. Any further actions are suicidal."

No. No way. No _fucking_ way. "But-"

"That's an order, Private." Sanngrior didn't raise her voice, but the steel in her tone was unrelenting. "We're outnumbered one to six and one of our own in injured. Drop the weapon."

Lind stared at her commanding officer and felt, for the first time since becoming an acolyte for the Valkyrie's Fighting Wings, the first flames of rebellion and resentment towards her commander flair to life. For a brief moment she considered the act of disobeying; of throwing caution to the wind, of launching herself towards the man on the dune and at least taking _him_ out, of going down in blaze of rebellious glory in a stubborn refusal to surrender to the Niflheimian forces before her.

And then Rota's breaths reached her ears. Weak and shallow as she tried to draw air. Those labored breaths that grew harder and harder to draw with every passing minute, and whose whole body shuddered against Sanngrior. In that moment, the Sergeant's words from before their deployment returned to Lind, and in her voice they echoed through Lind's mind: _"A dead Valkyrie is useless to her living team mates. Keep your head down and eyes open. Our flight gained its reputation through its skill and caution in combat, not for its reckless abandon and full graveyard."_

 _This is a fight we can't win,_ Lind realized. _The Major knows it and so do the demons. That's why they haven't bothered to bring out their weapons. Even if we make it through these ones somehow… there are still the demons who bottlenecked us, and that doesn't take into consideration any possible deaths or injuries we would acquire._ And Rota was poisoned by _their_ weapons. A poison that was slowly killing her, and which in reality neither side wanted. Though they were still technically at war, the ceasefire was still in place and so too was the new doublet system introduced less than a century ago. If Rota died now, by a demon's hands, there was always the possibility that one of their own would die too.

 _Like the demon on the dune…_ Lind thought, and then gazed down at her axe. Snarling, she tossed it back behind her with all her might, watching with a grim satisfaction as three of the demons separated from the pack of thirty to retrieve the weapon. Outnumbered though they were, it seemed even Niflheimian military were still afraid of Fighting Wings flights. Certain though they were of their victory here amongst the flight, the demons still weren't taking too many chances.

The demon on the dune said something in his native tongue, and as one body the remaining demons descended, forming a loose circle around the Valkyries that cut off any second thoughts of escape. "You surrender than! This is good!" The man's voice was easily projected, though he stood high above the Valkyries in question. It was a gravelly noise; like a boulder exploding upon impact with a Valkyrie's fist. Deep, gravely, and a sound that rocked Lind to her core. In the years that followed, though she would remember him not, that sound would stay with her, and during training with her own young Valkyries she would suppress a shudder whenever a Valkyrie destroyed a boulder.

Now the owner of that voice tipped himself over the edge of the dune, moving to meet them in a sliding walk as the sand carried him down. "A smart Valkyrie. Remarkable. And one who shows concerns for her own flight as well. Due miracles never cease?"

Behind Sanngrior, Mist bristled at the insults. She bared her teeth and took a step forward, only to stop when the Major sent her a pointed look. The snarl became a grimace, and scowling at the demon, Mist looked away in favor of the demons watching them a good distance away. Out of striking range. Out of the range of melee weapons. But not out of ranged magical attacks. Only the Dune Demon moved closer, brave enough-or perhaps the proper phrase was _arrogant enough_ -to approach the Valkyries that made the others in his platoon so nervous.

"We will offer your flight medicinal aid in exchange for your cooperation," he continued, speaking directly to Sanngrior without a second glance to the Valkyries behind her. "The demons who funneled you towards us have a medic in their pack with a species-neutral vaccine to help your injured soldier." He jutted his chin to Rota. "Am I correct in assuming you are the leader of this flight?"

"You are," Sanngrior replied. "Though per our ROEs, we are not allowed to disclose our rank or name to Niflheimian forces. Are you aware of this?"

"I am," he nodded. "May I have a name by which to call the mystery leader of the Valkyries who crossed into Niflheimian territory?"

"Nifl-this isn't demon land! This is the demilitarized zone!" Gunnr cried. "What the-"

"Silence, Strife," Sanngrior snapped. Gunnr flinched, but did as ordered, scowling at the Dune Demon before them. "I am called Durga by my flight. I would request the name of our captor as well."

The demon smiled, teeth that held fangs with them bright against his burnt-red skin. "Captain Cabatu Temo," he introduced. "Allow me to be the first to welcome you to Hell, the Niflheimian lands just past the DMZ. I hope you enjoy your stay." The smile on his face began to fade. "Because you'll be here for a long time."

They arrived at the compound inside an armored personnel carrier, bound in both physical and magical restraints. The demons were numerous; a mixture of men and women who watched them with dark, unkind expressions. The only exception made had been for Sergeant Rota, whom, true to Cabatu Temo's word, was immediately looked after by a Niflheimian medic who directed a surprising amount of snarls and curses towards the demon captain. A tiny woman with black skin and blonde hair done up in cornrows, who chose not to give her name to the small flight, her demeanor was firm and directive. While not completely fluent in Highkin, she was still understandable. The words she spoke were dismissive, but she cared for Rota just as much as she would have her own demons, and for that Lind was grateful. The woman even allowed Sanngrior to sit and observe her procedures, if only to ease the Valkyrie's mind and ensure further cooperation.

By the time they reached the internment facility, Rota was showing signs of improvement. Her breath came easier, and some color had returned to her ashen complexion, though her wing still caused her pain. For her wing the medic did nothing other than remove the weapon, and that was a procedure Lind could hear through the muffling hood the demons had placed over their heads. Soft as they were, Rota's screams were still enough to make her break out into a cold sweat, and though the APC was hot with the amount of personnel crammed inside, by the time they exited the vehicle Lind was chilled to the bone.

The events that filled those first twelve hours of confinement- _processing,_ Rota would later mutter-were events that Lind would only ever be able to recall in short bursts: stripping in front of several female demons with her flight as the demons inspected them for any possible contraband that might have been snuck into the facility. One inspecting the uniforms for hidden pockets while the other checked every orifice on their bodies, leaving Lind humiliated and trembling with anger by the time they were allowed to dress once more. Being hooded and corralled through the facility in single file line like a herd of mules. Meeting another female demon-the medic from before, this time with an armed escort, who interrogated them all for medical history before departing once more. Placed in individual holding cells while they awaited individual interrogation. Being placed in a group holding cell to eat, and each time under the careful, scrutinizing gaze of Captian Cabatu Temo.

Of everyone else… of _everything_ else, he was the one who stuck out the most in her mind.

Their first night in the facility he had them awoken and marched out of their individual cells. Lind didn't know what time it was; there were no clocks or windows to dictate time, but her internal clock screamed that it was early morning, possibly two or three AM. They were brought to a large, white room, bleary-eyed and exhausted, and were instructed to sit on the floor before a large desk with a lone office chair. Any other furniture had been removed from the area, but Lind recognized it as someone's office. The room smelled heavily of electronic devices and the heated liquid crystal that acted as a power source. The desk was large and extravagant; built of solid, umber wood that would not have been out of place in the Major's office back home. It was neat and tidy, with no stray papers or pieces of equipment lying about, but was instead decorated with small little gifts and knickknacks that seemed out of place in an internment facility. Seashell and bone pendants decorated the outside walls, and small charms made of fangs and claws hung from the large desk's overhead drawers.

A small chandelier made of tiny seashells dangled from the corner of the desk, and it was to this item that Lind's eyes were drawn to when Captian Cabatu Temo entered the room. The man entered with such stealth and silence that it was nerve wracking, or perhaps in reality it was the flight's combined exhaustion of the long and stressful day they'd gone through combined with the wariness of waking up at such an odd hour of the night that produced the illusion of stealth. Perhaps that had been his intent.

Regardless, the man must have stood in the doorwell observing them for at least five minutes. "Do you like it?" He'd caught Lind staring. "It was a gift from my _hirtu._ " Lind started, then looked over to the door, blinking rapidly as she tried to focus on him. The man's uniform had changed from the yellow and tan desert combat uniform she'd first seen him in to a more formal dress uniform that was black with gold trim. "Tell me, do you know the significance of seashells?" he asked, walking past the small flight of silent Valkyries and taking a seat behind the desk. He looked down at them from where he sat, an easy smile that could have been mistaken for friendly on his face. "Niflheimian demons hold them in immense value. We are a landlocked world, and our rivers are few and far between, the underground wells even moreso. I have known demons who have never seen an ocean before in anything other than picture books, and to them a seashell is an item of almost mythic proportion." He leaned back in his chair, and pulled up a glass pitcher of water from beneath his desk.

"How much do you know of Niflheimian culture?" He pushed the pitcher to the side, then leaned forward in his seat, folding his hands together as he looked down at the flight of five. "Come on, I know they had to teach you _something_ about we apparent 'savages', so speak up!" Despite the amiable nature of his tone, the man didn't smile, his eyes drifting from one Valkyrie to the next in slow consideration. He stopped on Mist. "You," he said. "Little Humming Bird. Do you know the significance of water to our people?"

Mist stared at him in silence and said nothing.

"Now, now, that's no way to act!" Cabatu exclaimed. "You were humming _Help!_ by _The Beatles!_ The medic heard it, the guards heard it, I heard it… you were so vocal, and yet now it seems a cat has stolen your tongue. Anything?" The man narrowed his eyes as Mist's continued silence. "…Nothing? Surely you must have something to say, here in the presence of your flight and your unit. I will not bite. I have no reason to harm you. I am simply attempting to have a conversation with my guests."

"If we're guests, why are we sitting on the floor?" Gunnr muttered under her breath, and like an arrow Cabatu brought his focus on her.

"Ah! One speaks!" he exclaimed. "A cat can only have so many tongues, is this not true?" Gunnr cringed and bore her teeth at the demon in a snarl. Cabatu ignored it. "You sit on the floor because you are like children: young and ignorant of your new world. Perhaps as you grow you will be offered chairs, but as you are like ignorant babes you shall be treated as ignorant babes… unless _you_ can demonstrate what you know of our people."

The man watched Gunnr like a hawk, and the younger woman began to squirm beneath his gaze. "Has your leader not taught you anything of the people you war with? Of their likes? Their dislikes? Or does the Lady Durga prefer to keep her Valkyries in the dark on who they combat? Perhaps…" He drummed his fingers on the umber wood. "Perhaps, to you, we are little more than nameless faces. Creatures that hide behind masks and with frightening fangs and claws that make us out as beasts. Disassociation is the key to victory in times of war, after all."

"That's not true," Gunnr growled. "We're taught of your culture. Durga made sure of that." There was a note of pride in her voice, and once more Cabatu smiled. "You value seashells not just because you're a landlocked world, but also because of their connotation with water. Water is symbolic with life, resurrection, and rebirth because both flora and fauna depend on it to survival. Your people don't have easy access to water, and so you hold it and anything connected to it in high regards."

Cabatu laughed. "Marvelous!" he cried. "Come here, little Valkyrie. 'Life for you, water for your crops.' It is a saying of good will amongst our people, did you know that?" He waved Gunnr towards the table, yet the Valkyrie didn't move, reluctant and wary of ulterior motives. "Now now, none of that," Cabatu chided. "Lady Durga, send your youngling up so I may reward her. Such a display of knowledge should never be scoffed at."

Lind dared a glance at Gunnr beside her, who'd grown pale, then at Sanngrior, who eyed Cabatu with thin, pursed lips. Cabatu returned her gaze with a large, toothy smile that spoke more of a predator than anything friendly. For her part, Sanngrior's expression returned to the same neutral calm it had been since they'd been captured. "Strife," she said, speaking in a slow and even tone. "Approach the desk."

Gunnr looked at the Major as though she'd been stricken with madness, then looked back at Cabatu. She rose, movements proceeded with caution as she edged towards the desk. Lind watched her, no longer tired but alert; all of them were. The entire flight watched in painful anticipation, certain that what awaited Gunnr would bring pain yet all too aware of the armed guards who observed them with automated energy weapons at their sides. Any sudden movements was sure to draw their attention, and Lind was willing to bet they'd be shot down before they even had a chance to rise to their feet.

Cabatu reached under his desk, and next to Lind, Mist sucked in a sharp breath. Yet if he withdrew a weapon it was out of Lind's sight as Gunnr stood before him. She directed a look towards Mist, who caught her eyes and mouthed ' _glass'_ from her own vantage point. Lind frowned, and as she directed her attention back to Gunnr, Cabatu placed the glass down on the desk and poured water into it. "Drink," he instructed, placing the pitcher back down and gesturing to the glass. "Water, for it is life. Life for you, water for your crops for the knowledge you shared with us."

He leaned back in his chair, nodding her on, and on the spot Gunnr took the offered glass. Lind leaned forward in nervous anticipation, and received a warning growl as one of the guards noticed her actions. The Private froze, torn, and watched as Gunnr drank from the glass, certain the water was poisoned or that Cabatu was about strike her while she was distracted. Yet nothing happened, and finished, Gunnr stood trembling before Cabatu, clutching the small glass with two hands.

"Would you like more?" Cabatu offered.

"No thank you." Gunnr's voice was quiet in the heavy silence. She placed the glass back on the table.

"Are you certain?" The man raised his brows in apparent concern. "This may be your only chance to sup on water for a long time yet. Best take your fill while it is offered, for the days will grow long and laborious. I cannot guarantee you water and food each day."

"I'm certain," Gunnr said in that same soft voice. "May I sit with the rest of my flight now?"

Cabatu stared at her queerly, then shrugged and raised his hand in a dismissive wave. "If that is your desire, then sit."

The Valkyrie was quick to retreat back to the others, and her face was red with emotion. Lind followed her with her eyes, wanting to say something to reassure her, yet found herself strangely mute. _And now it seems a cat has stolen my tongue_ , she thought, but heard Cabatu voice the words in her head. She bit the inside of her cheek hard, tasted blood, and looked back to the demon before them.

The man was watching them with scrutinizing, intelligent black eyes, observing their reactions for several long and agonizing minutes. Then the man broke once more into a friendly smile. "Let us continue our talk," he said. "Water for the ones courageous enough to speak to the 'scary demon'. Cooperation shall be rewarded." The man leaned back in his chair, folding one leg on top of the other and propping the knee against desk. "There is a book amongst mortals. It is called the 'Divine Comedy', have you heard of it?" He looked between the five of them, and none of the Valkyries so much as twitched. "A good read, if a little dreary. Quite imaginative for the minds of their time. The author describes the renditions of where both the divine and demonic dwell, can you imagine? They call our world 'Hell'. Not 'Hel', like Helheim and the other dead lands, but Hell with two els. Queer, is it not?

"The author divides this strange land into three sections. Upper, middle, and lower, and from there divides it further into various rings. And the upper rings of hell, well, they are not that bad. Unending grief in a wasteland, forced to endure strong winds, caught up in a ceaseless storms of wind and hail. Bad, but nothing horrible. Not like the mid-levels. That's where things start getting good." Cabatu shifted his position, leaning forward in his chair and propping his elbows on the desk. "Midlevel brings combat. Ceaseless battles of bloodshed and violence against those cast into the same circle with you. Then the lower levels; locked away in burning stone coffins, boiling streams of blood to swim through. Fire that rains from the sky. Souls cast in perpetual flames and people stricken with unending ailments and illnesses. Men and woman flayed open from neck to groin. People cast and locked away in blocks of ice for eternity."

Cabatu bore his teeth. It held no humor nor good nature. It was a pure action of aggression. "And this is where mortal men believe demons hail from. A land of endless suffering and agony, governing those unfortunate souls who happen to fall into their circles. How cruel! They know us by name only and so lump us as beasts who delight in needless pain and torture. With such a fearsome reputation that proceeds us, it is no wonder so many races fear working with us. Mortal men fear us for they believe us filled with 'sin' and the deities that manage their lives hate us because they believe we are harborers of ill fates. A terrible reputation indeed."

He raised a hand as if in question. "So what better name for the lands across the DMZ, that first line of defense from encroaching deities, but Hell itself? 'Abandon all hope, ye who enter here' and congratulations, as not only have you passed from the Wastelands into Hell, but you've stumbled into your own Seventh Circle."

"What do you mean?" Sanngrior dared to ask, and the demon before them rose to his feet, abandoning his position at his desk in favor of pacing in front of them, from the Major on one end to Lind on the other. He stared down at them all with a perpetual scowl, one that darkened and twisted his features into something cruel and menacing.

"It means, dear Lady," Cabatu said and his voice echoed in the large chamber, "That you have stumbled across Clandestine Base four-two-one-zero." He stopped in front of Mist and angled his body to face her. "What, my little Humming Bird, does the word 'clandestine' mean to you?"

Mist glared up at him from beneath her brows but offered him no reply. "Answer him, Fog." Gunnr's voice was a breath above a whisper next to Lind, and if not for the fact that the two were sitting next to each other, Lind wouldn't have heard it at all. "Answer him before he does something."

Yet Mist ignored the woman's whispers, and the look on her face was defiant. "Still nothing, Little Humming Bird?" he asked. "Or is the term unfamiliar to you?"

Nothing.

Cabatu paused and beheld the five of them, his expression stony. "Would anyone like to help her out?" He asked. Gunnr squirmed in her spot between Lind and Mist, and Lind reached out and grabbed her elbow when it looked like the Valkyrie was about to answer in Mist's place. Gunnr tensed, frozen, and then gradually leaned back against the wall they were against. Cabatu, as Lind would later discover, missed none of it.

The man sucked in a long and noisy breath, as though he was a man surrounded by fools and needed to calm himself in the presence of stupidity. As he released it, he said, "Let's try something else. A game, if you will." His eyes darted from Lind to Gunnr, Gunnr to Mist, Mist to Rota and Rota to Sanngrior. "Do you enjoy children's rhymes?" He looked to one of the guard at the door's threshold, then nodded him over. The guard moved to stand beside Cabatu, and the Niflheimian Captain looked back to the Valkyries. "You've got until the rhyme finishes to speak. It's a simple question. One that's common knowledge even amongst grunts like you, so I don't understand the reluctance to speak. Water for you, life for your crops. A simple thing, really." He pointed at Lind, and the Valkyrie felt her heart skip a beat. "Eeny," His finger darted to Gunnr, "Meeny," then Mist, "Miney," Rota. "Moe." Sanngrior. "Catch," Back to Rota, "A tiger," and so on, "By her toe. If she hollers let her go. Eeny, meeny, miny, moe." His finger paused, resting on Gunnr. The woman sucked in a sharp breath, and she scooted up against the wall as the guard looked her way.

He stopped, pausing to allow an opportunity for anyone to speak. Now the silence that filled the room was not one so much of rebellion but that of dread, one felt by demon and Valkyrie alike. "Still nothing?" he queried, then shrugged, and in a sudden and unprecedented rush continued his chant. "My _Mummum_ told me to pick the very best one and you are _it!"_ His finger landed on Rota, still injured, still with one wing out and bound in bandages and dressings. "Oh you poor, unfortunate soul," he tittered. "Your time here will be painful, but blessedly short. _Smash her!"_

Screams of protest rose as the guard moved towards Rota. At once the flight clustered around their injured comrade, hoping to dissuade the approaching act of violence, and were just as easily ignored as a magical discharge of energy flung them away from the Sergeant. Sanngrior was flung towards the door, and as she rose to her feet was instead brought to her knees as the remaining guard stabbed her in the back. Another discharge of energy surged from the demon's weapon, and the Major's body arced in painful spasms as electricity engulfed her form. Mist and Gunnr raced towards the sergeant as well, and were just as quickly brought down as once more the guard at Cabatu's side slammed his weapon into the ground with another magical discharge. Their shrieks joined Rota's own screams, and then Lind, her own voice surprising her, spoke loud and clear, _"An operation sponsored or conducted by governmental departments or agencies in such a way as to assure secrecy or concealment!_ Now _STOP!_ "

Cabatu raised a hand, signaling to the guards to stop, and the two demons raised their weapons. Energy still snapped and danced at the tips, ready and waiting. "Amazing what a bit of encouragement brings to the table, isn't it?" He was hailed by a series of soft moans from the stricken Valkyries. Rota was curled up against the wall, unconscious, next to Mist and Gunnr, the latter of which was wheezing. The guard next to Sanngrior grabbed the woman by the elbow and dragged her back to the others. She slid and slammed into the wall as he tossed her aside, then returned to his initial post as Sanngrior collapsed beside Rota.

Cabatu looked to Lind, who was the only one left standing amongst her flight. He approached her, and glared down at the woman from beneath a clean-shaven face. "Better, but not what I wanted," he said. "If I wanted a definition, I'd have you read it from a dictionary, Little Fighter. I asked what it means to _you_."

Lind stared at him, mouth agap, and Cabatu sighed in frustration. "Are your ears filled with wax?" He looked at her with a frown, and Lind could think of no way to respond. "Well?" he pressed. "Answer me. Is your head filled with holes? What does 'clandestine' mean to you. In _layman's terms_ , if you will."

"It-it means this place is secret," Lind stammered, and her eyes darted from Cabatu to the guards, eyeing them nervously. "No one knows what's going on here." The punch that plowed into her cheek was strong enough to bring about stars, unexpected enough to knock her to the floor. The Private looked up, staring at Cabatu in confusion.

"Did I give you permission to look away from me?" the man growled, and in one swift motion kneeled, grabbed her blouse by the collar, and hoisted her back up to her feet. "When you are addressed by a soldier of Niflheim, you look them in the eye as a sign of respect, do you understand that?" He dragged her to a wall and pinned her there, snarling all the while. "I would have thought that even Valkyries knew better than to disrespect their superiors, yet you seem to be a bit of a problem child, aren't you? You just defined for me what _covert_ means, not _clandestine._ Now riddle me this: What's the difference between a covert base and a clandestine base? _Tell me._ Right here, right now, or I kill the wounded one and maim the others."

"I don't know." Lind shook her head, and Cabatu narrowed his eyes. "I don't _know!_ " she screamed. "I-you're hurting us-I can't, I can't think! I don't know! I don't remember!"

Cabatu growled, and the sound that emerged was deep, primal, and angry. Then he released her and stepped back. "Back with the others. On the ground. Now."

Lind rushed to do as ordered, not wanting to risk his wrath on either herself or the rest of her flight. Sanngrior, her breath heavy, was examining Rota, leaning the unconscious woman against her as she watched Cabatu with a black gaze.

"Children, all of you." Cabatu rubbed his brow as though it pained him. "Alright. You need to listen to what I say and listen very carefully." He came to lean against the front of his desk, folding his arms across his chest. "What I have asked you were all simple, innocent question. Questions that hold no relation to any sort of intelligence or deal with anything attributed to information gathering. Simple questions that even a mortal, stupid race they are, could answer without a second thought. Yet you chose to ignore them, and thus invoked my wrath at an early state."

He stared down at them, meeting first Sanngrior's eyes and then Lind's. "You are in a clandestine facility. Because the little axe-bringer does not seem to understand what that means, I will enlighten you: you no longer exist. This facility does not exist. The people within these walls do not exist. This is not a 'covert facility', where people know it exists but wonder what happens within its halls. We are on no roster. We have no official paycheck. We are not acknowledged by the public or private sectors."

"You have officially wandered into a territory that is 'off the grid'. Do not expect rescue forces to find you, for you no longer exist. Through me you pass into the city of woe. Through me you pass into eternal pain. Eternal and eternal you will endure. Abandon all hope, ye who enter, for your life has no meaning and less value than you believe, and death is but a passing grace into escape."

XXX

There was no further rest that day.

Nor food or water.

Instead, the flight was returned back to the cell block, though the cells they returned to made the initial rooms look like a resort in comparison. The they were crammed into their own individual holding pin that was more a crevice carved into stone than an actual cell block. They stood small at just under five feet, forcing all the Valkyries, Lind being the shortest at five foot, four inches, to stoop. The conditions were cramped, with little room to turn much less maneuver, and the idea of sitting became little more than a fleeting thought. The door, made of some kind of magically-reinforced metal, held no peep holes other than a small trapdoor near the top that was locked from the outside. It left those inside in a deep and impenetrable darkness, where no sound reached them nor left the confines of their tiny prison.

Yet even that could be handled, with enough exhaustion. Though her feet and legs grew numb from the constant standing, Lind could still angle herself to lean propped up against the cell door for a moment's respite. Inside the isolation chamber, there was little else she could do _but_ sleep, for the waking world left her mind active, and that became a scary thing as the anticipation of further malevolence grew in her chest.

The cell was cold, though. So cold. There was no insulation, and with it, the cold bit deep. Her clothes could only do so much, and even that wasn't enough against the chill provided by stone walls and metal door. With it, Lind was awakened to a new misery, and one that left her wishing for Cabatu's smiling face and hating herself for it. She could feel the cold slip into her clothes and to her skin, biting and consuming every last shred of heat within her as her body shivered endlessly. It denied her the rest she so sought out, and instead left her fading in and out of a restless state of consciousness. Her body would shiver, burning up what meager energy reserves it held within, and for a brief moment Lind would feel a small bit of warmth; just enough for her to drift off before her body relaxed, slackened, and some new piece of her touched stone or metal. And then at once she would awaken, shivering anew, not quite 'warm' so much as 'less cold' from before, and the process would begin again. She forgot her thirst in that cell. She forgot her hunger, she forgot her fear and the teammates going through the exact same misery as her on either side of her and instead tasted bitter detestment towards herself and how she'd come into the current circumstances of her life.

By the time the doors opened anew and she fell out of the cell, the woman was almost delirious from the combined effects of hypothermia, malnutrition, and dehydration, and when her eyes hit the artificial light for what felt like the first time in ages, she screamed and tried to hide her face.

"Get up," someone growled at her, the Highkin they spoke thick and aggressive in her ears. "Stand. Walk." Lind tried to stand and faltered, her legs shooting painful pinpricks of numbness up all the way to her thighs. She gasped, fell, only to be caught by the female demon who'd come to retrieve her. "Stand," the demon repeated. "Move your legs. The blood must flow. Stand or I will drop you and drag you out."

Lind hissed in pain, but somehow managed to hold her own weight. She groaned, attempting a feeble step and sucking in a ragged breath when the pins and needles rose in greater flourish. The guard watched her for a while longer, and when Lind's steps grew more even she reached out and grabbed the Valkyrie by the upper arm. Lind looked at the hand gripping her, then followed it up to the woman, staring at her blankly. "Hood on," the guard growled, "Quickly, or I do it for you." She handed a familiar cloth to the Valkyrie, and Lind stared at it for a moment longer before sighing as her exhausted mind roused itself.

 _If I ever get out of this,_ she thought, _I will never put another thing on my head._ She placed the hood over her head, then held a hand out for the guard to grab. The woman grabbed her, and together they departed the area. They left the holding facility, Lind and her guard and no one else, and moved to another part of the building; one that took Lind through blessedly heated corridors that beeped and whined with the high pitch attributed with the biomagnetic crystals that powered so many machines on the tenth dimension. She was aware of eyes watching her as they moved, yet she heard neither footsteps nor voices as she passed. It made her skin break out in gooseflesh, though she was uncertain why.

When she was finally allowed to remove her hood, Lind found herself in a large, expansive white room. The first thing that she noticed was the smell; the room was rank with the scent of antiseptic, and it made her stomach lurch as the smell hit her nose. It smelled like someone had recently finished dousing everything, from the ceiling to the walls to the floor, with the most powerful cleaning solvent they could find on hand. At once a headache began to blossom in Lind's skull, and with a grimace she fought off the desire to clutch her head, refusing to give her guard or any other demons in the local area the pleasure of seeing her pain.

She looked around, squinting against the artificial glare presented by the white walls and the high lights. There was a mirror on the wall opposite the door she'd come through, and Lind recognized it as a mirrored window. The sight of it made her heart seize in her chest, certain that whatever was planned next would end badly on her behalf. As such, Lind wasn't certain if she was relieved or not to see other members of her flight guided into the room, one at a time, each with a different guard.

Rota was the first to enter, and her lips still had a blue tinge from her own session in the icepit of an isolation chamber. Of all of them, she looked the worst off; Rota, despite her pale complexion, hailed from a much warmer climate in the southern lands, and had openly admitted once that the cold was 'the bane of her existence'. The woman's skin, which normally held a healthy glow to it, had lost its luster, looking dry and cracked after the poor conditions of her cell. Yet if she was in any kind of pain or felt any of the weakness made so apparent on her skin, she showed none of it, walking tall and proud into the room and surveying it carefully when her hood was removed. Some of the ice in her gaze melted when she caught sight of Lind, who had to fight to hide her own relief at the sight of a familiar face.

"Pepper," she greeted, moving to join the younger woman as her guard joined Lind's own near the doorway. "Glad to see even an ice cube like you was affected by that nightmare."

"Glad to see you didn't become one, Sleet," Lind greeted in turn. Despite the hole in her wing, the woman seemed to have either caught her second wind or had been receiving enough medical attention to at least encourage healing. "How's the wing?"

"I'll live," she said, "Though I may see an early retirement when we get out of here. That shit they covered the harpoons with caused irreparable nerve damage, if I allow myself to believe what that hick of a medic says for truth."

Lind looked at her sharply. "Can you use it?" she asked.

Rota nodded, though her face was grim. "I'll be the last one out," she said. "I've been allowed to withdraw it back into my person, but it burns like a motherfucker. If we have an opportunity to escape, I'll be better use as a distraction than an escapee," she grumbled.

"Hey, don't talk like that," Lind protested.

Rota sent her a flat look. "Don't give me any lip, Pepper," she warned. "We need to look at our situation realistically, not idealistically. They targeted us on purpose. Maybe we weren't in 'Hell' yet while we were flying, but as soon as they fired on us, as soon as that damnable harpoon pierced my wing, I was a dead woman. They dragged us down to their side on purpose, knowing that as soon as we crossed the DMZ they'd have a reason to keep us, and maiming one of us slows the whole flight and keeps them grounded. They knew exactly what they were doing." Her eyes, a strange shade of pink like the sky at dawn, roved the area and paused on the mirrored window. "They're playing mind games with us. Do you understand that, Pepper?"

Lind looked at her but said nothing.

"Watch," Rota said. "The others will come. Some of them-maybe one, maybe all three, will be in better condition than us. One of them may be in an even worse state than me. Possibly Durga, since they know already she's our commanding officer. They want to divide the flight, Pepper. Breed dissent. Anger. Hate. Kill moral and you kill the flight. Kill the flight and you kill the will to fight. Desperation is what they're aiming for, and it's what they've been trying to instill in us since the moment we went down."

"I'm not sure I get what you're hinting at, Sleet."

Rota nodded. "Just keep it in mind," she said. "And keep in the flight. You start feeling any anger, any despair, don't direct it towards the flight. No matter how bad-or how good-things look for the others, remember that it's all stuff beyond our control. It's all stuff that goes back into the mind game and trying to pry us apart." She paused, thought a moment more, then said, "Remember, to them it's all a game. Especially Cabatu. He's the kind of man who delights in this kind of shit. Don't give him fuel. Don't give him ammunition."

"Yes, Ma'am," Lind mumbled.

The others began funneling in as more time passed. Mist was next, and she looked like how Lind felt upon exiting her small chamber. Her own guard hadn't been so kind as to allow the numbness to fade from her legs, and the Lance Corporal's trousers were scuffed from where she'd been dragged about. Gunnr came next, and true to Rota's warning appeared to be less abused than the rest of her flight. Unlike the rest of them, it appeared that she'd been allowed to bath. Her expression startled when she caught sight of the poor condition of the rest of her flight.

She jogged over to the others, heedless of the demons who watched her go. "You're here," she breathed on approach, and missed the scowl on Mist's face as the older Valkyrie took in her state of being. "All of you but-where's Durga?"

"They're probably bringing her last," Rota said. "What happened to you? Where did they take you?"

Gunnr shook her head. "No, I was with Durga. They moved us to a shared cell where they fed us and provided us water to bathe. Then the guards came and took her away before coming for me, I'm not sure, maybe... fifteen minutes later?" She looked at them all, eyes large like that of a child's. "Where were you guys? They separated us from the rest of the flight during the march back to our cells."

"Misery," Mist muttered.

"Don't start, Fog," Rota warned. "She can't control where they take us. Keep your anger for the demons." She looked back at Mist. "We've been in isolation since our last meeting with Cabatu. You were allowed food and water?"

Gunnr nodded, and Rota pursed her lips. "If you return to that place and they continue to feed you, ask about us. Press on the necessity of seeing us and ensuring we are fed as well. They must have seen an opening in you and are trying to exploit it, but we can still use that in our favor if you start making requests of them."

"But then they'll hold it over my head," Gunnr protested. "They'll try and get me to give out information."

Rota nodded. "So be vague. As vague as possible, but don't lie. They'll take anything you give them, then come to us to verify, and if they find out your lying, it won't look good for any of us. So be vague. Tell them you can't think of exact numbers because you're worried for our sake. You can't think because you've been told what they're doing to us and fear you'll be thrown into our lot as well. Milk them for resources as they try to milk you for information, and when all else fails play stupid."

"Will that really work though?" Lind asked.

"They are the ones who have to feed us and care for us in order to keep us alive," Rota reasoned. "They want us for something-information, possibly, but they won't get that if we're in such a weak state of being that we can't communicate with them. They know that, _Cabatu_ knows that, and he's aware of the balancing game that comes with breaking us to where we speak, but not destroying us to where we scream what we think he wants to hear rather than what is fact. They have to work us down slowly, and we can use that if we keep the focus on the care of the unit, do you understand that?" She looked at the three of them: Lind, Gunnr, and Mist. Three low-tier Valkyries with little by ways of actual combat experience and who were all outside of their element. "Trust each other. Trust your leadership. But never trust the demons. No matter what they do, no matter what they say, kind or cruel or otherwise, _never trust the demons._ Do you understand me?"

"Yes Sleet," they chorused together, and with that there came an echoing warble as a door-a large, heavy door of the type to keep something larger and perhaps more dangerous than Valkyries-slammed shut behind them.

Mist jumped, and as one body the small flight turned to investigate the noise. There stood the female medic who had tended to Rota's wing, along with an entire process of armed guards that did not so much eye the Valkyries nervously as their surroundings, and Lind felt her heart sink.

"On the wall, all of you," the medic instructed, her tone leaving no room for argument. "We are here for your angels."

* * *

 **A/N: Things are getting ready to seriously go south.**

* * *

 _Comments of a Madwoman: A holiday treat from the Scarred Survivors team-two chapters for the price of one. Welcome to Hell: The Land of Entrapment. We hope you enjoy your stay._


	21. Chapter 21 - Sgt Pepper's Lonely Heart

l

-21-

"You're what?" Rota stared at the medic in disbelief.

The demon sighed and stared at them, a heavy set frown on her face. She muttered something in her own language aloud, then shook her head and signaled to the guards at her side. At once, the guards; ten of them against the four Valkyries, all armed with the same energy staffs from before, surged forward. Their screams were guttural, and somewhere within the howling Lind was aware of words; words she didn't understand but words none the less. They corralled the Valkyries, forcing them back lest they be further injured, and soon enough the four of them had their backs against the wall.

The men and woman that surrounded them snarled, barking orders and commands none of the Valkyries understood, and with two guards for each Valkyrie they were divided; one guard grabbed them and the other kept their weapon aimed at the woman. They distanced the Valkyries from each other in ten foot intervals, keeping their backs against the wall and their hands on top of their heads. Bewildered, the four women could do little but follow their instruction, manhandled into position before the guards returned to the medic's side. All ten of them kept their weapons trained on the Valkyries.

The four of them stared at the medic in silence, pale and drawn as they faced the demonic firing squad before them. _One wrong move,_ Lind thought. _That's all it would take for them to shoot us down. Yggdrasil, don't let them be trigger-happy._

"Listen up!" the medic cried. Her voice rang sharp and clear throughout the facility. "You will all listen very, very carefully. You will follow my instructions to the letter. If you do not, you will be injured." Her attention went from one Valkyrie to the other. "I say this for your benefit. I say this so you know that it will not by demon hands that you become injured. If you do not follow my instructions than the injuries that befall you will be a result of your own idiocy. Nod if you understand."

Lind glanced towards her companions, and as she caught Rota bobbing her head up and down she followed, taking her cue from the Sergeant. She looked back at the medic and the guards, fighting to control the anxiety in her chest. _Where's the Major?_ she wondered. _What did they do with her?_ She looked to the doors they'd entered through, yet those were barred and sealed; a spell had been activated at the threshold, and the Valkyrie could see where it glowed a bright red against the metal. No one was getting in or out anytime soon.

To include the medic and her entourage.

Lind was not filled with a great deal of hope.

The medic whistled, snapping her fingers. "Blue Hair! Eyes up front!" She snapped, and flinching Lind snapped her gaze back to the woman. "If you do not listen you will be injured. Did I not just say that?" The Private didn't respond, and the medic shrugged. "If is of no consequence to me. You will either listen or you will not. If you do not, what happens to you will be made as an example for the others, and then they will listen."

More concerning words. Lind frowned, and did her best to pay as close attention to the woman's words as possible. It was difficult. The woman's accent was thick and heavy, and it took all of Lind's concentration to distinguish what the medic was saying. "Your angels must be suppressed within you," she said. "There are active weapons within this compound that target angels and are able to draw them out, and so for your continued safety we must suppress your ability to draw them out into a physical manifestation."

She held out her hands, and a black case with power lines that glowed red with magic manifested in her palms. She opened it, and the 'click' it made seemed to echo hollowly throughout the main room. The medic withdrew a syringe filled with a strange, amber liquid, and held it aloft for everyone to see. "This potion is designed to dissolve the material lining of your angels, preventing them from gathering the energy necessary to preserve their physical appearance. It must be administered directly to the angel's physical form to properly take affect and will last for the span of thirty days." Her voice rang like a loud and hollow bell in the room, and the Valkyries who watched her followed along in a silence that spoke of nothing less than dread.

"It is designed to do nothing more to your angels but prevent them from manifesting," the medic continued. "It is not designed to affect you in any further negative ways, and it is necessary for your continued presence in this facility. Nod your heads if I have made myself clear."

Reluctantly, the four of them nodded, though Lind could not help but recall the Sergeant's words. _Don't trust her_. What was this really about? What kind of anti-angel weapons did they have here that could 'actively' target a manifested angel? _There's more to this place than meets the eye,_ Lind thought. _They aren't telling us something, but I don't know what._ And then, with an absolute certainty: _I don't want to get that shot._ Spear Mint fluttered anxiously within Lind's breast, and her hands clammy, the woman bowed her head, wanting to avoid the woman's copper-eyed gaze.

"I will repeat this so that you will understand," the woman said. "This potion is designed to _only_ dissolve the material lining of your angels to prevent them from manifestation. Nothing else. It is not a poison. It is not a weapon. It is a serum designed by your own people for use in medicine and law enforcement. Your own medics within your FOBs have access to this potion. Your language calls it _Patet Nihil. It will only dissolve the material lining of your angels._ Do you understand?"

The Valkyries shared uncertain looks with each other, then returned their attention to the medic. None of them dared a word, and after a long moment of observation the woman dropped her hand to her side once more. "I will call you up individually. The rest of you will stay as you are with your backs against the wall. You will stand and you will wait for me to call on you. Any actions made against us will be treated as a hostile action and will be acted upon by the guards. Refusal to manifest your angel for serum administration will be forcibly extracted by means of _Rabishu_ of one six and two nines." Again she fell silent, allowing her words to sink in, and once more the Valkyries shared a look of confusion. 'Rabishu' was not a term they recognized, nor the name of an indigenous weapon that any of them could recall learning about in the past.

"Do not allow your angel to be extracted by the _Rabishu_ of one six and two nines," the woman warned. "It will awaken at our call, and it will come. And it will take." She frowned deeply. "And it will not give back what it takes."

Her words were ominous, causing a small murmur of uncertainty to travel amidst the group of four. They looked at each other, growing more and more concerned. Lind's gaze found Rota's, and she looked at the Sergeant in question: _What do we do_?

The look on the Sergeant's face was disconcerting, filled with its own apprehension as Rota looked at the three lower-tier Valkyries who fell under her wing. She shifted her gaze back to the medic. "What's a ' _Rabishu_ '?"

"A monster," the medic responded. "That is all I can say in the simplest of terms. If you follow my instructions, it will not be called upon, for its nature is of a cruelty that I find repulsive as a medical practitioner." Her frown deepened. "Know this, Valkyrie: Though we are on different sides, my nature as a medic does not change anything. I care not for you, but I cringe at excessive suffering, and this beast exemplifies that. Do yourselves and the rest of us a favor and do not tempt my hand, for I find no joy in its presence and you will find no relief in its cries. Your angel will know pain, and I will be unable to ease your agony. I do not speak this in jest. I do not speak this to ensure your obedience. I speak of this-no, I warn you of this for your own benefit. _Do not bring the wrath of the_ Rabishu _on your head."_

The woman's eyes swept across the room, lips pursed in a tight line. "Since you are so talkative, we will start with you." She pointed to Rota. "Approach me."

Rota didn't move. "How do we know you're speaking the truth about that serum?" she demanded.

The woman sighed and muttered something Lind couldn't understand aloud. She placed a hand on her brow and shook her head, though when one of the guards, a woman with short red hair, took a threatening step towards the four, she was stopped. The medic waved her back with a dismissive gesture, then turned back to Rota. "Do you need packaging?" she asked. "Then how do you know it is legitimate packaging and that the ingredients listed are in the potion? Do you need a signature to verify the legitimacy of the ingredients? Then how do you know it was not forged within these halls?" She shook her head in disdain. "We could go in circles for hours, but the truth is this: you do not trust me, for I am a demon, though as a medicinal officer I am required by Niflheimian rules of engagement to speak on a factual basis to everyone who is brought to me for aid. Captain Cabatu does not wish for the _Rabishu_ to consume your angels any more than I, though our purposes differ. You will either allow me to administer the potion or the _Rabishu_ shall take its place, but one way or the other, you will not leave this room without your angel's suppression. Do you _understand_?"

"Yes." Rota's voice came out a growl.

"Then approach me now. My patience with you in particular grows thin, Injured One."

Rota scowled, then stepped forward, ignoring the guards who watched her with such scrutiny as she moved towards the medic. The Valkyrie came to a halt five feet from the demon, and the medic nodded. "Summon your angel," she instructed.

Rota didn't move.

The demon sighed. " _Please_ summon your angel," she said. "I will not beg, but I will warn you one last time: The _Rabishu_ will bring you suffering. Do not force me to summon it."

"Forgive me if I don't believe you," Rota replied. "But you also must understand: We do not summon our angels under duress."

The medic frowned, then inclined her head as she relented. "You leave me no other choice," she said. She looked around Rota and to the rest of the Valkyries lined up against the wall. "And the rest of you? What say you?" She asked. "I will provide you the option: Allow me to treat you now or face the _Rabishu_ and have me treat you through force."

The three younger women looked at each other, for a moment at a loss. Was it a bluff to scare them into obedience? What should they do? Throw their lot in with Rota and support her? Or heed the medic's warnings-if they were indeed valid-and take the shot willingly? The silence dragged on, no one wanting to make a decision, and the medic groaned in aggravation. "Be fast," she warned. "You waste my time; I have my own people that need tending."

"We go by Sleet's decision," Mist announced.

Lind ground her teeth together so hard her jaw popped. _Keep with the flight._ She nodded as well, and Gunnr nodded a moment later.

"All of you." The medic stared at them all with an expression of pity but not quite surprise. "I should have known," she lamented, then rubbed her temples before looking back to Rota. "I have daughters that are older than your girls, Valkyrie. I look at them and see the faces of children stare back at me. The loyalty they choose over their own self-preservation makes my heart weep."

"Fuck you," Rota said.

The woman nodded, and it took Lind a moment to recognize the emotion on her face as dismay. "I thought as much," she said, then looked over to the guard at her side. " _Sunu sa ina Rabishu._ "

The guard nodded. " _Uznum suharruru_." His voice echoed through the chamber, and Lind watched with growing apprehension as both the guards and the medic worked a spell around their ears. The medic moved off to the long mirrored window off to the far side of the wall, and the original guard thumped the butt of his weapon against the ground. The others readied their own weapons, shifting into a guard stance Lind vaguely recognized from Sanngrior's numerous drills. One of them-Lind would never discover who-released a sharp, high pitched whistle that hurt her ears. It rose and fell in pitch, almost like the demon was whistling a little tune, and then without warning it ceased, leaving on a hanging note of an unfinished song.

The room fell silent for a span of five seconds, and then what followed was the most Yggdrasil-awful shriek Lind had ever heard. The creature, the _monster_ , for surely even Nature's cruel design could not fathom such a beast, dropped from the ceiling, landing in the room's center in all its wretched, tumultuous glory. It was enormous, spanning the length of twenty feet, its segmented, tubular body at least four feet high. Its flesh was gray with an unnatural, glossy sheen to it like oil, with each segment housing a pair of long, insectoid limbs that ended in a pair of grasping tarsal claws.

"What the-" Rota backed away from the creature, only to be stopped by the guard nearest her. He aimed his weapon at her and she froze, and the woman's attention was torn between the armed demon and the creature before her. Another time, Lind would have risked the guard and his weapons rather than face the beast before them, but that was at a time far later in the future, where the threat of this strange and unwieldy beast was more defined. A time after she'd already experienced the terrors it wrought.

It squirmed on the ground restlessly, two pairs of antennae or perhaps feelers testing the air from a chitinous head of a many-eyed insect, yet held also the nature of a reptile to its features. It seemed to find what it was searching for in Rota, and in an act that seemed unnatural for a creature of such size and mass, it's long body pushed itself up and off the ground, the large head acting as a counterweight as it curved backwards like a scorpions tail.

Its nature was strange and unsettling to watch, for as it moved Lind could no longer tell what the top of its head was and what was the bottom, or if such a thing even mattered for a creature so alien. Now, it surveyed them from a height close to fifteen feet, and what Lind had taken for eyes at first glance she now came to understand were decorative spots; false eyes to take the attention away from... something.

"What is that thing?" Rota's voice was almost inaudible in the quiet, and that large head-insectoid at one moment, reptilian in the second glance, swayed towards her voice. It stilled, and for a moment Lind caught a glimpse at its inner nature: an ambush predator, preparing its initial strike. And then a shriek. A horrible shriek, so different and yet so alike to the one that had first hailed its arrival that Spear Mint shuddered in her breast, leaving Lind with the horrible, strange certainty that this creature's natural prey was _them_ , and if not them than something that came from their being.

Then came a burst of feathers. Feathers that would haunt Lind's nightmares throughout her stay in that wretched facility, and beneath it Rota's screams. "Storm Bringer, _stop!_ " Yet the angel did not stop. It surged from Rota's person with an expression of such rage and hate on its face it was almost unrecognizable as an angel, it's intentions clear as it charged the creature. Perhaps that had been the intent of the scream; to invoke so much blind emotion within the angel that the Other Half lost all reason. That it went all too willingly towards the monstrosity without fear for its own being and so approached the creature freely and openly.

Something popped out of the monster's mouth. Some kind of bone-like tongue; a hidden stinger or venomous fang that looked almost artificial in the room's luminosity. The creature lunged forward, and the angel was a moment too slow to escape its strike. Lind grew aware of several things at once in that horrible moment: Rota's bloodcurling scream, a hollow, echoing warble of an angel in distress, that horrible stinger-fang piercing through Storm Bringer's side, and Spear Mint attempting to tuck herself into the deepest crevices of Lind's soul.

The artificial fang ripped through the angel's side, leaving flesh dangling, and as Storm Bringer dropped, several pairs of the beast's limbs caught it and brought it close in an almost tender embrace. "What's it doing?!" Lind was barely even aware that her body was moving by the time Mist's screams reached her ears. "What the fuck is that thing _doing?!"_ She was running to Rota-all three of them were-when the guards were spurned into action. Lind barely saw them though, and her body acted on its own accord as she tried to move towards her fallen comrade, ducking and dodging through strikes as the world around her slowed to a crawl.

Even still, the medic reached Rota before Lind, Gunnr, or Mist had made it through the guards. "Stop!" Lind screamed. "Leave her alone! _Leave her alone!_ " Through some means that would later allude her she made it past the guards, though not before gaining a heavy blow to the back for her troubles. It was enough to make her stumble, fall, and her back screamed in pain as she picked herself up and continued towards Rota.

By the time she made it to the fallen Valkyrie, it was too late: the medic was already administering the shot to the injured Storm Bringer. If the angel was even aware of it, she gave no sign other than a look that bordered on relief as her body began to dissolve. "Son of a whore!" Lind roared. "You _bitch!"_ She attacked the demon before reason could stop her, and the monster, the 'Rabishu', skittered backwards, tarsal claws skating loudly on the porcelain floor. The Private wasn't even aware of its retreat, her attention focused on the medic across from her as she tackled the woman to the floor. The demon cried out in dismay, bringing her hands up to shield herself against Lind's wild-but still frightfully powerful-blows.

More guards surrounded her, and before Lind could think to run, or even defend herself, she received the butt end of one guard's weapon to the face. The woman felt something snap, felt blood begin to trickle down her face, and then an explosion of stars as the weapon drew back just long enough to collide with her face again. Several arms tore her off the medic and dragged her away, and the Valkyrie released a ragged scream as she came under the combined assault of at least four armed demons. Her world darkened into one of overwhelming, crushing pain, and red blossoms sprouted behind closed eyelids as she curled up in a final effort to protect her vitals. Yet that didn't stop the magic, didn't stop the pointed boots of demons from biting into her, and by the time they ceased their rage a puddle of blood was forming around her.

Her body throbbed and pulsed and burned with pain, each unique and horrible in their own special way. She wanted to fall unconscious, to escape the horrible pain in her face, her head, the throbbing puncture wounds in her back and shoulders and the pulsing bruises that were certain to form on her arms and legs but couldn't. Her body, after the long years of training under Sanngrior, refused to allow her that slim relief of numb darkness, and so when something prodded her with one foot the Valkyrie had no other choice but to respond.

She'd gotten some good blows off the medic as well. The woman had a fresh shiner already darkening her left eye, and there was a fat lip that was still swelling off to one corner of her mouth. The demon was shaking, though Lind couldn't tell if it was from rage or fear. "You. You next, since you are so eager, Violent One." Her voice trembled with emotion and sounded distorted to Lind's ears. She wasn't certain if that was from whatever spell had been cast or if one of the blows to her head had caused something more than a superficial injury. "For your sake, I hope it is fast. For my sake, I hope your suffering is unending."

She stepped over Lind's body without touching her, and Lind was left with a new and horrible sight: that of the _Rabishu,_ approaching her in that same high, scorpion-like manner it had Rota. _It's not the head. It's the tail._ She thought, her eyes almost level with the creatures true mouth, something she'd missed in the chaos as it drew close, seeking out its next prey. _Like a leech. A leech's mouth with a ring of feelers. Small and unnoticed compared to the false head._ This one had some kind of magic around its mouth, some kind of transparent veil that filled it like a strange, red miasma and prevented the creature from expanding or contracting its maw. _It eats angels,_ she thought. Black spots were appearing in her vision. Spear Mint shuddered within her. _It eats angels by calling them out and then striking them with the false head. And then... what's that scream mean?_ Before her the _Rabishu_ stilled, preparing to strike.

 _It's a death cry._ Spear Mint whispered. _Lind, I can't help it-it sounds so much like an angel's death cry that it's overwhelming. I can't help but respond. Oh Yggdrasil, Lind, I don't want to-_

It shrieked, and Lind couldn't even muster the strength to scream for her angel as Spear Mint responded. She felt a new, sharp pain tear into her abdomen, and then blissful unconsciousness as darkness finally enveloped her.

 _Sp...r in... I... rry..._

XXX

Time passed.

Lind awoke in a large group cell with cots laid out on the floor and a whole new world of pain. The Major had somehow convinced Cabatu that it was better for them all to stay together and tend to their injuries as a flight rather than let the Valkyries' various conditions worsen in isolated cells. The medic, of everyone else, had agreed with Sanngrior's words, and their combined reasoning had led to the larger prison that was now their home.

Of everyone present, only the Major was uninjured; the rest of them had all suffered a beat down at the hands of the guards, though Lind was by far the worst off. "They made me watch," Sanngrior later revealed. "They took me to a room with a long window looking into a great chamber. I saw them bring you all in. I saw what-I saw everything." She paused and took in a shuddering breath before locking them in a steely gaze. "We take the shots willingly, Ladies. We take it and we smile and say 'thank you, Ma'am, may I have another', because I'll be damned before I see that abomination come near you all again."

Lind's attack on the medic had only alienated the Valkyries within the eyes of the demons, and the medic in particular would no longer approach Lind to tend to her wounds. That task was left to Sanngrior herself, who took on the responsibility at her own volition and was careful to follow the demon's instructions when caring for Lind.

First days passed, then weeks. The guards made regular visits to retrieve one Valkyrie after the other, and each time they returned with fresh wounds on their person and a shaken disposition. "They know our names," Mist said after one such interrogation. "I-I don't know how, but they know our names, our ranks, our unit number, _everything!"_ One of her eyes had been swollen shut, and there were ugly, subdermal burns across her body that spoke of magical torture. "They know my brother's name," she continued. "Durga, they-" From her place on the cot, Lind watched as Mist collapsed in front of the Major. "They know who he is. They know where he lives, where he works, how many sons and daughters he has, _eveything!_ " The woman was trembling hard now, held together by only a slim sliver of discipline. "They told me they'd hurt him if I didn't tell them the coordinates of the FOB we were from. That they'd _know_ if I was lying, so I better not fuck it up, and, and, oh Yggdrasil, what was I supposed to do?!" She screamed. "I have a two year old nephew!"

It got worse.

Sanngrior returned from one session unable to move and in obvious pain. All attempts at communication with her failed, as the woman had withdrawn so much into herself that she was unable to distinguish the Flight from her torturers. The only thing she spoke was a mantra: _"_ _Dun Durgaya Namah ey Hrin Clin Chamundaya Vichche."_ They took Rota in her place, and by the time the Sergeant returned Sanngrior had recovered enough to warn them of more. "They've got a _Rabishu_ with them. It's not the same one you saw, though. It's smaller, and its scream brings pain."

Rota was able to elaborate further on it. "It's-it's his pet," she breathed. "It screams and, oh Yggdrasil, the _pain_. It's paralyzing." She clutched her head, and even from where Lind laid out on her cot, she could see the blood that had crusted down her nose and her ears. "I-I don't know what would have happened if not for the _Patet Nihil_ ," she stammered.

"What did they interrogate you for?" Sanngrior asked.

"Shift logs," Rota said. "Shift logs on patrol changes. How many patrols there are, how long each patrol lasts, how many Valkyries per shift... I tried to skew the numbers, be vague and what not, and that fucknugget brought my attention to that- _thing_ and it was just hanging over my head the entire time he was interrogating me, and-" She squeezed her eyes shut and moaned. "It sleeps unless Cabatu calls on it. It hangs from the ceiling asleep like a maggot-bat, but it's almost like it can... _feel_ when there are eyes upon it." The woman shuddered, then gestured to her ears. "These wounds? I was trying to block out its voice. I tried to drown it out, first mentally, and then physically. I-I tried to deafen myself, because I feared for my sanity if I listened to its screech a moment longer."

Gunnr perhaps had the best of it. Or perhaps it was easier to say the worst. They took her the following day, and she later returned without any visible injuries. "I...don't know," she said, looking at them all with large, frightened eyes. "I didn't speak with Cabatu. I spoke with a female demon. She didn't interrogate me at all. She even introduced herself: Xul Qabu." The woman looked more and more uncomfortable and kept her gaze locked on Sanngrior, and even then could not bring herself to look the Major in the eye. "We... we chatted. She was... nice. She had food and water for me, and didn't ask about anything regarding the FOB or dealing with the military." Her face grew red with shame. "I-I didn't know what to do. We just... just sat there and talked with each other for an hour. She even made sure the guards didn't rough handle me on the way back."

"Are you serious?" Mist climbed to her feet and advanced on the Private. "We get tortured and threatened and beat, and you get, what, a friendly conversation with some random demon!?"

Gunnr flinched and leaned away from her, but offered nothing in her own defense.

"That's enough, Fog," Rota growled. "This goes back to their tactics. They're trying to pit us against each other, remember?"

"But-"

"Sit down, Fog." Sanngrior didn't raise her voice, but there was an unmistakable tone to it that demanded obedience. It left no room for argument, and bordered on such a still and quiet danger that even Lind shuddered.

Mist sat at once, and Sanngrior pulled in a long breath. "This woman. This... Xul Qabu. She will be the most dangerous one because she is kind. One does not build a defense against kindness, and her name is a lie. It is Falken. 'Evil speech.' She will lead you astray with kind actions and friendly conversation, but she is still a demon, just like the others. A demon that wants to befriend us... you in particular, Gunnr, but perhaps us later down the road, and will use that friendship to gather information you will provide willingly and without thought."

"Yggdrasil curse it," Gunnr muttered, and buried her face in her hands. "Why are they focusing on _me_?" She demanded. "Why can't they beat me up like you guys?"

"Because they want us to alienate you and win you over to their side as an inside man," Rota said. "And we're not going to let that happen." She sent a pointed look to Mist, who grimaced and looked at the floor. "Instead, if you meet this demon again, you're going to smile and play nice and take control of the conversation, because for her to have complete control would be an interrogation, not a chat between friends. You keep the conversation light: games, literature, hobbies, whatever. If she tries to move it to something else, you tell her you're uncomfortable speaking on that topic and ask to move back to something light. She offers you food, you ask if food can be provided to us as well."

"Friendship is a two-way street, and she's trying to gain your trust," Sanngrior took over. "So we use that to gain supplies for us-namely, medical support since they're being so rough on us. Anything she promises to you she must deliver if she wants to keep your trust, and so we use that to aid the flight. Do you understand?"

"Yes Durga." Gunnr's face was still red, but she looked a little more at ease when it grew apparent that the Major and the Sergeant weren't angry with her.

Between the interrogations and what Lind later learned was physical labor around the facility, Mist began to note the change in guard shifts, and used those times and the medic's regular visits to gain a concept of time. Three guard shifts to last the whole day, each twelve hours long, similar to the shifts the Valkyries themselves worked during exercise drills. Gunnr continued her conversations with the demon called Xul Qabu, and as a result the flight was granted on occasion more food and access to the lone medic in the compound. They gained a regular supply of water that was restocked daily and were provided sterilizing wipes to keep up with hygiene and to clean wounds. The medic came once in with the day shift in what Gunnr proposed was their morning, and then once more in their evening with the swing shift. She never appeared with their night shift, and it was through that deduction the flight came to track the passing days in their cell.

Lind wasn't able to move from her cot for a whole month. The guards had held nothing back in retaliation for her fit of rage. A broken nose, three cracked ribs and one broken one, a fractured tibia, over twenty deep lacerations that punctured the latissimus dorsi, one of which had just missed Lind's spine, and five lacerations in the trapezius muscle on her back. All that on top of a concussion, heavy bruising throughout her body, and smaller cuts and shallow grazes from strikes that hadn't fully connected. Those first days since awakening became a nightmare for the flight. They'd needed to set and align the broken bones so they could heal properly, and stitch the lacerations and clean them regularly to prevent any kind of infection in their poor living conditions. Lind had been delirious with pain, and the medic had provided them with no pain medication to ease her suffering. In the end, Rota had been forced to knock the Private out in order to allow Sanngrior to accomplish the stitches. Lind had fought them at every moment she could, and on at least one occasion had further torn a line of muscle that had already been cut along her back. They were provided dressing, bandages, and disinfectant to keep the injuries from worsening, yet Lind had come to live up to her reputation as the 'Violent One' as dubbed by the guards, and even after bone had been set and allowed to mend fought the entire flight when the time came to clean a wound or re-stitch a laceration.

The guards weren't finished with her, either.

They went out of their way to cause Lind additional grief whenever an opportunity presented itself. The flight knew it, recognizing fresh bruises and broken stitches when they returned, and did their best to protect her by leaving Lind alone as little as possible. Yet no matter how much the flight protested, no matter how much they fought, there were always times during those long and agonizing months where Lind, injured and unable to defend herself, was left alone while the others were dragged off for manual labor and interrogations. Alone and paralyzed with pain when any part of her was moved or jostled. They didn't maim her, as far as Lind could tell, but they slowed the healing process for certain. Never enough to bleed, for the guards avoided any kind of body fluid as though it was contaminated; she'd watched one guard stir up a mild panic after she'd spit on him. Yet they still caused her enough pain to make her scream herself hoarse or to fulfil their own sadism.

One month became two months, and Lind recovered enough to care for herself without the Major's aid. It meant that she sent out like the others, fulfilling odd chores for the flight's care such as cleaning vegetables that would later become a meal. It also meant she could be interrogated like the others, and though Cabatu had allowed her to recover from her injuries, once she could walk again, Lind was free game. Her first solo interrogation with him was not the worst by far... but it set the foundation of what she would later come to expect, and like the others, the main thing she would expect from Cabatu was pain.

It came towards the beginning of the third week of the second month. They took her back to Cabatu's office, that large room they'd initially been gathered in as a flight. They'd sat her down in a chair before removing her hood, though Lind had a sneaking suspicion that was more per the medic's instructions rather than out of any act of kindness. Cabatu was already sitting at his desk when the hood was removed, going over some form of document as Lind regained her bearings. "Are you comfortable?" he asked, though his eyes didn't leave the document that had so enraptured him. "We can't have you on your feet too long now, can we Lind?" Though she'd expected to be called by her real name instead of her callsign, Lind still flinched. It sounded strange and at odds coming from a demon's mouth, and perhaps not quite real after close to two months of being addressed by her callsign. "I've been reading over your file, and I must say, I'm quite impressed young lady." He smiled as he addressed her, though the demon had yet to look at her. "My, such a large family you have! Third born of seven children near the border regions of Asgard and Jotenheim. A country girl! Perhaps that explains your violent attitude towards my poor subordinates. A hick like you simply is too ignorant to know anything other than violence."

He looked up at her, and Lind kept her face a careful neutral. _He's fishing for bait._ Spear Mint whispered, and her tone was urgent. _Just like Rota warned. Keep cool and ignore him. It's not worth it._

"My, you certainly are a frosty one, aren't you?" Cabatu placed the document he was examining off to one side, and Lind kept her eyes glued to his face, continuing to watch him in silence. Cabatu raised his eyebrow. "Absolutely frigid," he deadpanned. "I wonder what category you fall under, all things considered. They say the border regions of Asgard and Jotenheim are a location filled with strife, since the indigenous people up there can't pull their heads out of their ass long enough to figure out if they're deities or Jotun."

Lind twitched. Cabatu caught it. "Just a bunch of uneducated nomads and farmers. First they lived under the rule of the Jotun, then the Aesir after Asgard came and 'liberated' the surrounding territories for themselves, isn't that right?" The man's gaze dug into Lind like a pair of spears. "Didn't you have an older brother who was so dissatisfied with the circumstances of the native populace he joined that extremist organization that lives in the mountains up there? Ah, goodness me, what was the name of it? _Příznivci černá vlajka?_ The Supporters of the Black Flag, wasn't that it?" Lind grew cold at the name. No one was supposed to know about that. _No one_. The only people outside of her family who knew that were so high up the food chain they were supposed to be untouchable, with the storage banks to boot. How... how the _fuck_ did a demon get his filthy shit-hands on those records? Who told him? No one in her flight was even aware that she had two older brothers; they were only aware of the first-born, Aaja, who bred long-haired horses that could survive the winter storms back home.

 _Lind... Lind, keep calm._ Spear Mint was growing increasingly restless. _He's baiting you. It doesn't matter how he got the records. He doesn't care. He just wants to see you react. Ignore him, Lind. Don't give him anything!_

Oh, but Cabatu was just so _relentless_. "Yes... yes I do believe I said that right. It's so difficult to pronounce such an outlandish tongue sometimes... But yes, Supporters of the Black Flag. An extremist organization even by Niflheim's standards, you realize. Trying to establish their own nation-state in the borderlands through a combination of subjugation and violence towards the indigenous population, Jotun, and Aesir into gaining funds to further their self-righteous cause. You had a brother who ran off to join them, didn't you? An older brother, the second born, isn't that right? Iansi?"

Lind's heart skipped a beat at that name. She hadn't heard that name since the funeral piers. Not since her parents had rid the entire landscape of his presence. Cabatu paused and leaned forward. Lind didn't move, but she could feel her control starting to slip. She could feel it in how the blood was rushing to her head. With how her heart pounded a rapid tempo and how red began to creep around the end of her vision. Her hands closed into a pair of tight fists that throbbed with strain, and taking deep, long breaths the Valkyrie began to count in her head, though she knew already it was a losing battle. She'd been close to Iansi. He'd been her best friend growing up and had been the first person to teach her how to ride a horse. They'd had a falling out right before she'd left home to become an acolyte for the Fighting Wings. His last words to her had been 'traitorous bitch'. Her last words to him-before the funeral-had been 'mindless, self-serving fuckwad'. There'd never been a chance to reconcile their relationship. His death had _hurt_.

"You were an acolyte back then, were you not?" The demon continued at his jovial, good-natured pace, as if they were just a pair of old buddies talking about the good 'ol days. Except there wasn't a smile in his eyes. No sir, like they said back home: _Beware those with the eyes of the arctic bear. They are black like pitch for they see nothing that is not food._ "Tell me, what were your thoughts when word came that he'd fallen in battle between a patrol of Valkyries and the _Příznivci?_ Was it, 'I should have stayed home and fucked hor-'"

 _Lind-_

Lind launched herself at Cabatu with a roar she didn't recognize as her own, interrupting both Cabatu and Spear Mint before either could finish their sentences. Smiling Cabatu pushed himself back in his chair, propelled away from the Valkyrie as she crashed into his desk. Pain flared up in her injured right leg, and her head filled with stars as her injuries made themselves known once more. She collapsed with a rasping gasp as her strength fled her body, and Cabatu fell upon her like a wolf on an injured deer. "Truly, a violent, stupid woman." He grabbed her left arm and twisted it, and a fresh scream tore from her throat as the angle grew painful and unnatural until something popped. A fresh, new fire joined her mending lacerations, and when the demon released her once more her limb dangled uselessly at her side. "I suppose it can't be helped for one such as you now, can it? Violence begets violence, and some will only be _taught_ by means of violence." He grabbed the collar of her uniform and threw her away from his desk, back into the chair. "You will sit and you will listen. When I ask you a question you will respond, and it will be truthful. Simple, easy-to-follow instructions. Simple, easy-to-follow questions, and questions you should have no issue with, given the fact your family breeds traitors and terrorists anyways."

Lind crashed into the chair hard enough to send it to the ground, with her sprawled on top of it. Panting wildly and with spots spreading across her vision, she rolled onto her back with a long moan. Fresh wetness seeped into her back from where her stitches had been ripped open. It hurt to move, it hurt to rest on her back, Yggdrasil, _everything_ hurt, and Cabatu was only warming up. The pain was so great that at first, she wasn't even aware of Spear Mint's panicked cries. _It's here! It's above us! Oh Yggdrasil Lind, get up! GET UP! Don't let him wake it up!_

Lind tried to raise her head to see what had so frightened her angel but saw nothing through the spots. Her head thumped back against the floor with a fresh groan. "Spear..." There was something hanging over her head, but she couldn't make out what it was. She tried to roll onto her right side to pick herself up and cried out when her left arm flopped against her like a burning dead weight.

Cabatu watched her from where he leaned against his desk. He sighed. "What a useless wretch," he grumbled, then approached her, leaning down to better look at the Valkyrie. "Bleeding all over my floor at that. Wonderful," he tittered. "I suppose you can lie there if that's what you want. Just know you'll be cleaning it up later." He clapped his hands together, and Lind tried to focus on him through her wavering gaze. "Now that we've established ourselves, let's get started, shall we?" He whistled a little tune, one Lind thought she'd heard before, and something dropped from the ceiling. She didn't see it so much as hear it as it scurried around her on multiple limbs, and in her mind Spear Mint began screaming. She felt something brush her hair and looked up to a leech-like mouth lined with spiraling teeth. She stared at it, frozen, and Cabatu continued to whistle his happy little tune. "So, let's start with something easy." There were small, fleshy tentacles around the orifice, and several of them reached out, touching Lind's hair and then her forehead. They felt cool and dry. "Where are the blind spots located around perimeter fence line of FOB Roc?"

Lind didn't answer him. She didn't even hear his question. Spear Mint's screams had grown into the shrieks of a mindless animal with _Rabishu's_ proximity. The noise was horrid; paralyzing, even, and Lind could no more hear Cabatu than she could think. She missed his question, missed his tone, and missed his disappointed sigh when she didn't respond to anything.

"Shame." Cabatu gestured to the _Rabishu_ , and the noise it made was something Lind did hear. It was something she heard very well, and as it's screams joined Spear Mint's, so too did Lind's, until she could make no distinction between Spear Mint, the _Rabishu,_ or her own voice.

It was only then that Lind's screams began in earnest, locked away with a monster and a demon that was its keeper.

XXX

She was back in the cell when Lind awoke once more. Spear Mint's screams were an echo in her mind, and one that seemed to take the place of the actual angel they belonged to. Of the angel herself, Lind could hear nothing; the event had been traumatic enough that her Other Soul had sought sanctuary as deep within Lind's person as possible. Lind thought she understood now why the Major had been capable of little other than a mantra after her initial interrogation.

"How long was I out?" Her voice was a broken croak, and her throat burned horribly.

Rota handed her a bottle of water; one of the few items they were allowed to keep freely in their cell. "Three days," she said. "A mixed blessing. We had to re-stitch your wounds after they were torn open and pop your arm back into place after it was dislocated. I don't think you felt any of it you were so far gone."

Lind drank deeply, was seized with a coughing fit, and chocked on half the water before it made its way down her throat. She coughed until she was red in the face, then chugged the rest of the water without a word. When she finally finished, she looked back at Rota. "Cabatu?"

"Who else?"

"If I die in this shit hole, I pray to Yggdrasil I take him with me," she hissed.

Rota smiled thinly and rubbed her shoulder. "That makes everyone in the flight," she said.

Spear Mint's voice began to return to her after several days, and with it she gained the attention of an unwanted guest, one she did not see so much as hear. The _Rabishu,_ the Angel Eater, for that was what Lind was now certain the creature was, moved along the ceiling and through the facility's walls like a horrible mutated mouse. Several times she heard its claws scratching against some surface, and at times she would catch a glimpse of its white carapace as it raced over her head. Even the medic's monthly shots didn't keep it at bay. The beast knew the Valkyrie had an angel, and spell or not, it was _hungry._

"It's been following us too. It's the first one we saw. Not Cabatu's pet but the other one. I don't think Cabatu's pet ever leaves his quarters," Rota said. "This one I think has been given free reign of the complex. It spooks the guards. They have me on cleaning duty near their barracks, and I hear the name 'Rabishu' thrown around in hushed words and whispers all the time. They don't like it, and whenever the thing is stalking me they send me to clean all the way on the other side of the facility. The escorts get so unnerved by the thing, they don't even bother hooding me. They just want me-and it-away from their sleeping quarters."

Sanngrior nodded. "They believe it is an abomination, just as we do," she said. "But only the guards. Not Captain Cabatu. Not the demons who assist him in interrogations. _Only the guards._ " She smiled, though it held no kindness. The Major's smiles never held any kindness, these days. "We use it, as we use everything else they give us. Show that the creatures scares you too. Try and speak with any guards that speak Highkin and focus on the ones who converse with you. Build a rapport with them. If we can establish in their minds that we are people and not some nameless enemy, than we can get them to our side for further aid."

Gunnr nodded enthusiastically. "I've already got a couple of guards who might work with that," she murmured.

"So _that's_ how you got a whole loaf of bread in here," Mist grumbled. "Girl, you been holding out on us! You didn't tell us you got connections on the outside!"

"I don't," Gunnr grumbled. "I act like I'm too weak to do any heavy lifting. Doesn't work on the females, but the males tend to be a bit more sympathetic to crocodile tears." She sent a side-long glance to Lind, who'd propped herself up against a wall, dozing in and out of sleep. "Y'know, it'd work for you too, if you stopped fighting the guards every time they came to escort you out. They might even be less inclined to try and beat you within an inch of your life that way."

"Eat a bag of dicks, Gunnr," Lind grumbled. "I don't negotiate with demons."

"We know," Rota griped. "The evidence is all over your body." She sighed and shook her head. "Demon's will dance on your grave one day for your idiocy, Pepper."

"It's not idiocy if there's a tactical advantage to it," Sanngrior muttered. "Though I am loathe to say it, your own recklessness has benefited the rest of the flight by taking the focus away from us. We are left to our own devices because they favor you as their victim."

"Savage," Mist winced. "You aren't pulling punches, are you, Durga?"

"The time to pull punches has come and gone," Sanngrior said. "There is only what we have and how we can use it, and at this point even that blasted _Rabishu_ is a tool to better our means.

"Angel Eater," Lind grunted.

Sanngrior looked over at her. "What was that?"

"Nothing."

More time passed as two months became three and three grew to four. Lind's pains faded, but never vanished completely. Not with the guards always watching. Not with Cabatu and his interrogations. She developed a limp, and standing or walking for any long period of time became a trial the Private was ill-prepared for. She found no mercy from the guards, who'd grown bored actively harming her and had grown increasingly reluctant to touch her as more and more time passed. Instead they assigned her chores that left her on her feet for most of the day. The only time she was allowed to sit was when the medic appeared to look her over; the woman, whose name Lind had come to learn was 'Tunda', had actually thrown a fit with the guards when she'd learned Lind hadn't been assigned a chore that allowed her to sit. She'd gotten Lind a chair, and for a few blessed hours Lind had known relief while Tunda inspected her. It didn't last after the medic departed, but following that, every time Tunda came to check Lind's progress, she was moved from one chore to another and then allowed to sit for the small time it took to look her over.

"Do they allow you to sit after I leave?" Tunda asked, eight days after she'd lost her temper with the guards.

Lind glared at her but didn't answer, and with it, the medic sighed. "I cannot help you if you do not speak." She said. "And you help neither yourself nor me with your silence."

"I don't negotiate with demons." Lind retorted, and that brought a swift end to any further attempts at conversation between her and the medic.

Oftentimes, by the time she was returned to her quarters with the others, Lind found it easier to collapse on her cot and sleep rather than sit and speak with the others. Rota, ever observant of the condition of the others, noticed and ensured the others didn't awaken her. Instead, Lind would awaken automatically in the early dawn when she could sleep no more and find Rota awake and watching the guards, and the Sergeant would fill her in on what she missed as Lind told her of anything new she'd learned. "Their interrogations don't make any sense," Lind grumbled one morning. "I know you all have been grilled more than me, so perhaps there's nothing left but to scare me, but...they aren't actually interrogating me for information, Sleet. It's all... random. One moment it's 'who is the Valkyrie in charge of your wing?' And then next it is, 'do you know this song? We like it a lot." She shook her head, bemused. "Have you experienced anything similar?"

"We have," Rota said. "Not at first, but moreso now than at the start." She kept her voice low to avoid waking the others, who'd all become light sleepers in the time since their initial capture. "Durga and I believe it is further prods at our guard. Find something to off balance us, and then follow it with another question that we respond to without thought."

"There's something else though, isn't there?" Lind asked.

"Yes," Rota agreed with a small bit of reluctance. "I speak a small bit of Falkin. The Major speaks more." She frowned, and for a long time was silent. The cell was illuminated with perpetual, artificial light in order to more easily watch the prisoners, and with it Lind watched as a variety of emotions played themselves out on Rota's face. She didn't like the most recognizable of them: Fear.

"They speak their first tongue in front of us because they are confident we haven't bothered to learn their language," Rota began. "And indeed, it's hard to gain a good grasp on what they speak of because of the more complicated words in their vocabulary, but we have pieced together what we can, and what we are seeing is not good, Pepper. Not for us. Not for Valkyries. Not for deities."

"What is it?"

"A bioweapon. That thing. That... _Rabishu_." Rota pursed her lips, looking outside the bars of their cell. There weren't any guards present. Not at that moment, but that didn't mean they wouldn't be popping in to check up on them soon. "Gunnr's seen demons that aren't military in this facility. Scientists. Civilians. She's been trying to gain rapport with some of the more talkative guards, and they've moaned about how they have to play guard for civilians. One let it drop that they want to leave because the scientists let their monster loose, and they're afraid this current... this current _model_ might be defective. It's why they're always armed whenever they have to be in the same room with it. They're afraid there's just as much a chance of it attacking them as it does us."

"It eats angels, doesn't it?" Lind asked, and Rota looked at her with a start. "When I first saw it, on the ground, I got an up close and personal view of its mouth. Not that weird lizard-head thing with the antenna-but the other end. There was some sort of seal on it that prevented it from eating."

"I didn't know that," Rota said. "I never got a good look at it. One moment it was there, the next Storm Bringer was racing towards it, and then I forgot everything else when it ripped a hole in her side." Her hand drifted towards her right side in recollection. "But you just verified our suspicions. We think this might be some kind of R&D facility designing a weapon to get around the Doublet Clause."

"Wait, what are you saying?" Lind stared at the woman intently, eyes wide with alarm.

"Well, you know as well as I do what happens when our angels are forcibly removed from us, right?"

"Yes, of course," Lind replied. "Everyone does: the body goes into shock due to the sudden severed link, and if it's not repaired with the angel's return or a substitute isn't acquired to mend the link after a set amount of time, then higher brain activity shuts down and the deity involved falls into a coma."

"And we've just stumbled into a base with a creature that can not only draw an angel out against the host's wishes, but holds the potential to devour the angel in question." Rota supplied. "We're test subjects, Lind. They aren't trying to gather _intelligence_ from us. They're trying to gather _information._ They don't give two shits about the FOBs along the DMZ or tactical advances towards their location or information on generals and special operations forces locations. When they interrogate us, they just want to keep us busy and keep us frightened so that we don't figure out their actual intentions, and that is to act as lab rats for their bioweapon so that they can fine tune it for a functional use."

Lind felt herself grow cold at Rota's words. "Then what happens when they've perfected their angel eater?" she demanded. "What happens to us?"

"What do you think?" Rota raised an eyebrow. "What happens to lab rats once they've outlived their purpose?"

XXX

Five months came and went with little change. Lind's limp began to fade, and with it, so too did some of her strength return to her. She began to join the others in stealing small, easily missed items from around the facility: a bit of wire here, a metal fork there, pencils and paper whenever the opportunity presented itself, and most important of all, food for the flight when it was presented to her. The Private began to note when the _Rabishu_ came and went and from which direction it appeared and disappeared from. As her steps grew more firm and sure with the fading limp, she began to count her steps when the guards led her from one facility to another, and helped Mist draw out a map of her section.

There was a sense of urgency to their actions as six months approached. One that hadn't been present before Lind's conversation with Rota. Now though, with growing suspicions on their true purpose within the complex growing more and more valid with the passing days, there came a sense that they were on a tight schedule. Their time was growing limited, and it was something they all were beginning to notice.

The guards grew increasingly antsy, regardless of the _Rabishu's_ presence in the area. Their games of sadism all at once stopped. A new article of clothing was added to their standard uniform: gloves. " _A demon that wears gloves is a demon that beholds you as a tainted being."_ The saying went, and at this point they were just one step away from full MOPP gear. All that was missing were the masks, and the flight could then be designated an official CBRNE hazard. It was something that chilled Lind to the bone, though she'd be damned before she spoke her fears aloud. A piece of her was afraid that the medic had been pumping them with something other than the _Patet Nihil_ that they'd all come to use to count the months.

Speaking of...

The medic disappeared as well. Lind's last meeting with her was over five days ago, and since then Tunda had made no more appearances amongst the flight. Even with their up and coming sixth shot, she did not appear. The flight received no sixth shot, either, and perhaps that was a thing to fear as well. The Rabishu was growing noisier with every passing day. Now, after almost a week in with no sixth shot and the _Patet Nihil's_ effects quickly fading, the creature had taken up a more permanent residence outside the flight's cell. Thank Yggdrasil the demons had the hindsight to magic the prisons. The beast made no attempts to hide its growing interest in the Valkyries, and on several occasions Lind had awaken to the beast pacing outside the prison walls.

The beast would roam the area outside their cage, shuffling and squirming like a centipede that knew prey was near yet could not quite locate it. The worst came when it would scream, like the one in Cabatu's office. This one's cries were different from the Cabatu's Pet, and the angels-the entire flight's, all five of them, were not so much ripped out of their hosts as they did leave on their own volition. And oh, what a terrible sight it was: the _Rabishu_ would scream and Lind would feel her chest fill with a polluted mixture of fear, rage, and a hate so festering black Lind felt filthy. The angels would rush unsummoned from their hosts into the cell, throwing themselves against the bars of the prison in such a mad frenzy that Sanngrior wouldn't allow the flight to approach them. And all the while the angel eater would sit on the other end, tail raised and baiting them as it tried to bring them close enough to strike.

Lind had never been afraid of Spear Mint before. No one in the flight had ever been afraid of their angels before, yet in that sixth month, watching Spear Mint devolve into a mindless beast with her peers: The Major's Raanee Baagh, The Sergeant's Storm Bringer, Mist's Wild Tempest and Gunnr's Ridge Walker, was like watching the entire choir of angels succumb to some sort of madness virus. Like a Siren's song that led to savagery for the angels that heard it, and brought terror and pain to those who played host to those victims.

During those times especially, there was no relief. The guards wanted nothing to do with the _Rabishu_ and were content to let the flight rot until a higher order came to retrieve one of the Valkyries or to provide them with food or water for the day. And those times could be long indeed: the guards were required to feed them twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening, and that left the angel eater with close to twelve hours of 'alone time' with the Valkyries and their angels.

Twelve long, agonizing hours as the angels threw themselves against walls and clawed past each other to get to the _Rabishu_. Twelve hours of injuries inflicted in mindless mania. Twelve hours of screams from the Rabishu as it crawled around the outside of their cell, poking and prodding as it sought a way inside.

Lind began to fear that it might yet find a way in. The beast held an intellect to it that bordered on sentient, at times. She watched it out of fear.

The Major and the Sergeant watched it for other reasons.

They both watched it in attentive interest, observing its movement and examining its body, then shared their findings with the rest of the flight.

"Why are you telling all of us?" Mist asked one day. None of the guards wanted to come near the cell until the _Rabishu_ lost interest in them, and for that moment they were granted a small illusion of privacy.

"For when we escape," Sanngrior said. "Even if it's only one of us. The knowledge needs to get out of this facility. The higher ups need to know about this thing: what it looks like, how it acts, how it hunts..."

"We're going to make a break for it?" Lind perked up in interest, and the Major sent her a glare.

"Speak louder, Pepper, you haven't triggered all the listening devices in the cell yet," she growled. "Would you like to speak directly to the _Rabishu_? I'm certain it would love to know our intentions."

Lind flushed a bright red, and the woman quickly looked down. "No Ma'am," she muttered, her voice lowering on reflex. "Sorry."

Rota sighed and spoke up. "We're going to have to at this rate," she murmured. "We've all noticed that something's going on. Gunnr, have you heard anything from the guards?"

Gunnr shrugged. "They sent me outside to clean yesterday," she said. "And I mean, _outside._ In the _sun_. Last time any of us saw that we were on a one-way ticket to Hell. But yeah, they sent me outside, and then they didn't bother posting a guard because they've come to just, I don't know, expect me to behave myself?" She shrugged. "But I heard one of them mention something about a...a..." She bit her lip. "Fuck, what was the word...'Dem-key-ana'?" She looked at Sanngrior and Rota for help. "I asked what it meant but they didn't give me an exact definition. Just that it was some kind of VIP."

"Demkeyana..." Rota murmured, then sent a perplexed look to Sanngiror. " _Damkianna_?" She asked.

"That's it!" Gunnr exclaimed.

" _Damkianna_?" Sanngrior repeated. "Their word for 'Daimakaicho'?" The Major's face grew ashen, and Lind felt her heard skip a beat.

"No way." Mist looked at them with wide eyes. "For _real_? Top Bitch Herself is coming to visit in all her black-cursed glory? What the fuck is going on here that she wants to see with her own fucking eyes?"

Sanngrior sucked in a long and deep breath. "A live demonstration."

* * *

 **A/N: Here is the first chapter of the new year.**

* * *

 _Comments of a Madwoman: This chapter was insanely difficult to write due to the nature and content held within. It's a challenge trying to find a proper balance between 'beat the puppy' tropes while still progressing the plotline. We're close to finishing the flashback with this and the next chapter, so hang tight everyone and get ready for some horrible revelations._


	22. Chapter 22 - Sgt Pepper's Lonely Heart

l

-22-

There was no way of knowing when the Daimakaicho would make her appearance, but the knowledge that she was coming, and what it could mean for the Valkyries, put pressure on them all to hurry along with their plans. More risks were taken to acquire materials. Gunnr was instructed to scout the outside perimeter of the compound if she was sent to clean again. Sanngrior and Rota acquired a vested interest in translating whatever was spoken between Cabatu and his leadership. Mist began stealing more food to help the flight keep their strength up. She was caught twice, though never beaten now. Not by the guards with their gloved hands, and it spooked the flight to the core. Lind kept her head down, ordered not to draw unwanted attention to herself or to the others through disobedience; the Major didn't want to highlight anyone for whatever 'live demonstration' Cabatu and his scientists were readying for.

"We have to be ready at any time," Sanngrior said, two weeks into their sixth month. "They may attempt to take one of us, and that should be our cue. They know our rank structure, and their own doctrine sacrifices lower ranking individuals before the higher ranking." She looked between Gunnr and Lind. "They may call for one of you," she said. "Lind more likely than not, based off the rapport built by Gunnr with the guards, but we can't be sure of anything. The guards will be following higher leadership instructions, possibly from whoever is the actual commander of this base-not Cabatu, but someone above him. He's only an interrogator, and a Captain at that; there's bound to be a whole 'nother section of leadership that we aren't even aware of. Keep that in mind, both of you."

The two Privates shared a look that mirrored each other with anxiety, then nodded in understanding back to Sanngrior. "If they attempt to take one of you and not all of us, we strike. We haven't attempted any escapes since arriving, and that's lowered their guard. They won't be anticipating a sudden escape attempt, but they'll also be nervous if the Daimakaicho is here, and that makes the guards trigger happy. It doesn't matter. Take them off guard, disperse, and make your way to the outside if able. They can't kill us because of the Doublet Clause, but they can still maim us." Her eyes moved to the others, taking the four of them in. "All of you, keep your wits about you."

The guards came for them, as they'd come to expect, at an unholy hour at night when most of them slept. One of Sanngrior's first orders of business upon being moved into the group cell had been to establish a watch shift during the sleeping hours to ensure no one was caught off guard. It served them well, and this time perhaps saved their chances at escape. Mist was on shift at the time, and it was Mist that Lind awoke to, shaking her shoulder as she urged the Private to awaken. Lind was awake and alert at once, adrenaline already surging through her veins, and she waved the Lance Corporal off as she sat up. Mist went to wake Gunnr, and Lind climbed to her feet, ears picking up the sound of heavy boots framed with metal drawing near.

The _Rabishu_ was blessedly absent, though that said little of what was to come. Sanngrior and Rota were both already up, with Sanngrior standing in front of the cell door and Rota standing behind her right shoulder, both in a stiff, parade's rest stance as the pack of demons appeared further down the hall. The others moved to stand beside Rota in a similar stance, and they were greeted by the lead guard of the night shift pack, a woman who's skin and hair lacked any notable pigment like Rota's, but whose eyes were a deep and unsettling black rather than pink. There were only a few guards amongst them; the flight's perceived passiveness had led to a significant decrease in the number of guards whenever it came time to retrieve them, and where once there were close to ten, now there were only three. They were still armed, but the weapons were dormant, lacking the magical energy signature that spoke of them being charged

The lead guard gestured them back with a grunt. Like many of the demons in the complex, she didn't speak any Highkin, instead relying on hand motions and gestures to convey her meaning. Sanngrior turned to the others and spoke in a low voice. "We move back to the wall. We do nothing until they are forced to enter. When the door is clear, bring them down and run."

The others responded by turning and walking towards the wall, and together the five of them spread out across the back. The three demons entered, and the guard moved towards Lind. She stopped in front of the Private and gestured her back to the guards near the cell door. Lind glared but didn't move. The guard muttered something Lind was vaguely aware was an oath, then grabbed the Valkyrie by the wrist. Lind ripped it free and continued to glare. The guard scowled and looked at Sanngrior. Sanngrior shrugged. _What do you want_ me _to do?_

Muttering beneath her breath, the demon called back to her two companions, who charged their weapons before approaching Lind. Ignored by the guards, Rota and Mist, both of whom stood to either side of Lind, began to slide away from her, and as the guards drew closer to Lind, Sanngrior slipped behind them. Lind ignored them all, instead keeping her eyes centered on the guard before her.

One of the guards moved to strike her with his weapon, and like a pack of wolves the Valkyries descended on the demons.

Sanngrior grabbed the weapon of the guard as he brought it up, then twisted back and tore the staff weapon from his hands. Mist and Gunnr took on the second armed guard, with Mist striking the woman in the knee hard enough to make her drop and Gunnr further off-balancing her as she grabbed the butt-end of the weapon and pulled it down with her body weight. Rota caught the Head Guard in a chokehold, and as the demon tried to fight her off, Lind joined Gunnr and helped wrestle the remaining weapon from the guard. "Go," she said, catching Gunnr's eye as her comrade looked at her with a start. "Go! You've got the best chance of all of us! _Go!_ " She tossed the weapon to Gunnr, and without a second glance the Valkyrie caught it and bolted out of the cell.

"Fog! Pepper!" Someone grabbed her shoulder and hauled Lind to her feet, and it was only Rota's voice that stopped Lind from reacting. "You go too! Both of you, now!" Rota shoved her hard towards the gate, then grabbed the unarmed female guard in another choke hold.

Sanngrior had the other one. "Get moving!" she roared. "The more outside the higher our chances, now go!"

Mist lingered just long enough to test her new weapon on the guard fighting Sanngrior, stabbing him in the side, and as he screamed she grabbed Lind and ran. The two raced down the prison block's corridors, and Lind could hear a high siren begin its whine as someone was alerted to their escape. Gunnr was nowhere in sight, and the two of them reached a door that had been thrown open. There was an unconscious demon on the other side, and the two hopped over his fallen form before racing onwards. Shouts added to the siren's screams, and as the two approached a fork in the hallway, Mist took over. "We create as much of a distraction for Strife as possible. You go left, see what else you can find in this place. Hide anywhere you can and see if you can acquire a weapon. I'll go right and try and slow down anyone going after Strife."

"Right." None of them expected to join Gunnr outside the facility. Not now, with the element of surprise lost and the whole complex awakening to the screech of the sirens. No, now all that mattered was gaining more information they could use and slowing down anyone after the Private. "I'll see you again on the road to the Green Fields of Resurrection, Fog."

Despite the gravity of their situation, Mist laughed. It was the first time Lind had heard her companion laugh in over six months. "Shut the fuck up, Pepper. None of us are entering the Fields of Resurrection yet." She flipped Lind off, and grinning as well, her heart racing and the sound of demons drawing ever closer, Lind returned the gesture. Then she turned and raced off, leaving Mist to her fate.

She turned down a corridor that was only vaguely familiar to her and then down a second one the Valkyrie was certain she'd never been down before. The Private was greeted by a demon departing another room, and it was only through sheer reflex that Lind stopped him from drawing attention to himself. She rushed him, coming in low and fast, and slammed her body into his with enough force to smash him against a wall. Stunned, the demon didn't think to react, and Lind took the opportunity to smash his head into that same wall until he stopped moving.

Breathing hard, the woman took a moment to listen for any sounds that she might have alerted anyone, yet the screams above the sirens were far off and distant. It sounded like Gunnr and Mist were causing enough of a commotion to have gained the attention of the entire base aside from this lone demon, and a civilian at that, based off his nonstandard dress. One of the scientists Rota and Sanngrior had mentioned, perhaps?

She stared at him, then looked back towards the room he'd emerged from. Taking a gamble, she grabbed the door knob and twisted it, half-expecting it to be locked. It wasn't, and the door opened without a sound, allowing Lind to slip inside. The room was dark. All the overhead lights that illuminated the corridors had been turned down to a low, dim glow. Monitors filled the room with various displays of information, and using the darkness to her advantage Lind crept off to one dark corner of the room, all too aware that her white uniform, though dirty, would draw the gaze of anyone who glanced her way.

It wasn't a large room; barely larger than the cell she shared with her flight. It was crammed with various pieces of equipment of both a magical and technical make and model, and there were only two other demons in the room with her. The monitors depicted various logs in Falken, whereas one monitor in particular showed an area footage of the Wasteland itself. Not a security room as she first expected then, but something else.

The demons were both wearing a pair of large, over-ear headsets, and the room was silent aside from the occasional typing on a keyboard. The sirens that had been so prevalent outside were absent here, and the walls were so thick that their screeches didn't penetrate into the adjoining room. Lind could hear nothing that might dictate what the demons might be doing nor read any of the datalogs on the monitors within the room. Frowning, she crept closer, aware that her time was limited with the unconscious man outside and that it'd take only one person to notice that something was amiss.

Emboldened by that fact, Lind crept closer still to the duo, who appeared so attentive in their tasks that they didn't even seem aware of each other. She froze only when one of them grunted and tapped his partner to gain her attention. The other looked his way, and the man muttered something in thick Falken before removing his headset and rising from his seat. He stretched, said something a bit louder that earned a laugh from his companion, and while they were distracted Lind darted behind a set of equipment.

The other demon laughed and made a gesture with her hands, and the man waved her off as he turned towards the door. Lind looked between the two of them from her hiding spot. The female returned to her work, but Lind was growing increasingly aware that her cover was about to be blown the moment the male either stepped outside or turned back to his desk. He passed Lind without a glance, and as soon as his back was towards her she slipped out of her hiding place and snuck after him. The man approached the door, but rather than leave, he instead locked it, and before he could do anything further Lind struck. She wrapped her arms around his neck in a choke hold and pressed his head forward, ignoring the demon's sudden flailing as he tried to fend her off before he passed out. Limp in her arms now, she dragged him away from the door and to the corner, then turned back to the final demon, fully expecting her to have turned and noticed the Valkyrie's presence in the room.

Luck smiled on her that moment, however, as the female was still busy at her screen, unaware of the fate that had so befallen her partner. Wasting no time, Lind stalked towards the woman, choking her out as well before the demon could sense something was amiss and then dragging her out of the chair as well.

The demons dispatched and the door now locked to give her some warning, Lind turned her attention to the monitors before her, grabbing one of the discarded headsets and bringing it to her ear. She'd expected nothing but Falken on the other end, and so was surprised when the words that reached her ears were in fact Highkin. _What the..._ brows furrowing together, the woman sat down, adjusting the headset to slip over one ear while leaving the other partially exposed for situational awareness. What was she hearing? _Why_ was she hearing Highkin? What was this room?

Her lips pursed, Lind listened carefully to the Highkin on the other end. A Valkyrie. Reports. Requests for coordinates. Passed coordinates. Peregrine01.

Peregrine01.

Lind's eyes widened, and she readjusted the headphones once more, certain she was hearing things. _"Peregrine zero-one, this is Hawk one-three, do you copy? Repeat, this is Hawk one-three, Peregrine zero-one, do you copy?"_

No. _No no no no no no._ Was this the...? A lump formed in her throat and Lind swallowed, finding no relief. Anxiety curdled in her stomach like an iron weight, and grimacing, Lind's eyes roamed the control panel before her, searching for something that might allow her to communicate with Hawk13. _It's another spoof._ She thought. _They're-they're using our callsign as another spoof!_ She ignored the holographic keyboard in front of her and looked to the screens. There. Right _fucking_ there. In the upper right-hand corner of one of the monitors was a small chart depicting an information graph. Lind could clearly read the Highkin CSAR information displayed across it, with what she recognized as the translated Falken beneath it. To the right of it was a large series of chat rooms, all in Highkin, all with callsigns she recognized from Higher Headquarters. _They've hacked into our C2 structure._ Lind thought. _All this time... all the patrols that went missing, all the attacks on the FOBs... how long have they known?_

Slowly the pieces of the puzzle began to connect, and Lind leaned forward, cradling her head with both hands. _They hack our systems... guide a patrol off course... use the CSAR information to pass themselves off as a downed patrol, then down_ that _patrol and drag them here for their angel eater. And when their done with that patrol... when they need new lab rats, they use their newest prisoners' callsigns to draw in more parties._

How long? How long had this been going on?

 _There's a Kestrel two-five somewhere in this facility then. They wouldn't kill us because they won't risk the Doublet System, which means Kestrel two-five is_ somewhere _in this facility as well._ But where? The flight had been here her for six months now with not even a hint to dictate there were other Valkyries imprisoned as well. So where were they? What happened to Kestrel25?

 _The same thing that will happen to you if the flight doesn't escape this place,_ Spear Mint supplied. _The same thing that will happen to Hawk one-three if you don't find some way to warn them._

Lind set her jaw and glared back up at the screen. Hawk13 was still calling for Peregrine01 in the headset, and biting her lip she looked once more at the surrounding equipment. _There's got to be a microphone somewhere I can use to speak with them directly._ She thought. _They can't just have a bunch of spoofed recordings, right?_

There was a line of red buttons on a box she vaguely recognized was part of a transcommunicator, and after a few experimental tries heard a static whine on the other end of Hawk's frequency. _Oh thank the Fates. "_ Hawk one-three this is Peregrine zero-one, Tac Pepper." She looked up at the CSAR information and prayed it was still current. "There are three Pink Elephants on the run, I repeat, three Pink Elephants on the run."

For a long moment there was silence on the other end of the headset. Lind's gut churned with nervous anticipation, and she looked back to the door, certain that someone would storm in despite the locked room. She was afraid now. She was communicating with another flight of Valkyries who could pass word back to Higher Headquarters, and Yggdrasil bless it, she was afraid. The idea that at any moment the comms could be interrupted, that someone would discover her, that another spoof might pop up and interrupt her communication with this small patrol terrified her like Cabatu never could. She felt like she might just kneel over and die if they didn't respond, and the Valkyrie prayed to the Higher Powers that Hawk13 actually payed attention to the duress words. By the stars in Tehome's depths, _she_ certainly never paid the duress words any mind, and had she been in Hawk's place, the Private was doubtful she'd have recognized the odd phrase for what it was.

The next voice that popped up was one she didn't recognize. " _Roger, wilco Peregrine zero-one. Can you pass any further information?"_

Oh thank Yggdrasil. Some small piece of her wanted to sob with relief. She pushed that piece of herself in the deepest and darkest pit she could find. "At least two flights downed. See Peregrine zero-one's logs from six months ago for further information. Currently in hostile territory in an unknown clandestine facility. Advice unmanned aerial vehicles for further reconnaissance based off AVA that brought us down. Possible biological weapon under development code-named _Rabishu_." She paused there, then took a deep breath and grit her teeth. "Personal experience dictates coercive angel extract and possible angel eater. All CSAR information burned. Repeat, _all CSAR information burned_."

There was another long and agonizing moment of silence, and Lind lifted her headset up, for a moment certain she'd heard something through the earpad. "Come on, hurry up," she muttered, glancing back at the door and then back to the screen. She bit her lip, then began to dig through the information stored on the computer before her, rooting through files that looked important and deleting any document she came across whose characters matched the ones assigned to the current CSAR information she was looking at. The overall layout was similar to the computers she used back in Asgard, though the language was different, and so the Valkyrie relied on muscle memory to guide her towards where she needed to go.

 _"Roger Peregrine zero-one. Bed down somewhere safe. We're informing rescue forces now."_

 _"_ Negative, Hawk one-three," Lind replied. "Unable to bed down in current location. Hostile forces actively searching the base, need to move before they find my location." She looked back to the door, for a moment almost certain she'd heard a shout from the other side. "Hurry," she said. "I don't know how much longer we can hold out. Tac Pepper, over and out." She tore the headset off her ears before she could hear Hawk's response, then refocused her attention on the computer.

Now sabotage joined her list of prerogatives. This room was dangerous. If she could destroy the database... disable the spoofing jammer that had so set her flight and was about to set Hawk off course... even if it only slowed them down, it'd be worth the effort. The woman began deleting data files necessary for the computer to run, and when the screen began to freeze she abandoned it and crawled under the table, pulling at wires without care or cause. She followed the cords to their power supply and unplugged it, then picked it up and threw it against the wall before moving to something else.

The entire room held a plethora of delicate equipment in it, and Lind went through it like a bull in a China shop, destroying as many components as possible in the hopes of stopping Cabatu's organization from drawing more Valkyries to him. She was panting by the time she was done, her body alive and vibrating with a cocktail of adrenaline and energy. _Even if they catch me,_ Lind thought, _even if they let that thing take Spear Mint, if I know I stopped their progress at least for a small time, then I'll have still succeeded._

 _Let's not think about that right now._ Spear Mint sounded uncomfortable. Lind couldn't blame her. _Let's get out of here before they discover us._

Lind was inclined to agree, but not before she grabbed a fist full of cables and a broom that she'd found in a storage closet. If she was going down, she might as well be armed. _Armed with a monitor cord and a broom handle._ She thought. _My, this improves your odds by quite a bit, doesn't it?_

She moved towards the door and pressed her ear against it, then unlocked it and peaked outside when no sounds met her ears. The hallway was somehow still empty of any patrolling demons, and the man she'd first knocked out was still where she'd left him next to the door. Fortune was indeed smiling on her, but it would only last so long before it turned the other cheek. Opening the door wider, she grabbed the man by the hem of his shirt and dragged him inside the room, then slipped out and closed the door behind her.

The sirens were still screaming outside, and a male voice had risen over the intercom as well. He was shouting either warning or instructions, Lind couldn't tell which, but his tone sounded urgent. "I hope that's telling everyone to stay inside their respective rooms because a bunch of big and scary Valkyries are storming the place and not to urge others to join the hunt," she muttered under her breath, the continued down the direction she'd come by.

It led her deeper inside the facility. How Lind knew this, she wasn't certain, but some sixth sense told her that the direction she was going was away from the building's outer walls. Muscle memory, she later decided, was what kept trying to lead her astray. After six months of being guided throughout the complex in a hood, her feet had memorized what her eyes never saw, and while everything was a new sight for her, on several occasions Lind found herself moving without thought in favor of one corridor versus another. Those times, and only those times, Lind ignored the tug of familiarity and went the opposite direction; she _wanted_ to head deeper into the facility. She _wanted_ to learn its secrets. Gunnr was the only person who'd ever gone outside, and so if the guards and other military units were being called away to deal with an armed Valkyrie, that meant that the inner chambers might be left unguarded. And after discovering the Niflheimian Comm spoofing equipment, Lind wanted- _needed-_ to see what else this place had.

She began testing the doors, seeing if any had been left unlocked and unsurprised to find that none would open for her. At least some of the message being played over the sirens was a warning to the civilians. Lind wanted to laugh, imagining what the message must have been: " _Everyone remain calm. Lock your doors and grab your piss bottles, 'cause the whole facility is on lock down. Hide yo' kids, hide yo' wives, hide yo' husbands too, 'casue Valkyries fucking everything up in here."_

She was surprised when one of the doors opened on one of the tries, and then immediately suspicious. Her makeshift weapon at the ready, the Valkyries pushed it open with a hearty shove, then moved to the side of the door to avoid any possible traps. Nothing happened, however, and Lind could hear no voices that would have alerted her to demons in residence. She peered inside, finding the light in here too were off, though this room was absent of the many monitors of the sensitive equipment room. A storage closet, perhaps? But no, even as the thought entered her mind Lind dismissed it. Though the light of the corridor illuminated little, from what she could make out the room was enormous.

There was a strange heaviness to the air here. As though Lind had stirred a heavy layer of dust upon pushing the door open. The result played and danced with the light from the chamber, and the woman would have thought nothing of it if not for the scent that accompanied it. The air was stale, and beneath it was a sour and rancid smell that made her stomach churn. Lind wrinkled her nose at it, then proceeded inside.

The lights in here were motion sensitive, hinting that the room was designed for many active, moving bodies at a time when only a small section of the chamber brightened. The lights appeared high over Lind's head at what she judged to be around fifty feet. Though they were bright, their rays illuminated little of the deeper enclosure but hinted at a possible scaffolding towards the ceiling. A small bit of light reflected off what might have been glass, and with no other direction Lind moved towards it.

It was a room. A mirrored room, like the one she'd been in when she'd first encountered the Angel Eater. This room had a secondary door off to one corner of the chamber, and when she tried it, Lind found the door unlocked. The woman slipped inside, discovered the smaller room didn't hold any motion sensitive lights, and flailed in the dark for a light switch or a lamp. Her fingers brushed against a dial, and grumbling curses Lind turned on the lights, finding herself in a long, secondary chamber whose walls were little more than a long stretch of glass on either side. There was a long line of equipment along the west wall, facing into another room she hadn't entered yet, followed by two doors on the far end of the hallway. One of the doors led into the room she was peering into, dark like the rest of the building, but the second door appeared to be connected to another section of the chamber.

The woman approached the door directly across from her first. There was another dial in here that she used to illuminate the chamber, and this room in particular made Lind pause. The walls of this one were composed of tiles, like the changing room the demons had used to strip search the flight upon their initial arrival. The air here was heavy with the scent of cleaning solvents, and Lind's arms broke out in gooseflesh. The room was small. Little more than thirty feet by thirty feet in length and width, with three doors into the chamber. Lind's was one of them, and there appeared to be two doors on the east and west sides that led into the half she'd first come through and into the second chamber that she had yet to explore. The hair stood up on the nape of her neck, and before Lind explored further she used the broom handle to prop the door back into what had to be an observation room open, suddenly afraid that the door would lock her in as soon as it closed.

She moved to further explore the chamber, though the reality was that there was little to explore. A thick, black curtain hung from one wall towards the door leading out to the unexplored chamber, and off in one corner was a metal disposal bin. A line of shower rods, old-fashioned and outdated, rested in a corner of the room near the curtain, and when she turned one on the substance that came out was not water but a sanitization byproduct. It was the same material the demons had been using for the flight to help save on water, and she made a face as the familiar chemical scent struck her nose.

Turning it off, Lind moved back to the bin. It looked like a large trash bin of some sort, and while Lind doubted she'd find anything of use, she decided to search it anyways on the off-chance of gaining more information about the area she was in. The Valkyrie pushed the lid up and peered inside. A stale smell like that of dirty laundry struck her nose, and she made a face before reaching in and grabbing one of the articles of clothing.

She pulled it out and almost dropped it as the light hit the material. "This is…" Lind stared at it with wide eyes. "This is... " It was a Valkyrie's white military blouse. It was dirty and torn from use and abuse, but there was no denying the material or the design. "How did... " She dropped it at her feet, then reached into the bin and withdrew more of the disposed clothing. Another blouse. Pants. A couple of shirts. Lind's breath caught in her throat. "No... no, please no... " The woman's actions grew more urgent. She tore the lid off the metal bin and tossed it aside. It clattered loudly behind her as it collided with a wall. "Please no." She grabbed as many garments as she could from the bin and tossed them to the ground, then withdrew what remained and began sorting them into piles. Four shirts. Four blouses. Four pants. Four pairs of boots.

Her knees felt weak, and Lind sat down on the ground, her hands grabbing fistfuls of hair as she stared at the discarded uniforms before her. "This isn't Kestrel," she told herself, and shook her head. " _This_ _isn't Kestrel."_ Her voice was trembling. "It can't be. It's... they're fake," she denied. "Reproductions. Disguises that were discarded. These _aren't Kestrel's uniforms."_

 _Look at their tags, Lind._ Spear Mint's voice was gentle in her head. Gentle but mournful. _We need to know... for the others. For ourselves. Look at the tags. We need to see if there's any identification information._

"No." Lind's voice came out a whimper in the darkness. "No, I-I can't, Spear Mint. They-they're fake. There wouldn't be anything there anyway, right? _They aren't Valkyrie uniforms!"_

 _Lind..._ despite the gentle tone, there was an edge of steel in Spear Mint's voice. _Look at the tags._

 _"No!"_

 _Look at the tags, Lind._ No longer a suggestion but an order. _You're a Valkyrie, just like they were. You have a duty to identify who they were._

Her hands reached out with a will of their own, grabbing one of the blouses and dragging it towards her. "I don't want to see this, Spear Mint." Her voice cracked in the quiet, and her eyes felt hot. "I can't-"

 _You can and you need to._ Spear Mint urged. _Look at their tags._

Her lips peeled back in a grimace, displaying teeth pressed so tightly together her jaw hurt. Her eyes looked to the inner lining of the collar, and in that moment Lind prayed. She prayed long and hard. She prayed that the uniforms were fake. She prayed that the tags had been erased. She prayed that the information had been destroyed through the abuse of the facility. She prayed for blindness or for a distraction, anything that would prevent her from seeing what her mind was slow to acknowledge and whose identity Spear Mint whispered in her ear. _GA5294._

 _"_ Damn it." Her voice was thick with emotion, and with hands that had taken to trembling, Lind folded the blouse and placed it to the side, then picked up another. _IF5285._ "Please no." _HS8455._ "This can't be right." Her gaze was getting blurry, and she almost didn't see the tag on the final blouse. _JD8249._

The hand holding the blouse went limp, and the uniform item fell into her lap. Lind brought a hand to her brow and tried to stop herself from crying.

 _We need to get out of here, Lind,_ Spear Mint prodded. _We have their identification tags now but that's all we can afford them right now. We're still being hunted._

Lind bit back a sob, feeling a bubble of raw emotion lodge itself in her chest. She got to her feet, but not before the bubble punctured. A high keen emerged from her throat, and then Lind screamed. It was raw and wild and bare, and the woman kicked the metal lid with enough force to dent it. It sailed around the small room, bouncing off walls and cracking tiles, and still Lind screamed. She screamed and screamed and screamed, until her voice gave out on her and her strength abandoned her, leaving Lind to fall to her knees amidst the disposed uniforms of four Valkyries whom she only knew by their IDs: GA5294, HS8455, IF5294, and JD8294.

It was only then, with Lind sucking in huge, loud breaths that hurt her lungs, that the Valkyrie crawled back to her feet. The toes of her right foot hurt from where she'd kicked the lid. She ignored it. "I'm finding out what they did to Kestrel," she declared.

 _Lind, we have to-_

"No!" Lind snapped. "I don't _care_! I looked when I shouldn't have, and now I need to know! What the fuck did they do with Kestrel?! What the fuck is in that room that these fuckers wanted to monitor? Why haven't we seen anything from them? _What the fuck are they going to do to us?!"_

She pulled the door to the examination room open so hard one of its hinges was ripped from the door, then proceeded inside. The woman looked at the console before her, lined with buttons and knobs and keyboards in Falken, and began mashing her hands on it. She pressed buttons, she turned knobs, she flicked switches. Anything to get some kind of reaction from the adjoining room. Nothing happened. Lind screamed in frustration, then smashed her hand against the glass before her. The glass spider webbed around the indent of her fist.

Something popped up beneath the area she'd struck, and Lind recoiled from it as Spear Mint let loose a scream in her mind. It was a _Rabishu_. A tiny one, one smaller than even Cabatu's pet. It was perhaps as large as a house cat, and its false head lashed out at the impacted glass, the false head opening and displaying the underdeveloped stinger housed within. It struck the window as though the window was alive, and the stinger _tinked_ harmlessly against the glass, leaving not even a scratch to mark its presence.

 _What's it doing here?!_ Spear Mint screamed. _Lind, let's get out of here! Let's go!_ The _Rabishu_ lashed out at the glass once more, then let the tail fall back out of its striking mode as the tiny creature attempted to scale the smooth surface. The mouth pressed itself against the glass, giving Lind a healthy display of bony teeth that were small and useless in comparison to the triangular razors she'd seen with the _Rabishu_ that had so stalked the flight from their cell. Its tarsal claws scratched and tapped on the glass, searching for purchase, and finding none the creature slid back to the ground. Lind watched it with wide eyes, frozen, before the creature lost interest in the glass and wandered back into the darkness.

The Valkyrie released a breath she'd not realized she was holding. Spear Mint was still screaming in her mind. _Let's GO Lind! Before that thing finds a way inside!_ Yet Lind's feet were rooted to the spot.

"Kestrel is in that room," she whispered, and the voice she heard was one she didn't recognize as her own. She looked down at the panel before her, this time taking the time to observe what she was looking at. The woman kneeled and looked under the protruding shelf holding the various pieces of equipment, and her efforts were rewarded when the Valkyrie spied a power switch. She flipped it on, and a wheezing hum filled the room as the energy poured into the control panel. Lights flickered, then glowed on the console, and breathing deep, calming, breaths Lind went back to the dial that lit the room. There was Falken text on the dial directing how to turn the lights on, and she committed the text to memory before returning to the console and searching for a matching piece of text amidst the array of buttons.

She found one after some searching, a switch towards the bottom, and flipped it on. The lights in the adjoining room flickered once, then began to illuminate at such a slow and gradual pace Lind had difficulty following it. She saw forms, all of them tiny, shudder and scurry about in the darkness, and other forms that dangled in the air in closed, compact shapes. Cocoons, perhaps? She squinted into the dim light, trying to make out the details that further alluded her and failing. Something in the shapes was almost...

Not cocoons, no. Something else, but not cocoons. She blinked and rubbed her eyes and looked again. No, definitely not cocoons. There was something almost, almost _human_ in those suspended objects, but they were all so dark and far enough away that Lind couldn't figure out what.

She looked back to the console, this time experimenting with the control panel with a bit more control. A monitor built into the control panel to the left of her came to life with a static whine, and with it Lind no longer needed to wonder about what the cocoons far off in the adjoining room were.

"Oh Yggdrasil... "

It was the only phrase she felt could come close to the describing the dismal sight before her, and even that felt somehow flat and inaccurate; lacking the true depths of unfathomable anguish that swept through Lind as she stared at that screen. It had taken her eyes a time to identify what she was looking at, but not through a lack of recognition so much as her mind refused to acknowledge what she was seeing.

It was an overhead view of a woman. A woman suspended by wires and threads that looked both natural and artificial in the same light. She was curled up in a tight ball, her arms wrapped around her knees and her head bowed, hiding her face from sight like a child trying to hide from some sort of bogeyman. _If I can't see it, it can't see me_ , came to Lind's mind, and the Valkyrie felt ill. She could have been asleep for all Lind knew, though the combination of suspension, wires, and fetal position let Lind with more than enough reason to doubt. She was nude as far as Lind could identify, and there was something on her back. Something that was aiding the suspension and looked altogether wholly unnatural and painful on the woman.

"Yggdrasil, it's one of Kestrel, isn't it?" Lind breathed. "It's-it's one of Kestrel. She's got a-it's one of _Kestrel!"_ The Valkyrie stared at the monitor, then back into the large chamber. Four cocoons that were not cocoons but women, suspended high on wires and cords and thread that dangled like black vines from a tree.

 _Lind, they're in there with that thing._ Spear Mint sounded frightened. _Why are they-where are their angels, Lind? What happened to their angels?_

Lind experimentally hit a button next to the monitor, hoping it would zoom in on the woman it was focused on. Instead the monitor switched to another camera, treating Lind with a view of another member of Kestrel, naked and bound in a similar position as her comrade. "Is it an egg sack?" Lind asked aloud. "Is that what that thing on their backs is?" From the current camera angle, it sure looked like one; the camera was looking directly down at the woman, and Lind could see where the flesh first blistered and then expanded outwards in a series of long, neat, tumor-like clusters. The sacks were translucent, and on occasion something writhed mindlessly inside.

Lind swallowed and tasted bile, then moved the monitor to another camera. Another woman. There was no egg sack on this one, though. Instead a series of sores, deep and ugly, lay open and exposed on the woman's back. One was horrific enough that Lind could see the woman's spine protruding out of the injury, and unable to stomach the graphic display the woman quickly hit the camera button again. The fourth image was the final woman, yet she was different from the others. Red text was flashing in the bottom of the screen, and her body did not so much hang suspended as it dangled listlessly in the room, like a puppet who's master had left it hanging in an attic. The woman's face was pointed towards the ceiling, and her face was set in a permanent display of terror and pain. Though her back had blistered, only one possible 'egg' rested on her person, and Lind could see no movement that hinted at something forming within. Lind didn't need to read Falken to understand what the text meant.

She switched the camera again.

This time the perspective changed to the ground, and at first Lind saw nothing before something rushed past the camera. Lind jumped, yet the _Rabishu_ didn't bother appearing a second time. Another camera showed the ground from another angle, followed by another, and another still. Five more rotations throughout the room with the occasional sighting of the tiny _Rabishu_ inside, and then it circled back to the first Valkyrie Lind had seen.

The woman sucked in a long and shuddering breath, leaning forward with her elbows near the control panel. "Is this what they have planned for us?" she asked aloud. "Are we-are we going to take Kestrel's place?" By Tehome's depths, they might as well kill them during the escape! It'd be a kinder fate than whatever... whatever _this_ was. "Damn it all," she whimpered. "I can't-what am I supposed to do?"

 _Run._ Spear Mint supplied.

"Until what?" Lind snapped. "They capture me and throw me back in the pin? And then what? Tell the others about-about _this_?!" She thought of her flight. Of the Major, whose orders the flight took strength in. Of the Sergeant, who kept them together when things grew dismal. Of Mist, who lifted moral with her many songs when the guards were absent. Of Gunnr, whose play had granted them additional food and water amongst the guards and might yet make it to freedom. "I-I can't. It'll destroy them. I-" She grit her teeth and growled, smashing a fist down on the console.

She jumped and nearly screamed when a voice emerged speaking Falken. It took her a full minute to realize that she hadn't hit some kind of comm dial but in fact had triggered some kind of recording, and the voice was depicting what she assumed was a dialogue for something new that had appeared on the monitor. _It's a video log._

She watched it, enraptured, and let it play through to the end, though some small piece of her begged her to stop. What she saw horrified her, horrified Spear Mint, yet as it ended and another log began, Lind found herself unable to look away.

She watched on through the second video.

Then the third.

Then the fourth.

She watched until she could take no more of it, the dropped to one knee and killed the power. The Valkyries in the adjoining room returned to darkness with the _Rabishu (not even fully grown. A Nymph.)_ and Lind proceeded out the door she came. She felt... numb. Detached. A sense of lethargy had engulfed her, and though she recognized it as bad, a part of her was grateful for the dissociation that came with it. She walked out of the room with its singular motion sensing lights and back into the corridor.

Right into the waiting hands of the demons who were readying to storm her hideout.

They came at her with weapons, with magic, and with snarls, and with open arms and dead eyes Lind welcomed them into unconsciousness.

XXX

Screaming.

Someone was screaming. Someone was calling her back to the light.

Lind fought it though. There was pain with that light. Pain she didn't want to deal with right now, like the pain that accompanied a bad hangover after a long night's drinking or one of Sanngrior's grueling physical training sessions. Let someone else deal with the screaming. Let someone else deal with the pain. She wanted to sleep. She wanted to stay in the black darkness that came with so deep an unconsciousness.

Yet the screaming was only getting louder, and though she fought it, the Valkyrie knew she was being pulled to the surface, and that when she broke the surface, she was going to be in a whole new world of pain. She could feel it in her bones and in her head; a throbbing that pulsed like a heartbeat and grew stronger as the screams rose in pitch. She groaned and tried to swim back into sweet oblivion, yet even that was a vain effort, as the world began to brighten around her and-

Oh Yggdrasil. By Apsu's blue waters, she remembered. Kestrel's flight, the _Rabishu's_ eggs, Iritif's agonized shrieks as the life was slowly drained from her body...

She _remembered_.

Lind awoke with a scream of her own, one that rose and joined Gunnr's voice and a hail of unwanted memories rushed through her mind. She tried to move and that awoke even more pain as a streak of fire rose in her chest and lent its voice to the choir, joining the throbbing pulse of a re-broken nose and unending heat of magical burns.

And then Mist was in her range of vision, cradling her head and shouting something to her, though Lind was uncertain what. The other screams, Gunnr's screams, drowned out everything else. _"My leg!"_ she howled. _"They ripped off my leg!"_

Lind moaned and covered her face. "They killed her." Her words came out in a croak. "They killed her, but they'll say the _Rabishu_ did it. That it was all a failed experiment."

Rota was trying to calm Gunnr down, her deeper voice a soothing plea as it tried to convince Gunnr that she still had her leg, it was still right there attached to her body, that she didn't lose anything.

"What are you talking about?" Mist asked. "Who was killed?"

Yet Lind only moaned. "Why didn't you escape?" she cried. "You needed to escape. That was our only chance. I thought we might have more, but I was wrong. Oh Heavens, I was so _wrong_."

"We tried," Mist said. "We did our best, but... " The woman face took on a defeated cast. "We ran right into them, Lind. They... the Daimakaicho must have just arrived. Gunnr was-" She bit her lip. "I caught up with her. Right after we parted. There were so many demons, but, you know, we just plowed 'em down without thought. They barely even offered a fight, and I remember thinking, 'wow, these guys are poorly trained', but I was wrong. They were just a bunch of unarmed civvies. A bunch of unarmed civvies who were meeting the Daimakaicho outside, and... " Her voice wavered. "She's a monster, Lind. She doesn't require an escort because she can take out anything that's a threat to her. There weren't any guards because she didn't need any guards and... and it was her and Cabatu and the _Rabishu,_ and Yggdrasil, we walked right _into them_!"

Lind tried to sit up and failed as another bolt of pain surged up her spine, and Mist paused in her recollection to help her up. She was greeted with a new sight, and one that left her stomach churning. Gunnr was lying in the center of the room, flailing as she tried to cradle her right leg. It dragged uselessly on the ground while her left kicked the air and stomped the ground, but it was whole and it was there. Rota was with her, clutching the woman's head as she tried to speak with the Valkyrie, but the Private was in hysterics. " _They ripped it off! I can't feel it anymore, they ripped it off!"_ Though Rota hovered above her, Gunnr didn't seem to see her, and her eyes bulged and rolled madly in their sockets as she fought off Rota's grip. _"My leg!"_

Sanngrior stood before the entrance to the cell, her back turned to her flight as she glared at someone on the other side of the cell bars. Her stance was stiff and angry, yet the person on the other side seemed unaffected by the Major's gaze. A demon, she stood tall and regal on the other side, her violet eyes locked with Sanngrior's in what Lind recognized was an assertion of power. Yet the Major refused to look away, refused to submit, and as she stood defiant against the Daimakaicho Herself, Lind felt a small piece of admiration pull itself out of the desolate remains of her emotional plane.

"Your unconscious one has awakened." The silver haired woman spoke surprisingly good Highkin, and though she did not raise her voice, the Daimakaicho's words projected themselves into the cell with such a strong sense of power that the hair on Lind's arm rose with gooseflesh. "You'd best tend to your flight, Major Rota 'Durga' Mahishasura-mardini, rather than continue this farce with me. There are more important matters you must attend to, unless my interpretation of your priorities was as misguided as my general's perspective on your flight's docility."

The Major snarled at the veiled insult and lashed out at the bars before she could reign her temper in. Her fist smashed against the bars with enough force to produce an echoing, metallic groan, and throughout the cell walls a current of yellow electricity danced and sparked.

The Daimakaicho didn't so much as twitch.

Instead she turned and stalked down the hallway. Her gaze flitted over Lind's once: cold, sharp, intelligent eyes, and then her interest was gone, leaving the flight in their cell.

"They were showing off their _Rabishu_ to her." Mist's voice had dropped into a whisper. "Gunnr came across them right next to the exit, and I was just rounding the end of the other hallway, and that thing... it just went wild when it saw her. Just... berserk. It... the thing must have trampled three demons trying to get to Gunnr, and then that thing just fucking _screamed_ , and there was Ridge Walker, racing towards the thing as everyone was screaming. Gunnr tried to hit it, but all she struck were demons, and then that thing just-just grabbed her. Gunnr, not her angel. And she was screaming, and I was screaming, and I was trying to hit it and Ridge Walker charged right in and-" She shook her head, unable to continue.

"It bit off Ridge Walker's leg." Sanngrior approached, still glancing over her shoulder towards where the Daimakaicho had disappeared from. "That woman stopped it from biting off more."

"It was horrible, Lind," Mist muttered. "She ripped it to pieces with her bare hands. And then she was in front of me, before I could even make sense a' what I was seeing. She-she must have hit me, but I never saw her move. I just remember feeling like someone struck me from behind, and the next thing I knew, Gunnr and me are back here, Gunnr's screaming, and that-that _thing_ was watching us like a wolf watching a bunch a deer."

"She dragged Strife and Fog back here with her own two hands," Sanngrior murmured, and satisfied when the Daimakaicho made no further appearance, the Major's attention turned to Gunnr. "She came with no escort and with us already subdued. Strife under one arm like a child throwing a tantrum and Fog over a shoulder like a sleeping babe.

"She should have killed you," Lind said.

"No she wouldn't." Sanngrior's voice was soft but angry. "It would have gone against the Doublet System."

"It would have been kinder if she'd killed us all where we stand," Lind muttered.

"What do you mean?" Sanngrior looked at her sharply.

Behind her, Gunnr's scream had faded into large, whooping sobs. Beneath it, she could hear Rota trying to soothe her with gentle words and reassurances that in the end, would mean nothing for the Valkyrie. For any of them, really.

"We lost our chance, Major," Lind replied, and this time she didn't bother using her callsign. It didn't matter. Not anymore. Not after what she'd seen. "We had one chance, and we fucked it up."

"Lind, what are you saying?" Mist stared at her in increasing alarm, then looked to Sanngrior. "Durga..."

"That's enough, Pepper." Sanngrior's voice had taken on that low, soft pitch that Lind had always thought of as a warning tone to her ears. A 'stop now or face the consequences' tone that she'd always heeded in the past. Had always _feared_ , because back then there were so many more things to worry and get excited about.

Not now.

Not anymore.

Lind met the Major's gaze with her own flat ones. "We aren't leaving this facility, Sanngrior. Not anymore."

She saw the Major bristle, watched her lips pull back in a sneer, and felt nothing. She held the woman's gaze with an even one of her own, and like magic the display of temper vanished. "You saw something," Sanngrior murmured. She moved towards the Private, and then moved to kneel before her, eyes searching. "What happen to you?" The expression lightened to one of worry as black brows furrowed together. "Pepper, _Lind_ , what did you see while you were out?"

"Kestrel," Lind replied, and her voice cracked with constrained emotion. "I-I found Kestrel. We're going to take their place, Major. All of us. You, me, Rota, Mist, Gunnr... all of us. We- _we're nothing but food to those things!"_

Now even Rota had paused to look, and Lind flinched when she felt the woman's pink gaze fall on her. "There were video logs. Of Kestrel. Of that thing's-that angel eater's-life cycle." She clutched her brow. "It's an artificial creature alright. I don't even think they even know what they're doing with it. It's a-they're rushing its development, and so there's something different with each generation, but its root purpose is still the same. It has a magical nature designed to mimic the frequency our angels use when maintaining their material form. It calls them out. It eats the angel. And when the host falls into shock it lays an egg clutch on the host."

The woman buried her face in her hands, like a child trying to hide herself from the world after seeing a monster. Perhaps that wasn't too far from the truth. "One of the sacks didn't set properly. I don't know how or why-all of it was Falken, but the Valkyrie... Iritif, by the stars above they forced the entire flight to introduce themselves... something happened to Iritif. And she... those fucking videos, Yggdrasil's roots, those _fucking videos!_ They didn't do _anything_! The doublet system was in place to stop this kind of thing from happening, but they just-just let her die! And oh, Heavens, Major... she never stopped screaming. I'd never seen a person in so much pain... even _here_ , after everything they've done to us, it paled in comparison to what she went through. And you want to know the worst part of it, though?" Lind let her hands drop as she looked up at Sanngrior. "She was the lucky one. She's not-the others are still alive. Still alive and hosting nothing but eggs for that, that _thing,"_ she moaned. "And we're going to take their place once there's no more eggs."

"But I just watched the Daimakaicho rip that thing apart with her own two hands," Mist whispered. She sounded scared. "Are you saying there's _more_?"

"There was a nymph," Lind whispered. "I don't know who it came from, but it was crawling around trying to get to me. They have replacements."

For a long moment Sanngrior was silent, her face a blank mask that hid her true feelings towards this new information. At length, she took a deep, meditative breath. "Were there any like the Stalker?" She asked, referring to the _Rabishu_ that had been slain by the Daimakaicho's hands. "Any that were fully grown? Any that could be used as an alternate for Cabatu's little 'demonstration'?"

Lind hesitated for a moment, thought, then shook her head. "It was just that small one. It was about as large as a cat."

Sanngrior nodded. "Then we might still have time," she said. "If they want to demonstrate their _Rabishu's_ capabilities, then they'll want to do it at a time where they'll have the most success. Especially if they're trying to impress the Daimakaicho. They'll wait for it to mature before trying again. Did anything you see hint at the lifespan of these things?"

Lind shook her head. "Nothing I could understand."

"Then we assume the worse and up our efforts to escape," Sanngrior reasoned. "We try again, but we do it smart. They're on guard now, so our opportunities will be slim. We take what we can, we learn their weaknesses, we try again. We keep trying until we can try no more." She looked at them, her dark gaze sweeping over Lind and Mist, Rota and the still-sobbing Gunnr. "If there's no options left, we go down fighting."

"We leave them nothing."

XXX

Nothing more happened that month.

If the Daimakaicho departed, then it went without word from the guard or the interrogators alike, though Mist reasoned that they must have departed, for the interrogations began anew. This time there was no longer a focus on Valkyrie FOBs or various patrols or any other thing that could be used to sabotage blue force deployments along the DMZ. Instead they were detailed more inwards, with a heavy degree of focus reserved for the Valkyries who'd managed to escape the cell.

All of them, Mist in particular, returned with bruises so deep they appeared black, and none of them were capable of moving after being dragged back to the cell. They were all returned to the isolation chambers, and were allowed to meet as a group only during meals or showers, and Lind always grew vicious during those times. She fought the guards with a savagery that was almost barbaric, and oftentimes was restrained and later knocked out, where she would later awaken cramped and cold back in the tiny stone closet they found so appropriate for the flight.

Gunnr lost the use of her leg. Rota claimed the shock of her angel's pain had fed down the link between her and Ridge Walker in such a debilitating manner that it had left her crippled. Though her leg was still whole, it dragged like a dead and useless stump wherever she went. The sole of her boot began to wear away from the excessive friction, and towards the end of their seventh month in the facility there was a large hole in it. Soon it expanded, and as Gunnr's leg began to wither away from lack of use, so too did the socks within, until the Major ripped apart the pantleg and fashioned a split to keep the Private's foot off the ground.

Cabatu provided them no relief, and no longer listened to any requests for aid or additional food. "You can sit and rot, for all I care," he told Sanngrior one day. "You're little escape attempt during the _Damkianna's_ visit was an embarrassment to everyone in this facility, to include the General himself."

"You have an obligation under the Joutenheim Convention to provide us with food, water, shelter, and medicinal aid as prisoners of war," Sanngrior reminded him. "We haven't received proper medical care for a month now, and my troop needs a proper splint now that she's lost the mobility of her right leg."

"What's this?" Cabatu raised an eyebrow. "It's almost as if you've forgotten where you are. There's no medical care that can be provided to group of women that no longer exist," he said in disdain. "We have no obligations to you, and our orders are to ensure you receive no remittance." He departed, and Sanngrior was left fuming as the others looked on.

Ofthe Nymph, the _Rabishu_ Lind had discovered, there was no sign. The guards were alert but not tense as they had been with the Stalker's roamings, and the flight received no _Patet Nihil_ as they moved into their eighth month in the facility. Lind dreamt of it, though. Locked away in isolation with little to do other than sleep-and oh, how easy sleep came as their food rations were docked down to the bare minimum, and she dreamt of its growth. _I am hungry._ It whispered to her in her sleep, and its false head, growing ever larger with each molt, would swing from side to side as though searching for prey. _They do not feed me, and I have eaten my sisters. Yet I hunger still... where is my food? When will I feed? Where are you? Where are you? I know you were here before..._ in the half-sleep that so often became her state of being while locked away, Lind would hear claws scratching in the cell room next to her _There is one in here, is there not?_ Sometimes she heard it on the other side of her door.

Maybe it was just the guards trying to scare her.

Lind decided it didn't matter much either way. The Valkyrie had become cold and withdrawn since their failed escape attempt. She grew quiet when with the others, speaking only when addressed but otherwise providing no other input as the flight began plans anew. When she _did_ speak, they were in short, clipped sentences of one or two words, and each time Rota would send a worried look to Sanngrior, perturbed by change in behavior. Even Cabatu relented on her somewhat, for though the Runt, Cabatu's pet, still brought her agony with its screams, any attempt to bait her resulted in nothing. The spark of defiance once so attributed to the 'Violent One' was gone. What replaced it was a shadow; a creature not so much docile as non-existent, one that did not so much live as it simply 'was', and towards the end of nine months moving into ten, the Niflheimian Interrogator stopped calling for her altogether.

"She has nothing more to give." Of their last session together, those were the only words Lind remembered, lying on the ground, her heart wild and erratic and staring into nothing as her body throbbed and pulsed with pain. Her own screams still echoed in her ears, yet even that seemed dim and meaningless in some inexplicable way. The pain fed through to her from Spear Mint was enough to make her weep, yet that too mattered little. Surely, none of it mattered in the grand scheme of things, did it? In the end there would be pain, in the end they would throw her back into isolation, and in the end they would keep her just enough alive to stop her from dying. Why? Because they were saving her for the Nymph, saving Spear Mint for its maw, and saving Lind for its eggs. Rota couldn't fly, Gunnr couldn't walk, and as every day, every week, every month came and went, Lind couldn't summon the will to care.

It was starting to affect the unit. Morale was a strange thing. It was like a virus or a disease; one that could start with a single person and then spread and affect others in such a manner that it could grant one strength or sap it, inspire or depress, invite or withdraw the attention of others. It was a thing only conversed of when it was low. For the first six months of internment, the flight had managed to keep morale stable, despite their circumstances, by formulating a semblance of structure and order. They obtained intelligence they held of value for when they escaped, and the possibility of a successful escape was one deemed possible at that time.

Yet knowledge could hinder morale just as it could help it, and there was such a thing as too much information. Lind's revelation had struck a blow to the flight's morale that none were prepared to deal with. Though she tried her best to keep the Valkyries on track with productive tasks that they could take advantage of, without more time together to discuss possible plans and strategies even Sanngrior was having issues keeping the flight together. Tempers grew heated. Rota and Sanngrior fell into arguments like they had back at home station, butting heads like a couple of mules. Mist, against Sanngrior's orders, tried to escape on two separate accounts and suffered for it with a broken foot after the second occasion. Gunnr, like Lind, grew withdrawn from the others with the loss of her angel's leg.

Low moral ran rampant, and the flight was falling apart.

They were running out of time.

* * *

 **A/N: Sorry for the later chapter. Some real life issues of late on my part. Hope you enjoyed it. After this arch is done, we will delve into a much lighter subject.**

* * *

 _Comments of a Madwoman: Almost done with this section, and what a difficult arch it is to write._


	23. Chapter 23 - Sgt Pepper's Lonely Heart

l

-23-

It had been ten months since Peregrine Flight had been captured by demons, and Lind no longer dreamed. Most of her time was spent in confinement, as the guards did not trust her nor the rest of her flight in the hallways outside. Not after the escape attempt. Not after their recapture. She shivered and blew into her hands, yet the hot, moist air that washed over them did little to warm her body. She couldn't sit, couldn't stand, and could barely move in the cell, and as the days wore on she could feel her muscles wasting away bit by bit.

Her body had taken to a constant state of shivering in an attempt to stabilize her body temperature, yet even that did little for her; the cell was cold enough to hurt, cold enough to be noticeable, but not cold enough to send her into hypothermia and the Big Sleep that would accompany death. An intentional design, she decided, made to inflict as much suffering on the victim to as make them mad. There was no comfort to be had no matter what position was crafted, and as one piece of the body grew numb the cold would set in afresh like a slow-moving parasite devouring her heat. Sleep was a luxury that came most often when she didn't realize it, and with it, the dreams that once filled her head became hallucinations.

There was that _rat tap tapping_ of the Nymph as it skittered past her door. _Where are you?_ It called out in a voiceless whisper, an ageless phantom that sounded all at once next to her ear inside the chamber with her and miles away outside the cell. _I know you are near. I'm growing larger, you know. I'm no longer the size of a house cat, but now a tiger, and once I molt again I shall be larger still. They'll bring you to me then, and oh, how I'll feast... I'm so very, very hungry, you know._

Those were the good hallucinations, Lind found. Though she disliked it, she'd started to accept the fate that awaited her at the end of the road. It was almost preferable after so much time in the cold and in the dark, where she was blind and shivering and wasting away. Now, every time they dragged her out of her cell-and drag her they did, for her legs always lost circulation in her time locked away-she began to hope that this was it, this was the end, and that she could finally, _finally_ meet the hangman's rope and be done with it all. Yet instead they would always drag her to eat with her flight, and there they would dine in silence.

There was a cloud that hung over the flight now. Dark and looming, it seemed to manifest whenever the flight was made to interact, and with it came nothing good: Mist would grow restless and snap at Gunnr and Lind, then grew upset when neither Private attempted to defend themselves or each other. "Stop just fucking sitting there like a couple of rocks!" she snarled. "We're not dead yet, damn you!" It was left to Rota to pull her away from the duo, and this usually before she fell into another argument on a possible course of action with the Major. Sanngrior was pressing them to act, and each day came with more urgency, but Rota had started to push back, recognizing that half of them were in no condition to run.

"If we don't move soon than it won't matter because none of us will be capable of escape," Sanngrior snapped in a low, tight voice. "Each day brings with it new injuries and allows their angel eater a fresh molt. We either take our risks and go down fighting now or roll over and let them gut us like pigs."

"So you suggest we just run into the enemy's spears, is that it?" Rota hissed back. "We just charge in and take our own lives? Ha!" Her bark was sharp and strange coming from the Valkyrie, enough so to even draw the eyes of the withdrawn troops who stared into the bowls of broth that was provided as part of their daily meal. "We have one who cannot even run! Would you so willingly throw our injured into the wolf's jaw? Or maybe," she sneered, "you would rather abandon her to her fate and you to yours. Is that it?"

It had been enough to almost provoke Sanngrior into a fight with Rota, and indeed from Lind's perspective that was exactly what would have happened; Sanngrior would have struck Rota, and Rota would have lashed out in turn. Instead, the guards arrived right as the Major was rising to her feet, and off they went, whisked away to isolation once more.

And then would come the cold again and then would come the exhaustion. There was little she could do to occupy herself with in those long, uncomfortable hours, and so her thoughts turned inwards. She thought of her homeland, with its great, jagged white peaks and its frozen oceans. She thought of the large, tundra landscape where the snow never quite went away, and how in the winter the blizzards would blanket everything with close to three feet of snow. Ice fishing on lakes so frozen she could build a fire on top without fear of falling through and kayaking around broken ice in the oceans with her brothers and sisters, hunting large schools of coho and humpies, ling cod and rockfish, halibut, and, when they were extremely lucky, the occasional seal. Skiing down long, steep slopes to neighboring villages and avoiding fallen branches and logs half-buried by the latest snow. Riding bareback on the heavy-coated, muscular horses her family bred as livestock and watching as her eldest brother trained the year-old colts on how to respond to common commands. Hunting bears with her father and spotting the rare Black Strip big cat before it vanished into the woods. Preserving vegetables in the root cellar with her mother for the blizzard months. Learning how to knit alongside her sisters as a way to stop herself from mauling them when the blizzards made them all stir-crazy. Losing a colt in the middle of a storm and going out to search for it with Iansi against their father's wishes.

Iansi...

Had news of her disappearance reached her family? Was it reported as an MIA or a POW? The thought always made her stomach churn, especially after seeing how her father had reacted to Iansi's disappearance up into the highland mountains. Perhaps they were treating her disappearance the same way: refusing to speak of it, though the topic weighed on everyone's mind like a heavy boulder. _"I have five children, not seven._ " Her father's voice came easily to her ears in the silence of the room, and perhaps that too was a hallucination, one that could be paired alongside the voice of the Nymph with its growth. _"I don't know who this 'Lind' character is. My eldest daughter is Seeka, the second-borne._ " Her father had never approved of her running off to the Fighting Wings, and after Iansi's death, she'd feared that in his grief he'd disown her, blaming Lind and her association with the Valkyries for Iansi's death, though she was only an acolyte at the time. She'd tried to speak with him on the subject once, right before the funeral, and her father had made it very clear to her that it was a not a topic he wanted to speak about. She'd never had the courage to bring it up to him again.

To be forgotten in death by her own kin was to be lost along the planes of reincarnation for all eternity. It was akin to being lost in a blizzard, where her body was buried and crushed beneath the snow, trampled to death by the very ones out searching for her while she suffered a slow death by suffocation and hypothermia. A horrible sentence, and one her mind returned to day after day whenever she drifted off, only to reawaken in her cell trembling from more than just the cold.

Those times were the worst. Those were the times she snapped out of her restless half-sleep to her dead brother whispering promises she could never recall on the edge of her subconscious. Those were the times she woke up to his lingering scent, feeling a presence in the cell with her that had no body she could distinguish. Those were the times she screamed. Those were the times she was ignored.

Those were the times she was forgotten.

XXX

"Up. UP!"

Light poured into Lind's cell, and blinking bleary eyes the Valkyrie turned away from the sudden brightness, groaning at the pain it brought with it. Rough hands grabbed her arms, their grip tight and painful. Snarling curses, the two guards pulled Lind out of her cell. The woman grunted but did nothing, allowing them to drag her out as they had since her initial move into the cell. Her legs itched and prickled like they were covered in an ant's nest, yet she was allowed no time to massage them to get the blood flowing once more.

Instead the two holding her continued to drag her forward, dragging her down the long line of cells that may or may not have been empty and towards another location. Lind's feet dragged uselessly behind her, and reminded of Gunnr, the woman attempted to kick out in an effort to at least get her legs under her. Her actions did little other than reignite the ants biting and stinging her calves, and with a grimace she looked to her escorts, some sluggish piece of her mind wondering why they hadn't bagged her head as was common procedure.

Another guard waited for the three of them towards the end of the hallway, where a massive metal door barred the cell block from the rest of the facility. The demon in question shouted at them, their tone rushed and urgent and gesturing them with one hand. The pace of Lind's escorts increased, and Lind grew more alert to the fact that whatever was going on was not part of the usual enigmatic flare that was so often reserved for the flight. "Wait…" Her voice creaked, an alien sound to her own ears, and she once more tried to get her feet under her and failed. "Wait, stop…" she protested. "What are... "Her left arm tugged away at the demon holding her, drawing his attention, and Lind had just enough time to catch the bright, feverish look in the man's eyes before one hand released her in favor of crashing into her cheek. Pain blossomed along her jaw line, and then Lind's world went black.

XXX

"in.. L... .d... .Li... ..Lind!"

Lind's eyes fluttered, and the hand at her shoulder jostled her harder. "Stahh…" She groaned and rolled away from the person, yet the individual was persistent.

"Lind, on your feet. That's an order."

There was an aching familiarity to that voice, and before her mind could fully grasp who was speaking Lind was on her feet, legs pulsing rhythmically to a heart that had begun to thrum to a rapid beat. "Yes Ma'am." Left her lips before she could stop it, and blinking owlishly, she looked around at her new surroundings. Her head was pounding and everything was blurry through her left eye, but she was aware of a lingering sense of familiarity from the room she was in. What it was, Lind was not yet certain, but something about the room screamed at the back of her head, and the fact that she was once more amongts her flight was making Spear Mint restless. She rubbed at her left eye. Her vision didn't clear. "Where are we?"

"We don't know," Rota said. "They rounded us up all at once and led us here." She was supporting Gunnr with one arm, with Mist supporting the crippled Valkyrie on the other side. The Private's condition had only worsened in the extended isolation. Without proper medical care and sanitation, the Valkyrie was left drawn and pale, her eyes sunken and hollow in her head and her flesh covered in black-purple bruises that never seemed to heal. She'd acquired a tremor in the past month or so, and it had only grown more prevalent the more time passed, leaving the woman shaking against the two Valkyries supporting her. She looked ill.

But that was no surprise. They all looked ill.

The Major rose from where she'd kneeled to rouse Lind, not without some degree of effort. Her mouth peeled back into a grimace with each movement, yet of her pain she voiced nothing. Instead, her eyes blazing within her skull and skin taunt against her cheeks, Sanngrior looked at Lind. "Something has frightened the guards," she said. "I need you to listen very carefully to me, Lind." Something was very wrong now. The last time Sanngrior had called Lind by anything other than her callsign had been over a year ago. "Look around you. What does this place look like to you?" Her eyes remained locked on Lind's person, watching the woman with such scrutiny that Lind squirmed beneath the weight of her gaze.

For a moment Lind hesitated, uncertain if she understood what the Major was asking her. Then, her face thoughtful, Lind turned to survey the area, turning in a slow, staggered circle to fully observe her surroundings. The room was small. Not much bigger than the cell they'd once shared, if she was to judge. Tile lined the floors and ceiling, all unremarkable and somehow reminiscent of the bathing chambers they were allowed to use every other day. The trash bin had been removed from the room, and they'd taken away the shower curtain as well, but Lind still thought she recognized the long row of outdated shower faucets that took up a corner of the room. She stared at them for a long time, a well of raw emotion gathering in her chest as Spear Mint began to tremble. A high keen rose in her ear, and at first Lind misidentified it as something she herself was producing before realizing it was her angel she was hearing. It was a bizarre and alien sound that Lind had never heard Spear Mint utter before, and in it a blanket of sadness fell upon her shoulders as she identified it as a sound of sheer, guttural desolation.

The woman bowed her head and brought a hand to cover her eyes, finding them dry to the touch. "This is it." Her voice was soft but resigned, a sound just above a whisper. "Oh Yggdrasil, they're going to…" She could finish the sentence and instead bit her lip. She dropped her hand and looked at her flight.

It had been twelve months since they'd been captured, and on the eve of a year's imprisonment, their angels were about to die.

Sanngrior watched her with an unreadable expression. Lind couldn't hold the Major's gaze. Mist looked scared. Gunnr too. Rota closed her eyes and swallowed. "This is it." Sanngrior's words came out a whisper. "We fight. We give it our all. We fight until we can stand no longer." Brave words, but lacking. The strength that stood behind Sanngrior's words was missing, and it was disheartening to hear the resignation in the Major's voice. "We-" They were words Lind would never hear finished. Words that would forever leave her wondering when, over a century later, those old memories were revisited and reviewed time and time again. For just as she was about to give her final orders to the flight, more guards, these all dressed in heavy, featureless uniforms, stormed inside with weapons blazing.

One of them, a female, judging by her muffled voice, began shouting directions. The demons, fifteen in total, swarmed the room and its occupants, and bewildered, Lind and Sanngrior found themselves cut off from the rest of the flight. Of everyone present, only Rota and Sanngrior fought back. They didn't want the flight divided, didn't want their small group of five separated, and perhaps, for those two at least, didn't want to fall wondering what had become of their kin.

Two demons slammed into Lind with such force that her head bounced off the wall they pushed her against, bringing stars to her gaze. Through the stars she watched as Sanngrior fought off five of the demons at once, tearing off the strange, baggy mask one demon wore and destroying the staff weapon of another. Rota managed to take three down with her; when she was struck she appeared unphased, as though never feeling the burns imparted to her flesh with each strike of their weapons. For one clear and definable moment, Lind watched as The Major and The Sergeant reached for each other, watched their fingers brush... and then watched as Rota finally fell to the abuse the weapons enacted upon her body and Sanngrior was at last pulled away from the rest of her flight. It took all five of the demons that brought her down to pin Sanngrior to the floor, and her bellows echoed with such ferocity within the small room that Lind felt the vibrations in her bones.

They dragged Rota back to Mist and Gunnr, who stood watching with expressions that Lind imagined matched her own: wide, frightened eyes, lips peeled back in a grimace born of terror as they cowered away from the demons who held them at bay, broken and terrified of what awaited them. Someone, this voice masculine, began shouting something Lind vaguely recognized as numbers, and then first Rota, doubled over in pain, and then Mist and Gunnr, were dragged towards the western door. The _Rabishu's_ door, leading to the _Rabishu's_ nest. One of the guards holding her against the wall spoke up, and someone behind him rushed through a reply that caused the man to jerk back nervously. The others were taken through the western door, and as they left Mist looked back. Their eyes met. "Lind, I-"

And then she too was gone.

The room lapsed into silence. The demons pinning Sanngrior to the floor didn't move. Neither did the ones on either side of Lind. One of the demons holding Sanngrior said something. Another one not occupied with holding either of the two Valkyries responded. Sanngrior grunted. "Rai-" And had her head yanked back and smashed into the tile floor. Blood began to stream from her nose and mouth, and she coughed up a wad of red phlegm.

Another question was asked among the guards. Another answer was given. Lind strained her ears to hear anything that might be happening on the other side of the western door. She heard nothing. Another guard asked a question, and his tone was urgent. The demon who replied sounded angry and nervous at once, and again Sanngrior stirred beneath her captors. "At-" She tried again, and once more was unable to complete her thought as this time, a fist collided with the side of her skull. The demon who struck her snarled at her, and the Major tucked her head against her sternum in a vain attempt at protecting herself.

The western door opened. The guards who'd escorted Rota, Mist, and Gunnr returned, empty of their cargo. Lind felt the strength leave her knees. They buckled, gave out beneath her, and she began to slide down the wall until one of the guards grabbed her by the arm and hauled her back to her feet.

The ground tremored beneath them.

It took Lind a moment to realize it was something more than the quivering of her own legs. It was something everyone felt, and the Valkyrie flinched when the guards began shouting to each other in panicked voices. One of them, the head demon who'd been shouting instructions since the guards had entered, had a voice that rose above the rest, and it rang with authority. New orders were shouted, and the others fell silent as they looked to her before rushing to follow her instructions. The guards hauled Sanngrior to her feet. She lashed out and struck one of them in the chest with a kick that took them all by surprised, and the victim was thrown against the wall with such force the tile around her cracked. Again the guards swarmed, and with renewed vigor the Major tossed them off her.

This time everyone who wasn't preoccupied with Lind joined the fray, and had Lind been more herself; had she not seen with her own eyes what awaited them, had she not already accepted the idea that they were trapped, that none of them were leaving with their angels still intact, had she still had hope, than perhaps Lind would have seen the opportunity that Major Sanngrior had provided her and acted. Perhaps together, they could have fended off the guards long enough to escape, or at the very least bought them some few, precious moments before the inevitable was to occur.

Yet the moment came and went without Lind ever seeing it, and soon enough the guards had the Major once more under control. They marched out of the tile room and into the _Rabishu's_ nest they descended.

There was a strange light to the chamber, a muffled, dark pink that filtered eerie shadows and thick miasma through the air. There was a rancid smell to the air like spoiled meat, and it made Lind's stomach roll with something more than just nausea. She could hear something skittering along the walls and in the shadows, yet the dim light of the room provided her no sight of the _Rabishu_. She could feel it though. By Tehome's depths, how she could feel it. It was watching them from somewhere up high, maybe even on one of the makeshift cocoons Kestrel Flight was bound in.

Another earthquake rolled through the building. The demons murmured in distress. The head demon from before spoke up, and her voice echoed loud and clear throughout the chamber. _Like a canary in a mine shaft,_ Lind thought, and shuddered. As soon as that canary went silent, the miners were going to run, leaving the Valkyries to the poisonous gases and whatever other horrors so awaited them.

A rumble vibrated through the facility from somewhere far off, and Lind thought she heard something that sounded like explosions before deciding her mind was playing tricks on her. More hallucinations. False hope spun on in a last ditch effort to keep her alive, when really all Lind wanted to do was hurry up and let the thing finish her off. Preferably, some small piece of her thought, before the Major. Though it shamed her to admit it, she didn't want to see how she'd go.

She didn't want to be the last to fall.

Three of the demons holding Sanngrior released her, retreating back towards the door as two other demons, these armed, moved forward. Lind was released and shoved towards Sanngrior, and as she stumbled forward the remaining two guards released their hold on the Major. They too retreated, leaving the armed guards to bring up the rear and cover their exit, their weapons never leaving the two Valkyries. Then first one, then the other armed demon vanished inside, and the Valkyries were left alone in the _Rabishu's_ nest.

"Lind, listen to me." Sanngrior grabbed the Private by the shoulders. Blood still streamed down her nose, and it dripped to the floor in shiny red orbs. "They're being attacked."

"Wha-" Lind's eyes widened, yet the Major cut her off.

"There's a raid, Lind. Someone's attacking the facility. We need to hold out until someone breaches the room, do you understand?"

"I-how can we-"

"We find a way," Sanngrior replied. "We need to tell them what we've learned, do you understand? The information needs to get back to higher headquarters."

"But the ang-"

"Lind, _shut up and listen to me,"_ Sanngrior snapped. Another tremor. This time with a sound of actual explosions. "This may be my final order. _Live._ Keep your angel alive, no matter what. Get to whoever's raiding the facility: Valkyrie, Aesir, Jotun, Man, _whoever._ Get to them and tell them what you know. Everything. They need to know what's going on here." Something skittered behind Sanngrior, and Lind saw the miasma shift as though something was crawling through it. "The Daitenkaicho needs to know that Niflheim is trying to find a way around the Doublet System, do you understand?" Sanngrior demanded. "They need to-"

That screech.

That Yggdrasil-awful _screech_.

She felt Spear Mint surge forward before she could even think to stop her, watched in growing despair as The Major's Raanee Baagh surfaced, and watched as the _Rabishu_ , the Nymph fully grown now, appeared with its false head dangling high above their head.

And then the Major _roared._

It was a sound the likes of which Lind had never heard before. A sound that was deafening and terrifying in one instance, and then in the next moment revitalizing and awe-inspiring. The _Rabishu_ froze as though paralyzed by the sound, and in that moment the Major grabbed Spear Mint by the foot and ripped her from the air with such force that Lind cried out from the feedback. Her angel smashed into the ground, dazed, and Sanngrior released her in favor of her own angel, jumping up and wrapping both hands around Raanee Baagh's foot. For a moment she dangled off the ground, and then the _Rabishu_ regained its bearings, lashing out in a manner that spoke of an instinctive reaction.

Its stinger shredded through the angel's right arm, the Major's roar having off-balanced it enough that the strike didn't fully connect. Yet it was still enough to make Sanngrior scream, and she lost her grip on Raanee Baagh and fell to the floor in pain. "Grab Spear Mint!" she screamed. "Don't let it get your angel!" She staggered to her feet, lips peeled back in pain as her right arm dangled at her side. Above her head Raanee Baagh was retreating, head tossing as she tried to fight off the effects of the _Rabishu's_ scream. The Major turned to face the monster as Lind kneeled at Spear Mint's side. "You face me now, Beast!" she bellowed. "By the one-hundred and eight names of all my incarnations, you shall fall at my feet.

"This is my final act." The woman fell into a stance Lind didn't recognize, one different from all the training she'd suffered through at Sanngrior's hands alongside her flight. "This is my final dance, Beast. This is my _Nadanta."_ The air in the room began to change, and the sigil on Sanngrior's brow began to blaze like a burning star of gold. Lind could feel the hair on her arms and the back of her neck rise as energy began to gather around the Major, and gathering her angel against her, the Private watched with baited breath as a strange, wicked aura began to form around her commanding officer. It began to blaze with golden, burning energy, and in that moment a small spark of hope trickled into the Valkyrie's heart.

A halo of energy surged from her brow, almost appearing in that moment like a third eye composed of light, and Major Sanngrior began to dance towards the angel eater, her actions slow, deliberate, and filled with such raw power that Lind could feel its weight bearing down on her. The _Rabishu_ retreated, perhaps feeling what Lind felt, and Sanngrior pressed forward, her angel dancing around her head in a manner that somehow emulated that of a large, burning beast of pure energy.

Sanngrior howled. It was a sound without words, but filled with emotion, filled with energy, filled with _power_. The _Rabishu_ screamed, and in that moment the spell Sanngrior was enacting, her mysterious _Nadanta_ , was interrupted. The image of Major Sanngrior's surprised, horrified face would forever be an image that would haunt Lind's subconscious. Raanee Baagh abandoned her mistress at the screech, and if not for Lind's grip on Spear Mint so too would her own angel have left her for the angel eater's cry. She watched the Major rush towards the beast in a last act of desperation.

And she watched the Major fall as the _Rabishu_ surged towards Raanee Baagh. It ducked down low, slithering towards the angel like a serpent, and then rose to its hind legs in a massive display that Lind had never seen enacted from another angel eater before. The _Rabishu's_ maw opened impossibly wide on Raanee Baagh's approach, and with a single snap, a single bite, Raanee Baagh fell headless to the floor. Sanngrior froze mid-step, less than ten feet from the beast, and the power in her brow went out like an eclipse. The energy in the room vanished with the light, leaving Lind once more in the subdued lighting of the room.

For a moment, and only for a moment, Sanngrior remained on her feet. She turned, her body trembling, almost vibrating with the pain feedback sent through the link between Raanee Baagh and herself. Her eyes met Lind for a brief second. "Li-" And then they rolled back up into her skull, and the Major, at last, fell.

" _Major!"_ Lind was up and running before she could get her wits about her. Her world narrowed to Sanngrior's crumbled form, once so filled with power and energy and now lifeless and somehow delicate from where she rested on the floor. She didn't realize that she'd let go of Spear Mint, and didn't hear the _Rabishu's_ scream until she saw her angel race past her.

"No!" she shrieked. "No! Not this time! Not again!" Without thought she hurled herself at Spear Mint, and collided with the angel, sending them both tumbling to the ground. Spear Mint fought her, her attacks the mindless flails of an animal, and Lind rolled her back towards Sanngrior. She picked herself up with a strength that hadn't been there moments before, and all at once became aware of the _Rabishu's_ presence behind her. She looked over her shoulder, finding the beast skittering towards her. She tried to scramble away from it, ignoring her angel's strikes on her person. Yet the creature was large, and fast despite its size, and before Lind could react she found it had surrounded her, like a centipede curling around its prey. She screamed at it, and it retreated a couple of feet before reigning up around her. "No!" She snarled once more. "No, no, _no!"_ She turned her back to it, dropping to the floor and shielding as much of Spear Mint's body as she could.

She heard it lunge, felt an indescribable pain in her head that left her blind in her left eye, and heard Spear Mint shriek in pain. She looked over her shoulder and screamed. The beast had Spear Mint by the wing, and was gnashing the limb in its jaws, not so much biting it off as it had Raanee Baagh's head as it was shredding it, ripping off feathers, flesh, muscle, and sinew from bone. It lurched back like a dog wrestling a bone, and both Lind and Spear Mint lurched with it, where the creature then lunged forward and bit onto more of the wing. _It's eating us alive,_ Lind thought. _Oh Yggdrasil, make it stop, it's eating us alive!_

An angel, by definition, was a symbiotic creature that shared its life with that of its host. Its original purpose was to act as a power amplifier for the deity in question, boosting traits such as strength, magic, and comprehension to a height that would not normally be achievable under normal circumstances. However, an angel could not survive without its host, and so from the moment a connection was established, that entity was bound to their host, taking on the characteristic and personality of their host that was not often seen by the outside world. They became a different aspect of that deity. They became the 'Other Half'. They Became the 'Other Soul', the _Outer Soul_.

And what could become of a deity whose Outer Soul was endangered? The amount of theories behind this topic were as numerous as there were stars in the sky, for the reality was that _no one knew._ Deities hoarded their angels closely, and were instinctively reluctant to release them in an environment that was deemed dangerous to the deity in question, let alone the angel attached to them. Though the topic of Outer Soul endangerment was highly discussed, it was also taboo in the fact that no one was foolish enough to so recklessly endanger their angel.

Yet in those moments, watching as the flesh was carved from the wing of her own angel, Lind made her own discovery of what could happen. A discovery that would leave many a scholar and Tic scratching their heads in confusion and turning the scholarly world on its heads for millennia to come.

For in those moments, Lind made a decision. And her decision was simple.

" _I won't let you have my angel!"_ The Valkyrie pushed herself up off Spear Mint and grabbed the imprisoned wing. She braced herself against Spear Mint's back, and risking the ever-looming fangs of the angel eater, wrapped her arm around the wing's bicep, and began to pull in the area where humerus joined coracoid. The _Rabishu_ , against all odds, helped her, yanking back on the wing as it tried to draw more of the angel towards its expanding maw. Spear Mint's screams grew louder. The pain in her head grew more intense.

For a moment Lind lost sight in both her eyes, but not before she felt something give in her angel's wing. She felt something _snap_ in her mind, and then both she and the _Rabishu_ fell back as Spear Mint's wing was ripped from her back. The angel collapsed in pain, and when Lind's sight finally returned to her it was through a haze of muddy gold. She felt liquid streaming from her eyes, her nose, her ears, and when she swallowed she tasted nothing but blood. The sounds around her grew muffled, as though her ears were clogged with water, but she could feel _everything_. The hairs on her body were alive and tense, and she could feel the vibrations of everything from the angel eater scrambling to its feet-thirty six tarsal claws on eighting pairs of limbs-to her angel rolling on the floor and moaning in pain, to the dangling forms of Kestrel Flight and perhaps even her own flight off above her head. She could even feel the explosions at the door behind her and the ten people-demons or deities or something else-that stood behind it. The world was alive with vibrations, vibrations and _energy,_ oh so much energy, and she gathered it to her person en masse. She turned her attention to the one thing in the room that her senses deemed as a threat to her Outer Soul, and without thought or rational, the Valkyrie struck out.

She lashed out in silence, and her first blow tore into the creatures carapace as though it was dough.

And as the roof began to tremble above her. As the door exploded in a hail of Valkyrie driven magic, she began ripping apart the monster that was an angel eater with the ferocity of an animal and the alien calm of a person not fully there.

All before the ceiling collapsed under the heavy artillery fire of combat search and rescue teams.

XXX

 _Lind?_ A voice was calling to her. One that was almost achingly familiar, yet whose name and face just escaped her memory. _Lind!_ It called again, and a piece of a name came to her mind. Mint. Mint was calling her. _Come on, Lind, snap out of it, you're scaring me!"_ Spear... Mint? Yes, that was her angel, wasn't it? Spear Mint? Was Spear Mint calling her? _Please Lind, I can't do anything with you as you are now. Get up!_ The voice begged. She sounded scared. _Open your eyes!_

Lind grunted, her brows furrowing together as she took the angel's advice and opened her eyes. Her settings were both familiar and alien at once, and she stared at the mural before her without recognition. "I was... the _Rabishu_ …" She rubbed her eyes with a hand. Her head was pounding. "It's dead. It's dead, right? Spear Mint?"

Another voice rose in her head, different from the first only in tone. _It's dead... Lind, do you know where you are?_

She stared at the mural before her, with its ancient weapons and many tapestries. "Medical…" she muttered. "I was... oh Yggdrassil, Sanngrior!" She bolted to her feet and almost fell flat on her face. Her legs were numb for reasons she couldn't recall and didn't care enough to remember, and as they prickled and tingled with pins and needles the Valkyrie stumbled through a sliding wall and into the main chamber. She froze when she saw the stasis crystals, as though seeing them for the first time, and felt the strength depart her body. She leaned on an empty bed ( _her bed)_ and stared at the row of crystals in shock. "I... I was…"

 _Lind, tell us your name._ That voice from before. Not Spear Mint but… Pepper Mint? No, not Pepper. _She_ was Peppermint. Cool Mint. Her other angel. The one who'd helped bring back those... memories. _Take a deep breath. It's over now. You're back,_ she coxed. _Ground yourself._

"My name..." Lind trailed off, and her eyes were drawn to the largest crystal in the room. A crystal which housed a tendee form that was huge for the amount of power stored within. The Major. "My name is Lind-Tanarak Kajistiaat. Third born of Sedna Kajistiaat and first daughter of Nanuq Kajistiaat."

 _Do you know where you are?_

"The medical facility in Camp Uruku, built into the Uruku Mountains near the Sana District." She took a deep breath. Yes, everything was starting to come back to her now. Everything was starting to re-orient itself in her mind. She'd come to pay her respects to her flight and introduce Cool Mint to Peregrine. She was a Sergeant-not a Private, a _Sergeant_ -assigned to a special duty tasking of surveillance by the Norn Urd under direction from Camp Uruku's Commander, because 'damned if we're going to let you work the squadron to death with your blasted physical training program, Lind' and 'Our budget does not allow for the continued destruction of registered multipurpose weaponry, Lind, so stop destroying our battleaxes with your damnable boulders'.

"I had just returned from my last check-in with Urd," she recalled. "I had a prior appointment with Tic Nebo that I had to attend, and... "

The memories, old but now fresh after revisiting them, returned to her, and she grimaced. "I tore off my own wing," she whispered. "Spear Mint, I-"

 _Don't._ Spear Mint's voice was firm. _Don't you dare. It was either the wing or my life, and I'd gladly take one wing if it meant living long enough to see the Rabishu that stole it killed._

"I was a coward," she muttered bitterly. "I gave up when Sergeant Rota and the Major-"

 _Don't start._ Cool Mint this time. _You were in a situation beyond your control. You witnessed things that would have broken any of the others. But you're still alive, and now you remember._

 _Now you remember._ Spear Mint echoed. _Which means we need to fulfill the Major's final order._

Lind's eyes widened at that, and for a moment-just for a moment, the Major's face, pale and thin and strained, appeared in her mind's eye. _"Live."_ The woman blinked, rubbed her brows, and straightened. The feeling had returned to her legs, and with it came a new resolve born of purpose. She took a deep breath, regarding her fallen flight with eyes bright with emotion. "I remember."

She left the room in a rush, sparing not a single glance behind her but promising herself she would return. Return to Peregrine Flight and if she could find them, Kestrel flight as well. They wouldn't be forgotten. Not now. Not anymore. She was almost running by the time she exited the facility, passing through the gates and the guard shed without so much as a second glance. There were two new privates manning the tiny shack now, the Privates Fulgora and Spes were long gone. As soon as she was outside the main perimeter of the medical clinic the woman had her cell phone in hand, dialing up the current CO she fell under with Sanngrior's absense and summoning both Spear Mint's and Cool Mint's wings, as Nebo had so instructed her.

The woman launched herself in the air with a force strong enough to kick up a back draft, and held the phone close to her ear. As soon as she heard the other end pick up, the Sergeant began speaking. "Ma'am? Yes, it's Lind. I need to speak with you and Colonel Freydis ASAP… no Ma'am, it can't wait. It's-I remember, Ma'am. I remember _everything_. It's important, and I need to tell you and the Commander while it's still fresh... Yes Ma'am. Okay, right, yes Ma'am, thank you."

She headed off in the direction of the squadron she was assigned to, and prepared herself for what she knew would be a long and grueling debrief.

XXX

Lind had to retell her story four times. First to her squadron commander, Colonel Freydis and her commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Toruun. A second time to the base commander on Monday, following Lind's appointment with Nebo, and twice more to a debrief team who requested on multiple occasions that she go as in-depth and into as much detail with her story as possible. Those times in particular were the most exhausting, both mentally and emotionally draining on a level Lind hadn't experienced in close to a century, yet on some level, rewarding as well. The story was finally coming to light. She was at last able to speak of the monster she'd encountered while imprisoned, and the knowledge that she was doing some good, that she'd revealed a new weapon that so put their angels at risk, set her mind at ease when Lind was finally allowed to retire on those days.

Which said nothing for the rest of the squadron.

In the weeks that followed, filled with questions for additional details and clarification on specific aspects of her memory, Lind became a raging terror for her squadron. Torunn had taken her out of a combat position once she'd been assigned over watch of Urd, and now, whenever she wasn't preoccupied with the Norn on Midgard, Lind was assigned the role NCOIC of combat training and drill, something that kept her on her feet and too busy to dwell on her remembered trauma. With it, however, came a new training regime that everyone, even the Squadron Commander, came to dread.

Had Major Sanngrior been there to witness it, she would have been proud.

"Grab your gear and report to West Field," she instructed sometime between one debrief and the other. "We're going for a run, from here all the way to Central District."

"Are you insane?!" someone from a neighboring flight, Weather Operations, if she remembered correctly, called out to her. "That's a three hundred mile run! We're holding almost one hundred pounds of gear on us! You'll kill us!"

Lind grew irritated with that person and several others who added their voices to the protest. "No wonder the Major was always pissed off with us," she grumbled under her breath.

They still ran though. Lind was unsurprised when the only people who could keep up with her own pace were a couple eager Privates and stubborn older officers who refused to let Lind run them to the ground. Chrono, one of the new Privates in the squadron who'd originally descended to Midgard with Lind, was one of them. Col Freydis, a woman who'd seen her own share of combat yet still managed to hold a cheerful disposition, was another.

And if the squadron resented her for the three-hundred mile run, which the repeated the day after, then they began to absolutely loathe her when Lind began introducing the moves she'd learned from Jackson back in Midgard. Except for Chrono, but then, Lind was starting to suspect that Chrono was a bit of a masochist when it came to physical training. Before the week was up, a hefty chunk of the squadron had protested enough that Lt. Col Torunn had to pull her aside and talk to her.

"Lind, you need to ease up on the training a bit." The week had flown by between the resurgence in her memory, the multiple debriefs, and a re-evaluation of the squadron training program to incorporate as many new throws and pins and runs as the squadron could handle. Monday had somehow become Friday before Lind had even realized it. "I know that at least some of this has to do with what you remembered-I can't remember the last time I've seen you so passionate about anything-but you need to allow time for the squadron to adjust to the new additions to the training plan. People are getting hurt trying to keep up with your pace."

"What would you suggest I do?" It was the polite thing to say. The proper thing to say. The exact opposite of what Lind really wanted to say, which was; _"I've seen what Niflheim is capable of doing, and our current training isn't enough. They'll either adjust and survive, or they'll fall behind and be lost."_ A strange, almost obsessive need to train had befallen her in the week since recovering her memories, and with it had come an understanding on why the Major had always been so hard on Peregrine Flight, as well as a strong desire to ensure the squadron with all its various flights and careers were as best prepared as possible in case they found themselves in a similar situation to Peregrine.

"Lind, when's the last time you took leave?"

The question blindsided her, and for a long moment Lind stared at her CO with blank, confused look on her face. "What?"

The Lt. Col shook her head and sighed, the smile on her face twisted into a grimace that was both amused and disgruntled at once. "By the hair on the roots of Yggdrasil, Lind... I admire your work ethics, but this past week has been a bore on you. I want you to take a couple of weeks off."

Lind stared at the woman, still not fully understanding what she was hearing. Was this some kind of trick? Was Nebo speaking with the Lt. Col behind Lind's back? First him instructing her to take a full day off from training, and now her CO telling her she needed to take time off? She narrowed her eyes at the Lt. Col, who caught the suspicious expression and sighed in exasperation. "Apsu's waters, Lind, stop glaring at me like I'm a demon in disguise." Lind flinched. "You've been going at it non-stop since you were placed under my wing, and that was close to ninety years ago. I don't think I've seen you take a day off once in that time, not counting the various medical appointments in the Sana District or the times your Special Duty status calls you away from the squadron."

The woman planted her hands on her hips. Lt. Col Torunn was a portly woman with a bit of a motherly streak to her, but a Valkyrie who could still make her opponents cry during combat if they underestimated her. Most of the younger Valkyries only did that once, and Lind respected the woman for how she did her best to look out for the folks assigned under her. At least when that Nest Mother eye of hers was turned to any Valkyrie that _wasn't_ Lind. "Take a couple weeks off. Get out of here. Off base, away from Sana. I'll make some calls to ensure the _Euminides_ don't come hunting you down for status reports on Norn Urd while you're gone. Take a _break_ , Lind. You're going to work yourself to death and drag the squadron down with you at your current pace, and I don't need Colonel Freydis howling my ears off because I let the NCOIC of training destroy the squadron she manages because I didn't give you time off." She smiled at Lind in an attempt at a joke. Lind returned it with one she didn't feel. "You need to relax and decompress from everything that's been happening in the past week, alright?"

"...Alright." The word came out with heavy reluctance. "...If you insist, I'll take a week-"

"You've got seventy days of leave to burn through, not counting the thirty-four days of use or lose, Lind."

"A week-"

"A month."

" _Two_ weeks-"

" _A month,_ Lind."

Lind sighed. " _Three_ weeks under the caveat that I have to return to Sana on a weekly basis anyways." She tried.

Her CO didn't budge. "A month. It takes five minutes to move from wherever you're planning to be in Asgard back to Sana district via Gate travel. I am _highly recommending_ you take a month of leave off, Sergeant Lind."

"...You aren't going to let me win this one, are you, Ma'am?"

"Nope," replied the older Valkyrie. "A month off."

Lind sighed, recognizing she wasn't about to get any further with her CO. "A month," she agreed. A thought occurred to her, and the Sergeant frowned in thought. "I... need to visit some family anyways," she said. "I suppose now would be as good a time as ever." She made a face, and Lt. Col Torunn grinned.

"Good. Then go input the leave dates and give me an idea on where you'll be in case I need to recall you."

XXX

There wasn't any snow on the ground.

A relief. Lind doubted she would have been able to find it if there was a blanket of white across the landscape. The tundra changed on a seasonal basis with the storms and the blizzards, and a tree used as a marker one year could be gone the next year. Yet the marker was still there, would always be there, because her mother, Sedna, had ensured it would remain a permanent fixture of the land. It had been an addition that Nanuq would have protested had he been made aware of it, but then the women of the Kajistiaat tribe were known for nothing if not their silence, and this permanent addition, among other things, was left unspoken.

She hopped off her mount, one of the regional long-haired draft horses renowned for their stamina, and produced a carrot from her pocket. The horse, a great piebald whose mane was braided to keep the hair out of his eyes, took the gift without comment, and as he loudly consumed it, Lind threw her ruck off her back and sat on top of it. It was surreal dressing in civilian clothes after so spending so much time in her uniform, and though the heavy parka she wore was comfortable, Lind still couldn't shake the feeling of _wrong_ that came with it. Still, it was starting to grow on her, she had to admit, and the parka was much warmer than her uniform ever was, something she cherished with all her heart after the memories of the isolation cell returned to her. Even in the late spring the Chugach Mountains that divided the lands between Asgard and Jotenheim were cold, and after spending years in the more temperate climate of the Sana District, Lind found she wasn't quite as hot blooded as she used to be. A shame. She could remember a childhood running around in such weather as this in little more than pants and a tunic. Now, no longer.

The marker was small. Little more than a couple of stones that never seemed to move; boulders buried under the tundra ice that only remained surfaced from erosion, and as such no one would think twice about it if they came across it on a whim. The marker had probably been trod over multiple times in the years that had passed since Iansi's passing, and that had been something Nanuq had wanted: for him to be forgotten, to have been seen as little more than trodden earth, something entrapped within the ice and unable to move on without release. No one to sing their songs of release to free the trapped _Torngasak_ , no _Tupilek_ to observe the spirit's parting into the _Yakone,_ the Red Aurora that was said to collect fallen souls.

 _Iritif is the same._ Lind thought, and frowned. She knew almost nothing of the fallen member of Kestrel, that unfortunate Valkyrie who'd been killed by the _Rabishu_ after its egg clutch hadn't set properly. Lind had visited Kestrel Flight alongside Peregrine Flight in the week following her recovered memories, and she'd noticed that there had been only three stasis crystals for the fallen members. There wasn't an additional bed to signify the lost member as there was for Rota, and Lind, not being part of Kestrel, wasn't allowed to observe Kestrel's meditation mural. She wondered if an older member of their flight or another member of their squadron had added Iritif's weapon and banner to the mural. Maybe she was like Iansi: forgotten, only spoken in hushed whispers as a topic no one wished to speak of.

Lind hoped not. Though it was not often spoken of, there was as broad a spectrum on what happened to a deity's soul in death as there were stars in the sky, and while Lind didn't know what Iritif's tribe believed in, she hoped the woman had at least been remembered by her kin. Valkyries in general had long, branching beliefs of the Fields of Reincarnation, the Green Field at the End of the Path, but the methods of how they managed to get their varied from person to person.

 _You won't forget though._ Spear Mint whispered in her ear. _None of us will._

Lind pursed her lips. No, after what she'd seen, she'd make a point of remembering Iritif. Iritif and Iansi both.

The woman rose from her ruck, then turned, untied the top, and began rooting through the contents inside.

It took her hours to build the second mural, and she worked well into the evening. Occasionally the piebald, a friendly boy from her brother's stock, would come over and nudge her in an attempt for more carrots, and Lind would sigh and straighten, her back cracking, before producing another carrot for him to munch on. He was a welcome distraction, and his insisting nudges for attention and nickers made her smile, slim though it was.

By the time she'd finished building the second mural the sun had just begun to set beneath the mountains, and Lind realized she'd obtained a guest.

The woman was tiny and bent with age, barely breaching five feet in height. Unlike Lind with her heavy parka, she was adorned like many of the locals in the area, in a light, summer dress comprised of caribou skin. Her hair was up in two tight, white buns on either side of her head, and her face was adorned in tattoos: three vertical stripes that ran the length of her lower lip and down to her chin, and three pairs of additional stripes along the length of her cheekbones and down to her jaw line. They were faded with age, and against her weathered, wrinkled skin were almost unnoticeable. She'd drawn the attention of the piebald as Lind was inscribing a name into the marker, and as the Valkyrie turned to look at her the woman spoke. "Who was it?" Her voice was rough, like the grating voice of a bear, though lacking the loud pitch they were so known for.

"A Valkyrie," Lind replied. "I never had a chance to meet her, but I wanted to make sure she wasn't forgotten."

The old woman said nothing, and brushing her hands on her pants, Lind rose and stepped away from the grave marker, a small frown on her face. "They probably already have a grave for her already, but... "

"Mass graves are impersonal," the stranger supplied, and Lind found herself nodding.

"I know nothing about her, but I saw her go," she continued. "She died in agony, in a land with no kindness under a roof that did not exist. The ones who witnessed her death held no love for her, and so forgot about her. They left her body to hang and rot in the middle of a room full of horrors, and I fear her spirit never found release."

"So you pay tribute to this unknown Valkyrie by creating a marker next to a nameless grave?" the woman asked.

"She's not an unknown Valkyrie. She had a name. Just like the owner of the grave her marker rests beside. They will not be forgotten. Neither of them."

The woman grunted. "Best not let your father learn of this."

Lind looked back at her, then back to the two grave markers. "He won't," she replied. "Iansi is forgotten in his mind, as is the location of his grave. And even if he were to remember, I find that as I age I care less and less about the opinion of others. There is only what I can do right by myself, and this feels right to me."

"Will you sing for them?" The woman asked.

"I'm not a shaman," Lind replied. "I'm a warrior. I can't enact those rights for them."

The woman snorted. "You do not need to be a _Tupilek_ to sing the songs of release. You stand before your brother and your sister, and you cared enough to remember them where others would forget. Though your brother shamed your family and your sister hails from a foreign land, you would still remember them. But why bother remembering them if you cannot set them free?" She wagged a carrot meant for the piebald at Lind, scolding her. The piebald flicked his ears in irritation and tossed his head, snorting. The woman glared at the horse. "Don't you start. I'll have you sent back to your herd with no more treats if you keep that up."

The horse neighed and stomped his foot in protest. The woman raised an eyebrow, as if getting ready to say something, but the piebald seemed to back down.

"I don't know if my singing will be good enough," Lind replied. "You always said I sounded like a screaming goat whenever I sang."

"Unless you've taken voice lessons since last I saw you, I'm sure that hasn't changed," the woman said dismissively. "But it's not how well you sing that matters. You know this. Stop making excuses." Lind cast a glare at the woman. The woman's expression didn't change.

"Old Bat."

"Sing your songs, Screaming Goat."

Lind sighed. "Will you at least screech with me, Old Bat? I don't like singing in front of an audience."

"Are you asking me to sing the songs of release for a man who should be forgotten?" the old woman challenged.

"You're here, aren't you?" Lind retorted.

The woman laughed. It was a raspy sound, like that of a raven or a crow. "I suppose I am. Alright. Sing your songs and I will join you, and together we will see if the _Yakone_ will come and bear them away." Lind smiled. It looked relieved.

The songs they sang were long and deep and wordless. Contrary to what was believed, it was a pleasant sound. Songs that did not so much sound like the harsh screech of an old bat joined with a screaming goat but a set of songs that paid tribute to the world around them, at times fading to the whisper of a gentle breeze and at others rising to the sharp crack of breaking ice. The air pulsed and thrummed with their songs, well into the evening and into night, where the moon appeared as a sharp, white crescent against the sky.

Lind's throat was raw and dry by the time they'd finished, and she looked down at her companion, who'd come to stand next to her at some point during their song. The woman was watching her with bright brown eyes. "Let us sit," she said. "I've not seen you eat since your arrival. The horse has eaten more than you."

Lind said nothing, but followed the woman back to where her ruck rested, unsurprised to see it'd been joined by another bag made of seal skin. The piebald was lipping at a patch of grass a short distance away, and as the two of them drew near it perked up in interest, ears flicking forward at the prospect of receiving more treats. Tail swaying, he meandered forward, only to be shooed away by the old woman. "No. You've had more than enough treats for one day. Let us have our food or I'll roast your leg and dine on that instead." The piebald's ears went back and he tossed his head, eyeing the duo for a moment longer before trotting off to lip at a new patch of grass.

Lind removed the waterproof parka that had come standard issue with her equipment. She'd been using it to keep her own ruck dry in the tundra, and now she draped the long, white cloth out as something for the two of them to sit on. The woman removed a wineskin from her own bag as well as a smaller bag filled with caribou jerky, and Lind removed a rations packet from her own possessions. Together, the two broke bread, sharing the meal between them. Lind was amused to see that her own rations didn't seem to win the woman over. "This is what you eat now? I've tasted wolf dung that is better than this."

"Cheapest bidder," Lind replied. "JAW. Just Add Water."

"Just Add Piss' you mean," the woman grunted. "At least then it might have flavor. Get rid of that. There is plenty of jerky to split between us."

Lind looked at the woman and then down at her packet. Shrugging, she gathered the ration and tossed it back in her ruck. "I'll let the others try it," she said. "I know they'll enjoy it."

The woman huffed. "Only thing your siblings will enjoy out of that is the fact it came from a Valkyrie." Lind hummed in agreement.

The two lapsed into a companionable silence, watching the night sky as the early hours of evening slowly ticked by. "They said you'd fallen in battle," the woman said after a while. "That you'd been captured by Niflheim's children. That you'd been grievously hurt."

"I was," Lind replied. "That's how I came upon my fallen sister." The woman offered her the wine skin, and Lind took it and brought the bag to her lips. The water inside was cool and sweet, different from the water she more often found in Sana District or the Central District. Water melted from the Chugach Mountain icecaps.

"They would not let us see you because we are not citizens of Asgard. They do not trust us because of the Supporters of the Black Flag that dwell in this region," the woman continued. "Nanuq was angry. He feared losing a second child."

Lind said nothing. The woman lapsed back into silence. The moon began to make its journey across the horizon.

"Why do you wear your hair like that?" The woman asked. "I have never seen such a style before."

"It's a Valkyrie tradition." Lind was at least more responsive to this second attempt at conversation. "I have another sister that is lost, but may still be alive."

"Oh?"

Lind nodded, playing with the long strand of hair that dangled before her right shoulder. "She was my NCOIC when I was captured. She was not recovered with me." The woman tugged it, finding the pull somewhat reassuring. "When we lose someone, the old traditions they teach us is that we cut our hair. All of it, except for a small strand. The _Shi Baku._ It is to represent the one who is missing, and to remind ourselves that she is still out there. It is only cut once the missing Valkyrie is found."

"And if they are like your fallen sister?" The woman gestured to the new grave marker.

Lind stared at it, her expression bleak. "Then they are still found," she replied. "We hope we find them alive, but if it is only remains…" She shrugged as she trailed off, looking uncomfortable. "The _Shi Baku_ is still cut. It is braided and knotted at one end, then left to dangle in the meditation murals."

"A strange tradition," the woman muttered.

"No stranger than waiting for the _Yakone_ to appear."

The woman huffed and fell silent, and as another hour passed between them, Lind's pocket began to buzz. Both women jumped for different reasons, and Lind dug into her pocket and removed her cellphone. She squinted at the ID tag on the phone, then sighed when she recognized Nebo's name. "I must take this," she told her companion. "Will you let me know if I miss the _Yakone_?"

"Is it Valkyrie business?" the woman inquired.

"Something like that."

"Then go." The woman shooed her off, and nodding, Lind rolled to her feet and moved off to the tree line. The piebald, ever curious, ever greedy, followed her in hopes of another carrot.

She gave him an apple slice instead, then brought a finger to her lips. _Don't tell._ The horsed lipped at the fur lining the hood of her parka. She ignored it and instead answered the cellphone. "Lind here."

" _Lind!_ Kyz _, I got good news for you!"_ It was Nebo and he was almost screaming in the phone. He sounded excited. Lind sighed in relief. _"Hey, so you know what I told you about the new angel implantation, right? Right? Well I just got back from a huge meeting with the Bel'tic after reading the report I wrote based off Cool Mint's manifestation."_

"Right... "

" _And you won't believe it! They amazed,_ Kyz _! They want to fund more research into the program! You know what this means?"_

Lind scratched her head, a small, amused smile on her face as she listened to the god's enthusiasm. "I haven't got a clue," she replied.

" _It means we gonna bring your flight back!"_ Nebo _was_ screaming of the phone now. _"We got the funds for further research! We can perfect the operation based off what we learned from you and start moving on to Valkyries who lost their angel! Isn't that great,_ Kyz _?"_

Lind didn't hear him. Lind didn't hear anything after Nebo's first announcement. _We gonna bring your flight back._ The Major could recover. Mist. Gunnr. _We gonna bring your flight back._ They could awaken. Maybe with a different angel, but they'd be _back._ They'd be _free_. _We gonna bring your flight back._ She'd be able to see them again. Really 'see' them. Not in those damned crystals, but as themselves, laughing and yelling and shouting orders and running hundreds of miles just for the hell of it and... and...

"Kyz _? Hey, Girl, you there? Lind?"_ The phone slipped out of her hand. Lind didn't notice. She was already racing out past the tree line and back to the marker, the piebald trotting after her like a loyal dog following his owner.

"They're coming back." The old woman looked up at Lind from where she'd been watching the sky. She raised a silver brow, and then released a shrill squack as the Valkyrie barreled towards her and enveloped her in a tight embrace. "They're coming back! _Aga_ Sedna, they're coming back! I can't believe it, the flight's gonna wake up, they did it, they found a cure, they're coming back! All three of them: The Major, Mist, Gunnr, _all of them!"_ Her voice filled the night sky like an owl's scream, and as her mother tried to calm her down, Lind laughed, then laughed harder still when her mother relented and joined her in her joy. "I can't believe it. I _can't believe it!_ A century! A century of waiting and wondering and dreading they'd never recover, and they're coming back!"

At last she released the woman, who grinned up at Lind with a crooked smile. "Valkyrie business indeed," she muttered. "I suppose this means you must depart? For your flight? It sounds like they are important to you."

Lind paused, regarding her mother with a deep, grave expression. She took the woman's words into careful consideration, thinking back to Nebo's words and her CO's instructions. _They won't return immediately,_ she thought. _It's progress towards the end goal. Not the goal itself,_ she reminded herself. _It might take another century before the procedure has been tried enough to practice on an angelless Valkyrie._

And if she was honest with herself, Lind wasn't certain she _wanted_ to leave just yet. Yes, she'd come to send Iansi and Iritif off, and only that, but truth be told... she hadn't been home in _ages._ Not since Iansi's death, and that had been long, long ago. She'd missed the mountains with its sweet water, the green aurora and the red aurora. Riding bareback across the tundra on a horse of her brother's stock. Bantering with Sedna whenever she appeared as was her nature, sometimes with the dawn, sometimes with the evening, and always with the sun and the moon in the sky.

A sudden wave of homesickness struck her, and all at once Lind realized why Lt. Col Torunn had ordered her to take a full month off. _I'm going to bring her back a pound of caribou jerky for this,_ she thought, and smiled. It came warm on her face, and for perhaps the first time in over a century, felt right, felt natural, and before her Sedna brightened as well. "They don't need me," she said. "Not right now." She hesitated, then asked, "Are... are the other here? Papa and Aaja and the others?"

Sedna chuckled. "You believe your elder brother can keep your arrival a secret?" she asked, then reached up and kissed Lind's cheek. "We knew of your arrival as soon as you crossed into the Chugach. They're all at home hiding in the dark, ready to surprise you because they expect an old woman like me to drag you back against your will. Been like that since I left to retrieve you."

Lind released a sharp bark of laughter. It almost sounded like a seal's bark. "All this time?" she demanded. " _Aga_ , you're horrible! We've been out here for hours!" She shook her head at her family's antics, but the smile didn't fade. "And they have been hiding in the dark all this time? The neighbors will think they've been raided!"

"Let them think," Sedna replied. "You had more important things to deal with." She paused for a moment, and then as an afterthought added, "The _Yakone_ came while you were speaking to your friend. I have never in my years seen it so close to the earth before. If not for my old eyes failing me, I'd have sworn I saw a pair of forms dancing on their waves."

"Did you really?" Lind eyed her mother with a raised brow, not at all believing what the older woman had to say.

Yet her mother merely laughed. "Let's go home, Tanarak. Grab that blasted phone of yours and haul that ruck on your back. You've got many a story to tell by the hearth, and many people hiding in the dark eager to listen."

XXX

It had been a good month. A very good month, and Lind was happy she was able to experience it in the company of both her angels and her family. She felt... refreshed. Revitalized. Maybe a bit calmer and certainly much more at ease with herself. Lind hadn't realize how much she'd needed to take some time off. Yet it was good to get back to work, good to be back in _uniform,_ and after over a month's break from the repeated descents to Midgard, Lind had to admit it'd be good to get back into the flow of things once more. Maybe she could speak a bit more with Urd on the condition of her angels, perhaps squeeze a few more details out of the Norn that had so come to her aide after the nightmares had started up again. Maybe speak with Morisato and see if Jackson was around for another sparring session. The Valkyrie was planning on kicking off a new and reformed program as soon as Monday rolled around for the squadron. This time it would be at a more gradual pace from the heavy increase in activity that had so injured so many Valkyries in the squadron.

She'd tried to practice some of her moves with Aaja and her younger brother, Anyu, but neither of them presented any real challenge for her. Her father, Nanuq, had been a better opponent, but Nanuq cheated: he knew all of Lind's ticklish spots and had arms the size of logs, and more often than not any match against him ended in a bear hug Lind could find no escape from. Not that she'd ever tried particularly hard against him, but... maybe Jackson had a move up his sleeve that could counter it. She was probably out of practice with the moves he'd shown her anyways, and he'd said he would show her more, so maybe Morisato could help her out.

She smiled, amused at her own train of thought. It'd been ages since she'd just felt... _happy_ , for a change. It was _nice_. Yggdrasil, it was nice. She whistled a tune, one that got stuck in her head on and off and always reminded her of the little tune Mist used to whistle. Something about a... was it a pink submarine or a yellow submarine? She thought it might have been pink. The light of the Gate's descent began to fade around her, and as her vision cleared Lind jogged up the gravel road and climbed the porch steps leading up to the Morisato household.

She reigned in her strength before knocking, remembering at the last moment that the material used on Midgard wasn't quite as durable as that used back home. She rapped on the door with a knuckle instead, still whistling her little tune as she listened to the muffled voices inside. It'd be good to see Morisato and Urd and Belldandy again, she decided. Things were never boring when she was with them, and all three of them managed to somehow find new and entertaining ways to surprise her. _I wonder if I came during another holiday._ She thought. _Maybe Jackson will open the door again._ The thought made her smirk, and the smirk spread into a smile as the door clicked, disengaging a lock, and swung open.

It was Keiichi on the other side this time rather than Jackson and at once Lind realized something was wrong.

"Lind?" The man's face was taut and strained. "Oh thank god you're here," he breathed. "Listen, I need your help. Seriously." The man tugged at his hair, which was messy and tussled from what looked like repeated attacks at his scalp. "You have got to get them under control for me. I can't—I'm at my wits end. I'm about to kill them all."

Lind bristled at the comment, alarm bells ringing in her ears. "Mori-Jank, what do you mean?" she demanded. "Kill _who_? What's going on?"

"Keiichi dear, who's that at the door?" A voice Lind didn't recognized reached the Valkyrie's ears, and the woman noted the obvious cringe of the man before her. A woman Lind didn't recognize appeared in the hallway for a brief moment-a woman with brown black hair who attempted to make her way down the hallway and towards Keiichi-and then Belldandy was in front of her, blocking Lind from further view of the stranger. A very audible _growl_ rumbled through the hallway, and then the woman was retreating, backing away from Belldandy as the woman forced her back into the dining room area and out of Lind's immediate view.

"It's like a bunch of cats, Lind." Keiichi was pulling at his hair again, and it was only then that Lind noticed the heavy bags under his eyes. "I can't-It's like a bunch of cats in heat squabbling over a tom! I can't-I can't go anywhere without them going for each other's throats! _You got to help me, Lind!"_

From further inside Lind thought she head Urd's voice, grouchy and ominous and irritable. _"If you two don't stop this shit right now I'm going to drown you both in the bathtub!"_

A cackle of laughter told her that Skuld was there.

" _She won't leave Keiichi alone though!"_ Belldandy.

" _What have I done?"_ The new girl. _"I have done nothing to earn such ire!"_

Lind blinked, staring between Keiichi and the end of the hallway, waiting to see if either the Norns or the stranger would make another appearance. Nothing but shouts met her ears, and Lind had to admit, it did indeed sound like a clowder of shrieking cats in heat. She looked back at Keiichi, and then sighed. _Exciting times indeed._ She thought to herself.

 _Well... shit._

* * *

 **A/N: Who is it? Who is it?**

* * *

 _Comments of a Madwoman: Sanngrior's fall was really hard to write. It's refreshing to finally get out of that and into something a little nicer. A little bit of World Building and a little bit more on Lind's character, and now we can finally move into what will become the next arch._


	24. Chapter 24 - La Cinquième Déesse

l

 **La Cinquième Déesse  
** " _It's amazing to see what can happen when a possible rival appears. It can bring out the best in us, or the worst."_  
 _\- Nebo, God First Class - Third Category - Unlimited: A Case Study of Post-Traumatic Stress and Borderline Personality Disorders In A Goddess And Angel On Midgard_

-24-

"Alright, we're coming to a stop sign. Remember what I said, ease up on the breaks. Gentle now...okay, good, you're doing fine-" The truck lurched to a stop five feet from the actual stop sign, and both Belldandy and Urd were flung forward. The seatbelts stopped them from being thrown into the dashboard, and then the two sisters fell back against their seats.

"Sorry Urd," Belldandy apologized for the ninth time that day. "Um..."

"It's fine, Bell." Urd sighed. "You're getting better, but don't stop so quickly. If anyone was stupid enough to tailgate us they'd have smashed into our bumper and fucked up everyone's day." The woman looked in her rearview mirror, grateful to see the road behind them empty of following cars. Rush hour was finished for the evening, and right now they were driving through the woods back to Keiichi's house, high beams bright and the road around them black.

"It's just-it's nerve wracking, driving without any lights around. Even Japan had street lights, but I can barely see the road it's so dark, and I'm afraid I'll hit something or drive off the road or-"

"Calm down, Bell. Take a deep breath. Remember what I told you about the lines in the road and the reflective tape? Those are your cues for where you're at. You're doing fine. We're not dead yet and the truck is still in one piece, right?"

"You're not filling me with much hope, Urd." Still at the stop light, Belldandy, dressed in a long-sleeved blouse covered in flowers and a pair of jeans, frowned at her sister. "It's just-this is so different from driving in Japan. Having someone just... teach you in a parking lot or out on some small road is just so... strange!" she cried. "I mean, it's all so, so _lax_ here! Did you know it costs over a thousand dollars to get a driver's license in Japan? You don't learn from your sister or your father or your spouse on how to drive-you have to attend a specialized driving course! The idea behind all of this is just so... _absurd!_ "

Urd smirked. "I know, I know, it's out of your comfort zone. You made that clear when you climbed into the driver's seat and told me you didn't have any operational driving experience."

"I thought the United States was more sympathetic to individuals without a personal vehicle!" Belldandy cried. "If I'd known I would need to drive fifteen minutes just to reach a grocery store, I would have included vehicle operations with the American-English language package upon moving in with you and Keiichi!" She looked stressed. "When can we switch out? I-I think I need a break, Urd."

Urd, dressed in a violet tank top and black jeans, pursed her lips. "Let's drive through this intersection and get to the next stop light. We'll pull into the next gas station we see and switch out, alright?" She neglected to say that the next gas station was five miles from the house.

Belldandy stared at her a moment longer before sighing. "Fine," she muttered. "Just-fine."

"You're doing well, Bell," Urd encouraged. "You've got a total of four hours of driving experience under your belt and you haven't done anything wrong yet. This isn't even the worst part! That was two hours ago when we were in rush hour, and now that's over and everyone's back home! You've kept your distance between vehicles, you've used your signals, you've stopped at the proper times-even if you are a bit hard on the breaks-and you speed up to match the speed signs. No one's hit us and we haven't hit anybody. You're doing _fine_." Belldandy didn't look convinced.

"Come on, you want to impress Keiichi with how badass your driving skills are, right?" said Urd with mock enthusiasm. "You're spending your life together with him, so you might as well learn now. That way, you can pull your weight when the two of you are driving cross-country on a road trip and Keiichi can't keep his eyes open any longer. You don't want to rely on him for everything State-side, do you?"

Belldandy flinched. "No," she said firmly.

Urd nodded. "That's what I thought. Now lift up on the break and let her stall forward a couple of feet." The truck began to creep forward, and the elder Norn nodded in approval. "Atta girl. _Now_ stop. See how much more you can see on both sides of the intersection?"

"Yes..." Belldandy looked both ways, then gunned the gas, throwing them both against the backs of their seats at the sudden acceleration. The engine began to roar, Belldandy leaned forward, eyes wide, and Urd leaned back, closed her eyes, and began to pray for her life for the tenth time that evening. It was the acceleration that scared her. Belldandy was fine so long as she knew the speed limit, and would go exactly the speed that was set up on the signs they passed, but Belldandy had a lead foot when it came to the gas and the break, and every time the truck stopped or started, Urd was afraid someone would either crash into them or Bell would lose control of the wheel.

It hadn't happened yet, but they were still a good twenty minutes from home. Anything could happen. Urd was praying it didn't. Just... let them get home safe. No police pulling them over, no hicks out thinking the truck's revving engine was a challenge for a race in the woods, no suicidal deer jumping out in front of the truck; Urd just wanted a calm evening as Bell adjusted to the steering wheel and got a better feel for driving.

Her cell phone buzzed, and cursing at herself-she'd probably jinxed it-Urd dug it out of her pocket and looked at the caller ID. It wasn't Lind as she'd immediately assumed or even Skuld, who'd taken to calling them on a regular basis in her absence. Not even-well of _course_ it wouldn't be that; Urd was the one to initiate _those_ calls, not the other way around. Not while Belldandy had permission to use her phone on a whim to speak with Aiko. "Huh, Keiichi's calling."

"He is?" Belldandy glanced over at Urd.

"Eyes front, Bell." Urd didn't even bother glancing at her sister. Another bad habit of Bell's was taking her eyes off the road and allowing the truck to drift off course. "And he is. He's probably checking to see when we'll be back home."

"Put him on speaker," Belldandy suggested, and Urd answered the call and hit the speaker button. "Hey, Kei-"

" _Urd, where the fuck are you guys?!"_ Keiichi sounded loud and panicked over the speaker, catching both sisters off guard. _"I need you home ASAP! There's another one here! I need your help! Hurry!"_

Urd's eyes widened. "Another-another what?!" Urd demanded. "Keiichi?" The truck began to veer to the right, and Urd looked sharply at Belldandy. Just in time to see her dear, sweet, lovable sister disappear from the driver's seat and into the rear view mirror. Urd's eyes bulged in their skull. "Belldandy, you fuck!" The truck drifted off the road at fifty miles an hour and into the surrounding woods. Urd lurched for the wheel right as the vehicle sped off into the surrounding swamp bed. There was a splash, the lights went out, and in the following morning nearby residents would comment on how they heard a horrible, echoing scream.

"It's the Snarly Yowl." Some would claim, while others would claim that it sounded too much like the occasional scream of the Mothman to resemble the dog-like monster that roamed Western Virginia. It'd be a subject for debate that would eventually hit the local six-o'clock news before falling back into obscurity once more.

XXX

One hour earlier...

It was late-April as Keiichi pulled back into the driveway of his house on the old Harley. The late spring leading into early summer had led to some phenomenal weather, and it would have been a crime not to take advantage of it. In the weeks since Skuld's departure, Keiichi had gotten to work cleaning the old fixer upper and ensuring it was ready for use, and as the weather heated up from the high seventies into the early eighties, the SEAL exchanged the truck for the Hog. There was something immensely satisfying about the deep rumble of the Harley's engines, and on one occasion, with some prodding from Urd, he'd even managed to take Belldandy out on sunset ride through the forest.

She'd held on tight to him, a solid presence against his back that had reignited old memories of Deb, who used to laugh and urge him to go faster in their younger, honeymoon phase years prior. Belldandy had never urged him to go faster, though, and instead of the excitement that he'd used to feel when out joyriding there was a sense of peace that was attributed to the ride. He'd look back in the Harley's mirrors to see Belldandy-dressed in his older riding chaps and the second helmet that had been in storage for some odd-years-trying to look around her all at once, taking in the scenery Virginia's forests presented her with a joy Keiichi perceived on some otherworldly sixth-sense.

He'd taken her to a greasy spoon joint that his team liked to frequent on their group outings together, and had treated the goddess to her first taste of true-blue Virginian cuisine: an appetizer of Rappahannock oysters freshly caught followed by fried chicken with black-eyed peas for him, smoked rainbow trout with mixed vegetables for her, and a shared dessert of homemade apple pie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top for dessert. "How can you eat so much food?!" Belldandy had exclaimed. "It's all so, so _heavy_! There's enough here to feed you, me, Urd, and Skuld together!"

"Welcome to America." Keiichi said smugly, then dabbed a finger in some melted ice cream and tapped the goddess on the nose with it. "Go big or go home."

The look of sheer astonishment on her face, with a nose tipped in melted ice cream, was something Keiichi had committed to memory. The man smiled at the thought, turning into his driveway and creeping up the gravel path leading to his house. _Need to do that again,_ he thought. He'd managed to get a kiss from Belldandy that night, one initiated by Belldandy herself rather than him. It'd been a hesitant, shy kiss, but her lips had been warm against his, and her face had glowed with warmth in the small street light that had so illuminated the greasy spoon. Maybe he could convince her to go up to the mountains with him this weekend. Watch the sunset in the hills, where if they looked east and the view was good, they could watch the sun set against the waves of the distant east coast.

Or he could take her shooting on one of Team 12's outings to the gun range.

The image of Belldandy dressed in an orange safety vest coupled with ear muffs and safety glasses popped into his head, and Keiichi laughed aloud as he brought the Harley to a stop near the garage. "Yeah, now add in McGuinness's M1 Garand to that picture, Janky-boy." He tried to picture that, and the only image that popped into his head were old YouTube videos of people incorrectly firing weapons and getting smacked in the face with the rifles they were using. "Yeah... maybe not."

The man removed his helmet, rummaged around in a pocket for his keys and hit the button attached to the key ring that opened the garage door. The door rose with a slow, mechanical groan, and Keiichi rolled his Hog inside, hitting the button again to close it once more. "Truck's gone," he noted. "Urd and Bell go shopping?" he wondered, and checked his watch. It was a quarter to six in the evening. Shrugging to himself, the man headed inside and towards the kitchen, checking to see if either of the Norns had left him a note. He found one in Belldandy's neat shorthand on the fridge, held up by a magnet in the shape of the Philippines.

 _Borrowing the truck for driving practice._ It said, quick and blunt, with Belldandy's signiture beneath it. Keiichi raised a brow, then read the second scrawl a small distance beneath the first. This one was in Urd's more artistic cursive. _Promise we won't wreck your baby. Bell thought it'd be a good idea to learn since the States are so reliant are vehicles. Going to practice some night driving, may not be back until later this evening._

The SEAL snorted. "Good thing I have insurance," he grumbled, before shrugging it off. At least the two were keeping themselves busy. The man opened the fridge, stared at the contents inside for a full minute, and after finding nothing of interest closed it again. "Guess I'll order a pizza or something," he decided. His last 'cheat day' had been on his date with Belldandy. The man didn't think the Norn had ever had delivery pizza before. More new and entertaining experiences for her to try. Maybe, if she liked it-and who didn't enjoy pizza?-he could take her out to one of the restaurants that made the pies with the hand-kneaded dough. Keigo always harassed him to take him out to those places whenever the topic of pizza was brought up, and he thought that Belldandy might appreciate the amount of effort the chefs put into their product.

But that'd be for another night. Maybe some weekend when there wasn't anything pressing going on and Urd found an excuse to make herself busy enough to leave them alone. She was good about that. But not tonight. Tonight was...Pizza Hut, Dominos, or Papa Johns? How much did he want to hate himself after the amount of grease he consumed? Tomorrow was legs, not cardio, but they were going into an exercise starting tomorrow, so...Papa Johns.

The man pulled his cellphone out of his pocket, unlocked it, and brought up the keypad. He dialed on reflex, trying to think of a good combination Belldandy and Urd might like that wasn't strictly vegetables. Did Bell like Pepperoni? Or was she more of a sausage kind of girl? "Could just get a meat lovers and a vegetarian and call it a night. See how much I can eat before my heart fails." Would she like Hawaiian pizza? Keiichi was a sucker for Hawaiian pizza, though he'd never admit it to anyone. Maybe if he passed it off as a joke he could get away with it...

His watch buzzed at the six o'clock hour, and with it came a horrible shriek that make Keiichi yelp. "Holy shit!" he snarled. The phone fell from his hand and dropped to the floor. "Fuck! God _damn_ it!" He glared at the watch, silent once more, and muttering curses, he bent to retrieve the phone. "Fucking hell, man," he groaned. "Thank god for phone protectors." He examined the phone just to be sure, turning it around and upside down as he inspected the screen and back for damages. There were no obvious cracks on the screen, which was his biggest concern, and relaxing he drew his attention back to the phone itself.

"Wait, it's dialing?"

An assortment of numbers covered the screen, probably from when he'd dropped it and grabbed it again, and shaking his head the man cancelled the call, bringing the screen back to the keypad. Sighing, he redialed the correct number and tried again, this time without the interruption of screaming watches with demons sealed inside. He placed an order for two medium pizzas, one Hawaiian and one vegetarian, and told the man on the other end his street address. Still muttering obscenities to himself, the man pocketed the phone once more and headed upstairs to change.

Had he delayed his journey up the stairs by at least five minutes, perhaps he would have heard something from the downstairs storage cabinet in the hallway near the first floor bathroom. A thump. Perhaps a muffled shout. Maybe even something that sounded like an oath. Yet by the time the noise came to be, Keiichi was long gone up the stairs and far away from the cabinet, and was none the wiser. And with no one else around to hear the strange thumps and think to investigate, so it was left to thump and shout and swear its oaths. Belldandy and Urd were out for the evening and Keiichi was changing out of his uniform and showering after a long day of training intermingled with PT.

The presence, trapped in a closet, screamed.

Thirty minutes later Keiichi came back down the stairs, changed in a fresh shirt and jeans and whistling a tune to himself. There was a thump in the hallway. Keiichi, who suffered from a bad case of Tinnitus after years of fire support with M4s, mortar attacks, and IED explosions on convoys during his many deployments, never heard a thing. He passed the hallway without so much as a second glance, proceeding to the living room where he sat down in the brand new recliner that matched the Ugly Beast that had been delivered about a week after Skuld's departure. Sinking back into it, he browsed his phone until the doorbell rang, then collected the two pizza boxes from the delivery man in the Papa Johns uniform on the other side of the door. He handed over a twenty, let the man keep the change, and then headed back to the kitchen to deposit his cargo.

Around seven or so, with half a Hawaiian pizza consumed, Keiichi left the kitchen for the bathroom. The presence missed him by a thirty second delayed thump, and had anyone been around to listen closely, they would have heard something that sounded suspiciously like ' _fils de pute'_ from the closet.

It wasn't until the man left the bathroom five minutes later that the presence was finally able to gain Keiichi's attention. There was a heavy thump from the closet that made Keiichi jump as he left the bathroom, and the man paused to stare at the closet. Another thump followed immediately after it, followed by inarticulate screaming that caused Keiichi to back pedal. The closet door shuddered, but did not open, and Keiichi stared at it with wide eyes. More shouting. "Is that...French?" He asked aloud. "What the... what the fuck?"

A variety of thought traversed Keiichi's imagination in that moment. Perhaps a French burglar had stolen into the house while the girls were out before he'd returned home and had hidden themselves in the closet upon Keiichi's arrival. Maybe the French burglar had got themselves locked inside the closet and couldn't escape. Maybe they really, really needed to pee. Maybe the house was being haunted by a French poltergeist. Maybe this was Skuld's final parting gift to him.

The man stared at the door, listing to the thumps and curses streaming out of it and toying with the idea of fetching his gun. Keiichi owned two guns. One was an AR-15 that he habitually took out to the gun range with his Team for recreational shooting and to keep his accuracy good and ready without being harassed by the Cadre on base. The other was a Colt 45 that he kept in a biometrically controlled safe for self-protection.

But then that brought into question of if a gun would even work on a possible French poltergeist trapped in his closet. Of a French burglar there'd be no doubt, though he didn't like the idea of trying to explain himself to Bell and Urd, or the investigation that would follow. In the end he decided against it. Virginia Law, something he was familiar with thanks to Deb, stated that the use of deadly force for self-defense was only viable if the user's life was in danger. It'd probably be considered an extreme use of force on the poor fool trapped inside, and he didn't want to kill the fucker just to plead innocent. Christ, Deb used to regale him with stories of burglars and thieves who'd turn right around and sue the folks they were robbing because someone shot first and asked questions later. Besides, Keiichi was fairly confident in his hand-to-hand combat skills. He'd drilled with enough rubber weapons to know how to protect himself. There was a long list of insurgents that had tested him and failed.

Of course, if it was still a poltergeist...Well, he could duck, and that was probably it. The man scowled, then brought his hand to the door knob. _Please just be a stupid thief,_ he thought, twisting the door knob and yanking it open. The closet was empty of stupid French thieves just as he'd feared, and instead the man stared at his vacuum cleaner and mop from where they were shoved off to the back wall. "God da-" A shoe box, the one he used to store the camera Deb had forgotten to take with her after she'd moved out, tumbled off the top shelf. The lid popped off the top, and Keiichi was blinded with a camera flash as a voice emerged from the shoe box.

" _Je vous ai maintenant, vous putain!"_

Deity descents generally came in two different types: Travel via a commercial gate, which required a substantial amount of energy but allowed for multiple deities to travel at once, or travel via a personal medium, which required less energy but were usually weaker to help mitigate the magic used. As such, when a deity _did_ descend via a personal medium rather than a Gate, they needed to ensure that there was no 'block' on the other end that might interrupt the flow of power from one end of the feed to the other. The end feed could be incredibly weak given that the deity was transcending time and space in order to use the medium, and it was easy for something as simple as a cloth over a mirror, a lid on a mug of hot water, a television in a box, or perhaps even a camera in a shoebox, to block the end feed and leave the deity trapped in their medium. If there wasn't enough room for the surrounding deity to manifest in their chosen form, then they were limited to either trying the next nearest outlet or waiting for their chosen medium to lose whatever was so hindering their manifestation on Midgard.

It could lead to some rather cramped, hilarious moments, and every deity who regularly descended to Midgard-especially those whose jobs it was to grant wishes-had one or two amusing stories of being locked in an attic, a basement, or, as was becoming more popular, a box in a storage container for hours, days, or even months on end. Belldandy, if ever asked, could think of three separate incidents where such a thing had occurred, including an incident where the residential family had thought a demon had haunted their mirror and had called for a priest.

And so, as the shoe box fell open and the space around the camera grew substantially larger, Keiichi found himself overwhelmed with an unearthly presence.

One of power.

One of majesty.

One of grace.

One that toppled on top of the Navy Seal as he was too blind-sided to react, and sent them both toppling to the ground in a clusterfuck of arms, legs, and a face-full of big titties.

"At _last!_ " The woman cried. "I feared I would be trapped in there forever!"

Keiichi, his airways blocked by the large breasts on top of him and turning blue in the face, tapped out.

XXX

"Keiichi?!" Belldandy popped out of the large bathroom mirror in the first floor of Keiichi's house and barreled through the door. "Keiichi, where are you?" she cried, and couldn't keep the fear out of her voice. A demon? Was it another demon? Hagall again, or perhaps a demon of relation? She shuddered to think of it and hoped that wasn't the case, recognizing she was at a distinct disadvantage if a demon decided to invade their household. Keiichi, a mortal, was collateral damage that she didn't dare risk, and with him in the house and in danger she didn't dare call upon her full spectrum of power.

The hallway was empty, but Keiichi's presence still lingered. Good, that meant they couldn't have gone far. Her feet thundered across the wood floor, and Belldandy spared the living room in front of her a parting glance. No sign of him there.

"I'm in the kitchen!" Keiichi's voice met her ears, and Belldandy's head whipped to the right, staring into the dining room that so bordered the kitchen. It didn't sound quite as panic-filled as it had over the phone, but that meant nothing. Her man was in danger, and Belldandy would be damned before she let anything bad happen to him. She raced off in the direction of Keiichi's voice, and froze as she entered the dining room.

"So it is an American custom to put fruit on pizza covered in ham and cheese?" There, standing near the kitchen island with a plate of Hawaiian pizza in hand, stood the last person in all the nine worlds Belldandy had ever expected to see. " _C'est la vie."_ She cut a small piece of it off with a fork and knife. A _fork and knife._ Who the hell eats pizza with a _fork and knife_? And paused as she took note of Belldandy's presence. It was a goddess, one who's sigils were similar to Belldandy's in size and shape. Her hair was cut to her cheeks before spreading out behind her in a long ponytail that fell almost down to her feet in a shade of brown so deep it could have passed for black. Her outfit was strange and outlandish on Midgard: A short, black tank top that was so tight across her expansive chest it could have passed for a sports bra, wearing a matching pair of...well, Belldandy couldn't even call them _shorts,_ really. They were more like undergarments made of the same material as her...shirt. They left little to the imagination. Very little to the imagination. A pair of leather gloves that might have been made of deer hide or something equally soft. A pair of matching boots that looked too loose around her ankles. A pair of leather accessories to complete the look that served little purpose other than to distract the eyes from her more obvious features.

"Peorth!"

"Belldandy?!" The woman's eyes widened in surprise, and quickly she put the fork and knife down on the plate beside the pizza.

Belldandy smiled, relieved more than anything else over the fact that there weren't any demons around trying to ruin the house. Another _goddess._ Not demon. _Goddess._ "Yggdrasil, it's been so long!" she exclaimed.

"I know!" Peorth approached her. "I heard what happened to you, but didn't hear that your contract was up."

"Yes, well, Keiichi here saved me alongside my sisters..." She glanced at Keiichi, who had an expression on his face that bordered on disbelief, eyeing the two of them with a look Belldandy couldn't quite place.

"Really?" Peorth exlaimed, " _C'est magnifique_! But then what happened to his wish?" she inquired.

"Well..." Belldandy hesitated. "...He gave it to me!"

" _Mon dieu!"_ Peorth brought a hand to her mouth in shock. " _Monsieur_ Morisato gave you his wish?" she looked at Keiichi. Keiichi's smile was tight and strained. _"_ _Peut-être est-ce pourquoi..._ "

"I'm sorry?" Peorth looked back at Belldandy. Belldandy smiled an apology. "Please excuse me, my current language core only accounts for Japanese and American English."

"Ahhh... _je vois, je vois."_ It didn't seem to stop Peorth from using French, though. _Pardonne-moi,_ my last client was in Verona. Beautiful country. I must visit there more often." She paused, looking thoughtful. "But as I was saying, perhaps that explains why I am here." The smile that spread out across her face was large. "You see Belldandy-dear, I'm here to grant _Monsieur_ Morisatoa wish!"

"...You're what." Belldandy's voice fell flat.

"Oh, _oui, oui!"_ Peorth nodded, a large, brilliant smile on her face. "You did not know?" she inquired. "There is a backlog at the Goddess Relief Office due to understaff, and they have requested the Earth Help Center's assistance in clearing their cases. _Monsieur_ Morisato's case file was still open and displayed as requiring a wish, and so it fell upon me to descend and grant his heart's desire."

"I don't want it," Keiichi said flatly.

Peorth spoke over him. " _Et de penser_ , he is a man who not only has already had one wish, but e _n résidence avec_ the goddess that so granted his wish. And to think that goddess was _you!"_ There was an edge to her voice, one that made Belldandy bristle. The air grew heavy with unveiled tension, and then Keiichi spoke up.

"So, you... two... know each other." His eyes darted between the two of them, his expression unreadable. "How about we go to the living room and talk about this further."

" _Une merveilleuse idée, Monsieur_ Morisato!" Peorth exclaimed.

"Please speak English," Keiichi requested. "I'm a dumb SEAL who barely passed his first and only semester of French. I don't understand half of what you're saying.

"Yes, of course!" Peorth said. She missed Belldandy's scowl.

Together, the trio moved from the kitchen to the living room. "Have a seat." Keiichi gestured to the red recliner with its matching flora pattern, and then took a seat on The Ugly Beast. Belldandy joined him. "So you two... work together?" He looked from one goddess to the next, taking in their body language and trying to read the messages both women were keeping from him. It was a skill he'd acquired in interrogation school, though the deployment he was supposed to attend following the course had been cancelled in lieu of a different mission. A part of him had been grateful. Rounding people up and interrogating them in the middle of the night wasn't something he'd ever wanted to add to his resume, though as a SEAL he knew it was something that could be required of him. Instead, he'd gone out to Iraq with his team working in a coalition of Iraqi, Kurdish, and American Forces against the rising Islamic State threat in the region. That had been a couple of years after Syria had gone to hell. It had been surprising in how useful his new skills were at reading through lies, and on several occasions his eyes had picked up what his ears had missed: nervous fiddling, limbs crossed, the movement of their eyes as men were asked to recall events.

Now he started applying that skill to the two women in front of him. Something about Peorth's tone and the way she addressed Belldandy had sent off some sixth sense of warning in his head, and though the new deity had a large smile on her face, it fell short of her eyes. Belldandy's too, when he glanced her way. Co-workers maybe, but not friends per se.

" _Non-_ _excusez-moi_ , no, we do not. In fact, we work for rival organizations," Peorth said, "though we were both acolytes under the same branch. We even received our First-Class, Unlimited Licenses together." She paused, then narrowed her eyes, staring at Keiichi with scrutiny. "Has Belldandy spoken of that with you? On what that means?" She leaned forward _(aggression or dominance)_ and clenched her hands together above her breast ( _frustration or irritation)_ and near her lips _(possible secret or reluctance to speak)._

"She's told me enough to follow," Keiichi replied, and watched as Peorth crossed her legs, leaning away from the two on the couch and angling herself more towards the hallway. _Probably doesn't agree with Bell telling me about the 'secrets of the universe',_ he thought. _But there's more to it. That condescending tone, how she speaks to Bell, there's a lot more going on than just that. At least on Peorth's side, there's some kind of bad blood going on._ He sighed inwardly. _Great. 'Mean Girls Two: Deity Drama', now showing in a theater near you._ "So you're working for a rival organization. Okay, got it. And for whatever reason those two organizations are now... you said working together?"

"Yes." Peorth nodded. "The rivalry is not so big as to ignore the plights of our clients, and so we were willing to put our differences aside for the benefit of those who have earned Heaven's Grace."

"And my... case file was still open." Case file. He hated that word. It reminded him of the investigators who'd question Aiko after she was raped. Not a person but a case file. A number in a book.

"Indeed." Peorth nodded.

"Okay, I'm still tracking." He looked between the two of them, his eyes lingering on Belldandy, _feel free to jump in any time._ "And now you know that I've already gotten a wish, right?"

"O _ui-_ yes." Peorth corrected herself. "And you... _gave it away_." That disdainful tone again. "Because maybe you did not actually fulfil the requirements of the wish or some other reason, your case file is still open, and so I have been assigned to take over and ensure you acquire your heart's desire."

"Heart's desire, huh?" Keiichi grunted. "And you couldn't just go home and close out the case on something like a bug in the system? I had my wish, and my heart's desire was to give it to Belldandy, who I felt would benefit from it more than me."

Peorth laughed. To Keiichi it sounded fake. "No! Silly man, that is not how it works! The System Force is what dictates who should receive a wish and allows us to populate our systems. If your case file has not been closed out than it is beyond our means. We cannot simply return and say that there was a 'bug' in the system, it is not Yggdrasil! If I leave now than another goddess will appear in my stead, and if she is sent back without fulfilling your heart's desire, than another shall eventually take her place, and another, and another still until you succumb and speak your heart."

"Okay, still tracking." Keiichi nodded slowly. "I'll make my wish then." He ignored the sharp look Belldandy sent his way. "I wish for a gold-plated toilet seat."

Nothing happened.

Beside him Belldandy snorted and looked away, trying to contain her laughter. Peorth stared at him aghast. "What?" He asked. "What red-blooded American _doesn't_ want a gold plated toilet seat?" He paused and looked thoughtful. "Actually... can I make it a two-fer? A gold plated toilet seat and maybe some gold foil toilet paper to wipe my as-"

A resounding _SMACK_ echoed through the living room.

Peorth sucked in a deep, soothing breath and released it slowly. "Now then..." Keiichi clutched his reddening cheek, staring at the goddess in shock. "...I hope you will take this more seriously!"

"Did you just-" Keiichi rubbed his cheek, not so much hurt as shocked.

He almost missed Belldandy's words, whispered with such venom it was startling. "This _bitch_." The goddess rose to her feet at once, and Keiichi, too shocked over the fact that a woman-hell, a _goddess-_ had actually _slapped_ him, did nothing to stop her. A livid rage lit Belldandy's eyes, and the Norn sprang on the other goddess.

Right as the television turned on in a hail of loud static. A woman, her face masked in a wave of wet, black hair, appeared on screen, crawled _through_ the screen like something out of a horror film, and crawled on all fours towards them, scuttling like a crab across the living room before leaping on Belldandy. Peorth screamed. Keiichi screamed. Belldandy stared comically at the strange entity with large, blue eyes.

The TV horror collided with the Norn leaping for the goddess's throat, and Belldandy and the television woman vanished as the television went off.

Peorth fell off the recliner, staring with wide eyes at the spot where both Belldandy and the entity from the television had vanished. "What-what-" there was a puddle of murky black water on the floor. It smelled like a swamp.

"What the fuck just happened?!" Keiichi screamed.

The television popped back to life in another rage of white noise, and then a high screech emerged from the television speakers as once more the wraith appeared on screen. A fresh chorus of screams emerged from the last remaining survivors of the Morisato household, and Peorth threw herself at Keiichi. " _Kill it!"_ she shrieked, wrapping her arms around him and clinging to the SEAL for dear life. The creature began to once more crawl out of the television. _"Kill it with fire!"_

Keiichi, a man who'd experienced all kinds of horrors in the past several months thanks to the Norns dwelling in his house, continued to scream. If it took out Belldandy without so little as a 'how you may' than what fucking hope did _he_ have of killing the monster?

The television woman, dressed in sopping wet clothes and covered in some kind of duckweed, climbed to her feet in a slow, graceful manner that defied human capability. Her face was obscured by dark, black hair that fell level with her waist, and in it intermingled was black tar and muddy water that left dirty puddles on the floor. The woman's neck cracked-first to the left, then to the right-and then the woman meandered towards them in shoes that squelched with each wet step.

Peorth and Keiichi screamed louder.

The woman from the television proceeded to ignore the both of them, moving out of the living room and into the hallway, where she then made her way up the stairs.

The threat of their imminent death departing for what sounded like the second floor bathroom, Keiichi and Peorth were left sitting on the floor, trembling and shell shocked, clutching each other, surrounded by a large puddle of water as they basked in the afterglow of a television's white noise.

"Am I dead?" Keiichi asked. "I-I saw-there was a movie... cursed videos, I'm cursed, I'm gonna die, it took Belldandy and I'm gonna die, oh god, oh Christ on a cracker, I'm gonna die from a woman in a television, oh god..." He sounded close to weeping.

Peorth bolted away from Keiichi as though he had the plague and laughed nervously. "The-that wasn't a-n-no, it couldn't be." Shaking, she climbed to her feet, leaving Keiichi in his shell-shocked state on the floor. "I-I..." At a loss of what to say, the woman took a tentative step out of the living room. She released another nervous laugh, then headed to the first floor bathroom, hoping to wash away whatever evils the strange malignant presence had brought with it into the house.

The goddess moved into the dark bathroom and snapped on the lights, stumbled over to the bathroom sink, and proceeded to stick her head under the faucet. The water came as a cool relief, and regaining a bit of her composure, the woman straightened and looked into the mirror.

And straight into the haunted, wrathful gaze of another malignant entity.

Peorth screamed bloody murder and ran out of the bathroom without a second thought, leaving Belldandy, wet, covered in swamp scum, and smelling like an outhouse, to climb out of the mirror that was her medium and into the bathroom. Her legs were still shaking. It was difficult to stand. She burped and tasted duckweed and muddy water, and made it to the toilet just in time to rid her stomach of the combined contents. With a groan that sounded more like a croak, the goddess turned on the bathtub faucet and crawled inside, clothes and all. "I'm going to kill Urd for this," she moaned.

Peorth ran out of the house screaming into the night. It'd be hours before, bound by contract to fulfill the wish of a cursed mortal who claimed his heart's desire was a gold plated toilet seat, that she reluctantly returned.

XXX

Forty-five minutes later and feeling a bit more like herself, Urd trotted down the stairs in a fresh t-shirt and shorts, her hair still wet but no longer black with dirt and smelling of a swamp.

Keiichi hadn't moved from his spot. He was still staring blankly at the screen while the puddles of swamp water began to dry around him, soiling the polished wood with its pollutants. Belldandy, still recovering from her own dip in the swamp, was still in the bathroom trying to rid the last of the duckweed from her hair, and Urd could hear the shower faucet running from the back hallway. Urd headed towards Keiichi, a slight frown on her face as she took note of him staring at the television screen, and with a flick of magic turned it off. Keiichi started badly at that, releasing a harsh, coarse yelp that startled Urd as well.

"Wow, Jank? You okay?"

Keiichi wheeled to face her with such speed and force it knocked him over. " _It's gonna kill me!"_ He cried. "Oh god Urd, _do something!_ Don't let it come back for me!"

Urd's silver brows shot up in first surprise, then confusion. "Wow, let's slow down a minute here," she said, raising her hands and keeping her voice calm. "What's going on, what happened?"

"Th-the thing and the TV and Peorth and it took Belldandy and-" The man fell into a fit of hysteric babbling, and frowning Urd kneeled down before Keiichi, brows furrowed as she tried to understand what he was saying. " _It took Belldandy!"_ He exclaimed in a broken voice, and Urd winced, realizing what he was talking about.

"Oh Yggdrasil," Urd muttered. "Jank, Keiichi it's okay, it's okay!" she soothed, and then took it a step further by sitting down beside him on the dirty floor and wrapping her arms around him in a comforting hug. "It's alright! Calm down, okay?" He didn't fight her off, and she could feel him trembling against her. "Tehome's depths, everything is okay, everything is fine. Belldandy is fine. She's in bathroom taking a shower, okay?"

"She-she," Keiichi stuttered and looked up at her. The terror in his eyes hurt.

 _Like staring into the eyes of a wounded puppy._ Urd thought, and felt her heart lurch with guilt. "She's fine, Jank. That was—" She bit her lip, staring at the television. He'd seen that? He'd been there? Urd hadn't even noticed him in her efforts at getting Belldandy back for ditching her in a swamp. The goddess sighed. "Jank, that was _me_ ," she confessed. "You made us all freak out over the phone. Belldandy went to your rescue, and she sent me and the truck catering off into the swamp. I had to crawl out of that nasty shit covered in moss and mildew and find a beat-up television someone was throwing out as a medium to get back home."

All at once Keiichi went still against her. "Tha-that was _you?!"_ The man stared at her in disbelief.

Urd tried to smile and failed. It came out a grimace. "Yeah... Belldandy pissed me off mightily," she said. "I didn't know you were here. I guess you could say I had tunnel vision."

For a moment longer Keiichi stared at her in disbelief. "Then Bell-"

"Is in the bathroom washing up because I decided to pay her back for my little swim in the muck," Urd said. "The nearest medium she could use is currently resting at the bottom of a swamp. Don't worry, we'll get it out and clean it up for you." By which Urd meant _Belldandy_ would get it out and clean it up and make sure the truck still worked properly. Maybe then she'd come to understand the dangers of simply _ditching_ her sister in a truck _going fifty down a highway._

Keiichi barked with disbelieving laughter. "That was-Belldandy is-" Another bark of laugher, this one relieved, came from the man, and Urd sensed some of his fear leave him. "Urd, you absolute _cunt!_ " He cried, and wrapped his arms around her, returning the Norn's embrace. "God fucking damn, you scared the ever-loving _shit_ out of me you crazy bitch!"

Urd joined him in laughter. "Yeah, I probably deserve that," she reasoned, and earned another burst of relieved laughter from the man. "Sorry about that, Jank. I've gotten better control over my temper over the years, but sometimes it still gets the better of me." Feeling a bit more at ease now that she knew Keiichi was okay and that he wasn't upset with her, the goddess leaned back against the base of the couch, still arm-in-arm with the SEAL at her side.

"Thank fucking god," she heard Keiichi mutter, and the man leaned into her, resting his head against her breasts as he took a deep breath. "Christ, I thought I was gonna fucking die, Sheila." It'd been a while since he'd called her by her nickname. The man had stopped using it around Belldandy, and for whatever reason the use of the silly name made Urd feel warm. She rested her chin on top of his head, sighing to herself as a small piece of her listened to the shower down the hallway. "I think you even managed to scare that Peorth-chick out of the house."

Urd looked down at Keiichi, eyeing the man in confusion. "Who now?"

The man grunted and tilted his head, looking her in the eyes. "Pe-"

All at once both parties went rigid. In such a close proximity to each other, piled up against each other and, heaven forbid, practically _cuddling,_ they realized the position they were both in.

Urd heard the shower turn off.

And with her face darkening to a deep-sated red, Urd vanished from sight, leaving Keiichi staring at nothing but a dirty floor in his living room.

"Fuck," Keiichi swore.

XXX

"Ah, so I see _Mademoiselle_ Urd is here as well." It was very late in the evening when Peorth reluctantly dragged herself back to the house. It was hard to say who was actually happy about it. No one seemed to be in high spirits that evening, especially after Urd's return and Belldandy's inpromptu bath in a swamp.

The woman in question grunted but said nothing, her arms crossed from where she sat at the dining room table with the others. " _Monsieur_ Morisato-"

" _English,_ Peorth." Keiichi growled. The man was sitting across from Belldandy, with Peorth on one side of him and Urd on the other. His fingers drummed irritably on the table.

Peorth sighed in exaggeration. " _Mister_ Morisato neglected to tell me he had _two_ goddesses sharing his roof."

"Give or take a couple more depending on the day," the man muttered under his breath. Peorth raised a slim brow but did not ask for elaboration.

"Yep," Urd agreed. "Two goddess, almost narrowed to one goddess." She sent a look to Belldandy. Belldandy returned it with a scowl of her own. "But _currently_ two before _some_ one ends up committing fratricide."

"It was an accident," Belldandy grumbled.

"I'm sorry, do I look like Jesus to you?" Urd asked. "Does Keiichi have a sticker on his dash that says 'Jesus is my copilot?' Because I seem to have fond memories of you saying, 'Jesus, take the wheel' and bailing on me through a goddamned mirror."

"Was this before or after your attempts at drowning me in a swamp bed where only Uhlanga could have found my body?" Belldandy snapped.

Peorth and Keiichi looked between the two sisters and then back to each other. Keiichi, ever so slightly, shook his head. Peorth, in an act just as slight, nodded in agreement.

"Let's...return to the matter at hand," Peorth said slowly. She looked uncomfortable. Keiichi, who'd never seen Belldandy and Urd so upset at each other before, felt the same way. "Mister Morisato still has a wish that is open and up for review, and contrary to his more popular opinion," she glared at Keiichi this time. "It is _not_ a gold plated toilet seat that his heart truly desires."

"Really." Keiichi's eyes widened in false shock. "Well you could have fooled me! When did you figure this out? When we were both screaming bloody murder?"

Peorth sighed. " _Je devrais t'entendre comme un cochon,"_ she muttered under her breath.

"What was that?" Belldandy glared at the goddess.

"Nothing," replied Peorth with a dismissive wave before returning her attention to Keiichi.

The pair stared at each other for a moment. "So, if you know that I don't want a gold plated toilet seat, then what is my heart's desire?"

Peorth furrowed her brows in anger as she shook her head. " _Non non non non_. This is not how it works! While I know what is in your heart, it's not like I have a copy of your wish list ready for me to reference on a moment's notice!"

Keiichi turned to Belldandy for help, only to see the brunette goddess sigh and nod in agreement. "It is true. We can only tell in the vaguest terms what a client desires, which is helpful in determining when they are being untruthful about their wish."

The Navy SEAL dwelt on this for a moment. Remembering again his interrogation training, he realized that Peorth, on a deeper and much more mystical level, was doing the same to him that he was doing to her. However, unlike a human, who with practice can learn to hide the little tells that they were trained to pick up, there was nothing he could do to hide it from the new goddess. But what of Belldandy? She used to have the same job as Peorth. Did she retain those abilities as well? "Can you tell what's in my heart?" he asked the brunette goddess.

"Um, not directly, not anymore," replied Belldandy as she fidgeted and poked her two index fingers together. "I can tell you what I am hoping is there..." she offered with a smile.

Peorth watched the exchange with an inquisitive demeanor. "Oh ho ho! From beyond the pale I am receiving a vibe." She smiled triumphantly at the others assembled. "Is it that you, Mister Keiichi, are living with two beautiful goddess traipsing through your lovely yet humble abode, and _vous n'avez pas eu de relations sexuelles avec l'un ou l'autre?_ "

"English, Peorth!" Exclaimed Keiichi.

"She said that you haven't had sex with Belldandy yet!" Exclaimed Urd in exasperation.

Peorth stared at Urd for a moment. The silver haired goddess met her eyes with a glare of her own, as if daring the dark haired goddess to contradict her. After a moment, she returned her attention to Keiichi. "Yes, let's go with that, shall we? You, Mister Keiichi, desire carnal relations with _Belldandy."_ She paused to take in the brunette goddess's reaction, which was a mixture of terror and pure venom before continuing. "But, alas, due to whatever trauma was bestowed upon the poor goddess, she is unable to reciprocate." Another quick glance at Belldandy, who looked ready to explode, much to the short haired goddess's delight. "So that, I believe, is why I am here: to satisfy your carnal desires!"

Belldandy launched herself over the table at Peorth, but was intercepted by Urd before she could make it half-way through her vault. "Nope, not this time, no fighting in the house." She picked up the enraged goddess and deposited her back in her chair. Urd then towered over her sister, who rose again, only to be roughly shoved back down in her seat. The two engaged in a staring match for a moment before the blue eyed goddess relented. Satisfied, Urd returned to her spot.

The incident past, Keiichi looked back to Peorth, whose eyes never wavered from him. "Carnal desires, huh? So basically, you have come all this way just to have sex?" He crossed his arms across his chest. "Peorth, if I wanted that, I would have just picked up a frog hog from a bar in Norfolk!"

"Keiichi!" screamed Belldandy. Beside her Urd burst out in huge, whooping laughter that almost knocked her from her seat.

The man looked at her and shrugged. "What?" he asked, then turned back to Peorth. "I don't need to have a one night stand with a goddess like some dipshit at a bar to feel fulfilled. I ain't some horny kid fresh out of boot camp looking to score with a hot babe. For fuck's sake, I was fucking _married_ , alright? You know how much sex I had to look forward to on a weekly basis?" Belldandy's face darkened in a blush, and Peorth leaned forward in interest. Keiichi raised his thumb and index finger in a circle. "I'd be hit on by the folks swinging left field on deployments more than I'd get it on in the bedroom some months. You honestly think I give two shits about sex? Get the fuck out of here."

"I believe that was... a bit too much information for one night." Belldandy muttered, covering her eyes with one hand as the flush worked its way up to her ears, turning them a bright pink. Urd erupted into a fresh shriek of laughter.

"Hmm." Peorth looked skeptical. Her eyes darted from Belldandy to Keiichi and finally to Urd, who was starting to calm herself down from her laughing fit. "Perhaps," she said. "Yet I remain unconvinced. My senses speak of a lust unfulfilled, and I, a goddess first-class, am never wrong." She narrowed her eyes at them, then shrugged. "Yet I suppose we have time to argue this further. I cannot leave until I have granted your wish, _Monsieur_ , and until you confess to me your true heart's desire, I shall remain here. Another goddess to add to your... collection."

"The hell you say!" screamed Belldandy as she stood once again, slamming her hands on the table.

"Tsk tsk, Belldandy dear." Peorth's voice was dripping with condescension. "You of all people should know that I cannot leave until the contract is concluded." She leered at Keiichi and smiled as she said, "Or consummated."

Belldandy turned to the dark haired man. "Keiichi, I demand that you wish to have sex with me this instant!"

The silence that followed permeated the room. It reminded Keiichi of that split second a grenade is dropped into a room and everyone looks dumbly at it before their training kicked it. Peorth stared at the goddess with a look of shock. Urd just stared wide-eyed at the brunette goddess, and Keiichi's mouth hung open in shock. After what seemed like forever, but was actually just over a minute, the Navy SEAL cleared his throat. "Um, can we talk about this? Alone?"

Belldandy simply stared at him as she nodded. Standing from his seat, he and the goddess stepped to the sliding glass door to the back porch and slipped outside. When the couple were safely outside, Urd turned to the black haired goddess. The look of shock on the rival goddess's face was beginning to transform into a smug look of victory. "Peorth, I know what you _think_ is going on here, but leave me out of it. It's Belldandy and Keiichi."

Peorth conjured a rose, sniffed the flower, then twirled it absentmindedly in her hand. "Awfully defensive about that, aren't we?"

Urd said nothing.

The goddess smirked, bringing the rose up to hide her lips. It was a teasing gesture. A tantalizing gesture. Sensual. _Sexual._ One designed to hide certain aspects of the face and leave the imagination to fill in the blanks. Urd knew that tactic well, was guilty of using it herself in her time before meeting SEAL Team 12, and watched as Peorth narrowed her eyes as she looked the silver haired goddess up and down. Analyzing her. "You see, you _say_ that-that it is all about _Monsieur_ Keiichi and Belldandy, but you do not mean it. You can lie, cheat, and talk your way around it, but I see you. I see you very well. And as a goddess of love, just as myself-despite how... _lacking_ you are in terms of such a title-you know just as well as I that you cannot hide what dwells within your heart." The woman's eyes sparkled, yet were not malignant. No, Urd admitted, they were not malignant, no matter how much the Norn wished they were.

Instead what dwelt within Goddess First-Class, Second Category Unlimited Peorth's eyes was pity, and in that moment Urd hated her for that. "You've been in love with him for a long time, haven't you?" she asked. "How long have you been hiding your feelings for him?"

XXX

Keiichi took a slow, deep breath of the late evening air. "Okay," he said on the exhale, and turned to Belldandy. "What the hell was that?"

Belldandy bit her lip. "I'm sorry!" She blurted out. "I-she-I don't know what came over me! She just-I-I'm sorry!" The woman was still red in the face from Peorth's attempts to antagonize her. "She just-just-"

"Breath, Belldandy." Keiichi took another deep breath. Virginia's nights had heated up into the low seventies now, even at close to ten thirty at night. _Don't get mad,_ he reminded himself. _It's like McGuinness used to say: it's all a game, and whoever raises their voice first loses. Treat it just like a conversation you'd have with one of your sailors, Jank. Keep it calm._ "It sounds like Peorth is good at getting under your skin."

Belldandy visibly flinched. "I-" She stopped herself, then took a long, deep breath and focused on a wind chime that dangled near the patio steps. Keiichi gave her time to gather herself, and when she tried again the goddess sounded a bit calmer. "Peorth and I... we have known each other for many, many years," she confessed. "Acolytes... I do not believe I have explained that to you, have I?"

Keiichi shook his head. Belldandy grimaced and looked down. "They are... students, usually. Students under a set master for a specific trade. We-deities-serve under a variety of masters in our youth before choosing our profession, and with each new master there are fewer and fewer acolytes. Peorth and I were... different, I suppose you could say. We'd served under the same masters for _years_ growing up. We would reach our goals side by side, and whenever we were assigned a new master, somehow, by coincidence or intent, we would always find ourselves amidst each other's company. From childhood all the way to adulthood and straight into license categorization."

She paused and scowled. "Peorth was always the type of person who easily made friends," Belldandy admitted. "I had some... difficulties. My family's reputation preceded me, and not always in a positive light. My father was a… politician, and before that a high-ranking officer in our military. My mother was a Valkyrie not yet retired. Urd was-" Again she paused and thought for a moment. "Urd was... feared, to an extent, because of her own mother's history. People avoided me. They thought I was intimidating. But because Peorth and I grew up together, and because it was so much more easy for her to make friends then me-"

"She was your avenue to the 'in' crowd," Keiichi guessed.

Belldandy stared at him in confusion. "I... suppose?" She said, unfamiliar with the term of address. "But... Peorth is not without her own faults. Our time together meant we knew a great deal about each other, and she would often tease me in front of other acolytes." In a lower voice she muttered, "I couldn't stand it."

Keiichi nodded but held his silence. It sounded close enough like standard childhood drama and bullying to him. One friend with the 'in' crowd and one in the 'out' crowd who doesn't want to be excluded. Spice it up with keeping in touch all the way to adulthood and badda bing badda boom, toxic friendships for everyone. One person who keeps taking advantage of the other and another who doesn't want to acknowledge it because of their shared history. _Add to that the trauma Bell's recovering from and her own personality, and ohh baby how much salt you want in those wounds?_

"Okay, got it." Keiichi nodded. "So, I think we're in agreement that Peorth needs to go." Belldandy nodded. Pehaps with more enthusiasm than she realized. "But that does _not_ mean making demands for sex."

Again Belldandy winced. "That was-"

"Said in the heat of the moment, I know." Keiichi nodded in understanding. "But that brings up an issue in and of itself. We don't make demands of each other, Belldandy."

The goddess opened her mouth to argue, and Keiichi raised his hand. "Hear me out," he said. "I know you've gone through some shit in the past ten years and I know that you're a goddess. I understand that maybe I'm 'just some mortal' who you'll probably outlive in half a century anyway-maybe less if I'm KIA." He paused, his expression firm. "But that doesn't mean you make demands of me. Not in public. Not in private." He pursed his lips. "I want to have a relationship with you, Belldandy. I really do. I'm not just saying that because you took my wish and asked to stay with me or because some 'mysterious system force power' decided we needed to hook up or whatever. But if you want to have a relationship with me, Bell, then it needs to be on equal footing. Neither of us can go off making demands of the other-I don't care if it's food, chores, possessions, _or_ sex. It can't happen." He paused, debating with himself before speaking again. "You know what happens when people start making demands. I don't want that."

The words struck a chord in the goddess. Keiichi could see it in her face. For a moment she looked both sad and angry all at once, and then scared and vulnerable in the next instant. The corner of her lips trembled, and the goddess squeezed her eyes shut and clenched her fists, sucking in a long draw of breath. "I understand," she said at length. "I-I understand. That was...Keiichi, I'm sorry! I-I don't know-"

He could see it had caused her a good amount of distress. Hell, he'd _expected_ it to. The words were an ugly truth that needed to be addressed sooner rather than later, and the regret on Belldandy's face told him more than enough. "Hey, you're good," he soothed. "It wasn't intentional." He stepped forward and placed his hands on the Norn's shoulders, rubbing his palms up and down her arms. "I understand that. I still love you. I still think we need to get Peorth out of the house." He paused for a moment. "...but I don't think me using this wish for sex with you is how we get her to go. We'll find some other way, okay?" He drew her into a hug and felt Belldandy's arms slip around his waist. "We'll figure this out-you, me, and Urd-and then go from there. Sound good?"

He felt Belldandy sigh against his shoulder before nodding. "Yes," she said. "I'm sorry again, Keiichi. That was... that was wrong." She pulled back, staring at him with a deep frown.

Keiichi shrugged it off. "Don't be sorry. Just don't let it happen again, alright?" He smiled at her, and when Belldandy returned it with a small one of her own, the SEAL leaned forward and kissed her on the lips. When he finished he was treated to Belldandy's wide-eyed, startled expression once more.

Keiichi smiled. "Now let's head inside," he advised. "I don't think we're going to get anything else accomplished tonight, and I still have work in the morning. Think you can reign in your temper for me while we figure out sleeping arrangements? Something tells me Peorth ain't the type of girl who'll sleep on a couch."

And Belldandy broke into a smile. That special, warm smile Keiichi only saw when the two of them were alone. That smile that made him fall in love with her all over again with a single look. "For you Keiichi?" Belldandy said, "Anything."

* * *

 **A/N: Yeah! Bell, Urd, and Keiichi are back. And so is the drama! For those at the Goddess Relief Office, if you guessed Peorth, you were right! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Trust me when I say this: Peorth is just getting warmed up.  **

* * *

_Comments of a Madwoman: And so a fresh madness descends upon the household. Interesting how Belldandy, after ten years of use and abuse, handles this new antagonist...Also, to any French speakers out there, forgive me for any fuckups in Peorth's dialogue. My experience with French is a grand total of Google Translate._


	25. Chapter 25 - La Cinquième Déesse

-25-

Like any other weekday morning, an annoying, high-pitched beeping drifted down from the upper area. Inside the master bedroom, a hand reached out from under the covers of a queen-sized bed and turned off the offending alarm clock, which sat upon a small bedside table with two drawers. Gone was the TV tray that once served that purpose for so long. It was relegated to a corner in the dining room with its siblings, ready and waiting to be used for their intended purpose.

It had been over a month since a pair of goddesses came to live with Keiichi, and much had changed in that time. The biggest was the simple fact that his humble abode had become a home more than a place to shack up in. Real, actual furniture had replaced the folding chairs and TV trays that had sat around the sparsely furnished house. Even pictures had started to pop up, with several art pieces hanging in various places around his room and down the hall. His personal favorite was the wall of pictures he was accumulating that highlighted the memories he was making with Belldandy and Urd.

While it had been hectic and chaotic in the first few weeks, everyone had fallen into a comfortable routine. Keiichi would get up, shower and get dressed. There was no more traipsing through the house in nothing but a towel anymore. Too many other eyes could see. After putting on the uniform of the day, he would make his appearance in the dining room where Belldandy would greet him with a smile and a nicely prepared breakfast. They would dine together, chatting about the day and sometimes being joined by Urd who did not adhere as closely to 'the schedule' as he and the blue-eyed goddess did.

As Keiichi buttoned up the blouse of his desert camo working uniform, he thought of the interloper who had appeared the evening before. Peorth had Belldandy all out of sorts due to her getting the idea that she needed to fulfill his 'carnal needs'. He stopped to think about that for a moment. Sure, he would love to get it on with Belldandy, but it had to be the right time and under the right circumstances and certainly not forced like Peorth was keen on doing. There was a time and place for everything, afterall. Just not right now. Not like _that_.

After he and Belldandy had discussed it, they returned to find Urd and Peorth in a staring contest. Neither one seemed ready to tell him what they had been discussing, so he let it drop and told everyone to go to bed. Peorth had taken that opportunity to invite herself into his bed, but Belldandy was having none of it. She insisted that the new goddess would sleep with her so that she could 'keep an eye on her.' A small part of Keiichi was actually grateful for that. He'd had his fair share of 'pushy' women in the past, and though he didn't want to make the comparison, there was something a teeny-tiny bit... rapey about Peorth.

Satisfied that he had everything squared away, Keiichi stepped out into the hall and headed towards the lower areas. The pleasant smells of someone cooking tickled his nose, and he stepped down off the last step, eager to see what Belldandy had cooked for him today.

" _Ooh la la, Monsieur Keiichi,_ you are looking quite sexy in that uniform of yours."

 _Not Belldandy,_ he thought to himself. _Fool me once..._ Something deep inside of him had known this was coming. "Thank you, Peorth," he said in exasperation as he turned to the dining room. Where's B-" The name was caught in his throat when he saw what was on the table. All manner of breakfast foods were laid out in front of him. There were pancakes and waffles and sausages and muffins and-was that miso soup? Why the fuck-what the fuck- _fuck!_

"Where's Belldandy?" repeated Peorth. "Oh, she's still asleep. She had this odd impression that if she did not watch me all night, that I might sneak away and get in your bed." Keiichi could not yet see the black haired goddess because the spread of food on the table was so massive. "She never could last all night like I can."

When the black haired goddess finally stepped out, Keiichi's eyes nearly bugged out of their sockets. Instead of the outfit she was wearing last night, she was wearing nothing more than a cooking apron. It was just barely long enough to not expose her womanhood for all to see. The same could not be said about the top, which was straining to contain Peorth's busty chest. He thought he caught a touch of nipple, bit that could have been his mind playing tricks on him. Keiichi felt his arousal start to come up, so he turned to remove himself from the situation, preparing to head back upstairs.

Unfortunately, he seemed to be rooted in his spot. " _Non non non_ , you will not escape me, _Monsieur Keiichi._ Not when you have a true love goddess here to satisfy your every need!" The goddess sauntered towards him, hips swaying with every slow, sensual step. The apron danced and swayed across her waist, teasing quick glances of her vulva.

Keiichi immediately averted his eyes, focusing on the woman's face. "Let me go, Peorth," he said, and once more tried to move. His feet remained rooted to the spot as though someone had dropped a pallet on them, but he was at least able to maintain movement from his waist up. "I have work and I don't have time to deal with your shit."

The woman laughed. " _Non non_." She wagged a finger at him. "There is no reason to rush! Americans are always rushing back and forth as though there are so few hours in the day. You must relax, _Monsieur._ Take some time for yourself." A red flower appeared in her hand. "Stop and smell the roses."

"Peorth, I will give you one warning," Keiichi said. "Don't fucking touch me or I will throw you out of this house so fucking fast your head will spin," he growled. Peorth was making him uncomfortable, but he hid it behind is rising anger.

"Oh?" The goddess paused and looked at him in surprise. "Whatever am I doing to you though?" She asked. "I am merely providing you a nice filling breakfast, since you seem in such a rush to run off to your work. Breakfast with a view, if you will," she said with a wiggle of her chest, causing her breasts to jiggle back and forth. Peorth beckoned him forward with the hand not holding the rose, and his feet moved with a will of their own towards the chair she pulled out for him. His knees folded beneath him, and he plopped heavily into the chair.

"There we are. Comfortable, _non_?" Peorth leaned forward over the table, grabbing a plate and loading it with a stack of pancakes. The angle provided Keiichi an unrestricted view of her apple shaped bottom and the valley between the cheeks, and gritting his teeth the SEAL looked to the ceiling, trying to contain his temper. Humming to herself, the goddess placed the stack of pancakes in front of him, and the woman's face appeared over Keiichi. She leered at him. "Would you like me to butter you up?" She asked, smiling suggestively. Keiichi bit back a groan. "... Or, if you like _mon cher_ , I can add something oozy and sticky."

"I would like," Keiichi said through grit teeth, "for you to let me go so I can get ready for work."

"But you cannot leave for work on an empty stomach!" Peorth scolded. "You should at least suckle my melons before you depart." Keiichi's eyes boggled, and flew to the woman's chest, only to find Peorth grabbing a plate with several slices of honeydew melon instead. She leaned down and placed it in front of him, this time giving him a grand view of the mounds hanging tantalizingly from her chest. She stood back up and planted her hands on her hips, one hip protruding out just enough to send him a generous glance of the land down under. "Hmph." Keiichi leaned away from her. "Will you at least let me stuff your sausage in my buns?"

Keiichi twitched.

Peorth grabbed a sausage-something that looked closer to a large bratwurst than a typical breakfast sausage link, and held it up by one end. "Hmm... Perhaps a flavor test... I should ensure these are still hot and juicy... wouldn't want to stuff a bun with a cold and floppy wiener now, would we?" She winked at him, then tipped her head back with a toss of her hair, and put the tip into her mouth after tickling it with her tongue first. He watched her slip the entire breakfast sausage into her mouth and down her throat without chewing, and as the end vanished from sight, she glanced down at him and winked as she swallowed and smiled. "Tasty," Peorth said as she licked her fingers. "Hot and meaty, just as I like them." She paused for a moment, her gaze moving to something behind him before returning her attention to the SEAL.

"I bet Belldandy has to cut hers."

 _I'm trapped in a porno._ Keiichi thought to himself. _Oh god someone help me._ And so of course his prayers were answered as Belldandy stalked up behind the man absolutely livid.

"Peorth, you... you..." Keiichi could _feel_ the rage radiating off the goddess, bright and hot like a furnace, and instinctively balled himself up into as small a ball as his frame would allow. "You  &#$%!" The curse came out in that strange language Keiichi could never understand, and then a roar-not a scream but a goddamned _roar_ , like a fucking lion, arose from the Norn at his back. Peorth's eyes widened, first in a shock- _did she just insult me?_ Then in terror- _oh shit_. With a yelp the woman cantered away from Keiichi, and as she wheeled to run off Keiichi caught another flash of creamy buttocks.

Belldandy stormed forward with a growl, "You scurvy shit stack!" she snarled. "You cock spunk bubble! You lascivious, dog-fucking whore!" She grabbed a knife from the table-not a butter knife, but one of the large steak knives that rested near the plate of sausages and other assorted breakfast meats. "I'm going to shove my fist up your ass to the elbow, and then I'm going to abort your intestines!" Knife in hand, she began to chase Peorth around the living room and through the kitchen, leaving Keiichi, whose legs still refused to obey him, to sit and stare in horror.

Keiichi moaned and let his head crash against the table next to his stack of pancakes. "The woman I'm in love with is going to murder her high school BFF right in front of me, and I'm going to be late for work with no alibi," he sighed. "God damn, if I don't find fucking ad hoc deployment orders on my desk when I go to work, I'm gonna say 'fuck it' and shoot myself in the foot." He paused and thought about that course of action, then grimaced. "No, that means I won't be able to run away anymore. I'll just go AWOL instead." He wondered if McGuinness would let him sleep over at his place like his Commander had when Keiichi was going through his divorce. Let's see a bunch of goddesses try and pull this shit in front of his boss. Yeah, that'd probably go about as well as he'd expect; like a turd in a punch bowl.

"What the fuck?!" A new voice had joined the fray. Keiichi craned his neck around to see Urd standing in the doorway. Her disheveled state was a clear indicate that she had not come down to join them for breakfast, but instead had been woken up and came to investigate the ruckus caused by Peorth's screams of terror and Belldandy's vehement cursing.

Keiichi's pleading eyes met those of the silver haired goddess. "Urd, help me! Make them stop!" he begged. " _I just want to go to work!"_

" _Streuth!"_ Urd yelped, stumbling away from the Tom and Jerry-esque scene as Peorth ran by screaming, Belldandy slashing the air like Norman Bates after Marion Crane. "Son of a bitch, Belldandy is that a fucking _knife_?" Her accent was out in full force this morning, and the words came out as " _Son ova bitch, izzat a fuckin' knife?"_ The woman raced after her younger sister, joining the madness, becoming Spike the bulldog chasing Tom as he pursued Jerry around the house.

"God. Fucking. Damn it," Keiichi bit out, bobbing his head in frustration with each word. Experimentally, he put his hands on the edge of the table and pushed. To his surprise, the chair moved slightly on the hardwood floor. He looked up and watched as the train of madness circled the table once more, then shoved himself out and into their path at just the correct moment. Peorth barreled into him, then Belldandy, who lost control of the knife, sending it skittering across the floor.

When the last goddess slammed into the group, Peorth was vaulted over Keiichi as he fell backwards, landing on her head against the wall. Her apron, due to gravity, fell down and exposed her womanhood to the world. Urd ended up with her head resting between Keiichi's legs. Belldandy ended up pancaked on top of her, pushing her sister's head into his crotch. Keiichi did not have the ability to call out in pain as he was being smothered between Belldandy's breasts.

For the second time in as many days, the Navy SEAL tapped out.

XXX

"Welp... tha could'a gone bettah'." Urd breathed through clenched teeth. "Ya both're flippin Munchs.

Belldandy grunted. Peorth said nothing.

The three of them sat on the wooden stairs of the back porch. Keiichi, fed up, had kicked all three of them out of the house following Belldandy's stunt with a knife, to include Peorth, whom at the time had still been dressed in nothing aside from a short apron. She'd had the sense to change her outfit after the cool, early morning dew had met her bare feet, and was now dressed in a similar outfit from the night prior. The main change had been the addition of longer shorts to account for Virginia's moist climate.

"Tha wazza bitch move, Peorth."

"If I wanted your opinion Urd, I would have asked for it," Peorth snapped.

"Fair." Urd nodded and fell silent for another moment, then spoke again. "Tha' wazza bitch move, Belldandy."

"Don't start, Urd."

"Ya' came at 'er with a knife."

"It wouldn't have hurt her. It was made of weak Midgard Steel. That material can't even saw through paper."

"That's not how I saw it," Peorth muttered. She glared at Belldandy from where she sat on the other side of Urd, using the older woman as a barrier between herself and the middle Norn.

Belldandy scowled. "It wouldn't have hurt you," she repeated. "Trust me. I know."

The others lapsed into silence.

"Ya' could'a hurt Keiichi though." Urd tried again. She stopped herself and frowned, then spoke again in slow and deliberate manner. The accent that was so prominent began to die down. "Yah saw 'im-mate could barely move. Human flesh is weak. It's why they wear so much armor when entering a combat zone." She sighed. "Hell, one of his old diggers lost 'is toes because he stepped on an IED, and those are composed of nothing _but_ that 'weak, Midgard Steel' ya' ragging on."

Belldandy flinched and fell silent.

The sunrise came earlier with each passing day now, and with it the sky was already showing a bright pink in the sky. Birds began their early morning songs, and from inside the trio of goddesses listened as Keiichi clattered and clanged around the house. Belldandy winced. The anger radiating off the man inside was something all three of them could feel. Though she was loathe to admit it, she was glad to be outside with Urd and Peorth, even if Peorth had been the one to start the fiasco.

Urd tipped her head back and sighed. A small flock of sparrows flitted overhead, and nearby a crow cawed. "We'll go and get the truck out of the swamp today," she said. "Clean it up, maybe make a few additional repairs, change the oil, all that jazz."

"A peace offering?" Belldandy looked at her sister queerly.

Urd shrugged. "Can't hurt," she said. "Yestahday ended in a clusterfuck and today stahted as one. Poor cunt's spewen cat piss ovah what's happened past twelve hoah's."

"What?" Peorth stared at Urd in confusion.

"She mean's Keiichi is upset," Belldandy translated, then buried her face in her hands with a groan.

"Oi, I was speaking English!" Urd cried.

"Then it is of no English I am familiar with," Peorth muttered under her breath.

"What's that Swaggie?" Urd growled.

Belldandy sighed. "Annunciate, Urd," she said. Urd cast the glare she'd been holding with Peorth to Belldandy, only for it deflate as she saw how withdrawn the younger woman was.

The older Norn sighed. "Right, right," she grumbled and tried again. "We'll try and make it up to him regardless. That means all of us are on our best behavior." She sent a glare to Peorth. " _All_ of us."

Peorth huffed. "I don't need to listen to a _second class_ goddess," she reminded.

"You wanna have a blue?" Urd threatened. "We can go at it-soon as Keiichi leaves. You and me and Bell, and we can send you back to Asgard looking like a bushy dog that got her face rooted by a 'roo."

"I don't even know what that means," Peorth said, though she edged away from the goddess a tad, perhaps a bit more hesitant after Belldandy's wilder threats that morning.

"Stop, Urd," Belldandy muttered. "I'm tired of all this fighting. I just want things to calm down again and go back to the way they were." She listened as the garage door groaned open, then sighed with something akin to relief as the Harley's engines revved, roared, then began to fade away. "We'll get the truck later today and clean up the mess in the dining room," she decided. "Peorth, I'm going to warn you once: Unless it's to help, stay out of our way."

"And what should I do in the mean time?" Peorth demanded. "I am here to grant _Monsieur_ Keiichi's wish, not lie about like a derelict."

"I don't care, to be perfectly honest," Belldandy replied. "So long as you do not harass me, Keiichi, or Urd."

"And just where has _Monsieur_ Keiichi departed to?"

"Work," Belldandy replied. "Where he will be unavailable until he returns toni-"

"Shh." Urd hissed. "Neither of you fucking move." The woman's voice had dropped to a low octave, and Belldandy froze, staring at her sister with wide eyes. Peorth, whom Belldandy saw on the edge of her peripheral vision, was doing the same, but her gaze was cast outwards, dark eyes wide and nervous.

"What is _that_?" Peorth breathed, and Belldandy slowly turned her head to observe what had so caught the other deity's attention. Her eyes saw nothing at first, and at a second glance she understood why; the puma's tawny coat blended in well with the ground and its scattered shadows, and if not for its slow creep through the trees, Belldandy would have missed it entirely.

"Cougar," Urd muttered. "Think it might be one of the locals."

"A spirit?" Peorth asked.

"Higher spirit-one elevated to a position of godhood," Urd replied. "It's been snooping around a lot lately."

"What's it doing?" Peorth asked. The puma was stalking towards them, its belly low to the ground.

Belldandy recognized the body language at once. "Urd, it's going to-"

"Don't _move_ , Belldandy," Urd repeated. "Neither of you _fucking move."_ In a louder voice she addressed mountain lion. "Don't do it!" she snapped. "We see you in our territory. You'll regret it if you follow through!"

"Why?" Peorth was getting nervous. "Belldandy, what's it going to-"

The cougar breeched the treeline, then charged towards the trio in a bolt. Without even realizing what she was doing, Belldandy was on her feet, right next to Urd, and the two sisters released shrieks like banshees, auras flaring up around them.

The puma skidded to a halt ten feet in front of them and screamed. It sounded like a woman's scream. "Leave this place!" Belldandy shouted.

Urd joined her. "This is our territory!"

The cougar growled and screamed again, ears flat against its head and fur bristled. It had to have been the size of a black bear, it was so large. The creature snarled and paced to Belldandy's left, trying to get past Urd and towards the house. Its eyes were set on Peorth.

"Don't do it!" Urd yelled, and as the beast tried to slip past her she rushed it, forcing the creature to retreat. "You best be leaving if you know what's good for you!

"We come from a long line of warriors and hunters." Belldandy joined her. "Don't think we won't steal your coat and make it ours!"

"You'll run around naked and all the deer will laugh at you," Urd taunted. The puma growled again, tail large and wagging with anger. "The bears will mock you and let their cubs eat you because you have no coat to protect you. Now _leave_."

The puma hissed at the duo, yet both sisters stood their ground, eyeing the large creature with a heated gaze of such a close resemblance that there left little doubt to their kinship. It growled once more, tail lashing, and then with a final hiss turned and stalked back into the woods. Neither goddess moved until the creature was well out of sight, and even then the sisters weren't foolish enough to turn their backs to the tree line. Instead, they backed up, eyeing their surroundings and only relaxing when the early morning birdsong began anew, signaling the danger had passed.

" _Douce mère miséricordieuse,"_ Peorth breathed. Her eyes never left Belldandy. "The last time I have seen a beast of such size, it was feasting on the remains of a client whom I was late to meet due to a blocked medium." She was trembling. "It was a spirit that had grown large and evil off the blood of man and wanted to sup on the flesh of a god to acquire an elevated position amongst demons."

"I remember that," Belldandy said quietly. She narrowed her eyes at the trees. "We were both young then, too. That had been before we'd acquired our first-class license."

"You accompanied me down to mentor me on linguistics amongst humanity," Peorth said. "I was failing in the subject and you were assigned to aid me." She paused. "You scared the beast away then, too."

"The puma was charging at _you_ , Peorth." Belldandy said.

"It was," Peorth agreed. "And I do not know why. But this time, just as then, you scared it away without a single act of violence against it." She couldn't hide the envy in her voice. "I never had the opportunity to thank you for that time," she said. "Thank you. From the depths of my heart, thank you. For that time and this time."

Belldandy stared at her, then nodded. "Does this mean you'll leave Keiichi alone?" she asked tentatively.

"Not unless his heart's desire is fulfilled," Peorth replied. "You know a wish granter cannot leave until the wish is attained and viewed as complete by the System Force."

The Norn visibly drooped, discouraged. She sighed, and frustrated, turned and headed inside, the glass door slamming shut behind her.

Urd and Peorth winced, and then Peorth looked to Urd. The dark haired goddess let out a frustrated sigh of her own. " _Mon dieu_ , do they not understand that he merely need speak the words and this will all be over?"

"You wanna have a naughty with him and that just won't fly," replied Urd as she crossed her arms, fixing Peorth with a level gaze.

Peorth rolled her eyes, for once catching the jist of what Urd was saying. "What, are you telling me the man is monogamous?" She scoffed at the idea, but Urd's gaze never wavered. " _Es-tu sérieux_?"

Urd nodded. "An' you'll be in the shit with both of 'em if you keep on like this."

Peorth tittered. " _C'est dommage._ What of you?" she asked.

"What about me?" The Norn retorted. "Me getting involved would be as useless as tits on bull," Urd said. "And now Bell's cross as a frog in a sock and I'm the blue-arsed fly that's got to deal with it, you wombat." Shaking her head, she too retreated inside, leaving Peorth to stand and stare blankly at the woman's retreating form.

" _Elle parle anglais mais je ne comprends toujours pas_ _?!"_ she cried, then yelped as a woman's scream, a puma's scream, echoed through the surrounding forest. Then she too rushed inside, locking the glass door behind her and dropping the blinds. " _Au diable cette terre!"_ she cried.

XXX

In the end it was Urd who retrieved the truck from the swamp. She left Belldandy to cool down and was pleasantly surprised when the goddess appeared not even five minutes after she returned to help wash out the inside of the vehicle and clean the gunk that had clogged the engine. Though the goddess was quiet, she was thorough and invested in whatever task Urd directed her towards. Recognizing the need for silence, Urd kept her own peace, giving her sister the time she needed. Peorth was a surprise as well, heeding the advice of both Norns and keeping quiet and out of sight, though her aura's signature permeated the house at their backs. The task of cleaning and repairing the truck-something so simple it could have been done in five minutes-instead took up most of their day at Belldandy's request. She needed to keep her mind busy. She needed to keep her _hands_ busy, and if that meant gutting an engine from the truck, disassembling it piece by piece, and running a hose through every miniscule component to get the swamp out, then so be it. The distraction was welcome, and it kept her from dwelling on what Peorth had said.

Around two in the afternoon the goddess had worked up enough of a sweat that she felt like talking again. Urd took advantage of it and used it as an opportunity to speak on lighter subjects, and even managed to get a laugh or two out of the Middle Norn. A text from Skuld gave them a reason to break for lunch, and Peorth remained conspicuously absent as the two of them dined on the leftover pizza that had been shoved in the fridge by Keiichi last night. Belldandy took a hearty bite of microwaved Hawaiian pizza and chewed it slowly, then swallowed and looked at the luke-warm pizza in appraisal. "That is," she said, "by far, one of the strangest foods I've ever eaten." She paused, then took another bite. "I like it."

"That says a lot coming from someone who lived in the same country that invented _natto_ and enjoys fish guts," Urd commented, shoving her own piece of Hawaiian pizza towards her sister. "Pineapple belongs in margaritas, not pizza."

Belldandy sent her a look as she accepted the offered slice. " _Natto_ isn't too bad after you adjust to the texture," she replied. "And there's a reason innards are usually drowned in different sauces."

"You've got a stronger stomach than me, Bell."

"What did Skuld have to say?"

Urd shrugged, snagging Belldandy's spare slice of vegetarian pizza and nibbling at the crust. "She's putting in leave to come back and visit." The Norn said. "Mentioned something about a task you gave her before she left being completed."

"Ah." She'd forgotten about her parting request to her sister in the month that had passed since Skuld had left. The Norn frowned. "The house will get crowded again," she grumbled. "Did she mention when she'd be arriving?"

"Soon." Urd looked at her phone. "...No date yet, just 'soon'." She looked back at Belldandy. "It's all good. Skuld can shack up with me again. I think I'm the only person who can sleep through her snoring."

"Are you sure it's not the other way around?" Belldandy muttered under her breath, then took a large bite of the pizza as Urd shot her a glare.

"What was that?"

"Hmm?" She looked at Urd innocently, making a show of chewing her way through the pizza for a long minute.

Urd stared at her shrewdly, then shrugged. "For a moment I thought I heard something. Oh well, it's not like I have to shack up with you and your sleepwalking." She leaned back in her chair and sent her sister a smug look. "The shit you say in your sleep creeps me out."

Belldandy almost chocked. "I do _not_ talk in my sleep!" She cried.

Urd raised an eyebrow and raised a hand. A book manifested in her fingers, and the woman pulled it open to a random page as she adjusted reading glasses that had not been there before. "You're fat like a narwal," she read, then looked up at Belldandy, lowering her head to see over the rim of the glasses. Belldandy stared back, eyes wide, and grinning, Urd continued. "Somebody took a shit on the floor. It's alive... The apples tell me things, we need to save the king... How many times do I have to tell you? I'm speaking to the little people." She paused there and looked back at Belldandy. " _That_ freaked me the fuck out when I was ten. You stormed right into my room, pointed at a corner filled with shadows, and then stood there and stared at it like Ansuz had put you in time out for like, five minutes."

"Are you serious?" Belldandy stared at her in disbelief. "And you-you've been recording this?!"

"Since you were five." Urd nodded. "The best one I remember was when you were thirteen. I was sound asleep and you just slammed into my door. Face first and everything, and it scared the shit out of me. I went to see if you were okay and opened the door, and you just reached up and grabbed my chin and said, 'I like you.' Then you went into my room, grabbed two left shoes-my boot and a slipper-then turned and ran off." She shook her head. "You woke up the next morning with the shoes right next to your face, then you accused me of pulling a prank on you. Ansuz gave me additional chores for a week after that because she didn't believe anything I said."

"Oh Yggdrasil." Belldandy held out a hand, and Urd passed her the book, allowing the younger Norn to flip through the pages. "I can't believe I-oh goodness..."

"Keiichi's in for a treat when you two finally hook up."

Belldandy's face grew red. "Not funny Urd."

XXX

Keiichi didn't get home until much later that evening. The base had just moved into an exercise, and with it the standard eight hour work day had increased to a twelve hour shift. The SEAL, for one, was grateful of the increase. He needed the time away from the house, time away from the _drama_ , and had even considered toying with the idea of prolonging the inevitable return home by stopping for groceries. The fact that he'd come to work on his Harley had thrown that idea out the window, and with it came the realization he was looking for excuses to return to his own home. But the man couldn't help it. Keiichi didn't want to deal with Peorth's attempts at seductions when he was clearly uninterested in her or Belldandy's strange new 'crazy girlfriend' streak.

It'd been a topic he'd been avoiding all day, even when Sanchez was making friendly talk on asking how Belldandy and Urd were doing. The last thing he needed was his unit getting involved; McGuinness would shit bricks if Keiichi let anything other than 'the girls are fine' drop from his mouth. And why not? From an outsider's perspective, Keiichi had fallen into some deep shit: in the past twenty-four hours he'd been molested by a woman who'd forced herself into his house. Belldandy had demanded sex from him because of said woman and had then assaulted that same woman with a knife, and this after an incident that would have accounted for involuntary manslaughter and reckless driving had Urd been a human.

McGuinness, who knew his men almost inside and out after so many deployments together, knew something was up, but thankfully the exercise's demands had kept him busy enough that Keiichi didn't see him much in the office. A relief. Last thing he needed was his boss heckling the shit out of him and then harassing Urd to try and figure out what the fuck was going on back home. On the plus side, the exercise had kept _Keiichi_ busy and distracted enough that he didn't have time to dwell on what was happening back home as well. Which was fine, up until it was time to call it quits for the day.

 _Had I been a woman and Peorth been a man, they'd say I'd need to consult SAPR._ Keiichi thought, then groaned. _No, the gender doesn't matter. McGuinness would fucking escort me to their doors himself whether I was a man or a woman. Then he'd probably call the police on Peorth._ Talk about a shit-covered clusterfuck.

 _No, the shit-covered clusterfuck is you returning to that environment where you know Peorth's getting ready to pounce on you._ A little voice in his head told him. He didn't like the fact that it sounded like Deb. _If these women were humans, you know what you'd have done? Kicked them all out of the house and called the cops on them if they kept harassing you. This is bullshit, Kei._

 _The situation isn't the same._ He told her.

 _Why?_ Deb persisted. _Because they're 'gods'? Does that make it excusable? So they can play at being Zeus and you can play as Antiope, and everything is fine and dandy because you have the 'privilege' of fucking one of them? You know what that really sounds like? It sounds like-_

"Oh shit, is that my truck?" The man took off his helmet, staring at the vehicle parked in the driveway and trying to figure out if the truck sitting there was actually his or not. Though night had long since fallen, it still gleamed a bright silver in the glow of the porch lights, and to Keiichi perhaps it looked a bit ethereal as well. The license plate matched his Silverado, but it looked... newer. Not so much cleaner after the power washing Belldandy and Urd had run it through earlier that day, but... polished. Buffed. The paint looked fresh. The wheels looked new. The dent in his bumper from where some asshole had rammed him two years ago was missing.

The SEAL stared at it for a long moment, cutting the Harley's engine in favor of inspecting the vehicle. The lights flashed when he pressed the unlock button on his key ring, and he pulled the door open to inspect the inside. It smelled like flowers. He couldn't smell any swamp, and when he touched the upholstery it felt dry and somehow warm to his fingers. The inside looked new too; as though the entire dash had been retrofitted with a new electronics system, as though someone had gutted and replaced the seats with new ones straight off the production line, as though the overhead lights-one of which had flickered since he'd first bought the truck-had been replaced with brighter, warmer bulbs. "Jeez, guys..." He removed himself from the truck and locked it once more, staring at first the Silverado, then the front porch, with mixed feelings. On one hand it was nice to know Urd and Belldandy had gone and taken care of the truck like Urd promised she would. But on the other hand...

It didn't feel like 'his' truck anymore.

Sighing to himself, the man returned to his Harley and guided it into the garage, then reluctantly headed inside. _Time to face the inquisition._ The thought brought to mind all three of the deities dressed in red robes and broad red hats. _"Nobody expects the Asgardian Inquisition!"_ Peorth, leading the entourage, would proclaim, and he'd just make it back to the front door before one of them, hell, all of them, grabbed him and dragged him off to a bedroom.

So perhaps it came as no surprise to the man when, as soon as the door opened and he'd stepped inside, Peorth was in his face and snaking an arm around his waist. " _Bienvenue à la maison mon amour,"_ she purred, leaning in close as Keiichi leaned away.

She was then roughly torn from his person by Urd.

"Cunt, I told ya' to leave 'im be." Urd had the woman in a headlock, and Keiichi, in all his years of knowing Urd, was never more relived that his Team had taken to teaching her BJJ. "Welcome home, Mate," she said to Keiichi, and with Peorth still in a headlock, guided the goddess away, whistling a little tune that Keiichi thought he recognized from the movie _Kill Bill_.

Keiichi watched the Norn drag Peorth off to the couch where she sat down, Peorth still stuck in a headlock. "You talking to my mom again?" He asked, referring to Urd's 'special friend' he sometimes caught her talking to on the phone.

"All day," Urd replied. "Gotta bitch to someone 'bout these two loons. They'ah driving me apeshit."

"Urd, let me go, _l_ _ibérez-moi cet instant_!" Peorth cried, her arms flopping uselessly above her head.

"Yeh wanna dip in a dunny?" Urd looked down at her captive.

"What are you saying?!" Peorth wailed. "All day with these strange words, and I understand none of it!"

Keiichi raised an eyebrow. "... you're doing this on purpose, aren't you Urd."

"Nah yeah."

" _What does that even mean?!"_ Peorth cried.

"Where's Belldandy?" Keiichi asked.

"Upstairs working up the balls to face you," Urd said bluntly. "She thinks you coming back late in the evo' is you avoiding her from this morning."

"We're in an exercise."

"Tried explaining that to her. She don't get it." The goddess leaned back to get a better look at him and winked. "Might as well let her know you're back, eh? I'll make sure the tossah 'ere don't bug ya' none."

"Let me _go!"_ Peorth sang into the night like a coyote baying at the moon. Keiichi made a gratifying motion with his hand, then raced up the stairs as Urd returned her attention back to her hostage.

"Yeah nah." She said.

As predicted, Peorth screamed.

Urd smiled.

XXX

 _Let's just hurry up and get this out of the way._ Keiichi thought to himself. _I don't want to spend the rest of the evening with the two of us dancing and Peorth looking to jump the gun on both of us._ He sighed to himself and walked past his bedroom and to the next room over, still dressed in hid DCUs. The man rapped loudly on Belldandy's door with a knuckle, and listened for the response inside.

" _Urd, please not right now."_ The voice on the other end proclaimed. She sounded antsy.

"It's me, Belldandy," he announced, and heard a heavy _thump_ from inside. Maybe even a soft curse, unless his ears were playing tricks on him. Pounding feet. A lock disengaging. And then a blue eye framed with almond hair peered out at him.

"...Hello Keiichi." God damn, she sounded like that same quiet and reserved stranger that had first come home with him over two months ago. His stare lingered, and the Norn withdrew further inside a bit, biting her lip as she looked at him. "I-I'm sor-"

"I forgive you." Keiichi beat her to it, causing the Norn to jump. He sent her a small half-smile. "I forgive you, okay? No more apologies, I'm getting sick of them. You were jumping to my defense. I get that. Maybe in a murdery-I don't know, Yakuza-y kind of way? But you were still trying to save me from Peorth." He took a deep breath, swallowing some of his own troubles in favor of easing some of Bell's. "I can't stand seeing you like this, so... I'll cut you a deal."

"A deal?" Belldandy's face went a careful neutral. Keiichi wasn't certain if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

"Yeah." He pressed on regardless. "A deal. Keep a lid on your temper." He said. "And if you can do it the rest of the time Peorth is here, we'll..." They'd what? Go on another ride with the Harley? No, that sounded too cheap. It had to be something else. Something that would mean a lot to _her_. Something not too flashy or expensive or anything that reminded her of Aoshima. Something she'd never done before and could make some fresh memories of. "We'll go to the Chincoteague Pony Swim together." It was a topic Braxton had brought up earlier that day. "It'll be fun-I'll take leave and we'll head east to Chincoteague Island. Every July they have a huge, weeklong event where a bunch of cowboys round up wild horses. It's huge, and from what I've heard, real fun. We can do it together-just you and me, away from the house, and leave Urd to keep watch over it in case Lind needs to hunt her down."

 _Are you fucking nuts?_ " A little voice of reason-this one blissfully empty of Deb's voice-rose in his mind. _You went on one fucking date with her and now you want to rent a proverbial cabin in the woods for a week?_

"Are... are you certain?" Belldandy asked. "That is to say, I don't mean-"

"Yep!" Keiichi said. "But you have _got_ to reign in that temper, Bell. At least until we find a way to get rid of Peorth. I know she gets under your skin, but you've got to ignore her, okay?" He paused and fidgeted, rubbing the back of his neck. "...At least so long as it's just words. If she's trying to rape me or something, then fuck yes step in, just... could you at least _try_ not to murder her?"

It took Belldandy a moment to realize he was teasing her. "Ah... um... oh!" Her face began to light up. "Oh-oh yes! Yes, I-I think I can do that." She nodded. "Just-just the two of us. That'd be... that'd be nice."

The conversation died off into an awkward silence, and Keiichi let his eyes roam, feeling the air growing tense. "So... were you serious when you said you were going to tear Peorth a new one like that?"

The goddess flushed. "I was-my temper got the best of me."

"I could have told you that." Keiichi tried a smile, and saw a ghost of one flit across Belldandy's face as well. "Who'd you learn _that_ from?" He asked. "'I'm going to abort your intestines', isn't that what you said?"

The Norn's flush deepened. "Yes," she said. "I uh... my mother had a... creative vocabulary when she thought Skuld and I were out of earshot." She paused. "The guards too. From... back then. They were good people, despite their... employment. They, um... they enjoyed sharing their extensive range of phrases with me. I think it amused them to hear such profanity uttered from the lips of a goddess."

Keiichi's smile grew larger. "'I'm going to shove my fist up your ass to the elbow, and then I'm going to abort your intestines.' Gonna dedicate that one to memory," he claimed, and chuckled as the woman before him moaned and let her head thunk against the wall in embarrassment. "Aww, come on, it's not that bad. Think of how much richer your vocabulary is because of it! Cursing spans across cultures and brings people of all shapes and sizes and colors together!"

Belldandy stared at him with a look that couldn't decide if it was amused or exasperated. "Are you..." She stopped herself and shook her head. "No. I have decided I'm not going to bother even asking you," she announced. "Childhood with Urd has taught me that some things are better left untouched."

"You wanna 'ave a go, Mate?" Keiichi asked in a poor mimicry of Urd's accent. "Crickey, I could smash a piss pahty in the avro and into the evo, what d'ya say, Cunt?"

Belldandy stared at Keiichi with wide eyes for a long, distressing moment. When close to thirty seconds passed with nothing from the goddess, Keiichi began to sweat, wondering if perhaps he'd crossed a line by picking on Bell's older sister. Downstairs they could still hear Urd counseling Peorth. " _I'll tell ya' mate, yeh gottah stop being a cunt! Ya acten like a right wombat gone crackers, ya?"_

" _Speak English!"_ Peorth wailed.

" _I am, Mate!"_ Urd wailed back. _"I am!"_

"...Crikey," Belldandy whispered. Her fake accent was even worse than Keiichi's, and all it once it set him over the edge, howling with deep, roaring laughter. He was joined by Belldandy not a moment later, her laughter equally uproarious, and they stopped only when a heart-felt scream rose from the unofficial Fifth Goddess below.

" _Ya acten' like an ankle biter that dropped her icy-pole!"_

"Ain't she a yobbo?" Keiichi whispered, and as if on que, Peorth's voice rose to meet them again.

" _What does that even mean?!"_ She screamed, and with her timing the duo were sent over the edge into laughter all over again. Keiichi fell to his knees, clutching his side and red in the face. Belldandy dug her fingers into the door frame to keep herself from falling over. They were both in tears before the fit finally passed, and with it, her spirits lifted, Belldandy looked at Keiichi.

"Do you think this is how we get her out?" she asked. "With Austrailian?" Her eyes sparkled in the light of the room, and Keiichi smiled so brightly he felt his face might split in half.

"Want to find out?" he asked.

"Urd will kill us in our sleep."

"Totally worth it."

Belldandy thought on that for a moment, and then nodded in agreement, an ear-splitting smile of her own branching across her lips. "Yes," she decided. "Yes indeed." They stared at each other, one weak in the knees from laughter and the other already collapsed, both wearing smiles that, under the right amount of light, might have looked a bit mad. Together they hobbled up to their feet, and together they ran to the stairs, still laughing with each other, at each other, and to each other.

"Time for a Macca's run and then off tah the Bottle-O!" Keiichi roared, and as they thundered down the stairs the two women beneath them grew quiet.

"Oi, yah Cunts want anything?" Belldandy shouted. "Sheila, I know ya'll be wanten' ya' piss, but what a' the Lush? You want a long-neck?"

"We'll just grab something off the barbie and calll it good," Keiichi cried, and still laughing, the two of them ran for the front door and out, leaving behind a fuming goddess and the poor woman who was stuck with her.

"I'm going to skin the both of 'em like a damned Wilder." Urd growled.

XXX

There were issues with sleeping arrangements that night. This after the two runaways returned with a bottle of sake to win Urd over and stop her from murdering them.

"No. _Non._ _Pas la chance d'un porc à la boucherie,"_ Peorth proclaimed. "I refuse. I will not spend another minute sharing Belldandy's room."

Belldandy narrowed her eyes. "I need to watch you," she said. "How do I know you won't sneak off in the middle of the night?"

The goddess crossed her arms. "I did not harass _Monseiur_ Keiichi last night, did I? What would make you believe I would do so this time?"

"Do you really need us to answer that?" Urd asked.

The goddess sighed. "Fine, fine. What about Urd then? I shall simply use her room instead."

"The fuck you will," Urd retorted. "You're a love goddess, Peorth. You think I want your business in my room?"

"Are you implying that I cannot control myself?!" Peorth demanded.

"That's enough!" Keiichi snapped. "No more arguments. It's late and I need to leave for work early tomorrow. Peorth, you can use my room if it's such a big d-"

"No she won't." Belldandy stepped in. "I don't want your room smelling like her."

"Oh for fuck's sake," Keiichi muttered harshly under his breath.

"Well, I'm not sleeping on the couch." Peorth huffed, indignant. "I am no lowly savage. I will have a proper bed or no one shall rest tonight."

"Okay, how about this," the man said, exasperated. "Bell, do you mind if Peorth uses your bedroom?"

"I would prefer it," she replied. "That way I can keep an eye on her."

"And did I not just say that I refuse to share a room with you?"

"Stop!" Keiichi cried again. "Okay, here's what we're going to do. Belldandy, you take my room. Peorth, you take Bell's room. I'll sleep on the couch." Belldandy opened her mouth to argue and Keiichi cut her off. "This way you can keep the bedroom door open. If you hear Peorth moving around and coming down the stairs, you can catch her, or if she uses whatever magic, I can give a shout to wake you up. Okay?"

The middle Norn pursed her lips. "I still do not like it."

"We can wash the sheets after she leaves," Keiichi said.

"Hey!" Peorth cried.

"That is not what concerns me," Belldandy grumbled. "I've slept in worse." Both Keiichi and Urd looked at her sharply. The goddess didn't notice. "What concerns me is her attempts at taking advantage of you when no one else is available to aid you." She glared at Peorth. "She is a goddess first-class, Keiichi. If she wants to take you, she will, and you would be none the wiser until it was too late."

Peorth went rigid, a combination of disbelief and fury dancing across her face. "You would _dare_ insinuate I would stoop to such methods?" Her voice was quiet and level, but the air around her was pulsing. Keiichi stepped back, unsure of what he was feeling but recognizing it as dangerous. Urd bristled, and she slowly edged out of the goddess's line of sight, drifting closer to Peorth's back and dropping into an aggressive BJJ form. If Peorth decided to get violent, Urd was ready to take her out.

Belldandy held the woman's gaze, eyes level and unflustered. It was almost an eerie sight after how she'd reacted earlier that morning, and if anything it put Keiichi on edge. "You claim word of my situation has reached your ears, has it not?" she asked. "Then tell me, based off what you know of my experiences these past ten years and the behavior I have seen directed towards the man whom I care so much for, what is it that you think I see, First-Class, Second-category, Unlimited, Peorth?"

The tension in the room began to rise. The air grew heated, and Keiichi could feel himself sweating through his shirt and into his blouse. Beads of sweat began to form on his brow, and Urd, the closest next to him, appeared to be suffering a similar state. Yet the eldest Norn didn't move. A trickle of sweat dripped into her eye. She didn't so much as blink. Didn't so much as _breathe._ Like Keiichi she waited for the inevitable _pop_ , the upcoming explosion of fire and brimstone that would destroy the house as Peorth and Belldandy went for each other's throats.

It held for a long minute. Belldandy, cool and unflustered; cold even.

Peorth stood heated and agitated, her face set alight by some strange, ethereal, internal light that made her eyes glow and her cheeks bright. The strange sigil in her forehead burned like a small star, one that pulsed and thrummed to some unknown heartbeat, and Keiichi wondered if it was her own or perhaps something else; something older, something deep beneath the earth's crust and to the very core of the earth itself.

 _It's happening again!_ That little voice of insanity, the one he recalled from the crazy link-up with Yggdrasil, rose in a fresh chorus. _It's happening again, Janky-boy, and oh, baby, I hope you're ready to dance with the heart of the earth, 'cause she's about to rumble like no other, Bub!_ His mouth felt dry, his tongue like sandpaper in his mouth. His nose began to bleed and the blood crusted and flaked before it touched his upper lip. _It's that time! Gather round all ye' chillens, gather round all ye' ken! It's that magical time of the month! The moon sets and rises and sets again! First black and empty and then large and pregnant! And the world moves on... oh how the world moves_ on!

And then it was over.

The magic, horrible, heated though it was, winked out like a burst bulb, and with it Keiichi's knees gave out beneath him. He hadn't realized that same alien presence that so filled the room had also been holding him up. He even saw Urd take a knee, panting from either exertion or relief, the SEAL couldn't tell.

The only ones left standing were Belldandy and Peorth.

Peorth took a long, deep breath. "I am a goddess of _love._ " Her voice was trembling with suppressed rage. "Not _lust_."

"Then you best start acting like it," Belldandy said flatly.

For a moment Peorth flickered. She- _it-_ flickered for not even half a second, and what Keiichi saw in its place his mind could make no sense of. It was a sight that hurt to see; like several images overlayed on top of each other all at the same time and all in one instant, like the compound eyes of a dragonfly. He perceived it not with his eyes, but with his _mind:_ a creature of a near unending scale, small and large all at once, looming and cowering before Belldandy with arms that jutted like sleek crystal and jagged rose branches, short and long, small and tall, sleek and bulky all at the same time. It rushed towards Belldandy on claws like jagged roots and with teeth like shattered tree trunks, and then it was gone once more, leaving Peorth in its place.

The sight left the man, the mortal, shaking where he kneeled, and his nose, his ears began to bleed anew. No one noticed.

The woman grit her teeth, her hands curling into fists. "I see," she hissed. "I see. I understand." She breathed deeply through her nose, a vein pulsing in her forehead. Her lip quivered with unspent rage. "It seems my actions here have fallen under poor lighting. I see," she repeated. "I see. I _see," she_ murmured. "And I shall _promise_." Her gaze never left Belldandy's. "And my promise shall stand: I shall attempt nothing on his person this night. Tomorrow is another day, and there is still a wish to fulfill, however as you would so dare compare me to something so lowly, I shall not lay a _finger_ on Keiichi unless it is by his own choice-his own _will_ -without the use of magic or potions or anything else that might alter his mind."

She stepped up close to Belldandy, leaving the two deities with their noses almost touching. "I am _not_ some common filth that forces a man-or a woman-to lay with her. And if you _ever_ accuse me of such deplorable actions again... then by Yggdrasil, we will duel, Belldandy. And when we do... I will leave you so broken, so in pieces, that it will take the effort of one hundred gods to piece you back together."

The goddess wheeled, hair flying, yet did not once did a single strand so much as touch Belldandy. The woman departed the dining room where they'd been having their discussion and stormed up the stairs, a tempest of the earth's fury; the earth beneath their feet seemed to tremble with her steps.

Keiichi, for the first time feeling a strange trickle run down his nose, took a swipe at his upper lip and stared at the blood that stained the sleeve of his uniform in silence. Urd released the breath she was holding, running her hands through her hairs as she looked to the ceiling. And Belldandy leaned back against the wall behind her and buried her face in her hands, the stoic look dissolving into one of vulnerability once more.

"I'm a horrible woman," she moaned.

XXX

It was close to one in the morning when Belldandy, wide awake after a restless night, finally pried herself out of Keiichi's bed and left for the hallway. She hadn't gotten a wink of sleep after the fight with Peorth, and something told her that until she reconciled with her old friend and rival, she wouldn't be getting any rest in the future, either.

She stared at the door to Peorth's room- _her_ room-for close to five minutes before gathering the courage to knock. The door opened before her third knock, and Peorth, dressed in a thin sleeping gown and little else, stared out at Belldandy in suspicion. "Have you come to finish this feud you've started?" the woman demanded. "Or is it that I have a caller of a different sort this early morning? Could it be the pot calling the kettle black?" Her voice dripped with sarcasm.

Belldandy flinched. "I came to apologize," she said. "That was... that was uncalled for."

"Apology accepted," Peorth snapped. "I'm still upset with you, though. You insulted my honor and my standing as a goddess First-Class."

Belldandy was contrite in her response. "I know, and I regret that."

Peorth relaxed a little as she watched the almond haired goddess. After a few moments of awkward silence, Belldandy turned to leave.

"Why haven't you moved forward with your relationship with Keiichi?"

The question caught Belldandy off guard. "It's… complicated," she grumbled without turning to face her companion.

" _C'est le plus gros morceau de merde que j'ai entendu,"_ Peorth growled. "Explain yourself. I will not leave until the heart's desire of Keiichi Morisato is fulfilled, and I cannot help but feel that you are somehow involved in that. As such, I believe your participation in this escapade is required in some way. You wish for my departure, Keiichi wishes for my departure, Urd wishes for my departure and even I tire of this farce. Although it permeates this house, there is no love here for me, and I would sooner see myself out the door as well, but I cannot proceed until _I know why you dally._ "

Belldandy fell silent.

"Will you continue to skirt this issue?" Peorth demanded. Her eyes flashed in the darkness. A disturbing sight without a source of light in the bedroom or hallway. "For we shall go around and around in an endless cycle until this matter is addressed, and this home shall be torn apart and left to crumble in its aftermath."

"I don't know," Belldandy replied. She turned her head towards Peorth, but she stared at the floor. "It's-Yggdrasil, it's so many things that I don't know where to even start!" Her voice began to rise, and the Norn grit her teeth, lowering it into a heated whisper. "I am _afraid_ , Peorth. For the past ten years I have be abused in every sense of the word, and the pain that accompanied it still dominates my psyche." She wanted to say more but stopped herself, biting back the words and swallowing them like a bitter pill.

"So you are filled with doubt, is that it?" Peorth asked. "Doubt of Keiichi's true heart? Do you fear he would harm you as those in the past had?"

"No," Belldandy replied. She bit her lip hard enough to taste blood. "No, I know his heart already, and it is good, if a little scarred. I do not fear him."

"Then what do you fear?"

Yet Belldandy was already turning, already ending the conversation before Peorth could pry further. By the time her question was spoken aloud the door to Keiichi's room was already closing, leaving Peorth and her unanswered question lingering in the hallways.

" _Merde,"_ Peorth cursed, and slammed the door behind her.

* * *

 **A/N: Wild start to this chapter! More shenanigans to come, for sure. On a side not, I was doing some research for the story and realized I have made a pretty stupid mistake considering how easy it was to find. Keiichi's Navy rate should be "Special Warfare Operator", not Gunner's Mate. When he graduated BUDs, he would have crossed over from GM to SO. This is something that does not really effect the story, but being a Navy man, its embarrassing. In my defense, when I was in the Navy, SEALs were GMs and any one of a couple of other rates. Apparently they changed that in 2006 which is many years after I was discharged from the service. Anyway, I will be going back and changing this in the previous chapters so that we are consistent and accurate.**

* * *

 _Comments of a Madwoman: To any Aussies out there, thanks for putting up with my terrible attempts at writing an accent. Get ready for more madness from another perspective in the next chapter, you're in for a treat._


	26. Chapter 26 - La Cinquième Déesse

l

-26-

Friday morning came at the ass-crack of dawn with a crick in Keiichi's neck and the smell of breakfast food items that simultaneously made him nauseas and his stomach growl. _Here we go again._ He thought to himself, prying his eyes open as he stared up at the ceiling. Dim light danced upon its surface from the kitchen, and he could hear cabinets gently thumping closed as the person in question tried not to wake him. _The last time I was this excited to go to work, things were falling apart with Deb._

Grunting, the man rolled off the Ugly Beast. He massaged his neck, then rolled his head in slow circles to try and stretch the muscles out. A pile of clothes sat on top of the small coffee table he'd purchased in another furniture trip with Belldandy and Urd, and he stared at it, trying to remember if he'd brought the clothes down with him last night or not. Most of the night preceding the argument between Belldandy and Peorth was a blur to him for some reason.

In the end Keiichi decided he must have brought them down with him. Them and the extra blanket both, probably to make sure he didn't accidently wake Belldandy while creeping back into his room and grabbing a fresh blouse from the closet and other items from the drawers. The Navy SEAL may have had all the stealth of a tiger in a bush during training or missions, but when it came to regular, ordinary days at home, that tiger transformed into a cat wearing bubble wrap socks.

Grabbing the stack of clothes, the man crept off into the hallway bathroom to freshen up and change, only stopping to stare at his reflection in shock. His upper lip was crusted with dried blood, and there was evidence of more blood on the sleeves of the blouse he'd slept in the night prior. "Jesus fuck," he swore, discarding his uniform and checking himself out for any other signs of injury. More blood crusted his ear canals, but otherwise he could see no damage. A gentle examination revealed nothing out of the ordinary, and the man's brows furrowed together, confused. "What the hell? Did I get punched in the face or something?"

Maybe that explained the blur from last night.

The man massaged his hands, a little nervous about the blood before shrugging it off. He didn't _feel_ any worse for wear: no obvious pains, no strange aches, no twitching or loss of feeling, not even any loss of balance or an overwhelming sense of drowsiness. His pupils, after careful observation, still expanded and contracted to the light, and there was nothing that might signify a blow to the head. He didn't feel ill or fatigued either. He felt... fine.

Sighing to himself, the man hopped in the shower, making doubly sure the door was locked before drying himself off and dressing in his fresh DCUs. Gathering his old garments into a bundle beneath his arms, the SEAL crept upstairs and deposited them in a hamper before tiptoeing back down again and debating with himself on whether to spare himself the drama and sneak out now without food or risk Peorth and Belldandy getting into another argument.

Nothing would be open this early in the morning though, and Keiichi still had an hour before he was on call. The man pursed his lips, thoughtful, and then sighed and moved towards the kitchen. He'd take a quick peek before making a judgement call, and hopefully Peorth wouldn't notice him if he decided the risk wasn't worth the reward. But if he could just grab a granola bar or something to help tide him over for later, he'd be fine.

The man peeked into the kitchen and sagged with relief. "Oh thank god." Peorth was nowhere in sight. Instead, Belldandy was hustling about the kitchen, pulling ingredients and seasonings left and right as she tended to the stove. He looked around, and taking it as a sign from above that the other goddess was not present, the SEAL headed into the dining room. "Morning Bell."

The goddess looked over her shoulder. "Good morning Keiichi." There were bags under her eyes.

"Rough night?"

"Yes."

He walked over to her and hugged her from behind. For a moment he felt Belldandy tense-still she tensed up, still she fought Aoshima-and then she relaxed and pressed into him, still tending to the pans of eggs and vegetables. "You didn't have to get up and make me breakfast."

"Wanted to," she muttered. "Especially after yesterday."

"You should go back to sleep."

"No."

Keiichi raised an eyebrow. It was the first time the goddess had outright refused to listen to his guidance. Usually it was more of a neutral agreement, an 'okay' that allowed her to dance around and do what she wanted when his back was turned. It was never anything serious-little things like, 'don't wait up for me, I'll be late' or 'don't worry about laundry, I've got it'. She'd say okay and nod her head, and when Keiichi returned home or had some free time to attend whatever chore needed attention, Belldandy would be waiting for him or the laundry would be cleaned, folded, and resting on his bed. Part of him suspected some of that was Urd's influence; trying to help Belldandy break out of the mold and do what _she_ wanted to do and not what Keiichi suggested she do. He wondered if this new occurrence was due to her own strong feelings on the matters at hand or if Belldandy was just too exhausted to bother with the little game they normally played.

"Will you at least take a nap later?" he asked. "You look pretty tired."

"Depends," Belldandy replied. "Got to watch Peorth."

The man sighed and rolled of his eyes. Of course. Peorth. The thorn in the side of everyone recently. "Will you at least try not to gut her, today?"

This time he earned a snort from the Norn. "No promises." Yet the tone was light and he could hear a smile in her voice. He grinned.

The two of them ended up dining in peace that morning. Neither Peorth nor Urd came down to join them, and Keiichi was happy about that. Just a peaceful morning between him and Belldandy, tired and taciturn though she was. He was amazed when no one bothered them as he tied his boots and was escorted out the door by Belldandy, and astonished further when the goddess kissed him on the cheek in farewell. It left him feeling warm with a silly, beaming smile on his face as he straddled the Harley and headed out for work.

And as Belldandy returned inside to clean up after their shared meal together, putting away the leftovers she normally made extra on the occasion that Urd came to join them, not once did Peorth appear. Belldandy, exhausted from the shoddy hours of sleep she got, never paid it much mind, too tired to care. In less than two hours she'd fallen asleep on the Ugly Beast, where Urd found her, gathered her up, and took her upstairs to Keiichi's room to sleep.

And still Peorth did not appear.

Not once.

XXX

"Listen up!" McGuinness's voice boomed in the late morning sky. "We are practicing recovery procedures in an asymmetric environment today. Our scenario is this: An HVI, callsign ROSE, has taken up residence within a local village. We have GRGs of the surrounding location and know he's buckling down in building seven zero three. Jackson! What's our no-hit list?"

"There's a mosque about fifty meters to the west, building seven zero one," he said. "Two klicks north is a medical facility, and about one klick south by southeast is a school."

McGuinness nodded. "Braxton, based off that information, what direction would be our best entry and exit?"

"To the northeast, Sir," Braxton replied. "Coming in more east-bound before sweeping in closer to the north once we clear the school."

"What of animals? Guards? People wandering around?"

"We'll be going in under the cover of darkness where most people won't be out. There are three guards on point to the west, where the front of the house is located, and towards the east where there's a back entrance. A stone wall covers the house perimeter, but isn't very high-maybe only four feet or so, something to discourage people from coming to close. No other guards around the north or south side, and the animals in this area are primarily dogs and goats. The dogs are known for barking at odd hours of the night, so it won't be suspicious if they start barking during infil."

"What about the goats?" McGuinness pressed. "Could they make any noise?"

For a moment Braxton stared at his CO in confusion, then glanced at Keiichi. Keiichi gestured to his neck, and Braxton's eyes lit up. "Yes Sir," he said, looking back at McGuinness. "They keep bells around their goats to help keep track of them."

"That and they're always noisy as fuck." Sanchez muttered under his breath.

"That they are, Sanchez," McGuinness agreed. "Are there any goats along the route Braxton proposed?"

"Nah, not on this side. Off further south yeah, past the school, but not here. They don't keep any goats within one hundred meters of the living quarters 'cause in Make Believe Land, they see it as a sign of poverty-no one wants to look like a poor farmer, but they all poor farmers, so they keep the goats further south by a watering hole."

"Good." McGuinness praised. "Morisato, how should we infiltrate the building?"

"From the south," Keiichi said. "There aren't any windows on the north side of the building, and we need to get in and out ASAP. There are only a couple of guards out on shift, and they can be taken out pretty easily since for the most part, these guys are farmers hired by the HVI. Intel says they aren't trained and are more likely to run than fight."

"What about inside?"

"The HVI is staying with his nephew and the nephew's family, which is made of one wife and two children. The culture here have females and children sleeping together in one large family bedroom, with the adult males having their own separate bedrooms. The HVI was sighted by a TALON in the second floor west-corner window, so he's probably staying in the corner bedroom. The children are young-one's a baby and the other's a pre-teen, so we need to be careful to avoid injuring non-combatants. Females in Make Believe Land carry knives to discourage rapes and burglaries, and are known to keep them close by in the event that they're attacked in their sleep after a history of occupation by Red Forces."

"Good." McGuinness nodded in approval. "Good, all of you. Now, moving away from Make Believe Land and back into the real world, we do have some additional players with us. I managed to get a call in for some 'volunteers' who wanted the opportunity to play Baddie for us, so there will be live folks in the field." He sent them all a look. "Please don't hurt them," he said. "I had to fight leadership to acquire live volunteers after one Seaman dislocated his arm trying to wiggle out of an arm bar one of you asshats put him in."

"Idiot," Sanchez muttered.

"You referring to the Seaman or yourself?" Jackson asked. "I seem to remember you being the asshat holding the arm bar." He earned a couple of chuckles from the rest of the team.

"Bring it back, bring it back," McGuinness said, and as the laughter died down he continued. "They've been instructed _not_ to fight you if put in an arm lock or any other position, so when you say 'bang bang' they're supposed to lie down and 'die'.

"We're getting rubbers?" Keiichi raised an eyebrow.

"Ah, come on, man," Braxton muttered.

"Suck it up, Men," McGuinness replied. "Morisato, I seem to recall you breaking a Seaman's tooth after you slammed your buttstock into his face."

"It was an accident!" Keiichi cried. "I was moving on reflex!"

"Mmmhmm," Jackson hummed. "Just like Sanchez." Keiichi shot him a glare.

"No excuses," McGuinness continued. "This is for infil/exfil training only, not combatives. If I hear that any one of the volunteers was injured today because of a mishap or accident that is directly related back to any one of you, I will smoke _all of you_ so hard you'll be lucky if you can crawl back to your vehicles when I finally release you."

There was a collective groan from Team 12.

"Now stock up and get your gear. I want you all back here by ten fifteen armed and ready, is that clear?"

"Yes Sir!" Came Team 12's response.

Team 12 was dropped off by an AH-60 Blackhawk about five klicks from the target. They quickly closed the distance and around noon, Team 12 was rushing through Make Believe Land. It was a mock-up village composed of a collection of old storage containers that had been retrofitted to look like a small town. Paint was peeling off the sides and rust was taking its place, and someone had cut large, rectangular holes that took the place of doors and windows into their sides. Wild Kudzu was slowly trying to claim the village for itself, along with all the creepy critters and snakes that came with it, so MBL was regularly cut and treated for safety purposes. It didn't stop the assortment of snakes from taking shelter in the many containers scattered about, but at least it kept the local rat population down. A large, ten foot stone wall surrounded the 'village' to ward off vandals, with Cadre towers on each corner to monitor the training within.

Now, under the watchful eye of non-players, Team 12 ducked from one wall to another, where the occasional recording of a barking German Shepard went off near their ear. An occasional 'villager' would interrupt their travel as they progressed to building 703, forcing McGuinness to call the group to a halt and duck down under cover and concealment to avoid alerting the locals. Smoke bombs took the place of shock grenades, where the guard's outside the HVI's residence simulated being stunned and allowing Team 12 to 'gently' take them out. There was a collective sigh when Braxton, still learning, accidently let one such grenade bounce off a wall when he was aiming for a window where it exploded at their feet.

One of the 'dead' guards laughed.

"Press," McGuinness grumbled. "Braxton, on point. Go."

The Team burst into the house, where a steel staircase-perhaps the only thing in the village that saw regular maintenance and upkeep-lead up to a second storage container acting as the second floor. Braxton raced up it, Keiichi dogging him from behind, and passed a room with several straw scarecrows acting as the wife and children. McGuinness called for a pause in the scenario there. "Okay," he started. "Braxton, this is your Eval-you have two options right here. The HVI is in one room and the nephew is in the other. Both were alerted to our presence by the dogs in the village and the commotion downstairs, and are getting ready to act. You don't know what weapons they might be armed with and you can only storm one room. Whichever room you pick may leave you vulnerable depending on your choice of action. How do you proceed?"

Braxton frowned in thought. "Do we have intel on how likely they are to run or fight?"

"No," McGuinness replied. "Talon says that reinforcements have been alerted and are due to arrive in ten mike though, so time is of the essence."

The younger man frowned and pursed his lips in thought. "Am I allowed to divide the team?"

"You're the CO once we call game on," McGuinness replied. "We're yours to command."

"Okay," the man licked his lips and bobbed his head. "Okay, got it. So then I'm gonna want to divide the team with a larger focus on the HVI. We don't want the nephew to catch us with our pants down, but since we don't know if he'll run or fight, he needs to get taken out too." He looked at McGuinness, then over his shoulder at Keiichi and the rest of Team 12. "Right...okay, I think I got it," he stated. "I'll have...Sanchez, Jackson you're on the nephew. McGuinness, Morisato, on me for the HVI. We grab and bag HVI Rose and then Sanchez and Jackson cover our six on exfil."

"Sounds solid enough." Keiichi, an acting NCO in training, nodded as well. "You remember how to kick in a door? That's been one of your weak points for a while now."

"I'm good," Braxton replied. "Kick near the doorknob to splinter the wood around the lock, then get out of the way to avoid possible retaliation fire before proceeding inside."

"Good," Keiichi said. He looked back at McGuinness and gave him a thumbs up. "On your call, Sir."

"Ready Bravo?"

"Yes Sir."

"Game on." The exercise resumed, and Braxton took lead, dividing the teams out to the two rooms. As Jackson and Sanchez took on the nephew cardboard cutout that was used for training, Braxton placed a solid kick into the already beaten and abused wooden door leading to the HVI's room, then slid back against the wall for immediate cover. He pointed to Keiichi and mimed for a shock grenade, and the SEAL tossed in a smoke bomb, sending thick, white smoke billowing through the room. Braxton proceeded inside as the plume spread and thickened, with Keiichi on his tail and McGuinness holding up the rear.

The smoke began to clear as if by magic, and in its place was the room of HVI Rose: something that was once a steel shack of a shipping container divided by a wooden wall between rooms had been transformed into a lavish display of clean white walls and plush carpet. An elegant antique table rested in the room's center, with four matching chairs on each side. An array of food items ranging from pasta to roasted duck littered the table's surface, hot and steaming with enticing scents that made the mouth drool.

And at the head of the table, sitting with her hands steepled in front of her was Peorth, watching them with a large smile.

"Peorth?!"

Two voices rose in a mixture of confusion, horror, and recognition. "What are you doing here?!" Those two voices went silent as the words left the mouths of those who uttered them. Keiichi stared at Braxton. Braxton stared at Keiichi. Their mouths dropped. "Wait," they chorused, "you know her?"

" _Mon Dieu,_ _Monsieur_ Morisato _and_ _Monsieur_ Braxton?" A familiar voice exclaimed from within the thick smoke. "To what do I owe the honor?" Peorth cried.

" _What the fuck is going on?!"_ McGuinness boomed, and all three looked behind them, where two sets of eyes widened in growing horror. "Who the fuck is she and what the fuck is she doing here?!"

Jackson and Sanchez, literally next door, popped their heads in at the sound of their commander's oaths. "Wait, HVI ROSE is a chick?" Sanchez voiced.

"She's supposed to be a mannequin," Jackson replied. "One in more clothes than... _that_." Peorth was wearing the same scantily-clad outfit she'd first introduced herself to Keiichi in.

"Morisato, Braxton, you have to the count of five to explain yourselves before I rip out your small intestines and make you shit down your throat," McGuinness growled. "Who the fuck is she and _what is she doing here?!"_

Peorth tittered. _"_ _Quel homme horrible! Cela ne suffira pas._ " Her hands whipped up in front of her in a strange gesture.

"Wait!" Braxton cried.

"Stop!" Keiichi screamed.

Yet it was too late. Sanchez and Jackson dropped without a word, and McGuinness stumbled back. "What the..." He clutched his head, blinking furiously, then looked back at Peorth. "Who the hell..."

Peorth frowned, staring at the man in confusion. " _Vous avez résisté à mon appel?"_ she inquired. Her thumb twitched.

"Stop it!" Keiichi cried.

McGuinness's nose began to bleed, and the man took a knee before collapsing like the others, leaving Keiichi and Braxton to stare at their fallen teammates in horror.

"Ahh... _bien mieux maintenant_ ," Peorth murmured. "Such a loud, rude man," she sniffed. "No wonder Americans have such a horrible reputation affixed to themselves," she sighed. "Now that we have such an obnoxious crowd out of the way, would you like to join me for lunch, _Monsieur_ Keiichi? And _Monsieur_ Braxton! What a pleasant surprise to see you again! Would you like to join us on our cordial date?"

Braxton kneeled beside McGuinness and put two fingers to his throat, feeling for a pulse. He sighed in relief when he found one. "Thank God," he breathed. "They're just unconscious."

"What the fuck, Peorth." Keiichi's voice was quiet and low with thinly veiled rage. "You just-you just fucking waltz in here and fucking take out my team like they're a bunch of flies to you and then ask me to join you for _lunch_?"

The goddess waved her hand in a flippant gesture. "They are unharmed," she said. "And best yet, they shall remember none of this; just a small little ache in the head and a strange little dream for their troubles."

"McGuinness's nose is still bleeding," Braxton said. He looked up at Peorth with accusation burning in his eyes. "You should have stopped after that first time. That shit might have given him brain cancer or something."

The goddess shrugged. " _Tel est la vie ma chère,_ " she said. "Now come and sit. _Monsieur_ Braxton, you must tell me how life is treating you! It seems your wish has been fulfilled!" The goddess laughed. "And to think, that you would fall in league with another client!"

Keiichi and Braxton shared a look, then looked back to Peorth. "We're good," Keiichi said through tight lips. He took a long breath, though his face was still set in an angry grimace. "What I would like to know," he said instead, "Is how you," he looked at Braxton, "know _her_." He pointed to Peorth.

Braxton frowned, then rose to his feet. "My guess is the same way you do," he confessed. "She came to give me a wish."

" _Oui!"_ Peorth chirped. "A wish to become a Navy SEAL!" She cried.

Both Keiichi and Braxton stared at Peorth with boggled eyes. "Peorth, you ditz! _"_ Braxton cried. "Don't tell that to Morisato! He's my fucking supervisor!"

"You...you _what_ l?!" Keiichi wheeled to face Braxton in disbelief, his face torn between his unspent rage and shock. _"_ You fucking _cheated?!_ "

The man raised his hands in defense. "I was sixteen at the time!" he cried. "And I worked my ass off just like you and the rest of Team 12 to get here!"

"Bullshit!" Keiichi proclaimed. "You had it handed to you on a silver platter!"

"The fuck I did!" Braxton replied. "I forgot about that fucking wish until I joined the Navy at eighteen. I did everything I could to hit the books and keep myself in peak condition for tryouts. I wasn't even in the top ten percent of folks graduating, and what's your excuse?!" he demanded. "You're shacking up with at _least_ two goddesses, three if you include that hot Skuld-chick, and now you've got Peorth as well?!" He looked between Keiichi and Peorth in disbelief. "What the fuck did _you_ wish for, a goddamned harem? You should know that multiple wives aren't recognized outside of Utah!"

"You crack one more joke about either of those women being my wives and I'm going to shove my fist up your ass to the elbow, and then I'm going to abort your intestines, you cuntwaffle," Keiichi said. "I never wished for anything other than the wish meant for me to be transferred off to Belldandy. And when did you-" He froze, recalling Easter's barbeque. "You fucking knew all along!" the man yelped. "You weren't hitting on Belldandy, you were asking her a fucking question!"

"Well no fucking shit!" Braxton replied. "Jesus, man, I know I'm a bit of an assclown when it comes to women, but I try and take your words into consideration when meeting some chick whose gone seen some shit! But she's a fucking _goddess!_ And that Urd-chick who was with you at the bar that one night! What the fuck!"

" _Mademoiselle_ Belldandy was given the wish in _Monsieur_ Keiichi's stead," Peorth replied, watching the two SEALs argue in amusement. "Which is one reason I am here, as his case file is still open." She shook her head. "And _Monsieur_ Morisato, please do not view _Monsieur_ Braxton in such a negative light. The System Force works in as natural a manner as possible per the laws of the world its will is enacted upon. He _did_ earn his title. Perhaps the System Force improved his memory, perhaps it made him more tenacious or improved his strength and endurance. But it was not merely, ah, how did you put it? 'Handed to him on a silver platter', I believe it was. Such would be against the laws of this land."

Braxton's eyes widened. "Wait, so you're telling me Morisato hasn't even made his wish yet?" He looked at Keiichi. "What the fuck?"

Peorth sighed and shook her head. "So many obscenities," she muttered. Her expression darkened. "At least I can understand these though."

"No I haven't made my wish yet." Keiichi didn't hear Peorth's comments. "I keep telling her I don't _want_ a wish, but she won't fucking leave!"

"That is because he does have a wish, but he does not wish to see it fulfilled!" Peorth's response was louder this time. "He wishes to sleep with a goddess, but does not wish to commit!"

"God damn it, Peorth!" Keiichi snarled.

Braxton crossed his arms across his chest and glared at Keiichi. "Oh, so _I'm_ Johnny Bravo?" he snapped. "Where the fuck you get off on giving _me_ that call sign when you want to go and have a shag with a divine goddess?"

" _I don't!"_ Keiichi roared. "What I really want is Peorth out of my house and out of my business and I want you to shut the fuck up about all of this bullshit!"

"So then you don't want to sleep with Belldandy," said Braxton, a knowing smirk forming on his face.

"No! I mean yes! I mean… GOD DAMMIT!" He wheeled on Peorth, eyes raging. "Fine! If this is what it will take to get you the fuck out of my life, then fine!"

"I wish Belldandy would sleep with me!"

It was a stupid comment. One said in anger. One said in frustration. Perhaps one even said in futility and desperation. Keiichi froze, eyes wide, and beside him Braxton's jaw fell open. Peorth's eyebrows raised in surprise, like a woman baiting a dog with food and then startled when it bit her.

Nothing happened.

Braxton looked at Keiichi with wide eyes. "Morisato, are you fucking _serious_ right now?" he snapped. "You're just gonna use a wish to sleep with someone without consent? That's called rape, you know!"

"No!" Keiichi cried. "Because that's not what I want! See?" He gestured to the goddess who was staring at him wide-eyed. "Nothing is fucking happening!" He waved his arm around the room, still filled with its plush carpet and expensive furniture. "What I want is-"

"To sleep with me, it seems." Peorth snapped out of her shock, derailing Keiichi's comments before the man had a chance to respond.

Keiichi went red in the face. "The fuck I do!" he roared. "You fucking touch me and I will break your fucking hands!"

"Yet you are still here..." Peorth leaned back in her chair, not at all riled by Keiichi's display of temper. "Then perhaps...well there is no one else, clearly your heart lies with Urd!"

"The Frog Hog?" Braxton muttered.

" _No!"_ Keciichi howled. "All of you just shut the fuck-"

"So then there is only one other option then." Though not once did Peorth raise her voice, somehow she still managed to speak over Keiichi's cries. "The only conclusion left is that you want to sleep with _all_ of us!" She laughed. "My, it's been quite a long time since I've enjoyed _that_ kind of fun."

Keiichi jerked back as though he'd been slapped, eyes wide. " _NO!_ " He exclaimed. "I want nothing to do with you, I don't want to have a fucking orgy, and I don't want to sleep with Bell or Urd! Now would you ever so kindly fuck off to the house where we can discuss your upcoming eviction when I get home tonight?" He wheeled to Braxton. "You. You will not say a fucking word to McGuinness or the others, or so help me you will wake up one day with a Colombian Neck Tie. We'll talk more on this in private. Now help me drag McGuinness out of this cesspool of shit and rouse the others. We need to let the Cadre know we're at ENDEX."

Braxton grunted, mean mugging the man as Keiichi stormed past him and glancing back at Peorth. The goddess was wearing a strange, thoughtful look on her face, yet when she caught his eye it vanished behind a smile. "It was a pleasure seeing you again, _Monsieur._ "

Braxton didn't respond, instead rushing off after Keiichi and helping the man drag McGuinness's almost three hundred pounds of muscled body out of the room. The door slammed shut behind the SEALs, bounced, and flew back open, and with it Peorth was gone. There was nothing but a dusty makeshift room with a mannequin dressed in rags in her place. Both the conscious SEALs could hear Peorth's parting words leave the mannequin's sealed lips. " _I'll figure this out,_ Monsieur _..."_

Keiichi scrunched his face up in irritation, then kneeled down to check on his teammates. Braxton mimed him, helping him prop the three unconscious men up against the wall. He looked over at Keiichi with a sidelong glance. "So...does this mean I have to redo my eval?" He asked.

"Shut up, Braxton."

XXX

"So you're telling me that somehow, someway, Magilla scored a _second_ wish?" Skuld looked between her two sisters in disbelief, then looked over at Peorth. The goddess in question was sitting a deliberate distance away from the three sisters in one of the dining room chairs that had been dragged to the living room, with Belldandy and Urd on the couch and Skuld on the recliner. "Okay...seriously guys. What the fuck."

The younger woman was mildly surprised when instead of scolding her for her choice in language, instead Belldandy shrugged. "I have come to wonder this as well," she grumbled.

The black haired Norn release a sharp bark of laughter. "So what's Magilla going to wish for? A gold plated toilet seat?"

Belldandy chortled, and Peorth stared at Skuld in alarm. "How did you know that?!" she demanded.

"Know what?"

Peorth eyed Skuld for a moment, then shook her head. "Nevermind."

"Seriously though, can't he just wish for you to go home, Peorth?" Skuld continued. "No offense, but from what I'm hearing it sounds like that's what _he_ wants you to do, along with everyone else in the house. Even you."

" _Vous parlez de ce que nous voyons tous,"_ Peorth muttered. "Unfortunate as it is though, I can do nothing. My departure is not what his heart desires, or I would have left at the drop of a hat. What's more, he refuses to acknowledge what his heart so desires," she cast a look to Belldandy, "and until he _does_ acknowledge that and accept it as truth, I cannot leave."

"What's he want?"

Belldandy spoke up. "Peorth, if you say a word, I will come to you in the middle of the night, throttle you, bind you, and leave you outside for that puma to feast on." The woman said in as pleasant a way as possible. Her tone would have been more in place if she had asked someone to do the dishes or walk a dog if they had one.

Peorth eyed the goddess warily and scooted her chair a little closer to Skuld.

"Wow," Skuld said, looking between the two women with a raised brow. "It must be real bad if _Belldandy_ is throwing threats. Normally that's Urd's job."

"Hey," Urd said sharply. "Watch it."

"See?" Skuld said, gesturing with an open palm to Urd. "Still, I wonder what it is...I mean, it's not like he wants to sleep with Belldandy, right?"

Two of the four goddesses winced.

"Wait." Skuld's eyes widened as they darted between Belldandy and Urd. "You can't be- _for real_?" The youngest Norn leaned forwards in the chair, her jaw dropping in surprise. "Are you-are you fucking _serious_?! His heart's desire is to sleep with Belldandy?!"

"To sleep with _someone_ ," Peorth grumbled, eyeing the two Norns on the couch. "Yet he refuses to act on that call, to even consider it may exist. He cannot make a wish that will be acknowledged by the System Force without at least understanding that."

"Oh Yggdrasil." Skuld ran her hands through her hair in a gesture Belldandy had seen from Urd many times growing up. "This is...for fucks sake, guys. Can't he just wish really, really hard on that gold-plated toilet seat? 'I wish I may, I wish I might, have this wish to shit on a gold-plated toilet seat tonight?'"

She was not encouraged when all three of her older companions groaned.

"Where is that overgrown gorilla anyways?" Skuld asked, deciding it would be a good time to change topics. "Isn't he normally back by now?"

"Exercise," Urd replied. "He'll be back in maybe...one, closer to two hours with changeover and traffic."

"Thank Yggdrasil for small blessings," Skuld muttered under her breath. In a louder voice she said, "Oh, by the way, I was able to look into that thing you asked about, Belldandy. Think we can talk about it offline?"

"Thing?" Peorth eyed the two sisters in interest.

Skuld waved her off. "Nothing big-Bell just wanted to see if I could get something from home is all."

"Don't pry Peorth," Urd warned, then rose to her feet and stretched. "You guys might as well talk about your thing now. If I'm to judge on trends, shit's gonna hit the fan anyway when Keiichi comes back, and I'm going to need your help to keep these two from killing each other, Skuld."

"My help?" The Norn scoffed. "As in, me help _Magilla_? Screw that, I'm getting a bowl of popcorn and watching this shit like it's the newest season of Jerry Springer."

"What's 'Jerry Springer?" Belldandy and Peorth chorused, then shot each other a glare.

Urd stared at Skuld in annoyance, her left eye twitching. "You know, I could have lived a long and happy life never having learned that my family life was being compared to Jerry Springer, Skuld."

"Anything to help, Urd."

XXX

"So you had some luck in locating a TIC for me?" Belldandy double-checked the lock on her door and satisfied, turned back to Skuld.

"Yep." Skuld's smile was large. "Turns out Papa was working on getting a TIC for you as soon as word reached home. Problem is that most of the TICs had never come across a case like yours before and ended up throwing a pissing match on who was most qualified to help you out."

Belldandy looked at her sister in surprise, then grimaced. "I should have known," she grumbled. "The joys of being the Daitenkaicho's daughter."

Skuld shrugged, unconcerned. "Hey, better for them to be fighting over you as the best of the best rather than never knowing you existed."

"So who is the TIC?"

"Some old woman who's been in the business for a long time," Skuld said. "And...okay, so I know I'm going to fuck up the name, but bear with me. I've heard it flung around a grand total of three times, and each time it's a different name. It's..." She pursed her lips. "It's either Sus-is-ta-nako, Na-ash-jay Asd-za, or Kok-yang-wuti." She sounded out each name carefully, then looked at Belldandy with a helpless shrug. "She's one of _those_ people. Everyone's got a different name for her and she wasn't originally from Asgard."

"Did you have a chance to meet her?" Belldandy asked.

"Yeah." Skuld nodded. "Made me feel real bad 'cause I couldn't say her name right, but she's pretty cool. She just laughed and offered me a smoke-that's the one thing I'm not much of a fan about, she's a freaking chain smoker-but otherwise she doesn't seem that bad. She couldn't come down with me immediately, and now I'm kind of grateful for it; given the general madness that seems to be going around here, I feel like she'd have a heart attack with all the excitement. She's pretty old Belldandy."

"A chain-smoking old woman, you say?" Belldandy raised an eyebrow.

Skuld flushed. "Yeah, when you put it that way. In layman's terms, yes."

"Did you notice anything resembling an hourglass on her person?" Belldandy asked. "A tattoo perhaps, or the shape of her sigil?"

The younger woman shook her head. "No, sorry. I was pretty nervous talking to her, actually. She's got...she's got some weird energy going for her. It made the hair on my arms stand up just talking to her, like there were spiders crawling on my arms or something. Why?"

"No reason," Belldandy said. "Did she have an estimated time she'd be able to descend?"

"Probably around Sunday or so," Skuld said. "I know it's still a couple of days away, but she needed to make sure she didn't jump the gun or anything."

"No, no, this is fine," Belldandy assured. "I still must deal with Peorth, and this should give _us_ time to be done with this absurdity and return things to normal." She pursed her lips. "In the meantime, I have another favor I want to ask you, Skuld."

"What's up?" Skuld leaned forward in interest.

"Well..."

XXX

Keiichi was fit to be tied when he came home that night. McGuinness, Jackson, and Sanchez were both okay when they'd finally roused, though the explanation on what had happen to lead them to their new state of unconsciousness had been a hairy situation. Between Keiichi and Braxton, they'd somehow managed to pull an excuse out of their asses where all five of them had been knocked out, though Keiichi could tell by the look on McGuinness's face that the man hadn't believed a word of it.

The man had been quick to call an ENDEX to the exercise and cancelled Braxton's eval, just as the younger man had feared. Then McGuinness had taken it a step further by condemning the building before gathering all the volunteers and cadre and debriefing all of them on what had happened. Keiichi had sat in a room being questioned on what he remembered for three hours before they'd finally given up and blamed it on possible chemical exposure. Following that had come a _second_ debrief between McGuinness, Braxton, and himself that had left both of the enlisted members grasping for believable straws that would throw McGuinness off their scent. There'd been cameras in the room. _Cameras._ Cameras meant to record the team's reactions and to point out improvements that could have been made during training and instead showed strange, ghostly footage that no one could make rhyme or reason of.

Braxton had tried to blow it off as a ghost in the machine. Keiichi had followed him in stating the cameras were old.

McGuinness had replied that they'd just spent close to five grand refitting all the grainy, pre-eighties cameras with newer, HD models not even a year ago.

"Gremlins, Sir."

"Those green skinned fuckers from that movie?" McGuinness had demanded. "No. I wasn't born yesterday and I'd appreciate it if you stopped acting like I was. Now _what the hell happened?"_

Keiichi had shared a look with Braxton. The man had returned it with a wide, confused one of his own that made him look eighteen all over again. They had both looked back at McGuinness and shrugged. "Gremlins."

"The two of you asshats are gremlins." McGuinness groused, but he'd relented after that. Without further details or footage that could hint at what might have happened, the man was empty-handed. Keiichi and Braxton had wisely stayed out of his way after that.

Yet the anger of that early afternoon had never left Keiichi, and after a long and exhausting day dwelling on the incident, he raced up the driveway, parked the Harley in front of the garage, and stormed inside through the front door. "PEORTH!" he roared. "PACK YOUR SHIT! YOU'RE LEAVING!" The door slammed shut behind him with enough force to make the walls rattle. "I want you out of this house NOW! _"_

The man stormed down the hallway and into the living room. Urd and Skuld stared at him with matching startled expressions, taken aback by the man's rage. Keiichi's eyes didn't even see Skuld, and seeing no sign of the woman he hunted, the man continued on his path of destruction.

"Damn," Skuld whispered. A bowl of popcorn manifested in her lap. "Wasn't expecting the show to start so soon." She threw a kernel in her mouth and looked at Urd, who was staring at her in disbelief. She offered her older sister the bowl. "Want some?"

Keiichi stormed into the kitchen, looking every bit the scary Navy SEAL that so often came with his profession. Belldandy and Peorth sat in the dining room. It looked like for once, they'd been having a moment's grace of peace prior to Keiichi's arrival, and now both women stared at him in shocked silence. "You!" Keiichi pointed to Peorth. "Out. Now."

Neither goddess moved. In the hallway, Urd and Skuld peered out from the living room.

" _Monsieur?"_ Peorth asked. "Perhaps you should calm-"

"No." Keiichi cut her off. "No. You had your chance. Fuck with me. Fine. I can deal with that. I can deal with anything you throw at me. So long as it's _me._ " The man pounded his chest while clenching and unclenching his other hand, still adorned in his thick leather motorcycle gloves. "But I draw the line with my team. That was the last straw, Peorth. You don't fuck with my team."

" _Monsieur_ , I-" Peorth tried to speak and once again was interrupted.

"The last person to fuck with my team like that was Urd." Keiichi's voice rose to drown out her protest, and again Peorth fell silent. "Do you know what I almost did after that? I almost filled her head with a fucking magazine of lead." He held up his hand, displaying his index and thumb. "I came this close," There was only a tiny gap between the index and thumb, they were so close to touching. "This _fucking_ close to pulling the trigger on her."

Behind him Urd winced. Skuld, still shoveling handfuls of popcorn into her mouth, patted her shoulder with little sympathy.

"Is this how you fucking represent yourself down here?" Keiichi went on. "By giving fuck-all's worth about the people around you? Do you even fucking care about what you pulled back there? Urd at least had the fucking decency to make sure none of them were hurt by her magic, but you?" He tugged at his hair, exasperated beyond all measures. "Hey look, interlopers! Whoops, not anymore! Oh look, one of them is still standing, better increase the animal tranquilizer and knock him out, ha! What's an overdose? Oh, one of them has a bloody nose from possible brain damage? Sucks to be him, 'casue I ain't checking to make sure he's okay."

Peorth leaned back, "I'm sure the man was fine-"

"Oh yeah, sure, McGuinness was fine!" Keiichi snapped. "Fine as far as any of the docs could tell, and let me let you in on a little secret, Peorth, military doctors ain't the class A act they should be. And if he happens to have a seizure later on down the road? If a fucking tumor grows in his brain because a fucking god decided he needed to go 'nighty night' without looking at what light switch she switched off? Well too bad, so sad, he was an old man anyways. Those things happen to folks up there in age and the god responsible is long gone. Fuck you. Fuck your wish. Get the fuck out of my house before I drag you out myself."

" _Monsieur_ , I can't-" Peorth was growing more and more distressed as the attacks were raised against her.

"No!" Keiichi yelled, once again cutting her off. "I'm not done yet. Your opportunity to explain yourself passed when your last fuck flied out the window by claiming I wanted an orgy with everyone in the fucking house."

"Oh shit," Skuld, ever helpful, whispered.

"Do you know who these men fucking _are_ , Peorth?" Keiichi was ranting now but showed no signs of slowing, no signs of _caring_. Peorth was going to sit and listen until either she left the fucking house or ripped his fucking throat out. "Angel has saved my life more times than I can count. He was the motherfucker who dug a six inch piece of steel out of my leg after I almost got blown up by an IED. If not for him, they'd have amputated my fucking leg-I might not even have _survived_ that deploymentif not for him. Brian? He's my best friend. He is my fucking _mentor_. He taught me everything I fucking know, straight down to the fucking value of human life! 'Roll with the punches', 'don't judge on first impressions', 'everyone's got a story to tell if you take the time to listen'. I wouldn't be half the man I am right now if not for his guidance. And McGuinness! Christian himself! I'd be dead ten times over if not for him!" The man's face was deepening from red to purple and veins were starting to bulge and pulse in his forehead. "This was the motherfucker who shoved his own fingers down my throat when I tried to eat a fucking bottle of pills going through my divorce with Deb! He's the one that got me to Mental Health after I killed a five year old boy!"

Peorth pushed her chair out and away from Keiichi. Keiichi dogged her on. "And you? Does the thought that maybe, _maybe_ these people might mean something to me ever cross your mind? That they might have lives, that they might have families, ever enter your thick skull? Or is it too filled with the idea of me fucking a god in the ass to ever register in your head?"

He stopped there, panting, staring at her with a black expression. "No," he said. "Maybe they aren't 'people' to you. Hell, maybe _I'm_ not a person to you-maybe I'm just a fucking case number, but god _damn_ it they're people to me, they matter to me, and for their sake I want you _out of my fucking life."_ He breathed heavily, deeply, and then stomped past her into the kitchen and towards the door leading to the back porch. Belldandy, standing frozen near the kitchen bar, stumbled away from him as though he was on fire. Keiichi didn't notice.

Instead Keiichi grabbed the handle to the back door and pushed it down, intent on forcing Peorth out of the house one way or another. The door didn't budge as he tried to yank it open, and growling, he twisted the small lock located in the handle. Perhaps in his frustration he hadn't noticed the door was locked. Again he pushed down and out, and again the door didn't move, leaving the raging man to swear violently. "Fucking door chooses now of all fucking times to fucking jam-" He took a step back, raised his right leg and thrust his foot forward, smashing it hard against the wooden door. It impacted right next to the handle, close to where the lock was next to the wood. The door rattled loudly yet made no other indication that he'd damaged the door enough to force it open.

"The fuck!?" Keiichi roared, and everyone present winced. The man's voice was growing shrill. The SEAL stepped back and tried again, gaining the same result. He wheeled to the women in the room. "What the hell is going on?" he demanded. "You guys magicked the fucking door?"

"Keiichi, nobody here's used any magic to-" Belldandy started, yet the man was already off, abandoning the back door and heading towards the front door. He was walking with a noticeable limp.

Skuld took one look at Keiichi's face and backpeddled. "Fuck this, I'm out," she said, retreating into the living room as Urd moved forward, blocking his way.

"Move Urd." Keiichi growled. "I'm fixing this problem right here and now. Peorth is leaving even if I have to tear this house apart board by board.

"No," Urd said firmly. "Peorth isn't going anywhere." Keiichi's face lit anew with fresh rage, and the man snarled at her. It looked barbaric. Urd stood her ground however, as unphased with his anger as she was standing with Belldandy and facing down the cougar.

Behind him Belldandy's voice rose. "Keiichi, she _can't_ leave." Her voice was quiet. "The reason she's been pressing us so hard is because she physically cannot leave Midgard until you've made your wish. She wants to leave but she can't until she fulfills her purpose here."

"Gold plated toilet seat!" Skuld cried from where she was hiding in the living room.

"Are. You. Serious," Keiichi ground out. A corner of his lips quivered.

"Keiichi," Urd slowly reached out, keeping her hands visible, and rested her hands on Keiichi's shoulders. "I never thought I'd say this, but you're scaring us." She met his eyes and held them. "You need to calm down, and you're not going to do that trying to smash doors open. The System Force won't let you kick Peorth out until it acknowledges your wish as fulfilled."

"You're hurting yourself." Belldandy's voice was quiet and somber behind him. "You need to calm down. Please."

Something in her voice made Keiichi pause. He tore his gaze from Urd, though the imprint of her eyes still remained in his mind's eye. He looked to Belldandy and for the first time that night saw how drawn and pale she was. She was gripping the countertop with one hand. The knuckles were white, the porcelain around it, cracking. She watched him with a guarded expression, her body angled towards him in a slim profile, as though presenting a smaller target to strike from some invisible opponent. For one brief and horrible moment Keiichi saw how Belldandy had witnessed Aoshima; a predator of unfiltered rage and lust.

A sick lump filled his gut, and unable to hold Belldandy's quiet, observing eyes he looked instead to Peorth, who'd risen from her chair and had moved to the far wall, keeping the table and chairs between herself and him, alarm and yes, fear, splayed open and naked across her face.

"Keiichi, look at me." He found his gaze drawn back to Urd. "You and I are going into the garage. I'm transfiguring us some mats. We're going to have a throwdown until you get this out of your system, alright?"

"I don't want-" He started to argue, then stopped himself, gritting his teeth and growling. He glanced back over his shoulder at Belldandy. The woman's expression hadn't changed. For whatever reason it made him angry all over again. "Fine!" He snapped, and Urd released him, stepping out of his way and allowing him to pass by.

The man stopped near the living room's corridor, staring at Skuld, who watched him partially hidden by the Ugly Beast's broad back as though noticing her for the first time. "And the Poodle's here as well!" He cried. "Fantastic!" Storming past the living room, he headed to the door leading down to the garage. He tugged at it experimentally, and as it gave in to his demands the SEAL stomped down the stairs, leaving the many goddesses to breath a sigh of relief.

"We need to do something about this wish, Peorth," Belldandy said, glancing towards the woman in question. "A wish is supposed to fulfill the heart's desire of the client, not cause them needless distress."

"I'm aware of that," Peorth said, her voice soft and humbled after the display of anger. "I am not trying to cause him distress, but the sooner he succumbs and acknowledges what his heart desires, the faster I can be away from this place." In a softer voice she added, "I did not mean to anger him so."

"He wasn't angry," Belldandy said.

Peorth looked at the goddess in surprise. "What do you mean?"

"He wasn't angry," Belldandy repeated. "At least, not originally. He was frightened. Frightened for his team." The goddess looked at her, and Peorth bit her lip and looked down to the floor. "Everything he said was about his team." The Norn paused before speaking again. "I don't know what you did, Peorth, but it sounded careless."

"I was expecting Keiichi to be alone," Peorth admitted. "The men who were with him caught me off guard. It was not my intent to harm any of them. I just wanted to ensure they did not draw unnecessary attention to us." She looked up at Urd. "Was it true, what he said? Did he almost come so close to..."

Urd rolled her shoulders in a brusque shrug. "Doesn't matter now," she said. "He didn't, and he's angrier right now than any other time I've known him in five years." She pursed her lips. "You guys need to figure out how to get this wish problem resolved. It'll kill him before he ever admits to what's in his heart, especially after what you went through, Bell. He's letting you lead this dance so that you come to him when _you're_ ready, not the other way around."

Belldandy sighed. She looked tired. "I know," she admitted. "And I fear I will not be ready until it's too late." She rubbed her temples before letting her hand flop uselessly to her side. "What are you planning to do with him, Urd? He needs to calm down."

"Going to spar with him a little bit," Urd revealed. "Give him time to vent and wear himself out. Then I think I'll go and make some calls and check in on the rest of Team 12."

"Is that a wise decision?" Peorth asked.

The Norn shrugged. "Been sparring him and the others for over five years now," she confessed. "I know him well enough to read his moves so he won't catch me off guard and I know how much strength is too much for a mortal." She looked back to Belldandy. "I won't let him hurt himself, Bell."

The goddess sighed in relief. "Thank you."

Urd headed for the garage door, and as she passed Skuld peeked up once again. She looked over at Peorth. "So...as I was saying..."

Peorth sighed in aggravated annoyance. "Enough with the gold plated toilet seats!"

XXX

It took Keiichi close to two hours to calm down. Two hours of katas and combinations, of punches and kicks, of throws and pins on the blue mats Urd and created out of thin air. The shelves and boxes that more often littered the walls vanished in place of punching bags and training equipment, and it was only under Urd's assurance that his possessions were still accessible that the man didn't loose his temper all over again.

"I feel trapped, Urd." Keiichi confessed as he threw a series of punches at her. "This fucking wish has me locked with a woman who I can't stand, and now this stupid System Force of you won't even allow me to open the goddamned doors outside."

"Smashing Pumpkins said it best." Urd was holding a pair of punching mits up for him, and the punches hit the blue padding with loud, solid _smacks_. "Despite all my rage I'm still just a rat in a cage."

Keiichi grunted. "What the hell am I supposed to do?!" he demanded, more to himself than to Urd. Urd let him vent. "I don't give a shit what Peorth claims is in my heart. Do I want to sleep with Belldandy? Okay, yeah, maybe on some level I do, but I want to do it when she's _whole_. When she's healed. When she's over this goddamned bullshit and we're both in a stable enough frame of mind where that's a goal worth looking at." He threw an elbow into the mits, and listening to Urd's soft call for numbers, followed through with a left upper cut and a right hook. "But Peorth is acting like I need to rush into the relationship when Bell's not ready. I don't want that! It could hurt us both, so fuck her and fuck this goddamned wish."

"Knee," Urd murmured, bringing the mits together and lowering them from her face to her chest. Keiichi, still growling, followed her instruction and launched a sharp knee into the padding. Urd grunted.

"And now this crazy bitch is getting my team involved!" Keiichi cried. "McGuinness must be one tough son of a bitch, because the first hit didn't take him out. But I tell Peorth to stop, because fuck, after the past months with you I _know_ what that shit can do to a guy's mind, but does she? Fuck no, she cranks that shit up to eleven and brings him to his fucking knees!" The man stepped back, and as Urd readied herself and called out a command, he launched a sharp low kick towards the mits with an inarticulate roar. The force behind the blow was enough to make Urd stumble back.

Keiichi stopped there, panting heavily, and Urd took the moment to recover and shake her hands. "I'll check in with McGuinness and the others and make sure none of them were harmed," Urd said.

The man wiped his brow with a rag. It came away dark with sweat. "And if they are?" Keiichi demanded. "If McGuinness has a fucking clot in his brain because Peorth's little stunt snipped a cluster of nerves? What then? You're not a brain surgeon, Urd."

"No, but I am a goddess," she reminded him. "And I know a bit more about human anatomy than you might know. If there's any damage done to him, I'll find it, and I'll fix it." She pursed her lips. "I made a promise to myself that I wouldn't let anything bad happen to you guys. Not if it was within my power to stop. That goes for off the battlefield as well, and hold's especially true for gods _or_ demons who try and pull shit on you in my neck of the woods. I know I don't show it often, and things have gotten a little...weird with Belldandy around now, but I still care about the team." She took the mits off and wiped her hands on her shorts. "You want to move into some pins?" she asked.

"I fucking hate getting on my back," Keiichi grumbled.

"Which means you need to practice," Urd replied. "And so do I."

"Fine," Keiichi growled.

They'd been going at it close to half an hour before either of them noticed who had come to watch them. Neither of them noticed Belldandy's appearance until probably around the point Keiichi had thrown Urd over his shoulder, given the man was pretty sure the goddess hadn't been there prior. The middle Norn stood pressed in a corner near the door, trying to be as unobtrusive as possible as she watched in open curiosity.

"You want to join us?" Keiichi asked. Urd was pinned beneath him and trying to maneuver herself into a position where she could free herself. He released her and let the woman recover. Both of them were panting solidly now, and the edge of Keiichi's anger had faded. It was still there, but more manageable now. Workable. Something he could maneuver into something productive.

"I feel I would be interrupting," Belldandy said. "I just wanted to watch."

"Nonsense," Urd breathed. "I need someone else who can wind Keiichi before I take a shot at him. I'm tired of smelling his stinky pits."

"You don't smell like flowers either," Keiichi grumbled, shooting the goddess a glare before waving Belldandy over. "Come on. We'll show you some stuff. It'll be fun."

Belldandy still looked reluctant.

"It's good stuff," Urd said. "I used it to take Lind out."

The goddess bit her lip. "But I might hurt Keiichi," she said. "I'm not sure-"

"You practice on me then," Urd interrupted. "You know me-tough as nails, gets kicked by Sleipnir and brushes it off like it was nothing. It'll be fine."

"Sleipnir?" Keiichi looked between the two sisters with a raised brow.

"Grandfather's horse," Urd said. "Eight legs of foul tempter, speed, and utter loathing. Mean bastard. Only three people can approach him without getting mauled. Grandfather, Father, and one of our uncles."

"Four," Belldandy said. "That horse adores you, Urd."

"If you call almost getting trampled to death 'affection'," Urd grumbled. "Now get over here, I don't want to think about that monster unless I want to _dream_ about him, and I'm not ready for a mad run around Asgard again. Once was enough, thank you very much."

Keiichi raised an eyebrow, his curiosity peaked, yet the sisters let the topic drop, and sensing now wasn't the time to ask, he returned to the matter at hand. "Urd's got a point though," he said. "It never hurts to have new tools in your arsenal to defend yourself, and if you practice on Urd, then there's less of a risk of injury. Let us teach you a couple of moves, and if you still don't like it after this one session we will let it drop."

Belldandy still looked uncertain, but in the end, under the combined coaxing of both Keiichi and Urd, allowed the duo to show her some beginning techniques. By then Keiichi's anger had almost faded completely. After so many years in the service, one thing he'd found a love for was instruction and teaching. Showing Belldandy how to properly fall and grab placed him in a frame of mind far from the events of the day, and by the time all three of them called it quits Keiichi was in a significantly better mood.

"Let's call it for the night," Keiichi said, watching as Belldandy dragged Urd to the ground for the fifth time that night. The brunette goddess was sprite eyed and smiling, though it was hard to say if she realized it or not. Her cheeks were flushed in her face, and at Keiich's call she offered a hand to Urd, pulling the older woman to her feet. "What do you think?" the man asked. "Want to learn some more moves?"

"It'd give you something to keep you busy with everything that's going on." Urd sided with him. "Help clear your mind, and I need a sparring buddy who I don't need to worry about hurting too badly. Skuld's only here for a little while, and I can only get so many sessions in with her."

"You spar with Skuld?" Belldandy looked at her sister in surprise as they wiped off the mats and cleaned up the garage.

"Yep," Urd muttered a spell under her breath, and the mats vanished in place of the standard shelves and boxes Keiichi was more familiar with. "Everything I learned down here I started teaching her once I went back to Midgard. Afghanistan was an eye opener for me. After the situation that led to my meeting with Team 12, I wanted to make sure Skuld knew how to defend herself. She still hasn't mastered magic yet, so I wanted to make sure she had a fall back in case things got hairy." She smirked. "She's a natural with it. We spar and I'm the one who always ends up tapping somehow, no matter how much I practice. She doesn't like talking about it though since no one in Asgard can relate to her. But you get her on the mats with you, she turns into a completely different person. It's crazy."

"I'll have to keep that in mind," Belldandy said, then looked to Keiichi with a small, shy smile. "And yes," She admitted, "I believe I would enjoy further lessons."

Keiichi returned it with a broad, toothy one of his own. The anger was gone, passed overhead likes a summer storm, and his smile beamed to Belldandy like a warm ray of sunlight. "Wonderful." He replied. "Now let's head upstairs and see if I can look Peorth in the eye without wanting to throw her outside."

"Don't' jinx it." Urd warned.

"Now let's see if I can look the Poodle in the eye without wanting to throw her outside." Keiichi replied.

"Better." Urd said.

Belldandy, a growing smile of her own on her face, found herself in agreement. "Much better."

* * *

 **A/N: Peorth, will you please stop! And Skuld is being her usual, helpful self. Fun times in the Morisato household. Wonder what Bell and Peorth were talking about so calmly when Keiichi got home?**

* * *

 _Comments of a Madwoman: It's amazing how, when looked for a more serious perspective, just how serious a situation can become. What can seem whimsical and harmless to one person could be seen as damaging and terrifying to another, and it can destroy their credibility and the relationship they are trying so hard to create._


	27. Chapter 27 - La Cinquième Déesse

l

-27-

Skuld ended up rooming with Urd that night, as she had in the first weeks after Belldandy's rescue. Like the night prior, Belldandy ended up sleeping in Keiichi's room with Keiichi on the Ugly Beast and Peorth in Belldandy's room. The evening this time around ended on almost peaceful terms following Keiichi's storm earlier that evening. Nobody wanted to spur another fight, and even Skuld was on her best behavior.

With the evening's calm had come another attempt to open the doors leading outside. This time the front door opened without resistance, and the look of relief that had shown on Keiichi's face was so great that more than one goddess felt a bit guilty. "Last thing I need is for my own house to become a jail," Keiichi had muttered. "Hey Bell, is this 'System Force' thing an actual creature? Like, can it think and comprehend complex thoughts like you or me?"

"It's hard to say," Belldandy replied. "It has a presence that is not dictated by gods or demons as a force of fate and destiny, and senses intent more than the actual thoughts of those creatures that reside on the many planes. Many deities had theorized it might be sentient, but-"

"What I'm really asking is this," Keiichi interrupted, catching Belldandy off-guard. "If I tell the System Force to 'fuck off', do you think it will listen?"

"Stronger gods have tried and failed, Magilla," Skuld said in passing.

"Damn it."

It was going on midnight when Urd called it quits for the night. "It's exhausting managing the two of you with how you bicker," she said, glancing between Peorth and Belldandy. "And I'm sore after letting you toss me around like a ragdoll, Bell. I'm done."

"Dibs!"

"What?"

"Dibs," Skuld repeated, trailing after Urd up the stairs. "If Bell tossed you around today, then I get a go at you tomorrow. It's only fair."

"Fucking Christ on a donkey," Urd grumbled. "Watch. Lind's going to appear this weekend and ask for a rematch right after you beat the crap out of me, and then I'll be too sore to defend myself!" she groused.

"Nah, she'll have other things to worry about."

"The hell is that supposed to mean?" Urd demanded. Their voices grew muffled as they progressed up the stairs.

"What's what mean?" Those were Skuld's ending words as the two sisters retired that night.

Keiichi sighed. "Might as well do the same," he said. "I've got another early day tomorrow."

Belldandy looked at him in concern. "But tomorrow is Saturday," she said. "I thought this was the end of your exercise."

"It is," Keiichi replied. "But the team is signed up for a base fun run early tomorrow morning. A ten mile run around the major roads in Norfolk, and I need to get there a little earlier because Braxton and I were... _volunteered_ as road guards."

"I see..." Belldandy looked a little disappointed. She looked around, and satisfied that Peorth was preoccupied with... something, Yggdrasil knew what, she took the moment to lean into Keiichi. Startled, Keiichi put a hesitant arm around her in turn, and the goddess sighed deeply. "I had hoped to spend a bit of time with you." She rested her head on his shoulder- Belldandy was taller by Keiichi by a good couple of inches- and the SEAL responded with a tender hug.

"We'll work on it," Keiichi assured her. In a lower voice he whispered, "Maybe we can get Urd to scare her away with Skuld."

It elicited a chuckle from the goddess. "Perhaps…" she murmured. "Thank you for being so tolerant of our behavior," the Norn said. "I know it's been difficult for you. Our behavior since Peorth's descent has been a deplorable representation of gods these past several days." She hesitated a moment, then moved in and planted a light kiss on Keiichi's lips. She looked at him earnestly, and for a second, to Keiichi, it looked like she wanted to say more, to do more, only for the goddess to bite her lip and look away.

Keiichi ended the embrace with no small amount of reluctance. "Once Peorth is sorted out," he said. He wasn't certain if he uttered the words for himself or to Belldandy. "We get Peorth and this wish sorted out first, and then, well..." He shrugged and grinned at her, and the Norn returned it with a weak one of her own.

It hadn't taken Peorth much convincing to go to bed that night either. The goddess was withdrawn after Keiichi had lost his temper with her that evening, and seemed more than ready to retire for the night as well. Keiichi once more had a change of uniform on the coffee table, this one a pt uniform for the upcoming run, and the evening lengthened into a peaceful, blessedly quiet night.

Right up until a shriek rang out at a quarter to two in the morning.

Belldandy awoke with a start, eyes wide and breath expelling from her in a gasp. She looked around, for a moment not recognizing Keiichi's room. The scream began to fall silent, and with it, Belldandy sighed and allowed herself to collapse back onto Keiich's bed. "Looks like it worked," she mumbled.

With a sigh and a slight smile tugging at one corner of her lip, the goddess rolled onto her side, hugged her pillow and snuggled up to the Sailor Teddy Keiichi that Aiko had lent her. She was back asleep in minutes.

Which was a bit more than what some of the other household residents could say. Skuld jumped, eyes flying open and falling still as the scream penetrated the house. Her most immediate thought was _danger_ , which was then discarded as she recalled Belldandy's request from Friday evening. Had she been alone, Skuld too, would have returned to sleep without a care in the world.

Unfortunately, she was sleeping in the same room as Urd, and a Norn of the Past at that. Urd awoke with a shout of her own, then fought against the covers as the scream began to die down. "They blew up Jimbo!" she cried in a thick, Southern accent. "Them Gooks done blown up-" She stopped herself and looked around. Skuld stared up at her with a blank face. "Where in tarnation am I?" The accent hadn't faded.

"Urd...?" Skuld asked hesitantly. "Are you... are you all right?"

"What in blue blazes-" Again Urd stopped herself, this time shaking her head before clutching it with one hand. When she spoke again the accent had vanished. "Did I just... was that a Vietnam flashback?"

"Urd... you never went to Vietnam."

"Not in this timeline," Urd muttered off-handedly, then stopped herself a third time when the blank look on her sister's face didn't fade. "Skuld, do yourself a favor and never take up the mantle of a Goddess of the Past, okay? Memories get wonky."

"Could say the same about the future, Urd."

Urd grunted and glared at her sister as she ran a hand through her hair. "What was that scream?"

Skuld winced. "Ah, yeah… about that. Belldandy asked for a favor to help protect Keiichi and-" she didn't have a chance to finish her explanation before Urd was up and out the door. "If it's any reassurance, it wasn't lethal!" she called after her sister. "It's like being tazed! Enough to stun but not to kill! Banpei Light only goes off at preset hours to a specific bio-signature!"

A loud and resounding "Fuck!" was Urd's reply.

Skuld winced. "Maybe if I lay down I'll be asleep before she comes back," she muttered. In a lower voice she said, "I wonder if Belldandy will let me room with her for the night..."

"Skuld, get out here!" Urd shouted.

"...Or not," she grumbled.

"Belldandy, you too!"

Skuld sighed, and resigning herself to her fate, rolled off the blow-up mattress and exited the room. Urd stood outside the room Peorth was using where the woman in question was lying in a mangled heap within the door's threshold. As Skuld came to stand next to Urd, the door to Keiichi's room opened and a disheveled Belldandy appeared.

"You too," Urd growled. "If I have to roll my ass out of bed because of some petty-ass bullshit like this, then you two clowns are going to join me." She knelt down beside Peorth's unconscious form and shook her shoulder, seeing if the goddess would respond. Nothing. "This bitch screamed so loud my subconscious got thrown back through time and space to 'Nam," Urd snapped, looking up at Skuld and Belldandy. "The fuck made you think _electrocuting_ her was a good idea?"

"Had to make sure she left Keiichi alone," Belldandy muttered, her voice thick with sleep.

"Oh for fuck's sake," Urd growled. "This shit is getting out of hand. Skuld, dismantle that thing. Bell, help me drag Peorth back to bed."

"But-"

"Bell, you remember what I did to you when you were fourteen after you snuck into my room thinking potion ingredients could supplement cooking ingredients?"

"Yes..."

"Skuld, you remember what happened when you planted a shock bomb in my boot when you were ten?"

"Yeah..."

"Do either of the two of you want to figure out what I've got planned for you after your combined shenanigans sent me back to Viet-fucking-Nam?"

Skuld and Belldandy looked at each other. At once they were in action, Belldandy grabbing Peorth's feet and dragging the poor goddess back into the bedroom while Skuld went to work on the tiny little smiling Banpei next to the door.

And throughout the entire ordeal Keiichi, his ears forever ringing with Tinnitus, never heard a thing.

XXX

"TWO ROAD GUARDS!"

At McGuinness's call, Keiichi and Braxton, who were jogging in the back of the formation, sprinted ahead of the upcoming squadrons, yellow safety vests flapping in the wind. They took point on either side of the intersection the group was approaching and paused.

"ROAD GUARDS POST!"

The pair walked into the intersection, each facing towards oncoming traffic before holding one hand out. "Stop!" the two sang, "In the name of love! Before you break my heart." SEAL Team 12 ran past them as though the singing duet were the most natural thing in the world. Jackson and Sanchez in particular where fighting hard not to laugh, and McGuinness didn't even spare the two pop idols a second glance.

Instead he roared, "LOUDER! _"_ in passing. The man, responsible for volunteering the only two Navy SEALs acting as road guards for the event, was still peeved over what had happened on Friday. Keiichi and Braxton began singing The Supremes louder. SEAL Team 12 ran on and were replaced by SEAL Team 10, who smiled and laughed openly at the two men's' opening act as they passed.

More units passed, none of which bothered to hide their amusement, and then a new set of road guards came to take Keiichi's and Braxton's place. The two SEALs sprinted back to the front of the run to fall back in formation with Team 12, only to be forced back out again in a rush as they approached the next major road. It was a ten mile run. There were a lot of major roads on Norfolk. Ten miles of sprints and endurance running and each one with the two of them singing at the top of their lungs.

And it was raining.

It was going to be a long fucking day.

"Hey Morisato," Braxton said during their sprints.

"What?" Keiichi panted.

"Fuck Peorth and fuck McGuinness for this shit."

"Amen to that, Brother."

In hindsight, at least he was out with his team and away from the house and all the madness it had become in the past three days. The morning had been... strange. Very strange, given what he'd woken up to over the past several days. Urd and Skuld he hadn't expected to see, and so their absence from the early morning hadn't surprised him. Both women had a penchant for sleeping in later, whereas Belldandy had a stronger habit of waking up early. Perhaps it was a habit from her past or perhaps, he hoped, that she wanted to spend the morning with him. Yet, whichever the reason, Keiichi awoke that day and discovered her absence in the house. Though he awoke no earlier that day than any other weekday, Belldandy never once appeared that morning. It was strange and a little concerning after the past two mornings, and the woman's absence was felt in the silence of the house. A part of him had been looking forward to seeing the Norn that morning after last night. Missing her before heading out for the run had hurt.

But then... Peorth had been absent as well. Gone. A suspicious thorn in his side whose annoyance was a noticeable absence in the quiet. Yesterday was fresh in his mind though, and it had left Keiichi suspicious, and perhaps even a bit alarmed. He missed Belldandy because of the peace she often brought in the morning. He missed Peorth because an absent Peorth had led to her appearance at a later and more unfortunate time and place. "I never thought I'd say this," he'd muttered while driving down the road. "But I hope Belldandy is keeping a close eye on Peorth, today."

"I am!" A tiny voice had emerged near his right ear, and at 0543 on a Saturday morning, Keiichi Morisato had almost swerved off a road while driving through the rain. Experience and quick reactions kept him from crashing into a tree. The man pulled off to the side of the road, breathing heavily as he looked around for the owner of the voice.

That was how he'd discovered the hitchhikers.

Two of them. Both no taller than the length from the tip of his middle finger to the bottom of his palm, they both looked so eerily close to Belldandy and Peorth that for a moment, Keiichi had a brief panic attack.

Chalk another one into the Big Book of Weird Norn-no, Weird God Shit.

Keiichi didn't know how they'd snuck into the truck or what either of the two goddesses were doing standing so close to each other without one trying to murder the other, but it scared the crap out of him. Belldandy had tried to explain it to him back then- something about extensions of selves and magic and pieces of a whole. He'd understood none of it and was more concerned with what the two- the only word that had come to his mind was ' _chibi'-_ what the two ' _chibi'_ goddesses were doing in his truck as he was driving towards Norfolk.

"We are here for you, of course!" Peorth... _chibi-_ Peorth had announced, and oh, that didn't set well with Keiichi at all.

"The fuck either of you are," he'd announced. "I'm about to drive through the front base onto Norfolk after the two of you almost made me crash, and you both are going to poof off to Never Never Land with Tinkerbell and all her friends."

"Who's Tinkerbell?" _Chibi-Belldandy_ had asked. Unless his ears were as deceptive as his eyes at that moment, Keiichi would have claimed she sounded a bit jealous.

"Make believe," Keiichi replied. "Just like the two of you. Now _go away_."

He'd been relieved and marginally surprised when the two of them had actually listened, and the rest of the drive onto base and to where the fleet was gathering was made in peace. McGuinness had been in a disgustingly cheerful mood that morning as he'd handed Keiichi and Braxton their safety vests, and that had soured Keiichi's mood as well. "You all ready for this?" he roared, a large, toothy smile on his face as they stood outside in the rain, already drenched to the bone. "We're gonna have a blast, I tell ya." The man was literally bouncing on his feet.

"Whatever pre-workout you're snorting, I want some," Sanchez grumbled. "You look like a junkie who learned it's raining coke."

"I just had a damned good night of rest is all," McGuinness had claimed. "Hot damn did I have a weird dream though. Morisato, you best be telling Sheila to stay out of my head. She came and visited me last night. You might find yourself with competition!" While he had laughed and Jackson and Sanchez had jeered him on, Keiichi and Braxton both shared a look. Keiichi was relieved though. Urd had stayed true to her word from last night, and after shooting a quick thumbs up to Braxton, the younger man had relaxed as well.

It was kind of nice having another person on his Team that was in on his secret.

Of course, most of that relief faded as soon as the run had begun and McGuinness had instructed them to 'sing some golden oldies' before taking off. He should have had Urd look at the old bastard _after_ the run.

"I'm aware of where you go," Braxton sang.

"Each time you leave my door," Keiichi bellowed.

"I watch you walk down the street." McGuinness passed them by with a large, stupid smile on his face in the rain.

"Knowing your other love you'll meet." There went the rest of Team 12 as a whole, and then Team 10 and all its members followed.

"But this time before you run to her." More runners followed, and then the next set of road guards appeared to relieve Keiichi and Braxton. They abandoned their song and sprinted after their Team, who had to be at least a quarter mile away by now. They caught up and slowed their pace to match the teams, and not even two minutes had passed before they were sprinting ahead once more at McGuinness's call for road guards.

"We should have let that fucker keel over and die," Braxton muttered. Now they were on one of the larger main roads where heavier traffic was expected. Four road guards were called out for additional safety, and Keiichi and Braxton stood next to each other, slightly winded.

"Hindsight is a golden piece of shit," Keiichi grumbled, and together he and Braxton once more broke into song, "Leaving me alone and hurt."

"Think it over!" Braxton screamed in a high voice.

"After I've been good to you?" Keiichi sang.

"Think it over!"

"After I've been sweet to you?" There went Team 12 again.

"Stop! In the name of love!"

"Before you brea-" _SLAP!_

Keiichi recoiled, stunned, and stared at Braxton in shock. Braxton stared at him with wide eyes as well, frozen in disbelief. _Did this motherfucker just-_

An itsy-bitsy teeny weeny Chibi-fied Belldandy, stood hiding near Braxton's right shoulder. "Oh _hell no_ ," Keiichi uttered, reaching for her just as the mini-goddess vanished and right in time for Keiichi to slap Braxton across the face with his open palm. "Fuck!"

"Did you see her?" Braxton asked, unconcerned over the fact that he and his supervisor had fallen into a slapping fight like a couple of ninnies. Keiichi heard laughter- Peorth's laughter- near his right ear and had the sense to duck as again Braxton took a swipe at her. He missed again, and the tiny pest vanished before either men could follow up with another grab.

Team ten passed, now staring at them both in confusion. "They high?" someone muttered loud enough for the duo to hear. "Didn't know Team Twelve had a bunch of addicts in their ranks."

"Fuck you!" Both Keiichi and Braxton wheeled on the passing team, and forgetting the leadership heading the charge flipped the entire team off.

"Goodness, _Monsieur_ Braxton has certainly taken after you, _Monsieur_ Morisato."Again a tiny little voice in his ear.

"Leave him alone Peorth. Remember what we agreed on?" Little Belldandy this time. Oh fuck him three times sideways and call him a hare, had they made a fucking _deal?!_ Was that why they were here? What the fuck was going on now?!

"No," Keiichi muttered, whirling around and groping for the two voices. "Oh no. No no no no _no."_ His hand never touched either of them, and Keiichi caught them both vanishing and reappearing in close proximity to Braxton. "You two ladies are going to cut the crap right here and right now. Play this shit at home, not while I'm on duty." Again he reached out, this time trying to grab Peorth, and met the same results when he instead once more slapped Braxton on accident. "Fuck. Sorry."

"Forget it." Braxton didn't even seem to feel it. His eyes were two busy dancing in their sockets, trying to follow the flight path of the miniature deities. "Morisato, we need to grab these two before they give themselves away."

"You telling me?" Belldandy appeared over Braxton's head. Peorth appeared over Keiichi's. Neither men was aware of it and only saw the goddess directly across from them. They both lunged and crashed into each other, then fell onto their backs, cursing wildly.

"Maybe there's another way to this," Belldandy murmured.

"No," Peorth disagreed. " _Qui n'avance pas, recule."_ She drummed her fingers against her arm in irritation. "We're getting this settled, and we're getting this settled today."

Belldandy sighed. "I suppose..." she groused.

More road guards were coming to take the place of the initial shift, and as Keiichi and Braxton crawled to their feet Belldandy and Peorth flew a little higher, ensuring the new folks didn't catch sight of them. "Hey, are you guys okay?" A woman asked. The other one, a man, grabbed Braxton and helped him up, placing himself between Keiichi and Braxton to ensure they didn't lunge at each other again.

"We're fine," Keiichi said through clenched teeth. "Let's go, Bravo."

The run went downhill from that point. Belldandy and Peorth would appear towards the back of Team 12's formation, where both of the road guards stayed to ensure easy separation from the others. The two miniature deities were like a pair of overly large mosquitoes, buzzing around Keiichi's ears while all the while offering him aid: do you need water? Would you like to be dry? Do you need more endurance? How does Braxton know about us? Oh wait, he was one of your clients Peorth? Tell me more.

Both of the men did what they could to keep them away, yet all of their action was for nothing. Peorth wasn't leaving and Belldandy wasn't leaving Peorth alone with Keiichi. On several occasions their ruckus was enough to disrupt McGuinness, who was pushing all of Team 12 to their limits with an absurd amount of energy that hadn't been present a day ago.

"DON'T MAKE ME COME BACK THERE!"

XXX

It was a relief to finally be done with the run. Keiichi had brought a change of clothes with him for the ride home, and he changed in the gym nearby so as not to drive home wet. The locker room was packed with other individuals doing much of the same, and Keiichi kept looking over his shoulder, certain that either one or both of the goddesses would appear to watch. He was grateful, relieved and suspicious when neither of them popped up, but chalked it up to the fact that the girls probably didn't want to see a bunch of wrinkled man bits bouncing around like a bushel of old prunes.

The ride home was nerve wracking. Neither goddess showed up here either, though he fully expected them to while he was in the middle of traffic from all the folks rushing to get off base. Another mixed blessing, sad as that was; Keiichi was so tense that had either of them shown up, he'd have probably caused an accident. Perhaps they'd learned from their first lesson and decided it was wiser to leave him be. Perhaps they were at home plotting some other horrible madness.

 _Perhaps I should turn around and drive over to Jackson's place,_ he thought. Jackson lived on base, far from home, and would be willing to let Keiichi use his shower.

But no, he was already driving through the gate and off base, and would need to waste an extra ten minutes turning around. Best to face the reaper now and try and get the girls under control rather than run like a dog from a pair of two year olds.

Belldandy and Peorth were there to greet him at the front door. "Welcome home, Keiichi," they chorused and the man was reminded of the twins from _The Shining_.

"Okay, whatever you guys are doing needs to stop," Keiichi said.

"We'd love to," Peorth said.

"But we can't," Belldandy followed.

"Everything I've tried so far has ended in violence and failure," Peorth continued.

"And it's not fulfilling the requirements necessary for Peorth to leave," Belldandy said.

"So we're setting aside our differences for the better of the whole in a joint effort to have you recognize your heart's desire," they chorused once more.

Keiichi looked between the two of them with wide, disbelieving eyes. "Urd!" he called. "They're bonding!"

There was a curse and an audible thump from the garage. Skuld's laughter rose from within. _"Urd can't save you now! She's mine! Suck it up, you pussy-assed bitch!"_ There was a sound like heavy object being thrown and colliding with a padded mat, followed by and audible yelp that sounded a bit like Urd's voice. All three- Keiichi, Belldandy, and Peorth- winced.

"I'm... going now," he said, and slipped past the two goddesses and up the stairs in a mad rush. Grabbing a fresh pair of civvies, the man proceeded to the bathroom on the second floor and started the shower. Triple checking to make sure the door was locked and certain that his efforts were ultimately futile, the man hopped into the bathtub and proceeded to scrub off the grime that had accumulated on his person from the run.

"Oh my, I didn't realize _Monsieur_ Keiichi was so big!" A tiny voice squeaked.

Keiichi froze and looked down. _Oh for fuck's sake._ Just as he'd feared, the tiny versions of Peorth and Belldandy had returned. Both were in the bathtub, staring up at him in all his naked glory. At least they were clothed though.

The tiny Peorth fanned herself with a hand. "My, is it me or is it getting hot in here?" she squeaked. "I'd certainly enjoy handling _that_ package.

Belldandy sent her a flat look. "You'll have to fulfill _that_ wish in your dreams," she said.

Keiichi took several long, deep breaths. _Don't lose it, Jank. It's not worth it, you'll slip in the water trying to smash them both and break your fucking neck. Calm yourself._ "Not cool, guys," he said, kneeling down beside them, naked and with warm water beating on his back, speaking as though he was just correcting a simple error they'd made. "Seriously, I need some privacy in the shower and I didn't invite either of you." Quick as lightning his hands zipped out towards them both, and where he'd failed earlier during the run this time he was successful. He grabbed both of the deities, one with each hand, and held them in a firm grip. Peorth yelped. Belldandy smiled.

"You can hold me any day, Keiichi."

The man gritted his teeth and quickly hopped out of the shower. "I don't want to hold either of you right now," he said. "I want some fucking _privacy!"_ Now naked and dripping wet, he rushed for the door, maneuvered it open with both hands, and hurled both of the tiny goddesses into Urd who was heading to her own room after her sparring session with Skuld had finished. Peorth smashed into the elder Norn's ear. Belldandy fared better as she collided with Urd's breasts. Both caused the goddess to recoil with a shout before turning to Keiichi.

"OW! What the fu-" She cut herself off in the middle of snarl as she caught sight of the state of Keiichi's undress, and all at once the both of them froze.

In that moment, a strange, shared thought went through both Keiichi's and Urd's mind. _Don't look down. Don't look down. DON'T LOOK DOWN._

Urd's left eye twitched.

The cold began to set into Keiichi's bare skin.

He stared at her, eyes pleading. The temptation was great, and he could see the internal war raging within her mind. _Spare him/me some dignity, don't look down. For the love of Ygddrasil/god, don't look down!_ Urd closed her eyes, sucked in a deep breath, and without a word resumed her original path to the bedroom. The door slammed shut behind her hard enough that Keiichi could feel the vibrations through the floor boards.

"Huh." Peorth rubbed her head from where she'd collided with Urd. "I would have sworn she would have looked."

"Why would you say that?" Belldandy asked, none the worse for wear. "Urd has no interest in Keiichi."

In a manner that mimicked Urd, Keiichi turned and slammed the door shut behind him with all his might. Peorth stared at the almond haired goddess in silence. "You know, there are times I wonder about you."

The rest of the shower came with no further interruptions or embarrassments, yet Keiichi wasn't chancing a repeat. He hopped in and out of the shower as quickly as possible, just to finish rinsing the soap and shampoo from his person before wrapping a towel around his waist and hopping back out. He used a spare towel to clean up the water he'd trod across the bathroom floor, then peeked outside to ensure the hallway was empty before rushing back to his own bedroom.

This time he was in the process of pulling on his boxers when again Peorth's voice met his ears. _"Incroyable!_ With how uptight you act, I would have imagined you more for briefs!"

Keiichi's head thumped against his dresser in frustration. "Really?!" he moaned.

" _Oui!"_ Peorth replied, misinterpreting his outrage. "But then, I have always been particular to briefs. Nothing to hide, and they do so remind me of France and the men on the beaches."

"I prefer boxers," Belldandy quipped. "It leaves more to the imagination."

Keiichi groaned and threw his towel on the two of them, then gathered both of them up, formed the towel into a bag, spun and twisted the bag a dizzying amount of times as he approached the door, yanked it open, and then threw the towel outside the bedroom.

It smacked into Urd with a thump as she was heading out to take a shower herself. "NIDHOGG BLESS YOU WITH YOUR ACTIONS! I AM NOT A FUCKING HAMPER!" she roared as the package collided with her head. She tore the damp towel filled with mini-goddesses off her person, then rushed towards Keiichi with a roar.

Keiichi, dressed in little other than his boxers, took one look at the anger on Urd's face and slammed the door to his bedroom before she reached it. As he backed away, a fist punched through the door. Keiichi screamed. Urd pulled her hand back and punched again, then ripped it out once more and peered through the sizeable hole she'd created. " _Here's Urddy!"_ she snarled.

Somewhere downstairs he thought he heard the high cackle of Skuld's laughter.

Keiichi screamed louder.

And was silenced by a face full of wet towel and bedraggled goddesses still bundled inside.

"DO YOUR OWN LAUNDRY FUCKWAD!"

"I feel ill," Peorth moaned from inside the towel.

And so the day proceeded.

XXX

It was close to five in the evening when Lind arrived to witness the latest debacle. After they explained the situation to her, the Valkyrie grimaced and rubbed her brow. "Come off leave and walk into a shitstorm. Of course. Situation normal: all fucked up." She sighed and leaned into the pink recliner, now known as 'Son of the Ugly Beast', once more dubbed by Urd. "Pray tell, why is it that every time I come to this house, some new madness has spawned?"

"Well hello and fuck you too," Urd growled. "It's not like _we_ had any say in this." The goddess was sitting on the Ugly Beast's arm closest to where Lind sat. Keiichi sat on the couch, imprisoned between Belldandy and Peorth on the middle cushion. Both goddesses were pressed into either side of him with their heads leaning on his shoulders. To further aggravate the situation, the two tiny versions of the same goddesses were sitting in his lap. It looked like both of the chibis were fighting for the most prime spot.

"I never asked for this," Keiichi said. "I never wanted a wish. I just wanted to live a normal fucking life and hope to live into old age without getting filled with bullet holes," he lamented. "Is that so hard? Now I almost broke my foot trying to kick a goddess out of the house thanks to some magical 'all seeing eye' that thinks my one goal in life is sex, I found out that same woman knows someone else in my own troop, and now _two_ goddesses are literally sitting in my lap and fighting for my attention." He sighed and let his head fall back against the back of the couch. "Urd's been the only person stopping me from going on a fucking rampage through the entire house- or at least she _was_ before punching a hole larger than my head through my bedroom door."

Urd tensed, then wheeled on Keiichi with her teeth bared in irritation. "Oh I'm sorry." Urd's voice was dripping with sarcasm. "Was this before or after the fact that you fucking flashed me after pelting me with the two tiny terrors in your lap?" She accused. "And then you threw a towel at me-"

"Those were all accidents," Keiichi interrupted.

"So you _accidentally_ mistook me for a hamper, or better yet, a fucking _wall_. So perhaps I'm still a little peeved with you right now." The goddess crossed her arms atop her chest. "All things considered, I think punching a hole in your door- which I _repaired,_ lest we all forget- was justified."

Keiichi sputtered something inarticulate from where he was imprisoned on the couch, then looked at Lind. "See?!" he snapped. "This is what I've been going through for the past couple of days! You've got to help me, Lind!"

Lind eyed the group of four on the couch and promptly decided she wanted no part in it. _I joined the military to escape drama like this. Not to referee it like a coach at some sporting event._ "What about Skuld?"

"What _about_ Skuld?" Urd and Keiichi chorused in flat, unamused voices.

From the dining room, Skuld's voice rose, perhaps the only cheerful tune in an ocean of misery.

"Gold plated toilet seat!"

Peorth's eye twitched and she shot a glare in the direction the comment came from. She then cleared her throat and turned back to Lind. "Alas, his Heart's Desire remains hidden, as he will not speak it," she said, then sent a sharp look to Belldandy. "And this one, she has a part to play in this, yet refuses to help."

In Keiichi's lap, the tiny Peorth held up both hands and shrugged her shoulders in a 'what can you do' manner. "She's useless," the little deity double squeaked.

"Your intent here has been clear from the beginning." Belldandy narrowed her eyes at the woman sitting on the opposite side of Keiichi. "I refuse to assist you in your goal of taking Keiichi to your bed."

"Grade-A Slut," Belldandy's own mini-me growled.

Peorth raised an eyebrow, unperturbed. "So you continue to fail to see what he truly desires?"

"So clueless," the tiny Peorth tittered.

Belldandy took in a deep breath. "It seems that what he truly wants is for you to return home."

"Hit the road, Skank!" The tiny Belldandy chucked a thumb to the house's front door.

"Funny, that's not what it seemed like yesterday." Peorth fluttered her eyes at Keiichi and leaned into him further. Keiichi, showing signs of visible discomfort at the act, leaned away from her and into Belldandy instead. If Peorth noticed, or cared, it never showed.

"I needed a cold shower!" Her double fanned herself.

Belldandy was growing red in the face now. "I know for a fact that a foursome is not what Keiichi wants!" she snapped.

In Keiichi's lap, the little Belldandy's hand's curled into tiny fists. She stomped her foot. "You filthy harlot!"

Lind's eyebrows shot up in surprise. She looked at Urd expectantly, yet the goddess did nothing but shake her head and rub her brow. Keiichi groaned with the voice of a long suffering man whose aches and pains had grown voices and would not leave him in peace.

"And how, pray tell, would you know what he wants?" Peorth persisted. "Have you taken the time to actually ask him? Have you discussed how you plan to move this… Kindergarten relationship to the next level?" The Peorth in Keiich's lap held up her palms expectantly.

Belldandy stared at her, abashed. "I-I told you!" she stammered. "It's complicated!"

"Are you dense?!" The tiny Belldandy threw her hands up in frustration.

"So let me complicate it even further." Peorth leaned back away from Keiichi in order to better look at both him and Belldandy. She reached over and took his hand into hers. "Keiichi, your display last night of fearlessly standing up to a deity who, with but a thought could erase your very existence, stirred feelings inside me that I thought nigh impossible. My heart aches for you. When I see what this woman does to you, I cannot bear to see you treated so. If love is truly your heart's desire, then let me be the one to fulfill it! I, Peorth of the Roses, hereby declare my love for thee!"

"Be mine, Loverboy!" the mini-Peorth clarified.

Keiichi's jaw dropped in obtuse horror. He looked to Urd and Lind with wide eyes. _Help me,_ he mouthed.

"By Yggdrasil's roots, Peorth!" Belldandy snapped. "You step away from him this instant you… you…. you fart-sniffing rose obsessed bum-licking floozy!" Her duplicate, who'd been following along and nodding, paused and looked up at the larger version of her herself in confusion.

"Wait, what?" the tiny Norn started.

The rose goddess narrowed her eyes. "Belldandy, I warned you what would happen if you spoke to me in such a fashion."

The tiny version of herself pounded a fist into her hand, glaring at the miniature Belldandy across from her. "Fixin' to open a can o' whup-ass!" she snarled.

Belldandy rose to her feet. Keiichi didn't stop her, looking more relieved that she'd left the couch. "Bring it you turd-like fish-crotched bitchwad!" she challenged. Her double stared at her in shock, too stunned for words.

"Ok, you asked for it!" Peorth rose from the couch as well. "I will not stand here and be insulted! I demand that you face me in the Triple Challenge of the Goddesses!"

"It's on now!" the tiny Peorth crowed.

Really, it was a poor move on Peorth's part. Urd, who had grown up with Belldandy, saw all the danger signs right away and was quick to move away from the couch. Years of arguments, teasing, and yes, fights, had left the elder Norn quick to recognize what was about to come, and she wanted to ensure she stayed out of range when Belldandy acted. As such, perhaps it was Urd and only Urd who was unsurprised when Belldandy took a single step towards Peorth, pivoted on her rear foot, and nailed the goddess in the chin with a left hook.

Peorth dropped like a sack of bricks.

Urd winced in empathy.

For a moment the living room fell into a stunned silence. Lind stared at the fallen goddess in surprise, looking more impressed with Belldandy's left hook than horrified at the display of violence. Keiichi stared at the unconscious deity with wide eyes, his hands gripping the back of the couch. The only thing keeping him in his seat were the two miniature goddesses in his lap, and even they appeared shocked.

"Wow," the tiny Peorth whispered. "Didn't see that coming." She looked at her small counterpart, who stared back at her with an equally shocked expression. They both vanished into nonexistence.

Belldandy took a deep, soothing breath. "Bitch had it coming," she muttered.

XXX

"I can't believe you punched Peorth in the face, Bell." Keiichi sighed and rubbed his face. "I thought you were better than that."

They'd moved Peorth back to Belldandy's room to recover from the aftereffects of the punch. Urd, in the kitchen, was whipping up a potion for the goddess once she regained consciousness. They'd moved their conversation into the dining room, where Keiichi had more freedom to maneuver after witnessing Belldandy's display of violence.

"He's right, you know. That was pretty childish, Belldandy." Lind nodded her head in agreement, though she didn't appear nearly as upset. "Good follow through though. People tend to forget that in a fight," she muttered under her breath.

Keiichi shot her a glare. "We are not here to encourage this!" Lind returned his look with a placid stare of her own.

"You mean I missed Belldandy's legendary Left Hook _again?!"_ Skuld cried out from her own spot next to Belldandy at the dining room table.

"What do you mean 'legendary'?" Keiichi demanded.

"You mean you didn't know?" Skuld asked. "I thought Urd would have warned you-Bell's got a _mean_ left hook. She used to use it all the time on Urd, from what Mother used to tell me."

"Oh Yggdrasil," Belldandy muttered. She buried her face in her hands, and her words came out muffled. "Mother told you of _that_?!"

"There's a reason I stopped teasing you when we were kids," Urd said from the kitchen. "Your fists are hard as diamond, Bell. They knocked out what was left of my baby teeth _and_ broke one of the permanents." She looked over to Keiichi and Lind after pouring the contents of a bowl into a glass and sticking it in the fridge. "Bell's the type who'll bottle up her emotions and then let them explode all at once. She's down-right terrifying when the fists start flying. And they leave scars, too. She beat enough sense into me to realize that I should stop teasing my little sister at the tender age of ten.

The goddess in question moaned. "Could we please _not?"_ she begged. Letting her hands drop, she looked over at Keiichi, who was sitting beside her at the table, with Lind across from her. "Keiichi, I apologize for my acts. I don't know what came over me- when she admitted her feelings for you, I just..."

"Lost it," Lind supplied. She pursed her lips. "Seems a strange thing to lose your temper over, Belldandy."

"Especially when you know I _don't_ have feelings for her," Keiichi grumbled. "I'd sooner confess my undying love for McGuinness."

" _What_?" Belldandy looked at Keiichi sharply, eyes wide. Over head the lights flickered. Urd started when the bowl she was cleaning cracked.

Lind observed the display in silence, then frowned. "You seem a little insecure in your relationship with Keiichi."

Belldandy held her silence. In the kitchen a glass shattered, causing Urd to erupt in a fit of swearing.

Keiichi groaned. "What are you getting at, Lind."

The goddess fell silent once again, drumming her fingers against the solid wood of the table. She scowled. "I'm going to regret this," she muttered, then announced in a louder voice, "Who _wouldn't_ have feelings for Morisato?"

Skuld raised her hand. "I wouldn't!" she cried proudly. Everyone in the dining room sent her an exasperated look before returning their attention to Lind.

The Valkyrie shrugged. "What's not to like about him? He's handsome, articulate for the most part. He's already shown how selfless he is on multiple occasions, and he's compassionate enough to open the doors of his own house to strangers. I mean, hate to break it to you Belldandy, but the man has enough qualities to attract the interest of any goddess, let alone just Peorth."

Belldandy stared at the woman in shock, then rose from her seat and pointed at Lind with one finger. "You like him as well!" she accused. The window overlooking the kitchen sink cracked.

Lind held her peace, fingers still drumming on the table, this time more rapidly than before. She chewed on the inside of the lip, looking between Belldandy and Keiichi with a face that gave nothing away. "You might get that idea, yeah," Lind said slowly, then inched closer to Keiichi. The SEAL watched her warily. "But allow me to show you something, Belldandy." She looked to Keiichi. "Hold still for a second, please."

Keiichi held still, but it was obvious he didn't enjoy it. "Lind, what are you-"

The Valkyrie kissed him on the lips, and the man abruptly leaned back, almost falling out of his chair. Belldandy froze, eyes wide.

"Lind!" Urd screamed. "What the hell did you just do!?"

Lind didn't reply, instead walking around the table to Belldandy. Like the man a moment prior, Lind kissed Belldandy on the lips, then took a step back and folded her arms over her chest. "There," she said. "I kissed Keiichi and felt nothing. I kissed _you_ and felt nothing. Don't group actions together with emotions, Belldandy."

Belldandy didn't reply.

Skuld looked at Belldandy and Lind with wide eyes. "That was a really, really _stupid_ idea, Lind," she said.

Another glass exploded.

"Fuck!" Urd brought a hand up to shield herself. Another glass exploded. Then a bowl. The windows shattered in a hail of glass shards. "Lind, you _idiot!_ " she cried.

At the table, the overhead lights flickered, brightened, hummed, and shattered, and with a yell Keiichi dove for cover under the table. It promptly rose over his head as though gravity had lost its hold on it and drifted around Belldandy. The shards of glass, porcelain, and plastic from the kitchen moved to join it.

Lind began to edge away from Belldandy, eyes wide.

"Lind, what the fuck did you do?!" Keiichi demanded.

"I was _trying_ to prove a fucking point!" Lind replied.

"Well good fucking job, asshole! Now she's going to murder all of us!" Keiichi screamed shrilly.

Skuld, the only person apparently unconcerned with the latest turn of events, leaned back in her chair and laughed. "Nah, not all of us," she said. "Just you and Lind, Magilla."

"FUCK!" screamed the two service members.

The empty chairs rose to join the table dancing around Belldandy's head. The chair Skuld was sitting on proceeded to rise with her still in it, and as it moved to hover a foot off the ground she balanced precariously on top of it.

From the kitchen Urd moaned. "One of you do something before I dump a bucket of water on her," she warned.

"Like what?!" Keiichi snapped. "You heard Skuld, she's going to try and kill us!"

Urd muttered something under her breath. In a louder voice she yelled, "Fucking KISS HER or something, I don't know!"

"Oh, that is all you, Morisato." Lind shoved him roughly towards Belldandy, who still didn't appear to be registering any of the side conversations happening around her.

"Oh fuck you all up one side and down the other," Keiichi growled, then climbed to his feet, eying the swirling shards of glass with wary eyes. Biting back his nerves, he pressed towards the goddess when an opening presented itself, ducking inside the perimeter of glass and hissing as shards ripped into his skin as though it were paper. At least he'd avoided the table and chairs though. Skuld too, who was doing her best interpretation of the Lone Ranger. "High ho Silver, away!" she whooped as she passed by his head.

"Come on Bell, don't do this to me," he muttered, grabbing the goddess firmly by the arms. "You _cannot_ tell me you're going to freak out over something as meaningless as a kiss from a person who doesn't have any feelings for me." Belldandy stared at him with blank eyes, and the SEAL groaned. "For fuck's sake, Lind kissed you too!"

"Fucking kiss her already!" Lind and Urd chorused from their hiding places. Skuld floated by again waving a hat in a scene straight out of _Dr. Stangelove_.

"Why don't you both go fuck yourselves!" Keiichi yelled over his shoulder. He looked back at Belldandy with a grimace. "I don't want to kiss you," he told her. "Not like this. Not when you're freaking out over something so inconsequential, over something that doesn't even show my own feelings for you." He searched her face, still frowning. "Please stop this," he said. "You're insecure. I see that. I get that. But I gotta know, in the two months we've been together when have I shown _any_ interest in Lind? In the past four days Peorth has been here, when have I shown any interest in _her_? Do you really think someone is going to come and whisk me out from underneath your nose? Because it's not going to happen. I'm right here. You're freaking me out, _again_ , but I'm still right _fucking_ here. Now would you stop with this bullshit and snap out of it?!"

"Morisato, your fucking pep talk isn't working!" A chair cartwheeled towards Lind, who was creeping out into the open. She dodged it with a yelp and dove back whence she came. "Snap her out of it before I knock the shit out of her!"

"Give me a moment!" Keiichi snapped once more over his shoulder. He returned his attention to Belldandy. "I'm asking you, Bell, snap out of it." His voice was urgent, but absent of the anger so directed towards Lind and Urd. "I'm not going to trail you on. I'm not-" He stopped himself, and his eyes went wide as an idea struck him.

"JANK!" Urd yelled.

"Fuck me," he muttered to himself, then bowed his head. He began humming a tune, and then, much to the shock of everyone present, Special Warfare Operator First Class Keiichi Morisato began to sing. " _We're no strangers to love...you know the rules and so do I...A full commitment's what I'm thinking of...you wouldn't get this from any other guy."_

The whirlwind of chairs and table and glass and goddess began to slow its twister. Keiichi kept singing. " _I just wanna tell you how I'm feeling...gotta make you understand!"_

The heavier debris fell to the ground. Skuld, in her bucking bronco of a chair, settled gently on the floor. She looked disappointed the ride was over. Keiichi took a deep breath, and in a deep voice boomed, " _Never gonna give you up! Never gonna let you down! Never gonna run around and desert you! Never gonna make you cry! Never gonna say goodbye! Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you!"_

The glass was falling to the ground around them now. Belldandy blinked, and for the first time Keiichi noticed her eyes focusing on his face. She looked... stunned. Stunned and confused. Keiichi continued his song. _"We've known each other for so long... Your heart's been aching, but... You're too shy to say it... Inside, we both know what's been going on... we know the game and we're gonna play it."_

Belldandy's mouth dropped in shock, and Keiichi rubbed her shoulders in reassurance. _"And if you ask me how I'm feeling... Don't tell me you're too blind to see..."_

He began rocking her back and forth in a shuffling kind of dance. Too bewildered to protest, Belldandy allowed herself to follow his motions, swaying gently from side to side. The singing didn't miss a beat. _"Never gonna give you up! Never gonna let you down! Never gonna run around and desert you! Never gonna make you cry! Never gonna say goodbye! Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you!"_

He stopped there, his face red to his ears in embarrassment but smiling a large, shit-eating grin in spite of that fact.

"And _Aga_ Sedna says _I_ sound like a bleating goat," Lind muttered.

"Jank, did you just Rickroll us?" Urd looked both confused and somewhat impressed.

"That was the most ridiculous, sappy song I've ever heard," Skuld moaned. "If I hear another line of lyrics it will be too much too soon."

"You sing," Belldandy stated. "I- you sing?"

"Not in the slightest," Keiichi replied, ignoring the other's comments. His face was as red as a tomato. "But it worked, didn't it?" He stopped dancing with her and instead rubbed her upper arms. "Please don't do that again, Belldandy okay?" He sent a look over his shoulder at Lind, glaring at the Valkyrie. "And you. Don't fucking kiss me again."

"Don't plan to," Lind said, "You aren't my type any more than Belldandy is, and _Yakone_ forbid I bring another 'bleating goat' home to the Old Bat."

Belldandy seemed to breathe a bit easier at the statement, relaxing as though some unknown weight had been removed from her person. "I see... that is a relief to hear."

Lind raised an eyebrow. "You going to act like that every time someone comes and gives Morisato a kiss?" she asked. "Because my understanding is that kissing is just as much a greeting down here in Midgard as it is a sign of affection."

"Carrie's got a lot of heads to blow up if that's the case," Urd muttered under her breath. "Pray she doesn't ever meet Deb on 'friendly' terms." Off in the kitchen away from the main conversation as she was, no one else heard her comments.

Belldandy flushed a shade of red almost as bright as Keiichi's fading one. "I hadn't thought of that," she whispered, abashed.

Keiichi wisely chose not to comment on how kissing was more often reserved for children and cheeks in his family. Instead he said, "Lind's got a valid point, Bell. I can't have you blowing up on me any time I receive affection from another person." He stared at her with solemn eyes. "What does that say about our relationship? That you don't trust me? That you think I'll go running off with another person as soon as they blow me a kiss?"

Belldandy flinched. "No!" she snapped, perhaps a little sharper than planned. "It's- that's not it!"

"Then do you think I'll just come to my senses one day and realize it was a mistake falling for you then?" Keiichi asked, and by the way the goddess went white the man knew he'd struck gold. "It's not," he assured, and his voice was soft. "Bell, I want you to think of all the fucked up shit I've seen because of you and Urd and Skuld over the past two months. Over the shit I've seen you pull with Peorth. Did I leave you after any of those times? When a smart man, hell, a _sane_ man would have cut his losses and quit while he was still alive?"

Belldandy bit her lip, then quietly shook her head. Keiichi nodded. "Exactly," he said. "I've stuck with you through thick and thin- there's nothing for you to feel insecure about. It doesn't matter what happened to you in the past or who you are today because of those actions. I'm here to stay." He hesitated before adding, "I might get pissed off or traumatized or scared shitless of the stuff you pull, but it hasn't chased me away yet, right?"

"Right..." Belldandy responded with a hesitant voice of her own.

"Good." Keiichi nodded, and then leaned forward, moving to hold Belldandy in his arms. "Then stop trying to _find_ a reason to scare me off, alright?"

"All right," Belldandy agreed. She bit her lip, then pressed her face into his shoulder, where the others could not see the tumultuous emotions reigning havoc on her face.

"All right."

XXX

It was close to ten in the evening when the decision was made that Lind would share a room with Peorth that night. She looked less than impressed.

"You'll ensure Peorth doesn't sneak out, won't you?" Belldandy asked her as they set up a futon for the Valkyrie.

"I'll make sure you don't come in to wale on her," Lind corrected. "And I guess, if I must, I'll make sure she doesn't creep out either."

"As if I would want to." Peorth shot Belldandy a glare. Half her face had swollen up after Belldandy had knocked her out, but Urd's potion had diminished the effects. It was still tender though, and she nursed her right cheek with a tender hand. "I fear what may happen to me if I step foot outside these prison walls."

"I'm not apologizing," Belldandy said.

Peorth sniffed, indignant. "Neither am I," she professed.

"Regardless, if anyone in this house wakes me up with a fucking scream that sends me back to a fucking major historical war, I'm going to tear you _all_ new assholes," Urd warned. Lind and Peorth sent her a queer look. Urd didn't elaborate.

"You'll be in for a shock then," Skuld muttered. The goddess looked distracted, eyeing Belldandy with a deep frown.

"What was that?!" Urd snapped. "You got something planned, Brat?"

Skuld snapped out of her reverie. "What? Wait, what'd you call me? I'm not a brat!"

"Knock it off, all of you," Keiichi groaned. "Let's just try and get some rest, okay? Maybe with Lind here to babysit we can all get a full night's rest this time."

"I'm not a babysitter," Lind said flatly.

"And yet for some reason you stop by regularly to babysit Urd..." Skuld trailed off and headed down the hallway to the room she shared with Urd. She missed the dark look her elder sister and Lind shot her way.

"No more fighting," Keiichi warned. "There's been enough for one night, and I don't want to stay up any longer ensuring every fucking bit of glass is swept up and melted back into a light bulb, all right?" He sighed and rubbed his brow. "I'm going to bed. Please, _please_ don't blow up the second floor tonight, okay guys? I am literally sleeping right below you. You. Will. Kill. Me."

"You're not dead yet," Urd pointed out.

"Don't jinx it Urd."

XXX

After more than two hours, Belldandy, her thoughts once more running madly through her mind, gave up on sleep. She sighed as she sat up, and after a moment's debate opened the bedroom door and peered outside. The hallway was empty and, for the most part, quiet, although if she listened carefully the Norn could hear what she thought to be whimpering from the room across the hall. It sounded like someone was having a nightmare. She was willing to place money on that someone being Peorth.

Placing the sounds out of her mind, the Norn crept down the stairs and into the living room. Keiichi was sprawled out on the Ugly Beast, nestled under a light blanket and fast sleep. His chest rose and fell in a deep, even rhythm, and for a long moment Belldandy stared at him, recalling the man's words from earlier that evening. She pursed her lips, then gathered her will and approached The Ugly Beast, kneeling down beside him.

"Keiichi?" He awoke at once to her touch, the long-honed nature of a warrior responding to possible danger, then blinked as he realized there was none. Rubbing his face, the man sucked in a deep breath, and as he released it he looked to Belldandy.

The goddess bit her lip, then smiled. "You've slept on this couch for close to four nights now," she whispered. "Come upstairs."

The man yawned mightily. "I'm good," he mumbled.

"You deserve a good night's rest in a proper bed," Belldandy persisted. "And I..." She scowled, searching for the right words. "I want to be with you right now," she said slowly. "I need- I need to reassure myself of where I stand with you."

Keiichi stared at her, and by his expression Belldandy guessed he understood perhaps one in every five words the Norn was saying. "I want to spend the night with you," she tried, and watched his eyes widen and grow alert.

"Bell-" Keiichi started to protest.

Belldandy shook her head. "I just wish to be near you is all," she said. "The house is growing noisy and more crowded with each passing day, and there is little time for just the two of us." She looked at him, eyes pleading. "Will you please come upstairs with me?"

The man rubbed his eyes and yawned again. "Nothing's gonna happen tonight," he said. "Not with Peorth still here."

"I'm not expecting that," Belldandy said. "I just... I want to be held. By you."

Keiichi sighed. "Right." He nodded. "Right, sure. Okay. Like when Jackson spent the night. Okay."

Belldandy flinched. "I promise I won't kick you in the face again," she said quickly.

Keiichi nodded, unconcerned, then rose with a stretch. "Let's go to bed," he muttered. "Tired."

They met no resistance returning to bed either, though Belldandy noted that the whimpering had yet to cease. A bad nightmare indeed. Keiichi didn't seem to hear anything, however, and collapsed into the bed like a dead man. When Belldandy crawled in to join him, the man wrapped an arm around her and drew her close, spooning up against her. For a brief moment, Belldandy felt her heartbeat quicken, yet she could already hear Keiichi's breath drifting into a deeper, slower rhythm. She sighed and adjusted, causing the man to grunt a moment, then allowed herself to relax. "Thank you, Keiichi," she murmured.

"Uh huh," Keiichi grunted.

"Not just this," she continued. "I'm grateful. For everything. You rescued me from both Aoshima and the wish that so bound me, then opened your doors to my sisters and me without any reservations. And despite everything you've gone through, you said it yourself... you have not you and will not simply abandon us." She pressed into him with a sigh. Keiichi didn't respond, and for a moment she feared he'd already drifted off. Yet the breath in her ear was no longer the same deep breaths of sleep, and she could feel the man tense against her body. The Norn turned to look at the SEAL and found Keiichi watching her with a somber expression in the darkness. "I mean what I say," she said. "You have tolerated so much from us... from _me_... I don't want you to come away thinking it was all in vain. I truly am grat-"

"Stop."

Belldandy froze, staring at the man in confusion. Keiichi returned her gaze, frowning now, before sitting up with a sigh and removing himself from the bed. He paced a small distance away, then crossed his arms and leaned against the wall.

"Belldandy...I don't want your gratitude."

The goddess sat up in the bed, squinting at the SEAL in the darkness. "I... don't understand."

Keiichi's face remained a careful neutral as he observed her. His foot tapped a quick rhythm that now spoke of a man completely awake and alert, no longer the half-asleep individual Belldandy had fetched from downstairs. "I don't want your gratitude, Bell."

There was a long moment of heavy silence between the two of them, and as it was drawn out the man sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Guess it's story time again," he muttered. "Of all the talks to be happening _now_..." He sucked in a deep breath and released it with flourish. "Alright. Let's go back to Afghanistan. This happened... probably a month or two before I met Urd," he began. "So Afghanistan is a bit of a wild country. Became that way when the Russians invaded and bombed them back to the dark ages in the eighties. No centralized government that had the respect of its people and lots of terrorist cells popping up all over the place and putting their foot down on local villages."

He looked out the window, obscuring his expression from Belldandy's inquiring gaze. "Taliban were... hell, still _are_ , a hefty presence in the region, but back then they were particularly bad. This was before they came to their senses and realized you win more flies with honey than bug spray, and so when they put their foot down on a village, they put it down _hard_. I won't go into the details, but... well, the locals knew nothing outside of what the Taliban fed them and the women didn't have any rights, so when we went in and helped clear the place out, there was a lot of gratitude and hostility on both sides of the coin."

Belldandy held her peace, confused but curious as to what this had to do with herself. "Some of the Village Elders got on some pretty damned good terms with us. A couple of the older men had a bunch of daughters who'd been married off to Taliban Insurgents, who our team wound up killing up in the mountains north of Kandahar. They wanted us to take their daughters. As brides." Keiichi closed his eyes. "McGuinness had us all in a tight spot because of the culture down there. They don't _forget,_ you see, and anything that's seen as a foul on their end is something that haunts us for generations. The women- the brides- were all grateful, just as their fathers were; their old husbands, the men who'd rape them and beat them and mutilated them were dead and gone, and I don't think they gave two shits who they married next so long as the word 'Taliban' wasn't in the title. We all had to be very careful in turning down their hands so as not to insult, and it nearly cost us the shaky alliance McGuinness had formed upon the village's liberation."

Now Keiichi turned to face her. "I saved you, Belldandy. I saved you from a man who was forcing you to do terrible things, just like those women in Afghanistan. They were grateful, just like you were that day, like you are now. But I want you to understand, that is gratitude, not love. Now don't get me wrong, I want to say that I love you, but... I don't want a relationship founded on gratitude. I don't want you to feel like you're obligated to love me or make me happy, like you were for that shit-stain of a man in Japan. I want you to like me because you know me and you genuinely like the person I am. Not the Navy SEAL- though that's a plus- but the man himself."

He paused, observing Belldandy's face, his eyes searching. "If we move forward with this relationship," he said quietly, "then it needs to be on the foundation that we are both flawed, that we are both scarred, and that neither of us is a golden savior in the eyes of the other. I lost a wife based off that misconception because the wounds I had at the time were too open and raw and neither of us acknowledged it. I don't want to lose you for that same misconception. Sort out your feelings Belldandy, figure out what is gratitude and what is love, and throw the gratitude away for now. If you still think there's something there... some sort of spark that won't just burn out, then let me know, and I will try my damnedest to return it. _But I don't want your gratitude_."

He stopped himself there and headed for the door. "Take your time and think about it. I'm heading back downstairs." His hand had just wrapped around the handle when Belldandy caught his arm. He looked back at her and found the Norn was upset; angry even.

"Keiichi Morisato, I have watched you grow from when you were but a small boy," she confessed. "You were eligible for a wish from an early age, and as such, I followed you from childhood into adulthood waiting to see if you would fall from the heaven's graces." Her eyes caught and held his, and the blue orbs dug into his brain like raw sapphires in the late evening, in the early morning.

"I watched you get bit by a dog when you were nine after your friends taunted it by poking it through the holes in a fence. I watched you pull your sister's hair from elementary school and into high school. I watched your awkward teenage years _to include_ what you did behind closed doors. I followed you as you walked into a Navy Recruiting station in San Francisco a week after you graduated high school and I watched you get on a plane that would fly you across your country to where you trained. I was with you when news reached you of Aiko. I saw the anger that would have destroyed your candidacy for a wish."

Her gaze never left his. "Yet you did not fall. You maintained your dignity and you upheld your personal morals despite the despair that news had implanted in your heart. I fell in love with you _then_ , Keiichi Morisato. Not from being rescued by you ten years later. Not because you have the human decency to tolerate me at my worst _or_ at my best and ask for nothing that a mortal woman could not already provide in return. I fell in love with _you_. Your personality and its kindness, though you liked to tease your siblings. Your sense of morals and how you respond under stress when an absolute worst case scenario could have occurred to you. Your strength of character, to be able to still hold on to that kindness, that love, despite the bad hand that some higher fate dealt you to test your might. I could have just been rescued by Urd. I could have just been rescued by a squadron of Valkyries. I could have just been rescued by another man, and it would have changed _nothing_. Though I would forever be grateful to them for saving me, I would not love them. Not the way I love _you."_

She pulled him away from the door, and too stunned by _this_ new revelation, or perhaps too captivated by her gaze, Keiichi let the Norn do so. Her hands slid around his waist, and she kissed him, hard enough to be bruising on the mouth. It stole his breath, but it was Belldandy who ended it, not Keiichi himself, and he drew in a ragged breath when her lips left his. "You do not realize it, but you've held the heart of a goddess for well over a decade, Keiichi." She stepped past him and to the door. Still facing him, she reached behind herself. Keiichi heard the click of the lock. "Now _come to bed_."

His eyes locked on to Belldandy's as she stepped back to him. So transfixed was he that Keiichi felt rather than saw her hands move to his shoulders. They slid down his arms until they reached his hands. She grasped them, pulled them to her, and placed them on her hips. She then reached around his back and pulled him to her, catching his lips in hers in doing so. This kiss was full of passion and desire.

Keiichi's hands roved from her hips to her back as she pressed in to him, forcing him back to the bed. Without disengaging from the kiss, he sat down as he reached the edge. Belldandy effortlessly slid into his lap, straddling his legs. He felt his arousal grow, and could tell she did as well as she reached up and grabbed his head, deepening the kiss as she did. This only served to ignite his passions further and he reached down and cupped the cheeks of her bottom. She whimpered into his kiss, then broke it. "Oh, Keiichi," panted Belldandy as she sat back and pulled Keiichi's head to her breasts, bringing him into her marshmallow heaven.

The dark haired man grabbed hold and stood with Belldandy. In response, she wrapped her legs around him to provide additional support. Keiichi was mildly surprised for a moment at how light she felt, but pushed that aside as he pivoted and sat her down on the bed. He lifted his head up and looked back into her eyes, seeing the desire he felt for her reflected in her azure pools. He felt her hands move to his waist where they grasped the hem of his t-shirt and pulled up. He reached down and pulled it up over his head.

As he threw the article of clothing aside, he saw Belldandy closely inspecting him as if in a new light. She reached out and caressed his chest, running it along the creases between the muscle groups, causing him to shudder. They roved further down along his sides, and the sensation, rather than tickle, aroused him further. Belldandy looked up to him again. As she did, she slid her hands around to the small of his back and pulled him towards her as she fell back.

He placed his hands on the bed so as not to collapse on her as he pulled his legs onto the bed. Belldandy pulled her legs up and wrapped them around him as he settled on top. Together they scooted further up and away from the edge. Keiichi slowly lowered himself onto her, then leaned to his left side, freeing his right arm. Tentatively, he touched her side with his hand, and slid it down to her hip where he caught the bottom of the chemise she was wearing then slipped under. Belldandy sighed, then leaned up and kissed him again.

Further emboldened, Keiichi caressed her silken skin, sliding the night gown up as his hands roved up to her breast. He cupped it, but Belldandy tensed up. Concerned that he may have overstepped her boundaries, he began to slide it towards her back, but then the goddess slightly shook her head. She reached up and grasped his hand while maintaining the passionate kiss they were engaged in, and guided it back to where it was. Emboldened, Keiichi palmed the breast in its entirety.

For just one agonizing moment, Belldandy broke the kiss. "Ooooh, Keiichi," she gasped, then returned her lips to his, once again stealing his breath at the desire and lust he felt in that act. He gently squeezed, and the goddess shuddered. Carefully, he slipped his finger around and circled it around her nipple, causing Belldandy to pull back with a gasp.

"Toshiyuki."

For the briefest of moments, Keiichi felt as if a bucket of ice water had been thrown on him. How! Why would she say _that_ name _right now!_ How could she be thinking of _him_? That man who put her through ten years of slavery. Ten years of torture.

Ten years of rape.

Those thoughts came to him as he was opening his eyes. When he looked into her eyes, though, his mind fully processed what he saw and compared it to what he had heard. That was not someone calling out their lover's name in a fit of passion.

That was rage.

Pure, unadulterated rage.

S _hit!_

He didn't have time to say it or even to do it. There was a bright flash and Keiichi, for the briefest of moments, felt himself fly through the air, only to impact the wall a moment later. Before he could react, Belldandy was on him. She grabbed him by the throat and held him there with his feet dangling a dozen inches off the floor.

Then she started to squeeze.

Keiichi tried desperately to pull in a breath, but found his airway had already collapsed from the pressure being exerted on his neck. _Belldandy, you're choking me!_ He tried through sheer force of will to say those words. But nothing came out, not even a croak.

 _Can't breathe!_

Fear started to grip him as he clawed at her arms, seeking a way to break her hold. Nothing was working as her grip was like iron, her arm like steel. He looked to Belldandy's face. "Toshiyuki Aoshima!" she growled. It almost sounded feral. Her eyes were glazed over and almost glowing. He could see what almost looked like ethereal energies leaking out of the sides of them, floating away before dissipating into the darkness.

 _Can't… breathe!_

He saw her rear back her hand. A blue-white ball of energy began to manifest. It crackled with energy.

 _Can't… … br…th!_

"For ten years, Toshiyuki!" Belldandy growled again, louder this time. "Ten years you put me through your own personal hell!"

 _Ca… t… br… !_

The edges of Keiichi's vision began to darken. Still, he kept his eyes locked on Belldandy. Searching desperately for something to click, some recess of her brain that might still be functioning to recognize what she was doing.

She was killing him.

"I shall suffer you no more, Toshiyuki!"

 _C… … … … th! Urd... …lp!_

The glowing ball Belldandy was holding ceased its growth. In that moment, Keiichi knew that he was dead. It was just a matter of whether he would pass out from asphyxiation before Belldandy delivered the killing blow. For the briefest of moments, he thought about how Belldandy would react when she realized what she had done. She was still damaged, still scarred.

This would destroy her.

But there was nothing he could do.

He didn't blame her, though.

 _How could I?_

That was his last thought before he sensed a flash of light.

Then darkness.

* * *

 **A/N: Oh, the evil cliffhanger. We are ending this on that note. Enjoy! Review and comment please!**

 **A/N2: Revised chapter with grammar/spelling updates uploaded 2/25/17**

* * *

 _Comments of a Madwoman: An extra long chapter since it took some additional time to figure out the ending. Time to go on another horrible ride as we see the repercussions that arise form such actions. And on the eve of the arrival of a Tic as well..._


	28. Chapter 28 - My Angel

l

" **My Angel"**  
"Then a spirit passed before my face; the hair of my flesh stood up. It stood still, but I could not discern the form thereof: an image was before mine eyes, there was silence, and I heard a voice, saying, 'Shall mortal man be more just than God? Shall a man be more pure than his maker?'"  
Job 4:15-17, King James Bible

-28-

Peorth listened with half an ear as the muffled voices of Belldandy and Keiichi quieted into a gentle lull. Her ears strained for any hint of what might be happening in his room, but instead what came to her was a vision; one provided by some sixth, otherworldly sense that occasionally allowed her insight to the hearts and minds of mortals. She saw a couple embrace in her mind's eyes and smiled. " _Finally_ ," she breathed. "I feared Belldandy would never gain the courage to approach him."

It came to her as a relief. The goddess had tried everything she could think of short of actually sleeping with Keiichi to push Belldandy into action, and the knowledge that the strange couple were _at last_ opening up to each other after Belldandy's trauma set her heart at ease. Some good had finally raised its head, and while it'd cost her a swollen cheek and unrestrained tension, Peorth was willing to view them as necessary sacrifices for Belldandy's sake.

Now she could get some actual rest. If only that blasted Valkyrie would cease her infernal whimpering. It was unnerving coming from the hardened warrior, and even if Belldandy had not gone to Keiichi that night, Peorth doubted she'd have gotten any rest. Lind sounded as though she was in near-unending pain, yet the Valkyrie's reputation for violence left Peorth reluctant to awaken her. She had no wish to invoke the Golden-Eyed Valkyrie's wrath. The goddess in question tossed and turned in her sleep, and a groan that Peorth could only label as 'terrified' arose from deep within her chest. Peorth's arms erupted in gooseflesh.

 _It matters not,_ Peorth reminded herself. _One night of no sleep is meaningless in the grand scheme of things. I will return to Asgard tomorrow and label my task here as complete, and then I'll have all the time in the world to rest and recuperate._ Lind's breathing became rapid and strained, like a woman fighting for breath. Peorth buried her head beneath her pillow and tried to drown it out. _Unfortunately it appears that tonight shall be the longest night in all of my history, and the dawn is still six hours away. But such is life at times, and if these are the last six hours I must spend in this wretched country, then so be it. It is nothing in comparison to accusations against my honor, sucker punches by Belldandy, electrocutions when I had no honest intent to go to Keiichi's side, or attacks by resident spirits when I have done nothing to insult._ The pillow helped a bit to block out Lind's noisy sleep disturbance, and with it Peorth could feel her eyes growing heavy with sleep. _This is no land for gods,_ she thought to herself, right before drifting off...

And then once more awakening to a _bang_ like a gunshot.

Peorth started in the bed, and next to her Lind awoke with a shriek more befitting a banshee. " _The angels!_ " she wailed, and Peorth felt herself break into a cold sweat. The voice that emerged from the Valkyrie's throat almost didn't sound like her own. _"No one is paying attention to the angels!"_

From next door came a plethora of curses from Urd, and amidst Lind's outcries Peorth grew aware of a secondary set of screams, these ones coming from Skuld. " _It's happening! Now! Move! It's happening right now, go go_ GO!" Footsteps pounded past Peorth's door in a sprint, and a moment later came another horrible _bang_ \- not a gunshot but a door being kicked open- and then Lind was on her feet and herself once more.

Alert, her eyes almost glowing an eerie yellow in the darkness, the Valkyrie rushed for the door and pulled it open, ripping the door off its hinges. She tossed it behind her without thought, and Peorth rolled out of the bed with a shout as the heavy wood collided with the headboard. "What is going-"

Lind was out the door before Peorth could finish her inquiry, and a few seconds later Urd was racing past as well, her eyes wide and frightened. Peorth felt her stomach tie itself into a knot, then rushed after the goddess, suddenly afraid. Afraid of the ominous words spoken by a Norn and a Valkyrie without reason. Afraid of the expression on the eldest Norn's face as Urd tore Lind out of the threshold of Keiichi's room and dove inside. Afraid of the embrace she'd seen in her mind's eye. Afraid of the silence that had settled in Keiichi's quarters. Afraid of the darkness that even now permeated the bedroom shared by a mortal and a Norn, one scarred, the other barely stable, and the sheer _unknown_ held within its walls. And then an angel with a black wing, an accursed _black wing_ appeared, and Peorth found herself with a whole new reason to be afraid.

XXX

Skuld was already inside the bedroom, and of everyone that night, was perhaps the only one who had a full account of what happened. What she saw shocked her, though she'd already been haunted by visions of its manifestation earlier that day. Her visions had been snippets; little warnings that something was going to happen, to prepare herself to act. But they did little to prepare her for the harsh reality the Norn of the Future had stumbled upon. Her eyes saw but her mind did not fully register the information passed on by her senses. She saw Keiichi pinned to the wall, his body limp, his face a sickly shade of blue. She saw Belldandy holding him by the throat with her right hand, its grip tight and vice like, and an ethereal, blue-white light forming in her other hand. Her eyes were aware of that glowing left hand pulling back to deliver a left hook, was aware of something emerging from Belldandy's back and grabbing hold of the Norn's left arm with all its might.

 _It's not enough,_ a voice whispered in her mind. _It's not enough and you know it. She won't stop. She_ can't _stop. Not without help._ The voice was young but not without wisdom, a familiar stranger whose name danced on the tip of Skuld's tongue for reasons she could not explain. _She needs more strength. More power. But unless she gets outside help-_

It happened faster than her brain could process. There was no time for thought as the words that weren't her own flowed like water through her mind. There was only time for action. "Noble Scarlet, come forth!" She felt a presence, small and compact but filled with energy, with _power_ , escape her back like a bright red star, and then another angel, this one only half the size of Holy Bell, was latched ahold of Belldandy and prying her away from Keiichi. Skuld ran to aid the two angels and felt the wild beat of Noble Scarlet's wings against her face. Her hands wrapped around Belldandy's right wrist and began to pry the fingers from around Keiichi's throat. Keiichi's head fell boneless and limp to one side.

"Urd!" Skuld released a shriek. "Urd, get in here! I need your help!"

Her summons were met at once with an explosion, one of such density and such tight control that Skuld wasn't even aware of it until the Norn of the Present was knocked to the floor and Skuld saw the charred hole near Belldandy's feet. With a wail, the Middle Norn lost her hold on Keiichi. The man dropped to the ground in a heap, and didn't move. The two angels at Belldandy's back, Holy Bell and Noble Scarlet, dragged her further away from him, and Skuld dropped to her knees and brought a pair of fingers to the SEAL's throat. She searched, but couldn't find a pulse. "Urd!" she screamed again, and now her sister was at her side, kneeling on the other side of Keiichi and pressing her ear to the man's chest.

The woman's expression was one of such open fear and rage that it frightened the younger Norn as Urd directed her gaze to Skuld. "Get Belldandy out of here." She ordered, taking control of the situation with such a level of command that Skuld almost wondered if she wasn't listening to her mother Ansuz. "Have World of Elegance guide you to one of the other bedrooms. Keep Lind and Peorth away from Belldandy until we know she's stable. _Don't challenge Elegance."_

"Don't what?" Skuld stared at her in confusion, yet her older sister had already moved her focus to Keiichi. Lightning in a harsh shade of violet danced at the woman's fingertips, and muttering a spell under her breath she brought them to the man's chest. Keiichi's body spasmed violently, and again Skuld recoiled, unnerved by the way the man's arms and legs seized and convulsed, smashing against the wood with audible _thumps_. She rose to her feet, wanting to see no more of the resuscitation, and looked around. World of Elegance was blocking the threshold of the door, her back turned to Skuld as her wings were splayed up and out in a hostile display. She could hear voices from the hallway as Lind and Peorth demanded entrance, to help, all of which were met in a stony silence.

Her gaze then switched to Belldandy, who was fighting against the grips of both her own angel and Skuld's with a ferocity that bordered on the terror of a mindless animal. Her expression was one of raw panic, a grimace on her face that spoke more of her time under Aoshima's thumb than any words that had been exchanged with Skuld since the Norn's freedom.

Skuld felt sick.

The Norn swallowed her nerves, fighting past her discomfort as she instead approached Belldandy. Though the woman's eyes were open, it was obvious Belldandy dreamed; her eyes were flat, dead, empty of emotion or of intellect, and when Skuld moved they did not follow her actions. "Big Sister, snap out of it!" She grabbed Belldandy's shoulders and shook her. "Come on, you've got to hear my voice, right? _Wake up!"_

Belldandy threw her off with a scream that rose into a name: " _To-shi-yu-ki!"_ Skuld's shoulder slammed into the wood with enough force to be bruising, and if not for the two angels at Belldandy's back the woman would have tackled her younger sibling. Instead she was hauled back once more by Holy Bell and Noble Scarlet. The woman's face devolved into a bestial snarl, her cheeks flushing into a deep red that spread up her forehead and down her neckline as the scream rose into a howl of inarticulate rage. It was a sight so eerie and so alien that Skuld scarcely recognized the woman before her as the elder sister she'd grown up idolizing.

 _We need to calm her down or wake her up._ Was that her thought or Noble Scarlet's? She couldn't tell in the chaos of the room. Skuld bit her lip. Her eyes met Noble Scarlet's. The angel nodded, sensing Skuld's intent, and then shifted her grip on Belldandy. Holy Bell stared at the smaller angel in confusion, and then alarm as the newly-born angel wrapped an arm around Belldandy's neck in a choke hold. For a moment Skuld feared Belldandy's angel would attack her own in defense of her host. She was shocked further when the angel instead looked to Skuld and nodded instead, as though giving Skuld the go ahead to knock Belldandy out.

It was a strange sight for a goddess who had never summoned an angel before, and as Noble Scarlet's grip grew firm and tight against the middle Norn, Skuld came to realize how little she understood of angels in general.

Belldandy's howl was cut off with her air, and she began to claw at the arm around her throat. Holy Bell was quick to grab her wrists, guiding them away from Noble Scarlet as the strength left the Norn's body. The goddess dropped to her knees, and the small angel leaned backwards, throwing her weight to the side to knock herself and Belldandy onto their backs. In a manner that perhaps mirrored Keiichi's of mere minutes earlier, the woman began choking, trying and failing to draw air. The fight left her person with her strength, and within seconds she was out cold. Noble Scarlet quickly released her and retreated to Skuld's side, leaving Belldandy to Holy Bell.

The young Norn flinched when a crackle of electricity rose from the door. A look to Elegance showed the angel was still keeping Lind and Peorth away, and had no qualms using magic to enforce her will. For Skuld's part, she was grateful. Neither of the goddesses needed to see the Norns in their current state, and she didn't want to stand around and see how either of the deities would react to Noble Scarlet's dwarfed appearance. And Holy Bell...

She shook her head, banishing the thoughts for later as she looked back to her angel. "Um, could you stay with Holy Bell?" Her heart was racing, her thoughts scattered as she tried to assess how to address her angel. "I-I need to check something." She paused and Noble Scarlet didn't move, perhaps sensing there was more Skuld wanted to say. "Um... I... don't know a whole lot about you," she confessed. It sounded almost like an apology. "But uh, if you can communicate with Holy Bell... do you think you could help her out?"

The angel nodded and drifted off to Holy Bell, who was wrapping one of Belldandy's arms around her shoulders. She tried to stand and stumbled, and Noble Scarlet moved to assist her. Satisfied her new angel would follow her requests, Skuld crawled to her feet and approached World of Elegance. It felt like her whole body was vibrating with unspent nervous energy. The angel released another spell that drove Lind and Peorth away from the threshold, then glanced back at Skuld as though sensing her approach.

Skuld steeled herself. Something about the angel's eyes was making her even more nervous than Belldandy had, and World of Elegance was supposed to be on _her_ side. "We've got Belldandy under control," she said. "Urd said to let you know."

The angel's eyes darted further inside the room, then back to Skuld. Heterochromic eyes. Only one of them was blue, and it was a shade so dark it almost passed for a shade of violet like Urd's. The other was as black as her wing. The angel jerked her head towards the hallway, and while there were no words to display intent, Skuld had spent enough years around Urd to understand what the gesture meant. _Follow me._

Skuld looked back over her shoulder. "Noble Scarlet, Holy Bell, are you ready?" The two angels, each with one of Belldandy's arms over their shoulders, nodded and stumbled forward. It was awkward; Noble Scarlet was tiny compared to Holy Bell, and was forced to fly while attempting to hold her half of Belldandy's weight. Holy Bell looked weak and sickly in comparison, and each step had a noticeable tremor to it. Yet the angel waved Skuld aside when the Norn tried to assist with the same stubborn will Skuld recognized in Belldandy, and biting her lip Skuld instead decided to help Elegance clear the hallway.

As she left the room she cast one final look back at Urd. The woman had stopped resuscitating Keiichi with her magic and had instead moved to attend the man's neck. Skuld wondered if the older woman even realized she was crying.

But then Elegance was on the move and Skuld had to rush to keep up. "Lind, Peorth, back off!" she announced.

Peorth had retreated back to Belldandy's room. Her own angel was out and tense, eyeing World of Elegance in open alarm. "Skuld, what's going on?" She demanded. "What happened to Belldandy and Keiichi?"

"I'll tell you later," Skuld said.

World of Elegance bared her teeth at Peorth's angel, who puffed up in alarm. She guarded Peorth closely, a whip made of plant fiber and thorns out and curled around her wrist in an open display of aggression. The message was clear: Peorth's angel viewed World of Elegance's actions as antagonistic enough to warrant action, and if the black-winged angel didn't back off, there was going to be a fight. Skuld had never seen angels fight before, had no desire to see such a thing now, and so grabbed World of Elegance by one tattooed hand and pulled her back. The angel looked back at her with a snarl. Skuld shook her head. "Not this room. Urd's room. Come on, leave them alone."

The angel regarded her with a look Skuld couldn't place, then wheeled around and spat a broad arc of fire back towards the hallway stairs. Two angels, each with only one wing, leapt forth from Lind as the Valkyrie retreated down the stairs. They intertwined their wings, and the flames bounced harmlessly off of their make-shift shield.

"Skuld, whatever you and Urd are trying to do, hurry!" Lind called from further down the stairs. "Urd's angel needs to calm down before she levels the whole house!"

"Then both of you stop trying to get involved and back off!" Skuld cried, her own distress making her voice rise and crack. "Please Lind, I'm trying the best I can, but World of Elegance is freaking out over both of you! Go downstairs until Urd and I have a chance to sort this all out!"

"What about Belldandy and Keiichi though?" Peorth pressed. "Skuld, _what is going on?!"_

" _I don't know!"_ Skuld screamed. It was a lie, of course. Skuld had known what was happening before Belldandy had seen Aoshima's face instead of Keiichi's and pushed Keiichi into a wall and wrapped a hand around his throat. She'd known before Keiichi had realized something was wrong and had tried to escape. She'd realized what was going on before the SEAL had begun to struggle, before Belldandy had begun to tighten her grip around his throat, and before Keiichi's face began to turn blue as his lungs were deprived of oxygen. Yet Skuld was overwhelmed, almost as frenzied as her older sister tending to Keiichi's wounds, and didn't want to deal with Peorth's interrogation without Urd there to reassure her that everything was going to be okay. "All of you, just-back off! _"_

Elegance grabbed her by the shoulder and shoved her roughly towards Urd's bedroom. It wasn't Urd, but it was enough to spur her into action. With the angel keeping Peorth trapped in Belldandy's room and forcing the twins to protect Lind in the stairwell, Skuld proceeded to Urd's room with the two angels supporting Belldandy hot on her tail. As soon as the pair of angels and unconscious goddess made their way past Peorth, World of Elegance backed out, covering their movements. Skuld thought she saw Peorth's angel stalk after the black-winged angel. She didn't wait to find out.

As soon as Belldandy was placed onto Urd's bed, World of Elegance was back in the hallway. Skuld chased after her. "Wait! What are you doing?"

It was stupid to expect the angel to answer her, as instead the black winged angel wheeled on the two goddesses and three angels encroaching on the lone Norn in the hallway. Again lighting cackled around the angel's person, and her wings brought with it the sound of thunder so loud Skuld had to cover her ears. Bolts of violet lighting shot from the angel's person, yet none of them came close to striking either goddess; warning shots designed to force Lind and Peorth out of the hallway. World of Elegance advanced on them like an enraged eagle. The two goddesses backed up towards the staircase.

"Lind, don't attack her!" Skuld cried, and from behind her she sensed rather than saw Noble Scarlet and Holy Bell emerge from the bedroom, watching the scene with growing anxiety.

From between the gaps of Elegance's wings Skuld caught snippets of Lind's grimace. "I'm not," she assured, and her next words were directed towards World of Elegance herself. "You helped me, remember? Me and my girls?"

For a moment World of Elegance paused, regarding Lind with a haughty expression. Lind had her hands up, keeping them visible to the angel. She brought an arm up in front of Peorth, then pushed the goddess backwards towards the staircase. "I want to return the favor. I want to help you too." She took a step backwards, and with Peorth eyeing her both deities retreated from the angel. "We're going downstairs, okay?" Her voice was of a soft tone that Skuld had never heard before. "I'm going to make a phone call, all right?" she continued. "It's to a friend of mine." She paused, and from Skuld's perspective World of Elegance bristled, the muscles in her back tensing as though she were preparing to dive at the Valkyrie. Skuld considered the wisdom of tackling the angel and then thought better of it, instead listening to the Valkyrie's proposal.

"I know you were trying to protect them, but I saw them," Lind continued, and the angel jerked towards the goddess with a snarl. A burst of fire once more flew from her mouth, and sparks crackled and gleamed in the angel's jaw. This time Lind didn't move, and the fire fell short of her by a foot. "I understand. You saw my girls, remember? It's no different from them. My friend is the one who treats them both. He specializes in the health and well-being of angels. He can help, if you'll let him."

Peorth was watching Lind and World of Elegance with wide eyes. By the look on the Rose Goddess's face, she might as well have been watching Lind trying to talk a tiger down from mauling the both of them. "Lind, what are you-"

Lind hushed her, then turned back to Elegance. "Something's wrong with your sisters," she continued, her voice that same slow and steady pace as before. "I saw. One was too small and the other is..." She trailed off. "You want to know why, right?" she asked instead. Sparks prickled across World of Elegance's plumage. "My friend can tell you. If I bring him down here will you allow him to look them over?"

"Lind, shouldn't you be asking the Nor-" Peorth tried again and was hushed once more for her troubles.

"I understand where you're coming from and I want to help," Lind persisted. "Will you please allow me to help you as you and Urd helped me?"

The sparks faded from World of Elegance's wings. She stomped her foot, demanding.

Lind nodded. "Peorth and I will go downstairs and I'll make the call from there," she said. "None of us will come up- not even my friend- until we get word from you or one of the Norns, okay?"

The muscles that comprised the angel's wings flexed, causing the feathers to sigh against her person. Then the feathers began to smooth, and some of the tension melted as World of Elegance gave a single sharp nod.

"Downstairs Peorth." Lind's voice was almost inaudible. _"Now,_ " she ordered, and Skuld could hear the retreating steps of both Lind and Peorth as the angel before her breathed deep.

Skuld eyed her warily, even more uneasy now than when World of Elegance had first cast that dual-gaze on her person. "Hey." She couldn't raise her voice above a whisper. World of Elegance glanced down at her, and for the first time Skuld realized just how much _larger_ World of Elegance was than any of the other angels she'd seen in the house. The only one who came close was Peorth's angel, and even she'd seemed dwarfed in light of Elegance's fury. Skuld swallowed, intimidated. "Let's go and check on Urd and Keiichi," she suggested, and wondered what she was trying to accomplish. World of Elegance was an extension of Urd, right? The angel was intimately connected with her host; she knew what Urd knew and felt what Urd felt. Her overall actions were an extension of Urd's own feelings and desires, so why make such a thoughtless suggestion?

World of Elegance beheld her with an unreadable expression, then looked past Skuld to Urd's room. Skuld glanced behind her, finding Noble Scarlet floating in the hallway. In the threshold of the door, Holy Bell peeked out. It looked almost as though the angel was hiding. Skuld heard World of Elegance sigh, and, her attention torn between the two angels at her back and the larger angel before her, Skuld once more turned to Elegance. The anger had vanished. In its place was a look of such melancholy, as World of Elegance looked back at the two angels, that Skuld felt her heart wrench.

In that moment Skuld came to a new realization; a thought that had never occurred to her in her small and limited experience with angels. _They're their own person._ She thought. _They aren't just extensions of ourselves. They're a whole different entity born from our souls._ "I'm sorry," she blurted, and then wondered why she was apologizing.

World of Elegance started, the feathers of her wings bristling and then settling like a cat that had been spooked. She stared at Skuld, then back to Noble Scarlet and Holy Bell. The tattooed entity drew her wings together, tight against her back, and rested a hand on Skuld's head. Skuld waited for the angel to rustle her hair-like Urd did to get a rise out of her- and was proven wrong once more when instead a voice rose in her mind. It was feminine but filled with static, like a voice on a radio with a weak signal. _N..o ap...log...s._ Skuld started, and World of Elegance's hand fell away as the angel moved past her, gesturing to Keiichi's room as she approached the two remaining angels.

Skuld stared after the angel in stunned silence. _I really know absolutely nothing about angels, do I?_ She watched as the black-winged angel gathered up the two of them- _a choir. A group of angels is called a choir,_ she recalled-and moved from Urd's room and into Belldandy's room, World of Elegance using her wings to block Skuld's view of Holy Bell in a gesture of privacy.

For a moment she caught Noble Scarlet's gaze, and heard her angel's voice, still so new as to be strange and eerie to the Norn, rise in Skuld's mind. _Holy Bell needs help,_ the angel whispered. It sounded like a child who had yet to reach puberty. It was a sound that chilled Skuld to the core. _I want to help World of Elegance look out for her. Is that okay?_

Skuld nodded wordlessly, and the tiny angel sent her a smile of the kind of unparalleled joy and relief that only a child could properly express. _Like asking a parent to stay the night with her best friend,_ Skuld thought. The door that had been ripped off its hinges appeared, held up by one tattooed hand, and was laid to lean against the threshold to block the view from within. Skuld watched the black and white limb vanish from sight before moving to Keiichi's room. She felt drained for reasons she could not explain. Worse yet, she felt ill.

 _Why is Noble Scarlet so small?_ The thought revolved in her mind. _Why isn't she like Peorth's angel, or even World of Elegance? Why is she... why is she a_ child _?_

Urd was placing Keiichi on top of his bed when Skuld entered the SEAL's bedroom once more. He looked fragile in the elder woman's arms. Young. Mortal. _He's got a young soul,_ Skuld thought inanely. _If he survives this it will age him by decades._ Urd looked ancient in comparison; an old woman who'd seen and lived through wars and borne witness to unspeakable atrocities committed in the name of gods, demons, and men. Her face was set with deep worry lines, and there were heavy bags under her eyes that left the deity with a near-endless look of sadness and depression. She just looked so...so _tired_ of it all. Skuld averted her gaze. She didn't want to see her sister in such pain. "How is he?"

"Alive," Urd murmured. "It's all any of us can ask for right now." Her voice was strained. "Belldandy?"

"Out cold," Skuld said. "Noble Scarlet knocked her out."

"Who?"

"Noble Scarlet," Skuld repeated, and she looked up at Urd. "...my angel." She felt her lower lip try to pull down in a frown and ignored it. Urd stared at her in silence. "She's... tough. Tough but tiny. And Holy Bell..," she swallowed. "Did you see her, Urd?"

"No," Urd confessed. "I... missed her in my rush to treat Keiichi. Is she..."

"She doesn't have any feathers." The words came out a whisper. "Not a single one, and she's... it's like looking at a skeleton, Urd!" She gritted her teeth and looked to the floor, ashamed when hot tears blurred her sight. "The muscle has withered away to nothing! She's nothing but skin and bone and-" She jumped when she felt a pair of arms wrap around her shoulders. "I can't..." She looked up at Urd, and now the tears flowed unobstructed down her face. "What's wrong with them, Urd? Noble Scarlet and Holy Bell. What's _wrong_ with them?"

"I don't know," Urd murmured, and somehow that admission made it worse.

"I can't keep this up, Urd." The younger Norn turned into her sister's embrace and buried her face against the woman, sobbing into her chest. "I'm so sick of it! I'm so tired of being strong for her! I don't want to be an adult anymore! No one said anything about this stuff! _What am I supposed to do?!"_

Yet Urd said nothing. There was nothing she _could_ say. Not in this moment where both of their nerves were frayed and the Norn of the Past lacked the proper words to reassure her sister.

Not when such similar thoughts danced at the forefront of her own mind.

XXX

There was a stranger in the house when Skuld went downstairs later that night.

It wasn't the Tic that was due to arrive.

But it was a Tic. A short man with curly hair and a large handlebar mustache whose smile was large and kind when he caught her gaze. "Hey _Kyz_ , you must be Skuld eh?" He ambled over to her and thrust a hand out as Skuld stepped into the hallway. His grip was gentle, different from what Skuld was used to from her family or their various associates. Those handshakes were always tight and crushing, and whenever Skuld had to deal with one her hand would have bruises that would last for days. Not this one though. This one felt almost limp and weak in comparison. "I'm Nebo. Nice to meet ya." He didn't introduce himself by his full title, which was also strange for a god. It was in general considered proper to introduce oneself by their full title, especially amongst older gods, and so to hear such a casual greeting coming from the man further unbalanced the Norn. He didn't look a day over thirty, yes, but the aura that surrounded him was old; older than the old woman Skuld had spoken to who was assigned as Belldandy's Tic.

"Um... hi," Skuld said.

"Imma friend of Lind's. She asked me to come down and check up on your angels?" He didn't go further in depth, though Skuld had a sneaking suspicion Lind had informed him of everything she'd seen. The Norn looked over Nebo's shoulder to where Lind was watching the exchange in silence. The Valkyrie jutted her chin toward the staircase but made no other motion. Skuld was uncertain if she should be encouraged by the blue-haired deity or not.

"Something like that," Skuld mumbled. She looked back to Nebo, who was watching her closely. It made her uncomfortable. The man's gaze was unwavering and left her feeling open and exposed, as though he was looking right _into_ her and reading all her secrets.

"I was warned that one of 'em's a bit of a _gudan."_ He winked at Skuld, who had no idea what a 'gudan' was but nodded regardless. The man had a strange accent to him that she'd only heard on a couple of rare occasions, and those usually amongst the older deities in her father's court. "Think she's gonna let me see the choir or she gonna wring my throat instead?" That penetrating look was gone, hidden now behind a pair of laughing eyes.

"I think she's liable to strangle the both of us," Skuld grumbled, but allowed a small, hesitant smile to crawl across her face. Unnerving as this strange little man was, she recognized his desire to help. "You know a lot about angels?"

"They're my specialty." Nebo smiled broadly. "Ain't nobody thinkin' 'bout the angels, but somebody got to, right? They special folks. You help the angel, you help the god."

"I never thought about it like that." Skuld said. "I...only recently called my angel for the first time."

"That so?" Nebo's bushy eyebrows shot up in surprise, and then he sent her another one of those large, toothy smiles. "Well ain't you in for a treat! Special time for you _Kyz!_ She upstairs with the others?"

"Yeah."

"Want to introduce 'em to me then? Let the ol' _gudan_ know I ain't about to eat her choir?"

Skuld sent him an uneasy stare, and Nebo waved her off. "Sorry, sorry, bad joke. We'll go up there together and I'll have a look at all of 'em, what do you say? Let you know how your angel's doing along with the _gudan_ and the other one. Be good for 'em!"

The Norn smiled weakly, no longer comfortable with the idea of Nebo seeing her angel. Like all the times before, however, she swallowed her nerves and nodded. "Yeah, sure. Why not?" She looked past him once more in question to Lind, who still watched them in silence. Peorth poked her head out from the living room with a worried expression of her own on her face.

"We'll stay down here," Lind announced. "Come grab us if you or Urd need our help with Keiichi or Belldandy. We don't want to crowd the second floor. It could make World of Elegance anxious again."

Peorth sent the Valkyrie a flat look. "Speak for yourself," she muttered. "It does not feel right to sit here and do nothing when there are people suffering upstairs."

"No one's suffering right now," Skuld replied. "Keiichi's okay and Belldandy's resting."

"And what of you and Urd?" Peorth demanded. "You were not 'fine' when last I saw you upstairs."

Skuld didn't reply. She turned and headed up the stairs instead, and casting a look back to Lind, Nebo turned and followed her as well.

Urd was heading to her bedroom to check on Belldandy when they came to the second floor. She paused to watch them with tired eyes. "Who's your friend, Skuld?"

"Nebo," Skuld said. The man waved. "Lind called him. He's here to look at Holy Bell."

Urd paused and narrowed her eyes at the man. "A Tic?" she queried.

Nebo nodded. "Lind filled me in on what she knows. You're Urd, right? The one with the Black Wing mutation?"

The goddess bristled as though she'd been insulted. "What of it?" Urd snapped. She turned to face him more fully. There was a challenge in her step.

Nebo raised his hands, trying to defuse the situation before it could worsen. "Sorry! Ey, didn't mean anything by It _Kyz_. Lind told me you had a bit of a medical background as an acolyte is all. Would you mind helping me out if I called on you for aid?"

The tension eased from the woman's face. "Damn Valkyrie can't keep her mouth shut," she grumbled. "Yes, I'll help... if I'm not busy with Keiichi or Belldandy."

"Aw, come on, _Kyz_ , don't be too hard on Lind," Nebo said. "She didn't mean nothing by it. I just noticed the potion you made for her angel and it just kind of slipped out. That stuff was pretty potent- I could use that kind of expertise if you ain't already predisposed."

Urd massaged her brow, and Skuld took the chance to glance once more at Nebo. As she'd expected, that scrutinizing look was back on his face once more. Urd didn't notice. "Fine."

"Think you can ask World of Elegance to let us in?" Skuld pointed to the Belldandy's room. The door was back on its hinges again. "She was getting pretty... testy with us."

Urd stared at the two of them, then at Belldandy's room. With a sigh she trudged over to the door and knocked on it. World of Elegance opened it after the first knock and stared at all three of them, unsurprised by the trio of deities. Urd gestured to Nebo and Skuld with an open palm, then turned and headed back towards her own room.

Skuld brought a hand to her brow. "Yggdrasil bless it Urd," she moaned.

World of Elegance looked at them with narrowed eyes, her arms crossed atop her chest and wings once more splayed to block the view of the room within. Nebo looked between the angel and her retreating host in interest. "...Huh," he grunted. "That's rare. Not often you see that kind of relationship between an angel and its host."

World of Elegance raised a brow, but Nebo didn't pursue his thoughts aloud. He stepped forward instead and introduced himself. His voice became softer, gentler than the tone he'd initially used to address Skuld. "Well aren't you a gorgeous one," he murmured. "It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Nebo, the Tic Lind visited after you helped her twins down here. Lind asked me to come by and see to you and your sisters."

Some of the haughty aloofness faded from the angel's demeanor as the man introduced himself, and World of Elegance looked him up and down with fresh scrutiny. The entity paused a moment and looked over her shoulder, and then after a moment returned her attention to Nebo. The angel pursed her lips, then backed out of the door's threshold, allowing Nebo to enter. Skuld followed after a moment's hesitation of her own, yet World of Elegance did not bar her path as she expected. Instead the Norn was allowed to enter as well, and World of Elegance shut the door behind her.

The overhead lights of the room were off, yet there was a warm and earthy glow that provided more than enough light to see by. Magical orbs of gentle hues of blue and green appeared to be the source. None larger than a baseball, they drifted at a lazy pace throughout the room. Skuld looked at them in open curiosity, having never seen such magic before, and then back at World of Elegance in question. The angel ignored her silent inquiry, and instead moved past both Skuld and Nebo and to Belldandy's bed, where both Noble Scarlet and Holy Bell rested curled up against each other.

The bed sheets and blankets were in disarray. They'd been pulled up from the mattress and tucked and folded into each other to form a nest around Holy Bell. Pillows were stacked around her to give the angel as much cushioning and support as possible, but as they approached Skuld could tell it wasn't enough. The angel's face was set in a grimace, one that only faded from outright pain to severe discomfort when World of Elegance returned to what must have been her own place in the makeshift nest. The angel rested against the bed's headboard and drew Holy Bell to her, and as she settled once more Noble Scarlet readjusted her own position to aid in the angel's comfort.

A lump formed in Skuld's throat at the sight. Now that the chaos of the late evening had settled down with Keiichi cared for and Belldandy next door, the Norn had a chance to see Holy Bell with all her injuries on display. The angel was thin enough that Skuld could easily count her ribs, her pelvic bone protruding against skin of an unnatural, sickly yellow. She could see the joints of her elbows, knees, and ankles clearly, and there were patches on the skin that looked scaled and dry; scar tissue from past crystal infections that had come and gone with the many seasons trapped under Aoshima's roof. Her hair was matted into a single clump of filth, and her wings drooped at her back, little more than skin and bone; it looked like she hadn't seen feathers in ages. The angel rested curled up against both World of Elegance and Noble Scarlet, tearing pages out of a large paperback book and tearing the paper into tiny shreds. It seemed to soothe her, yet somehow made her seem smaller and more vulnerable than Skuld's angel, who was not even half her size.

The Norn bit her lip, fighting the desire to look away. Noble Scarlet was watching her closely, and she didn't want the tiny angel to think her so weak. _See?_ That child-like voice rang once more in her head. _I can help too. World of Elegance and Holy Bell both said so. World of Elegance let me build a nest for Holy Bell, and she said I did really good!_ In a softer voice she added, _Holy Bell is still hurting though... World of Elegance said there's nothing I can do about that. But I'm still helping and I'm gonna keep helping until she gets better!_

 _Yeah, you're helping all right._ Skuld thought. She tried to smile but it came out flat. Her stomach twisted into a knot. _You're doing good, Noble Scarlet...Real good. Can you do me a favor and follow Nebo's directions? He wants to take a look at Holy Bell and help her out._

The angel looked at the man in question, then nodded to Skuld. Nebo was wearing another gentle smile again, and for that Skuld envied the man. How he managed to display any kind of positive emotion in the face of such a tragic sight was beyond her understanding; beyond anything the Norn could even hope to accomplish in that moment. If he was at all bothered or unnerved by Holy Bell's state of being he hid it well. "Hello." The words were whispered now. "I'm here to help."

Skuld watched in silence as the deity went about examining Holy Bell, his actions slow, deliberate, and above all gentle in consideration of the angel's deteriorated state. Most of what he spoke he whispered, and sensing the need to give them privacy Skuld moved back to the door and well out of range of hearing. His words became a soft murmur, and on occasion he would hold Holy Bell's arms and examine the patches of dry, tough skin, would rotate a limb to test for mobility and pain, would ask the angel to perform some action and then have her stop when she displayed signs of visible pain.

And he would _joke_. He would tell nonsensical stories as he went about his examination, loud enough even for the Norn across the room to hear. Skuld watched as all three angels listened with rapt attention until he came to the end of one story after another, where Noble Scarlet would smile in delight and Holy Bell would grace him with a small smile. He told knock-knock jokes and Noble Scarlet would mime ' _who's there'_ , and each one would end in a scenario more ridiculous than the last until even World of Elegance cracked a grin, and Nebo would call her on it before she had a chance to hide it.

By the time he was half-way through his examination, the deity had placed all three of the angels in a state of such ease that even the somber atmosphere of the room had lightened somewhat. And all this before Nebo's final act, which both shocked and delighted not just the angels, but Skuld as well. Nebo knew how to sign.

So too did all the angels.

It was a technique inherent in all angels from the moment they were born, or so Skuld had heard. An ability that had been implanted as part of the magical creature's development to allow an ease in communication should the host be unavailable. Skuld had never seen an angel sign before, much less a _god_ , and it left the young Norn wondering if she needed to have her eyes checked once, then checked twice, when first Noble Scarlet, then Holy Bell signed back.

"Can you tell me what else is bothering you?" Nebo spoke the words aloud as his hands signaled his intent, and at a slower pace Skuld watched Holy Bell reply, the gestures meaningless and obscure to the Norn's untrained eye. Nebo asked another question that Holy Bell responded to, then another. With each answer she gave, she grew bolder as an honest, shy smile encroached upon the angel's face.

So absorbed was she with the scene, Skuld didn't even notice her own smile at the sight, nor how relieved she was that Lind had made a simple phone call to a friend.

XXX

There was a moan from the bed. Urd started at the sound, then was on her feet from where she'd been resting against a wall and at Keiichi's side before his eyes even opened. The man's face pulled back in a grimace, and he brought an arm across his face to block out the light of the room. His eyes fluttered, and making a face the man grunted before one eye cracked open. "Beeeeell?" The word came long and drawn out, almost as though the man was drunk. After the amount of magic and the number of repairs to his body the Norn had made, this didn't surprise Urd in the slightest.

The other eye cracked open, and the man blinked at the goddess. "Urrrd...h-hey _Urrrrrd,"_ he drawled. "Did'ja seeeee it?"

Urd stared at him. Of all the things she'd expected him to say or do upon awakening, this was not one of them. Scream maybe. Declare his undying love for her perhaps. Maybe even take one look at her and start howling like a raving lunatic. Nothing that would have confused her like... _this._ This was... unprecedented. "See what, Keiichi?"

"The liiiiiiight," Keiichi slurred. "It was reeeeeeal _briiiiiiiiight._ " He blinked at her again, and Urd scrunched her brows together, trying to examine his eyes for any sign that something in his brain was out of whack. Dilated or perhaps uneven pupils. Maybe blood from a popped vessel. Yet the man's eyes expanded and contracted with the light in equal amounts, and Urd had triple-checked his skull and brain for any signs of internal injury before the man had awakened. As far as Urd could tell, it was just a side effect of the amount of magic she'd used on him. "Ah reeeal briiight liiiiiiiight," Keiichi moaned in a singsong voice. "Staaaaaar light, staaaaaar bright...first star I seee toniiiiiight..."

Urd sighed and rubbed her temple with one hand. At least he was alive. "There was no light, Keiichi."

"But I saaaaaw iiiiiit," the man protested. "It was soooooo briiiiiiiiiiiiight. Sooooo puuuurty." He sighed, almost wistful.

Urd made a face. "You must have dreamt it, Jank," she said. "Do us all a favor and go back to sleep." In a lower voice she added, "At this rate you'll be seeing juggling bears in tutus..."

"Ooooh-kaaaay..." Keiichi sighed. "But I saaaw it, Urrrrrd. I _knooooow_ I diiid."

"Jank... please."

"Ooooh-kaaay..." The man trailed off. "Sleeeeepy-time for Jaaaaankyyyy..." And before she could think to say more, he was asleep once again.

Urd stared at the dozing man with a grimace. "And to think Urd, all this could have been yours had you stayed on the path of a Tic. Day after day of nothing but loopy patients of both varieties: the mad and the silly." She shook her head before moving into the hallway outside. "What the fuck was the younger me thinking back then?" Her shoulders sagged as she moved away from the bed. "At least he didn't ask about Belldandy," she grumbled.

The door to Belldandy's room popped open and Skuld stuck her head out, looking both ways before she discovered Urd. "Hey."

"Hey."

The goddess slipped out into the hallway with a slip of paper in her hand. "Nebo wanted me to give this to you. He said he wants a couple of potions made for Holy Bell." The Norn paused as Urd took the parchment from her sister. "Holy Bell's in rough shape, Urd. She's hurting in a bad way."

Urd read through the tiny scrawl, written in careful, large text that at times trailed off into an almost unreadable chicken scratch. A list of potions and their intended effects were listed out to her, along with ingredients and recipes for several obscure ones that Urd wasn't familiar with. "What did he tell you?" She folded the paper and stuffed it into a pocket, then looked back at Skuld.

The young woman shrugged. "Nothing yet," she said. "It's... all based off of conjecture. He won't speak on Holy Bell's condition until he's had a chance to speak with Belldandy."

"Patient confidentiality," Urd muttered.

Skuld nodded, distracted. "I need to grab some towels," she said. "And...Do you mind if I steal the blankets and pillows from your room?"

"Knock yourself out," Urd said. "Do me a favor and check on Belldandy for me too. I'm going to head downstairs and put the two mooks below to work."

"Got it."

The two sisters departed from there, Skuld to first the bathroom and then to Urd's room and Urd downstairs to meet with Lind and Peorth. She found the latter pacing up and down the first floor hallway like a caged lion, the former watching her. The rose goddess froze mid-step when she caught sight of Urd. "Well?!" she snapped, and raced to the Norn, almost forcing Urd back up the staircase. "What happened? Is Belldandy okay?" Her voice wavered. "Why was your angel so distressed? What happened to Belldandy's angel? Is Keiichi alright? What can I do to help?"

Urd leaned away from the goddess, taken aback by the assault of questions. Peorth looked close to tears, and judging by how red and puffy her eyes were, it wouldn't have been the first time she'd broken down that night. The woman looked to Lind in question, yet the Valkyrie did nothing aside from cast a level gaze at the Norn, as though expecting Urd to answer all of Peorth's questions.

The goddess sighed, recognizing that she owed at least some answers to the inquires she was being pelted with. _Fuck, I don't want to deal with this right now._ The thought made her feel guilty at once. Peorth's concern was honest, and Lind's fast thinking had brought the arrival of a Tic whose specialty allowed him to descend immediately. And though she hid it well, Lind looked worried too. Like she wanted to help. They both did. "Right," she grumbled. "Slow down, OK? One thing at a time."

Peorth made a noise in her throat but backed up, allowing Urd to breathe a bit easier. "Keiichi's fine now and Belldandy's resting," she said. "I can't say for certain but... it looked like Bell had a flashback when they were..." She trailed off and tried again. "She ended up attacking Keiichi. Skuld was able to knock her out while I tended to Keiichi."

" _Dou_ _mær_ _,"_ Peorth breathed. It didn't sound like French. Maybe some kind of off-brand dialect, but not the French she'd been speaking since arriving. " _Sitoplé non."_ She shook her head in disbelief, and took a step away from the Norn. "Oh...oh Yggdrasil. Oh Urd..." The silver-haired woman was taken aback by the woman's honest shock. "He is well? Keiichi and Belldandy both?" The Rose Goddess's voice began to rise in earnest.

Urd nodded. "For now," she said. "Keiichi's alive and recovering, and Belldandy's still... out."

"Then what are you doing down here?!" Peorth demanded. "Should you not be upstairs tending to your sister? Should we not _all_ be upstairs ensuring they are both well?" Her lips pulled back in an anxious grimace. "You would _dare_ let us sit here and do nothing while the sister who suffers so rests unconscious upstairs and the man you love is not fully recovered?" She cried.

Lind went rigid and looked at the two with large blue eyes.

Urd grimaced. Of all the things to bring up _now_ , and in front of _Lind_ of all people. She bared her teeth in frustration. "Damn it, Peorth, don't fucking star-"

"And the angels?" Peorth never slowed down. The questions, the demands, kept coming. "Why was your angel so anxious that she would hold me hostage in a bedroom? She caused my Gorgeous Rose enough anxiety to manifest without my consent! For Lind's angels to manifest without consent, and she with _two_ where we all have but one! Whose angels were Lind speaking of? Urd, _to pitin, what about the angels?!"_

The Norn's eyes flashed with anger, the limits of her temper reached, and it was only then that Lind inserted herself into the conversation. "That's enough, Peorth." There was steel in her voice, enough to make even the Norn, angered though she was, pause before retaliation. "We're all stressed and we're all worried, but throwing accusations and demands around isn't going to solve anything."

The goddess wheeled on the Valkyrie. "You would-"

"I would," Lind said, cutting her off. "And I _will_. Go into the dining room. _Please."_ There was no request in the Valkyrie's voice.

Peorth stared at the woman for a long moment, her gaze challenging. Yet Lind's was even more unwavering. There must have been something quite unnerving in that steady look as well, for the goddess turned and marched down the hallway into the dining room. Lind watched her go, and did not turn her eyes away from the woman until Peorth took a seat at the table, her back to the two goddesses. In the one lone light that illuminated the dining room, the rose goddess looked alone, scared, and like the rest of them, stressed.

Lind looked back to Urd. The Norn was trembling with the last bit of self-control she had. "Come on," she murmured. "Let's sit for a moment." She rested a hesitant hand on Urd's shoulder, and the woman flinched.

"Can't," Urd grunted. "Need to-"

"Take a moment," Lind said, interrupting her. "Not long. Just a couple minutes at the most." She guided the Norn into the living room and onto the couch. Urd didn't resist. "Just enough to gain your bearings."

Urd fell onto the Ugly Beast with a grunt. Lind sat next to her, watching her in silence. The Norn leaned forward and propped her elbows on her knees, cradling her head in her hands. She sucked in first one ragged breath, then another, and the whole of her body shuddered as she fought to rein in her temper. Lind watched her for a moment before resting a hand on the woman's shoulder, and the small gesture of camaraderie was almost too much for Urd to bear in that moment. One minute became two. She gritted her teeth and the breaths came faster as she began to hyperventilate. Two minutes became five. Her fingers curled into rigid talons whose nails dug into her skin. Five minutes became ten, and Lind leaned into the woman, prying Urd's fingers away from her forehead with a firm grip. "Deep breaths, Urd," she murmured, and again Urd sucked in a sharp ragged breath.

"Fuck," the woman ground out. "Fuck, fuck, _fuck!"_ she seethed. She moved to stand and was pulled back into the couch by Lind. "I need to-"

"No you don't," Lind said. "Not until you calm down."

Urd turned on her with a snarl, and in the poor light of the living room it almost seemed as if her eyes were cast in red. For a moment, and only for a moment, Lind found herself back in Hell, and the woman she stared at was not Urd but the Daimakaicho, observing her from the other side of a long row of steel bars. The Valkyrie recoiled as though she'd been slapped, and was not blind to the hurt that washed over the Norn's face. The strange glow faded from the Norn's eyes as Urd tore her gaze away from the woman. "What was that," the Norn queried.

"It's nothing," Lind replied. A heavy silence descended on the two. "You're stressed," said the blue haired goddess finally. "You've got more reasons to be stressed than all of us, and it's starting to take its toll." She paused for a moment. "I know it's hard, but hang in there a bit longer."

Urd said nothing.

Lind pursed her lips. "Try and focus on some good. Keiichi's alive, right? That counts for something, doesn't it?"

The Norn ran her fingers through her hair but nodded regardless. "Nebo needs potions." She sighed.

Lind nodded, hoping she was encouraging. "Let's see what we can do to help out then. One thing at a time. What do you need from _us_? Peorth and me? We both want to help as well, but we need some direction if we're going to take the burden off your shoulders."

Urd looked at her sharply, then relaxed, seeing the sincerity in the Valkyrie's eyes. "I need ingredients. _Asgard_ ingredients. Stuff that I can't get in my current state." She dug into her pocket and retrieved the slip of paper Skuld had passed her. "I have most of them, but there are some rarer ones in here that I don't normally keep on hand."

"I'm on it," Lind said, and after a moment's consideration asked, "Do you want me to take Peorth with me?"

For a moment Urd brightened, and just as quickly the light faded from her face. "She can't leave on the grounds of Keiichi being her current client."

"That's not a problem," Lind said. "I have special permission to remove specific deities from the surrounding area."

Urd frowned. "There's a catch," she said. "That's a power granted to law enforcement branches like the _Eumenides_ under Justice Athena. Valkyries aren't granted that kind of power unless they're placed in a special duty position that calls for continued overwatch of a deity in relation to their standard operating procedures."

Lind looked impressed. "You're right," she said. "I... wasn't expecting you to know that."

"I've had my fair share of run-ins with the law," Urd grumbled. "It pays to know your rights. And don't try and change the subject. What's the catch?"

"I wasn't trying to change the subject," Lind replied. "I'm allowed to remove a deity from an area to approximately five hundred nautical miles on the grounds of possible conflict between yourself and the deity in question. My job watching you includes ensuring you don't draw unwarranted attention to yourself with the local population by assault on other deities, and while I can't force you to leave the area, I can force the other deity to leave under the grounds of reckless self-endangerment of a hostile entity."

"So you'd be 'rescuing' Peorth from me." Urd said flatly.

"Yes," Lind sighed. "It's not optimal, but at this rate it looks like it'd be safer to remove the problem at its source."

"At the cost of slandering my own name," Urd retorted. "No thanks."

The Valkyrie stared at the woman in surprise. "Are you certain?" She asked. In a lower voice she said, "I know that Peorth's presence here is undesired. This would put an end to her business down here at once."

"At the cost of my name," Urd repeated. "And they'd send someone else who'd be equally unqualified to fulfill Keiichi's wish the moment Peorth returns." She pursed her lips. "No, I don't have much pride when it comes to my heritage, Lind... but I'll be _damned_ before I let rumors start to surface of me attacking another god. Demons? Sure, let me at them. Men? Why the fuck not. Spirits? We'll go for a round or two. But another _god_? When my name is already soiled as it is? When a _Valkyrie_ flinches away from me while I fight to control my temper?" She shook her head. "No. Peorth stays. If she wants to help so badly I'll put her to work mixing potions. But I will _not_ force her out of this house under the grounds that I am some _wilder_ goddess that will attack anyone she works with. No. I have more self-respect and more pride in my place as a deity than that."

The blue-haired Valkyrie looked at her in silence for a long moment. Urd held her gaze, unwavering. It was Lind who looked away first. "Forgive me," she said. "I misinterpreted what you held of value." The woman inclined her head in a curt apology. "I won't make the offer again."

"See that you don't." Urd glowered at the woman, and then frowned, puzzled, when Lind shot a smirk at her. "Damn it all, what now. Was this some other Valkyrie trick, Lind?" she demanded.

"Not in the slightest," Lind replied. "You never cease to surprise me, is all." She paused and looked to first the dining room and then the staircase before dropping her voice to a low whisper. "And between you and me... had it been me in your place, I would have taken it."

Urd looked at the woman with a start, her eyebrows shooting so high up her forehead they almost disappeared against her hairline. "Are you _serious_?" she whispered hotly.

"Damn straight," Lind replied. "I don't give a _fuck_. That shit don't mean anything from where I hail from." Urd continued to stare at her in disbelief. "Worst they'd ever do is deport me. Now let me go so I can get these ingredients you so desperately need before the house erupts into chaos again. Someone needs to protect Nebo from your special brand of madness, Urd."

"Deport... you...?" The Norn continued to stare at the woman. Lind had to grab her by the arm and snatch the list of ingredients and recipes from her hand.

"Go put Peorth to work. Slave labor isn't recognized on the third dimension so you might as well get your money's worth out of her."

"Lind-"

"Go make your potions, Urd. I'm trying to make a joke and you're sucking harder than Aphrodite after Hephaestus learned she was getting it in the ass from Ares."

Urd's jaw dropped as she stared at the Valkyrie with wide eyes. She sputtered, and then, for the first time since being awakened that night, threw her head back and laughed with such force that the only sound that emerged was a strange clicking from her throat. She cackled until she was red in the face, and Lind allowed a small smile of her own to flit across her lips. "O-out!" cried Urd. "O-out! Go now!" She laughed some more and leaned against the wall, clutching her sides as though they pained her. "L-leave before I reconsider your offer!"

Lind smiled before heading out the front door. A moment later and she was gone in a flash of light. Urd watched her go, trying to catch her breath as she dabbed at her eyes. Maybe things were falling apart around her ears. Maybe her sister had just attacked the man they _both_ admittedly loved. Maybe the angels were suffering and maybe Peorth was still around.

And maybe she had a bit of an asshole for a friend who might help make the whole thing a bit more bearable.

At least until Belldandy woke up. Then they would be up to their ears in shit once again.

* * *

 **A/N: I want to give a shout out and a hearty Thank You to Imaginos1892, who we have asked to be an additional set of eyes for Nena and myself on the spelling/grammar front. It's actually amazing how many errors that you just don't see after reading and re-reading the same thing over and over again. He has also been going through and proof-reading the previous chapters as well. Since nothing really changes the story, I will be going back and implementing a lot of the changes he suggested. Anyway, if you like Vandread, he has a couple of stories that he has written over in that fandom, if you are so inclined. One of them has turned into a reboot of an older, abandoned story.**

* * *

 _Comments of a Madwoman: No one ever thinks of the ones who never speak, nor the ones who are never seen..._


	29. Chapter 29 - My Angel

l

-29-

At a little after six a.m. on a Sunday morning, Belldandy awoke screaming.

It was a peal of horror and desperation of a character that made the skin crawl.

One of such desolation, such utter defeat, it was heartbreaking.

"Oh Yggdrasil, _I killed him!"_ Tears streamed down her face, and the woman sobbed into her hands as another hoarse wail tore from her chest. " _Keiichi!"_ She drew her legs up to her chest, and another long chain of sobs wracked her body. She rocked back and forth, but found no solace in the act; her mind was too awake, too alive with the images of her last conscious act. Not Aoshima but Keiichi. It was Keiichi under her hand, Keiichi pinned to a wall, Keiichi falling limp as she crushed his windpipe and squeezed that last bit of oxygen from his lungs. Keiichi, whose head she'd almost torn off his shoulders, and it was Keiichi who'd collapsed before her, no longer moving, no longer struggling, no longer _breathing_ as a third party dragged her away.

She groaned, distraught, and was unaware of the door opening and Skuld racing inside, was blind to her sister climbing into the bed with her and did not feel the arms that wrapped around her shoulders and drew her close. "I killed him," she cried. "Oh Yggdrasil, he's dead because of me! Why! _Why?!"_ The word rose up into a fresh scream, and she remained deaf to the reassurances of her sister.

In another room, a sick angel began to struggle against those who surrounded her, and a god paused in his ministrations to listen to the wails issuing from the other side of the wall. One door down from them, a mortal tossed in his sleep. Downstairs, a goddess abandoned her potion craft only to be stopped by the pair of deities who assisted her.

"I never should have- If I hadn't-" A mournful noise bit off the sentence, and it erupted in a fresh shriek so shrill it made her throat burn. Skuld drew her close but said nothing more, and Belldandy grabbed hold of her like a woman drowning. "He trusted me and I killed him. He _trusted me!_ And now he's gone!" The goddess wailed. "How could I have so utterly betrayed him?" she grieved. "When he was at his most vulnerable?! I-I'm no better than _him!"_

"Stop it!" Skuld said firmly. How she managed to keep her voice so steady was a mystery to her. "No more. You are _not_ Aoshima, Belldandy."

Belldandy didn't hear her. "I never should have met him! He'd still be alive- _He'd still be ali-"_

The sound of Skuld's open hand colliding with Belldandy's face echoed through the room.

The elder goddess blinked at the black haired goddess in confusion as her hand tentatively came up to touch her reddening cheek. She froze as if she were seeing her sister for the first time. Skuld reached up and placed her hands on either side of her sister's head and forced the woman to meet her gaze. "He's _alive!_ " she exclaimed. "Yggdrasil bless it, Keiichi's _alive_ Belldandy!"

"A-alive?" The goddess croaked. She looked drawn and pale, her eyes wide with disbelief. "How can-" She shook her head. "No, _no!_ I know what I did, Skuld!" Her voice rose in a shrill scream. "I-I crushed his throat! I felt the life flee his body! I heard his heart slow and then stop! _Don't lie to me, Skuld!"_

The younger Norn flinched as though Belldandy had slapped her back. "I'm not lying Belldandy," she said. "Not about this." There was a stern anger to her voice, and it was enough to make the elder goddess pause in her accusations. Anger was nothing new from Skuld. She had a short fuse that reigned over her head like an inglorious clown, and ten years ago, in a time before Japan, Urd had loved nothing more than to set it alight. That anger used to be small and relatively harmless; a match sparked alight and then whisked out in the next moment. It was usually directed at Urd, who'd gone from teasing Belldandy in their early years to teasing Skuld who showed none of the calm but at times dangerous temper the middle Norn carried.

Skuld had a plethora of targets for her anger; Urd, their mother, bugs in Yggdrasil, coworkers. But never Belldandy. And not so... _deep_. Fuming. Not so controlled. This was... someone... who Belldandy didn't know. It wasn't a trait of her younger sister. "Who are you?" The words left Belldandy's mouth before she could think to stop them, and she watched Skuld jerk back, staring at the woman in first shock, and then hurt.

"I'm Skuld." She sounded wounded. "And Keiichi isn't who you should be worried about right now." She pried herself out of Belldandy's grasp, crestfallen. "Stay here for a while. I need to get Urd and Nebo." She climbed off the bed and departed in silence. Not once did the younger Norn meet her eyes.

It was only after the door had closed behind her that Belldandy understood how grievously she had wounded her younger sister with a few thoughtless words. She felt a lump of disgust settle in her chest, and once more the goddess drew her legs up to her chest. "I am a horrible fool," she murmured. "A despicable woman made by a despicable man." She wrapped her arms around her knees and buried her face within the nest of her arms. _I bring pain to those I love without cause and without thought. To the man I love. To the sister who aided in my rescue. I kill one-almost kill one-and wound the other._

 _I never should have come here._

XXX

It was Lind who came up the stairs with the completed potions, much to Skuld's surprise. The woman was walking down the hallway just as the Norn left Urd's room, and she paused as she saw the Norn's downcast stare. "You good?"

"Peachy," Skuld grumbled. She sighed and rubbed her face, then let her hand drop as she stared at the Valkyrie with fresh scrutiny. "What are you doing up here?"

The words were harsher than she intended. Lind either failed to notice, or chose not to react. "Urd's busy monitoring potions," Lind said. "Figured I'd take what she and Peorth already completed up to you and Nebo in her stead."

"You're either really brave or really stupid," Skuld said. "World of Elegance is acting like a tiger that just popped out a litter of kittens. I think the only reason she's tolerating me is because Nebo somehow won her over."

Lind shrugged. "It was either me or Peorth. Figured I'd have more of a chance with my girls."

"That's right. You have two angels, don't you?" Skuld asked, grateful for the distraction. Anything to get her mind off Belldandy's words. _Who are you?_ She was Skuld, plain and simple. Regular old Skuld talking to a not-so-regular Valkyrie in a regular Midgard house with a regular mortal and a regular Tic and maybe some not-so-regular angels, but that didn't make any of them _ir_ regular, right?

Lind nodded. "I'll introduce you properly to them later on, if you like," she offered. "They're good angels, even if Cool Mint's a little too curious and Spear Mint's a little too antisocial. It'll be good for your angel. Let her meet some angels outside her choir and help socialize her a bit."

"Thanks. I appreciate the offer," Skuld said. "And thanks again. For Nebo. He's... he's helping a lot."

"He's a good deity, even if he is a little too informal at times," Lind replied. "I take it Belldandy is awake?"

The Norn winced. "Heh, yeah, she's up." Her voice was strained. "She's in a rough state, but she's up. I was going to grab Urd and let her know with Nebo."

"I'll let her know when I head back downstairs." Lind approached the room the angels had claimed for themselves and knocked on it. As all the times before, it was World of Elegance who opened it, and she bristled as she caught sight of the Valkyrie. Lind remained unfazed. "Potions." She held up several bottles for the angel's inspection, and some of the unease faded from the entity's stance.

Skuld moved to stand by Lind. "Could you let Nebo know that Belldandy's awake?" she requested.

World of Elegance paused from where she was gathering the potions, and puffed up like an owl coming across a threat. She bared her teeth and stuck her head out the door, the expression only fading when she didn't see anyone else in the hallway. Skuld, taken aback, watched the snarl diminish to a frown. The angel shook her head in distaste, then took the remaining potions Lind handed to her and retreated back inside. Lind and Skuld shared a look, and then Nebo appeared.

"Belldandy's up?" he inquired, and at Skuld's nod the man pursed his lips. "Gimme fifteen minutes or so. I want to get these potions going before speaking with her." The man rubbed his thick moustache in contemplation. "Also... think one a' ya could grab Urd too?" he asked. "For World of Elegance."

"Is World of Elegance mad at Belldandy?" Skuld asked. "She looked pretty pissed when I let her name drop."

"She's just upset is all," Nebo clarified. "It's the link. She and Urd are feeding off each other's anxieties. They don't mean to, but it's starting to wear her down. Her and Urd both, I suspect. Urd's letting her run independent of herself, and that takes up more energy than just summoning her for a brief period. They need a break."

"Try telling that to a stubborn ass like Urd," Lind muttered. Skuld found herself agreeing.

"Try telling that to a stubborn angel like World of Elegance," Nebo retorted. He looked at Skuld. "Noble Scarlet's getting pretty tired too. How you feeling _Kyz_? Be honest with me- none a' that tough girl stuff right now- I'm asking as a Tic."

Skuld scowled, but Nebo's concern was genuine. "I'm pretty tired," she admitted. "But I have too much I need to do, especially now that Bell's awake. Until I know she's good, I can't take a break, and Noble Scarlet said she wanted to help Holy Bell."

"Noble Scarlet's not even a full day old, _Kyz_ ," Nebo reminded her. "She doesn't know the extent of her abilities yet, especially when her first emergence was straight into a chaotic situation like what happened earlier this morning. She won't recognize that she's over-exerting herself until you call her back and let her rest."

"But what about Holy Bell?" Skuld asked. "I mean-you know how bad a' shape she's in. Are you just going to keep her out when everyone else is being sent away?"

"That's for me to discuss with Belldandy," Nebo said. "Trust me, Holy Bell's state of being is at the forefront of my mind, but I also can't ignore her sisters or their hosts overexerting themselves. After I finish speaking with Belldandy, I'm sending Noble Scarlet back to you along with World of Elegance to Urd, and I'm expecting both of you to get some rest, okay?"

"But-" Lind rested a hand on her shoulder, putting an end to Skuld's protest. The woman looked at the Valkyrie, her expression still worried, and Lind's lips pulled back in a small half-smile.

"Listen to Nebo," she advised. "He knows what he's doing. He's not just blowing smoke out his ass."

Nebo sent the woman a flat look. "Thanks _Kyz_ ," he groused. "But yeah, gimme fifteen or so and then grab Urd for me." He disappeared once more back inside, and Skuld's shoulders sagged as she sighed.

"One thing at a time, Skuld," Lind mumbled. "Keiichi's alive and Belldandy's awake, and we've got potions for Holy Bell. We're making progress, even if it's slow."

Skuld said nothing, and the two retreated downstairs. The sun had risen enough to pour its rays through the surrounding windows, and it brightened the first floor with a golden sheen from where the light reflected off the wooden floors. Urd and Peorth were at work in the kitchen, mixing ingredients and stirring potion bases like a pair of chefs busy at work preparing a five-star entree. The two of them barely acknowledged each other, let alone the newcomers. It took the Norn a second to realize it was because the two were just focused on their individual tasks, and not out of the previous tension as she had so feared.

Together, Norn and Valkyrie took a seat in the dining room. Skuld watched the two deities in the kitchen work, and Lind leaned back in her chair, manifesting a pouch made of a similar material to her uniform. The woman unzipped it and pulled out a small, vacuum-sealed plastic bag and tore off one edge of it. "Skuld." The Norn looked to the deity, and Lind slid the bag across the table to her. "Have some."

Taking the bag, Skuld looked inside with a frown. "Jerky?" She withdrew a small piece and looked back at Lind.

"Caribou," Lind replied. "Homemade. From Chugach."

"Chugach?" Skuld looked at her in surprise. "You mean the Chugach Mountains? Along the Jotenheim border?"

Lind nodded. "Went home on leave recently. Folks sent me off with half my weight in caribou jerky." She snagged the bag and withdrew a strip for herself. "It'll help keep your strength up."

Skuld stared at the piece before taking a tentative bite. Her eyes widened, and for a brief moment a look of pleasure washed across her features. "This is really good!" she cried. "I've never had caribou jerky before. At least, not from Chugach. Most stuff out of that area is pretty expensive."

Lind nodded, chewing on her own piece in thought. "Most everything's homemade back there. Folks are Bedouin thanks to the weather and the animals, so the only real trading towns are near the border."

"Wow... so you're _from_ Chugach?" Skuld asked. Lind nodded, and Skuld's smile bolstered with a glow. "That's pretty cool, actually. I'd have never guessed based off your name. I always thought you were from Asgard."

Lind shrugged but said nothing. The two shared the jerky in a companionable silence, and it was in just such a silence that Skuld worked up the nerve to ask, "So... what should I do now that I've got my angel?"

Lind raised an eyebrow, chewing on a bit of jerky as she considered Skuld's questions. "You don't want to ask Urd?"

Skuld hesitated, then shook her head. "I..." She faltered, then tried again. "My angel is... tiny. Different. And I... I don't want to bother Urd with this." She looked down at the table, finding a sudden interest in the patterns produced by the grain of the wood. "I wanted an outside opinion," she continued. "And, well... I saw your angel. _Angels._ So I figured..." The Norn scowled but didn't proceed further. She looked uncomfortable, worse yet, reluctant, to speak on the issue further now that the request had been made.

Lind contemplated the question in its entirety. "Speak with Nebo," she said. "In all honesty, Skuld, that is the best thing I can recommend to you right now." She met the Norn's eyes. "Just... don't be afraid of her. New angels are... fragile. They learn by interaction, and for your angel, new as she is, literally _everything_ is new to her."

"Are you- _seriously_?" Skuld moaned. "I summoned her at the worst possible time..." She propped her elbows on the table and buried her fingers in her black hair, the textbook definition of misery. "Why couldn't I wait... fucking _shit_!"

"You hang out around Urd too much," Lind grumbled. In a louder voice she said, "Don't let this get you down, Skuld. It's not uncommon to summon an angel while in a state of distress; angels were originally designed as power amplifiers before it was discovered just how interconnected they were with their host deity. You saw I had two angels, right?"

"Yeah..."

"You want to know where I was when I summoned Cool Mint for the first time?"

"Where?" Skuld asked. She didn't bother asking which angel Cool Mint was. It didn't matter right now. There'd be time for proper introductions later.

"Urd was wiping the floor with my ass in her tendee form in Japan."

Skuld jerked back, eyes wide, "You're serious?" the expression on Lind's face didn't change. "Oh Yggdrasil, you _are_ serious."

Lind nodded. "If not for Cool Mint manifesting when she did, there might have been a... we'll call it a 'marginally different outcome' from that night in Japan. But she turned out fine, and a lot of that had to do with proper socializing with her older twin and heavy awareness of what she was experiencing on my part. And I'm a _Valkyrie,_ Skuld." She didn't go into further explanation. "And you've got a full up choir of angels here: World of Elegance, Holy Bell-don't give me that look Skuld- my girls, even Peorth's angel and, dare I say it, Nebo's Flora, if that antisocial creature would ever bother to manifest outside his office. Lots of different angels for her to interact with, and Nebo himself will offer you all the advice in the world if you ask him. He loves angels. Adores them like they're his own children, and he loves nothing more than when a deity shows initiative to learn more about the Other Soul."

"I see..." Skuld pursed her lips. "Do you think..." She hesitated a moment and bit her lip, then pushed herself to continue. "Do you think he'll know why Noble Scarlet is... is so... small?"

Lind nodded. "I'm sure of it."

"Will he be mad?" she asked. "Mad like, like World of Elegance is with Bell? For how small she is?" The goddess shifted in her chair, wrapping her arms around herself and looking all at once like a child trapped within an adult's body. "I... Lind, don't tell Urd this, _please_ , 'cause I don't want World of Elegance to get mad at me like she is with Bell, but... what if I fucked up? What if I fucked up somehow by summoning her like this, and that's why Noble Scarlet is so small? What if... what if it's irreparable? What if she's stuck like that- stuck like a _child_ \- forever?"

"Can you accept your angel for her appearance and capabilities despite what flaws she may have?" Lind countered with another question, and Skuld looked up at her sharply. "Because that is what _really_ matters, Skuld. My girls each have only one wing- one lost in combat, the other born with only one and I love them both for who they are. Urd has the Black Wing Mutation, and I'm sure you've heard the stories involving _that,_ and World of Elegance is by far one of the largest angels I've ever seen regarding the sheer amount of _power_ nestled within her. Holy Bell is... well, that remains to be seen."

The goddess sighed, looking at Skuld with pursed lips. "What I'm trying to say is that despite any disabilities or mutations our angels have, they are all capable of functioning normally, and we love them and care for them regardless of how others view them. Nebo isn't the type to get upset with a host over the state of an angel unless they display intent to harm, which is stupid because that's akin to a deity killing his- or herself. World of Elegance angry?" Lind shrugged. "So what? She's angry with everyone right now. She'll calm down and get over it if you show you care for Noble Scarlet, and if she doesn't, why should you care? The only thing that should matter to you is if you can accept Noble Scarlet for who she is here and now- not what she may or may not become in the future, and certainly not for what you were expecting her to be."

"I see..." Skuld mumbled. It was perhaps the most she'd heard Lind talk since the Valkyrie had read Urd her rights in what now felt like a lifetime ago. "I- thanks Lind." She relaxed, though it was marginal. "I... I think I needed that. Really. That- that helped a lot. I'll... I'll go talk with Nebo later on."

Lind nodded, then released a loud breath, looking all at once exhausted. "I hate talking," she muttered. "Fucking jaw hurts now."

"Hey _Kyz_." Nebo entered the dining room with a perturbed frown on his face. "Did Belldandy come down here at all?"

Skuld stared at him in confusion. "No..." she drawled. "Was she supposed to?"

"She wasn't in the bedroom," Nebo replied. "I thought maybe she came down here to talk with you guys."

"What do you mean she wasn't in the bedroom?" said Urd and she and Peorth paused in their work. Urd stared at Nebo with wide eyes.

"Exactly that," Nebo replied. "I wanted to see if she'd be willing to meet with Holy Bell before grabbing you and Skuld and-"

Urd swore, abandoned the potion she was making and rushed through the kitchen and dining room. Nebo pressed himself against a wall to let the goddess pass as the woman bolted up the stairs.

"Uh... any ideas, _Kyz?"_ The Tic looked back to the room filled with goddesses.

Skuld pursed her lips. "I don't know," she confessed. "I mean, she was pretty distraught when she woke up..."

"But if that was the case, where would she go?" Lind asked. "Holy Bell isn't with her. And with her angel being in the condition she is now, she won't have the energy to go far."

Peorth looked at the Valkyrie in alarm. "Wait, what about her angel?" she asked, then looked to Nebo, " _Monsieur,_ what is wrong with her angel?"

Nebo shook his head. "Can't say," he said. "We need to find Belldandy though, and soon. Holy Bell doesn't have the energy reserves right now to maintain a physical form very far from Belldandy." He reached into his tunic and pulled out a small, golden medallion that shone with magic. "I'm keeping her stable right now, but I didn't come expecting something like this to happen. My own reserves ain't what they used to be, even with ol' Moony curled away inside me, and I don't want to put any additional strain on Holy Bell if I can avoid it."

He tucked the pendant back inside his uniform. "I'm going back upstairs to check on Holy Bell. Lind, I know you got some of the good stuff packed away in your spells- think you can do a sweep for Belldandy in the local area? We may need to go searching for her if she ain't in the house no more."

"Right."

The man left in a rush, stamping up the stairs after Urd. With him gone, Peorth directed her attention to the Valkyrie. "Lind, what is going on?!" she demanded. "You saw what was wrong with Holy Bell, yes? What is it? What's happening?" The goddess was growing increasingly frantic. She abandoned her own potion without a second glance to join Skuld and Lind in the dining room. "I am sick of being left in the dark! Belldandy is my friend as well, rivals though we may be! I have no wish to see her _or_ her angel injured, and as such I demand to know _what is going on!"_

"I don't know." Lind shook her head. "All I can do is speculate on what I've seen. I'm a Valkyrie, not a Tic- the most I know about medicine is the basic stuff they drill into our heads as acolytes."

"Yet you have seen all manners of injuries, have you not?" Peorth pressed. Lind flinched. "You have experience with many different types of wounds. And so I implore you, based off that experience, what do you 'speculate' is wrong with Holy Bell?"

Lind leaned away from her with a frown, her gaze darting to Skuld and finding the Norn watching her with a look of equal intensity to Peorth. "You know something," Skuld accused. "Fess up. What is it?"

"I told you, it's-

"Yes, yes, 'speculation'," Peorth snapped. "So bequeath us this speculation you hold so tightly to your breast. We would know what ails Belldandy's angel in the hopes we might assist her!"

Lind flinched again, then pursed her lips. "Fine..." she ground out. "Just... none of this is official, all right? Unless Nebo comes out and verifies my assumptions then take everything I'm about to say with a grain of salt. I'm not an expert on angels and I'm not a Tic. I'm a _fucking Valkyrie."_ She glared at the two of them with hard eyes, and it was only when the two deities nodded in acknowledgement that Lind proceeded.

"It's neglect. Holy Bell is exhibiting signs of neglect... the deep-seated type that comes from being imprisoned in the soul: infection, starvation, she's even displaying signs of… what's it called when a bird plucks out it's own feathers?" She snapped her fingers before anyone could respond. "Pterotillomania! That's it. They're all signs I've seen in the past of neglect in the angel. For whatever reason, it looks like Belldandy at some point decided to bury Holy Bell so deep within herself that there was no chance of her resurfacing, and as a result..."

"She was trying to protect Holy Bell," Skuld mumbled off-handedly. "Must have been. She buried her angel so deep that Aoshima would never discover her-"

"But… but that is _preposterous!_ " Peorth proclaimed. "To neglect her angel would be to neglect her own soul! To deny it freedom, to deny it pleasure, to deny it _health!_ "

"Yeah, well... try living under the knowledge you have to play out a pedophile's sick fantasies for ten years on top of following whatever other instructions he... _required_ of you," Skuld hissed. "I wonder if maybe she recognized the danger Holy Bell might be in if she was ever discovered... could you imagine what a sick fuck like Aoshima would have done if he ever got his hands on an _angel_?"

"He'd destroy her." Lind recalled the videos she'd seen. She felt cold. "And in doing so would have killed Belldandy."

Peorth paled. "Oh _Sinyè..."_ she whispered. "I had heard rumors... but to such extent?" She looked at the two deities in horror. Lind met her gaze with a level one of her own. Skuld grimaced and looked away. The Rose Goddess shook her head. " _Non non non non non!"_ she rattled. "We must find Belldandy before Holy Bell's condition worsens. Lind, why do you dawdle?" she demanded, zeroing in on the Valkyrie. "Did Nebo not request you search for her aura? Get on with it!"

Lind scowled. "You're a real pain in the ass, Peorth," she grumbled as she rose to her feet. "And not in a 'waste my fucking time' way like Urd, but an 'insulting to the point I want to punch you in the face' way."

The leather clad goddess shied away from the woman as though expecting just such a result. Given what had happened less than twenty-four hours ago, Skuld didn't blame her. Belldandy's punches had that effect on people.

XXX

As Lind began her incantation to lock onto Belldandy's magical signature, upstairs, Urd was nearing the edge of her limits.

"She's not here," the Norn whispered as she stared into the room her sister was supposed to be in. "She's not fucking _here_!" The goddess growled in frustration, her fist colliding hard enough with a wall to punch through it and into the insulation that lined the inside walls. "FUCK!" she cried. "Where the hell could she- and with Holy Bell still-" She leaned in the doorway, cradling her head with one arm as she sucked in one deep breath after another. _Hold it together. Bell needs you, hold it together, Urd._ She let her arm fall away from her face. _Breathe. Keep breathing. Keiichi's alive. Holy Bell is alive. Belldandy by default_ has _to be nearby._ It took her a moment to realize the words weren't her own but World of Elegance's. This close, it was easy for the angel to pick up on her host's feelings, and regardless of any grievances she had towards Belldandy, the angel wasn't about to abandon Urd while the Norn was distressed. _Head back downstairs. She couldn't have gone far without Holy Bell. She's still in the immediate area. Find her._

"Find her." Urd squeezed her eyes shut with a grimace. She pinched the bridge of her nose. "Right. Find Bell. Next course of action. Let Elegance handle Holy Bell, you need to do your part and find Belldandy." A game plan in place, she turned to head back downstairs.

"Urd...?"

The silver haired goddess almost jumped out of her skin. She wheeled, eyes wide, and found Keiichi standing behind her, watching the goddess in open concern. "Are you okay?"

"You're awake," Urd said dumbly. "You're-why are you awake?"

"Are you kidding? With you yelling and punching through walls… _again_ I might add, how could I sleep?" The dark haired man looked around inquisitively, then back to Urd. "Umm, where's Belldandy?"

Urd eyed her friend critically. "Jank, what do you remember from last night?"

Keiichi furrowed his brows as he thought back to the previous night. "I remember Bell coming to get me and bringing me to the bedroom, we talked, we kissed… I made it to second base…" A small smile formed on his face for a moment, but then it changed as he gave Urd a confused look. "Wait. I don't remember anything after that." The man slapped his forehead, then slid his hand down across his face. "Ah shit, don't tell me I fell asleep in the middle of… you know…"

"You didn't," replied Urd as she slapped her hand down on his shoulder. The gesture had two purposes. First, she wanted to reassure the man that everything was ok. Silently, she thanked Yggdrasil for the fact that Keiichi seemed to not remember what Belldandy did to him last night. It still remained to be seen what kind of damage had been done to their relationship. But the fact that Keiichi did not retain memories of what happened would at least help. She had every intention of making Belldandy tell him, but at least the scars of the event had less of a chance of lingering.

The second, and more important reason was to keep the man from turning back into his room. Somehow Keiichi, while moving to the door to investigate Urd's actions, had missed the general condition of his room. The goddess had never had a chance to clean up any of the mess she had left behind, had never even thought about it under the circumstances. The hole in the floor where she had blasted Belldandy back, the charring on the wooden panels from where she had used her magic to resuscitate him, all still there.

Urd looked at him earnestly. "Look… um… Belldandy needs your help. She's… kind of freaked out a little about what happened."

Keiichi furrowed his brows in confusion. "What do you mean? Why would she-"

"It's… complicated, ok?" interrupted Urd. "More of that weird god shit you always talk about. I promise that we'll tell you everything later on. But right now, we need to find her." Keiichi opened his mouth to say something, but Urd shushed him. "Belldandy first, explanations later. Your clothes and stuff are still in the living room."

"Fine," said Keiichi as he stepped past Urd. As he walked down the hall, though, he froze when he saw the door to Belldandy's room. It was opened a crack. That, in and of itself would not have garnered the SEAL's attention. What did was the red eye that was peeking through it. Keiichi had just enough time to register that the owner was small and child-like, with a shock of the blondest hair he had ever seen. As soon as it realized that it had drawn his attention, the door was slammed shut.

Instinctively, Keiichi reached out to the door. Before he could grasp its handle, he felt Urd grab his arm and turn him away from it. "Even weirder god shit, Jank," she repeated. "Explanations later, Belldandy now."

Urd could tell Keiichi was starting to grow frustrated. "Fine, but I better get a full accounting of what's going on."

"You will, trust me you will, one fire at a time, let's go."

"Alright... so then where's Belldandy if she's not in her room?" Keiichi looked back over his shoulder to Belldandy's room, where he'd seen the child-like apparition before the door had closed on him with a click.

"That's the thing, we don't know," Urd replied. "We need to find her."

"You don't-" Keiichi stopped. "What do you mean you don't know? Urd, _what is_ _going on_? Bell _left_? Why?"

Urd glanced back at him. "Probably for a whole lot of reasons I don't want to dwell on right now. But we need to get her back because..." She grimaced, and Keiichi saw her eyes drift back to Belldandy's room. "Fuck, how do I explain this..."

"Belldandy's not whole right now." For the second time that morning Urd was so absorbed in her own thoughts that she jumped, this time at Nebo's voice. Judging by the expression on Keiichi's face, the deity had caught him off guard as well.

"Cheech Marin?" Keiichi whispered.

"Who?" Nebo asked.

"What?" Said Urd.

Keiichi threw an accusing look to Urd. "Urd, what the hell is going on? Really? I can't remember anything past getting to second base last night and all of a sudden I wake up at fucking half past six AM to you punching holes in walls, Belldandy missing, some creepy kid is in Bell's room, and now fucking Cheech Marin's twin brother shows up in my house?"

For a brief moment both Urd and Nebo stared at the mortal before them, neither certain what to say. Urd looked at Nebo. Urd looked at Keiichi. Urd looked back at Nebo, and then clutched her head. "Damn it Jank!" she moaned. "I did _not_ need to hear that comparison right now."

"What?" Nebo asked.

Keiichi drew in a breath. "Okay. So he's not Cheech Marin. Who the fuck is he and what's he doing in my house this early on a Sunday morning?"

"I'm... Nebo?" the deity said hesitantly as he looked between the two of them as though he were suddenly unsure what his name was with Keiichi's accusations. "Who is..." He caught Urd shaking her head. "Never mind. I'm a Tic."

"For Belldandy?" Keiichi brightened.

"No, for her angel," Nebo replied.

Keiichi stared at the god blankly. Urd looked like she wanted simultaneously to smash her head against a wall and strangle the both of them. "...her what?"

"Later, Keiichi," Urd said through gritted teeth. "Bell first," she growled. "Nebo, tell me you know where Belldandy is."

"Not yet no, but Lind's searching the surrounding area for her," the man replied. "Come downstairs. As soon as we get a lock on her, we're heading out."

"Wow, wait a second here," Keiichi called out. "How can you just say something like that so easily? I mean, isn't she a goddess?" he queried. "She could be anywhere, right? How can you expect us to just head out after locating her? She could be in the North Pole for all we know."

Nebo shook his head. "Not right now," he said. "Belldandy is-"

"Mortal, Nebo," Urd interrupted.

"Mortal?" Nebo looked at Urd in confusion, then back to Keiichi. "Oh- _oooh..._ okay, so perhaps that complicates things. I never had to explain _SSaratu_ to _awilum_ before."

"The fuck you just call me?" Keiichi snapped.

"He called you a man, Jank." Urd massaged her brow with one hand. "Please, can we just go and find Belldandy?"

The man glowered at the two deities but in the end relented. "Fine," he growled. "But you owe me answers, Urd."

"Yes, fine, we've established this already!" Urd snapped, exasperated. "I'll tell you the mysteries of life and all truths hidden by the secret names and the secret numbers of my ancestors, all right? Now let's _go!_ "

XXX

She didn't know where she had wandered or how far she had strayed from the house.

A simple teleportation spell had left her in the middle of the forest, far enough where she could no longer see the house but close enough that she could still sense the massive conglomeration of holy energy produced by the many divinities who'd taken up temporary residence within. She moved away from it, wanting to lose herself and lose her thoughts in the peace of the forest.

Gradually, the sensation of energy, the combined aura of her sisters along with Lind and Peorth, began to dissipate into nothing. Yet in its place came a tug. Weak at first, but one that grew more and more prevalent the further she wandered. It tugged at her like a leash on a dog. Several times she caught herself looking over her shoulder, expecting to find something, sensing something watching her from the path as the leash tried to yank her back. Each time she found nothing.

She ignored it, though it was difficult. She could no more pass the tug at her senses than she could ignore the thoughts in her head, all of which circulated back to her moment of violence, her loss of control, her spontaneous assault that left a man near death's door. It nagged at her. Drove her mad with grief, and like a pack of demons at her back they chased her deeper into the woods.

Virginia's forest was different from the woodlands of her homeland. Several times she came across swamp lands, ripe and filled with duckweed. Asgard didn't have swamps. Its forests were more condensed, the evergreens pressing close together in comparison to the twisted and gnarled deciduous trees that intermingled with tall, straight, pine. Her head began to ache. The further she walked, the more she saw signs of wildlife; foxes and deer that she recognized, turkey and coyote which she didn't, and on one occasion even spied a log dragging something into a lake in the far off distance. Belldandy didn't think it was a log. She didn't stop long enough to investigate.

None of the animals approached her. Even when she stopped to call out to a bobcat hidden in a tree, it did not come. Instead it fled, leaping from the branches to the ground twelve feet below it and racing off into the underbrush. Her head now throbbed with a dull but growing pain as she watched the feline vanish. It was a depressing sight. Ten years ago her presence alone would have brought creatures of all shapes and sizes to her side. Her aura of that time had been one of such peace and tranquility that falcons would perch next to songbirds, foxes would lie beside moles, and even packs of wolves would rest next to herds of deer just to be in her presence. It was a peace of mind that she'd treasured in that past decade; few deities, even those who ruled over the domain of peace, could bring predator and prey together as she could. To find such a gift, so simple in nature, now denied to her. It hurt.

The pain in her head grew deeper, sharper, clearer. She pressed on. The pain muddled her thoughts. It hurt to think. Hurt to remember, to _try_ to remember, and some part of her thought she might want that. She pressed further into the forest. Her vision began to pulse with the thrum in her head and in her heart. Once she... once she had...

What...

What was she...

She squeezed her eyes shut and stopped to rest against a tree. She pressed a hand against her temples, yet the pain did not abate. She moaned and rubbed her face. Thinking became a chore that made her head pound. Walking became an effort in futility. Her hand came away smeared red when she removed it from her face.

"Wrong," she muttered. "Need to... home..."

With effort she pushed herself off the tree, and the world began to spin and dance around her. In the farthest recesses of her mind she thought she heard a voice calling from afar, yet its words fell on deaf ears; little more than a voiceless cry from a void somewhere within herself. She swayed and turned, yet could no longer distinguish where she'd come from; everything hurt too much, and lethargy was beginning to set in with the rhythmic pounding that drilled into her skull. A noise, a whimper, rose in her throat, and some small piece of her recognized she was in a bad spot. To advance further would be to lose a piece of herself. Yet she could no more return home than she could summon the will to face Keiichi after almost killing him, so perhaps losing that piece of her was worth it, in the long run.

That thought, muddled and unclear though it was, terrified her.

And then came the scream.

It sounded like a woman being murdered, and then the beast was in front of her, ears laid flat against its skull and teeth bared in a vicious snarl, yellow and gleaming in the morning light. She stumbled back, retreating from the beast's cruel teeth. The mountain lion screamed again, darting to her left and forcing her back further. It swiped at her with claws curled like wicked scythes, and terrified of the violence it brought she fled in a hail of instinctual panic like a sickly deer. The puma chased after her, releasing another scream like that of a dying woman that left her screaming with one that almost matched. A cold blanket of fear descended on her person like she'd been drenched in water, and all at once the pain was overridden and forgotten.

Once, twice, three times the puma cut her off, chasing her, herding her in a direction she could not establish. It displayed a level of intelligence that surpassed animal instinct and bordered on human, and when combined with the display of fangs and reaching claws it created a terrifying creature of nightmares. She needed to... to escape! To… to outrun, outsmart the creature before it could get to her throat.

The lethargy vanished in her fear. She no longer noticed the pain in her skull as she turned to face her pursuer. "Stop this now!" Belldandy bellowed, and the puma bristled, its fur standing on end, and released such a mind-numbing shriek that the Norn's arms broke out into gooseflesh. It prompted her into another run, as now the scream no longer sounded like a woman. Now it sounded like something from the pits of Niflheim, an Ancient Enemy, and Belldandy began to fear that in her current state she could not stand against it.

Faster and farther, and still the beast outpaced her! She darted to a deer path, and there was the beast. She ran to the lake where she'd seen the log-that-was-not, and there was the beast. She felt the tug within her mind spring anew and let it guide her, running with all her might. The mountain lion kept on her heel, jaws snapping and claws swiping, and it was only as she grew aware of voices calling her- not the whisper in her mind but physical _voices_ , that the cougar ceased its chase.

Belldandy stumbled away and turned to face it, now on guard, observing its actions as if sentenced to a duel. "If that is what you wish..." The Norn pressed her back to a tree, guarding herself from attacks from behind. Far off in the distance, just on the edge of her range of hearing, the goddess thought she heard Keiichi's voice but dismissed it. Perhaps it was merely her mind filled with wistful thoughts. It mattered not at this moment. "Come then!" she challenged. "You have hunted me for the long miles where my thoughts were dull and my reflexes slow. Yet know this: you face your death at the hands of Belldandy Tyrdotter, Second-Born of Daitenkaicho Tyr, First born of Ansuz of the Bloodborn and Establisher of Gates, Norn of the Present, and Keeper of the thirty two secret names."

The puma, somehow unimpressed with this grand and terrifying title befitting a goddess of such class and potential, yawned and sat down. _And I am Sir Snufflbutts!_ That image proclaimed to Belldandy. _Feaster of mice and shitter in litterboxes! Fear me, for I shall stick my ass in your face!_

The goddess furrowed her brows in confusion. The voice assigned to the image sounded familiar. She wondered when her mind had grown so sarcastic in the past ten years that such thoughts would come to her, or if it was somehow the inner thoughts of the puma speaking to her. She was leaning more towards the sarcasm. It reminded her of Skuld.

" _Belldandy!_ "

Or perhaps it was the voice in the distance calling her name that was familiar. In her addled state, she was losing track of which. The Norn returned her attention to the puma. The beast had started to calmly lick one of its paws. Slowly, she turned her head to see where the voice was coming from, using her senses to keep track of the puma. It seemed content to simply watch her for the moment as it groomed itself, but one could never let their guard down when it came to wild animals. Resident spirit or not, they were slaves to their instincts. If Belldandy came across as potential prey, it would leap, and looking away might trigger those instincts like a tiger in the bush.

" _Belldandy, where are you!"_

The voice was closer now, and as it grew clearer, it became even more familiar than before. She knew who was calling her. Belldandy turned back to address the puma. She needed to do something about it before the one seeking her arrived. Queerly, the Norn felt that she could ask it to leave and it would do so willingly.

The cougar was gone.

Nervously, she stepped away from the tree she was against and looked around for it. A predator such as that did not just up and leave prey for no reason. Yet there was no trace of it, not even tracks to indicate it had been there and fled. Not even a residual aura to mark its presence before her. "Surely I wasn't imagining it," said the goddess in confusion. Yet there seemed to be no other explanation.

Belldandy eyed the area where the puma had been before finally facing the direction that the voice was coming from. In spite of everything that had happened over the past several days, she welcomed the owner's approach.

Peorth stumbled into the clearing. There were a number of scratches on her skin as well as some of the newly sprouted spring foliage stuck in her leathers. Both goddesses' eyes locked on to each other for a moment before the brunette woman fell to her knees in relief. "Oh thank Yggdrasil, I found you!" she moaned, tears streaking from her eyes. "Oh by the three great roots, I am so sorry Belldandy! This is all my fault!" she cried. "If I hadn't pushed you so hard... oh _comment le coq chante pour Ragnarok!"_ She shook her head in despair. "I never should have come here... I only wished to help!"

Belldandy watched her rival in silence. The sheer fact of the matter was that the goddess was right; had she never arrived, never pushed, never shoved, and never backed the still-injured goddess and wary mortal into a corner, then the events of the present would have never occurred.

Regardless of circumstances, the fact remained that things had transpired as they had, and had done so in such a way that Peorth was the root cause of it. Belldandy could tell it was destroying her. "Please _Mademoiselle._ Please, I beg your forgiveness, though I deserve none of it. _Please_! I implore you! I meant no harm in this house. I meant no harm to you, no harm to Keiichi, no harm to your kin." Peorth hid her face in her hands and sobbed. Belldandy, her heart aching to help ease her friend's suffering, rushed over and gathered her into a hug.

"Please don't," soothed the almond haired goddess. "I don't deserve your apology. I fear that you have only brought out sooner what would have happened eventually."

"No!" the deity cried. "I wished only to help you after news of what transpired reached me! _I wished only to help my friend!"_

Peorth's confession touched Belldandy. From her perspective, Belldandy had always felt that the rose goddess was stand-offish, calling upon her only if other options were unavailable. And on the few occasions that Peorth had blessed Belldandy with an invitation to something, the almond haired goddess always felt as if she were extraneous to whatever social gathering that they went to. A fifth wheel, to use one of Keiichi's metaphors.

But now she knew. Peorth did actually consider her a friend, and in spite of what had happened earlier, it lifted Belldandy's spirits. She pushed the rose goddess to arm's length and looked at her earnestly. "Thank you, it makes me happy to hear those words. As my friend, I need you to do something for me."

Peorth blinked at the goddess in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"I want you to promise me that you will do something for me," repeated Belldandy.

A smile, one of relief, formed on Peorth's face. "Anything!"

"I want you to go back to Keiichi. Tell him to use his wish to annul mine."

Peorth's expression darkened as she batted Belldandy's hands away. "No! That is not something that I can do, and you know that!"

The almond haired goddess frowned angrily at her companion. "You promised!"

"And you said nothing of me forcing Keiichi to profess anything but his heart's desire!" exclaimed Peorth as she got to her feet and stood over Belldandy. "Such a request is against the very nature of our business!"

Belldandy stood as well. "I am a danger to him!" exclaimed Belldandy, her voice pleading. "I just tried to kill him because some part of me is still living in that hell that I was in for the past ten years!" She turned away and hugged herself. "I cannot be around Keiichi again until I get help."

"I am such a fool," Peorth scoffed, causing Belldandy to turn and stare at the rose goddess in confusion. "All those years, Belldandy. I was so envious of you. Everything came to you so easily." When the almond haired goddess opened her mouth to retort, Peorth raised a hand to shush her. "Yes, I know how you shunned all the benefits and assistance that came with being the daughter of the Daitenkacho. That's what makes your accomplishments all the more impressive. You made your way on your own and you still excelled while I had to scrape and claw my way to barely passing. Without you, I don't think I would be where I am at now."

Peorth put her hands on her hips. "And now look at you. You have one little relapse and you are ready to throw in the towel. Yggdrasil bless it Belldandy! You fought through all that shit to get where you are now, sometimes dragging my sorry ass along with you to boot, and now you want to run and hide like some _Kawa-zaru_?"

Belldandy flinched and looked away. "How can I trust myself around him anymore," she lamented.

Peorth blinked as she had something of an epiphany. "You don't know, do you?"

"Don't know what?"

"Bell, what do you remember?" asked Peorth earnestly.

The almond haired goddess turned away. Her shoulders shuddered in anguish. "Everything."

Peorth smiled. "Then who pulled you back? Who prevented you from dealing the true killing blow you had for him?"

Belldandy turned her head towards the rose goddess and purses her lips as she considered this. "I… I don't know," she said finally.

"Holy Bell!" exclaimed Peorth. "It was Holy Bell that stayed your hand!"

At first, it looked like Belldandy didn't believe her. But she said nothing. Instead, she stood there and concentrated, looking inside herself for that faint spark that had started to manifest of late. After a moment, the goddess brought her hands to her mouth in shock. "She's gone!"

A bubble of panic rose in her throat, and the Norn looked at the rose goddess in horror. Before she could grow further distraught, Peorth stepped forward and grabbed her by the arms. "No, she's not! Belldandy, she's back at the house. And just like Keiichi needs you, she needs you as well." The woman searched her face. "You're bleeding," Peorth whispered, and Belldandy flinched. "Hold still, this won't take but a moment." Before Belldandy could protest the deity pressed her brow against hers and muttered a quick spell beneath her breath. The Norn felt her nose clear. _When did I get a bloody nose?_ What was left of the small ache in her head vanished.

Peorth leaned back. "You need to return home. _Please_ return home, Belldandy. Holy Bell needs you so much right now. More so than even Keiichi, who is out and searching for you along with the rest of us."

"Searching for me?" The Norn was taken aback. "Even after I..."

The Rose Goddess nodded. "Will you come back with me?" she asked. "I don't know what caused you to flee, but we can work it out. All of us, I promise. But whatever it is... it's not worth the risk of losing your angel, Belldandy. Not your soul. Please come back, if only for Holy Bell's sake."

Belldandy bit her lip, then wiped at her upper lip. Dried blood flaked off under her nails, and as she stared at the specks of red, the woman's shoulders slumped. "It was... the link. I was so focused on trying to run away that I... I almost severed the link to my own angel."

All at once her eyes were drawn back to where she'd last seen the puma, still gone and with no trace to mark its presence. _Did that beast..._

"Belldandy?"

The Norn looked back at Peorth. "Yes, I'll return home with you," she said quietly. "I... I wish to see my angel again. I've... not seen her in a decade."

Peorth brightened, and a large, relieved smile spread across her lips. "Oh, bless you," she breathed. "And Keiichi?"

Belldandy winced. "One thing at a time," she decided. "But yes. Yes. I'll- I'll speak with him. I... must apologize, if nothing else, and perhaps..." She trailed off and shook her head. "Let us return to the house."

"Yes, absolutely." Peorth nodded in agreement. "Come, the house is this way..." She turned and paused, her eyes drifting to a hollowed out tree off near her left shoulder. "Belldandy?" There was a note of hesitation in her voice now, and caught off guard by the sudden shift in tone the Norn looked to Peorth in fresh curiosity.

"What is it, Peorth?"

"You are familiar with the creatures of this region, yes?" she asked. "As is policy when fulfilling a wish that enforces the granter to stay on a specific section of Midgard for an extended period of time?"

Belldandy blinked at Peorth in confusion, then looked back towards the tree. "Yes... I suppose I am, though it takes a moment for the information repository to go into effect. Why? What are you..." She trailed off as her eyes landed on the beast in question.

The beast that dwelled within the crook of a tree uncurled as though awakened by the conversations of a pair of deities. It stared at them with tiny, beady eyes filled with rage and hate.

The beast began to hiss.

And so it was, that the forest behind the house of a mortal deep within the woods of Virginia were filled with a new cry, an alien cry, a cry that sent both man and beast that heard it fleeing for dens and covers. The scream of a pair of cougars, perhaps? Both rising in challenge against each other to the tune of a pair of women being murdered? Or perhaps some new creature that could imitate its voice?

Or perhaps it was merely the sound of two terrified goddesses as they fled the forest for the safety and security of what was familiar and what was safe, where they were amongst their own people and safe with their own angels, high tensions though still existed.

And as they fled the creature curled back into its den from whence it was disturbed and returned to sleep. Perhaps, if one had been close by they might have even heard it speak as it returned to its slumber. "Damned kids these days. No respect for their elders."

* * *

 **A/N: It's not always the best thing to run away from the things that you did.**

* * *

 _Comments of a Madwoman: On no! Whatever could it have been that the girls stumbled across? It's American, I'll give you that. The answer will be in the next chapter, along with the inevitable conversation between Belldandy and Keiichi._


	30. Chapter 30 - My Angel

l

-30-

It was the sound of a pair of blood-curdling screams that drew Urd's attention in the forest. She froze, the sound chilling her veins after five, close to six hours of stress, anger, and pain had worn on her nerves like an open wound. "Bel-?" Two figures collided with her before the Norn even had the opportunity to speak her sibling's name, and with a shout nowhere near as terrible, she fell to the ground. Buried at the bottom of a dogpile of goddesses, Urd scrambled to free herself, her body frenzied and screaming that something was wrong before she recognized the two who'd tripped across her. The fight drained out as relief flooded into her, and with a loud sigh the Norn allowed her head to thump against the earth, uncaring of the soil that clung to her cheek.

"Found her," she muttered. "Thank Yggdrasil for small blessings." Grunting, she shimmied a hand to the pocket of her jeans and pulled out her cellphone, sending a quick text to Skuld and Keiichi.

On top of her, Belldandy and Peorth were wailing incoherent nonsense.

"…was a beast of Niflheim!" Peorth cried. "All fangs and teeth!"

"It was an opossum!" Belldandy exclaimed. "An _opossum!"_

"And nothing but hate and rage and vengeance and-"

"An _opossum,_ Urd! I've never seen one before, it was _huge!_ "

Urd moaned at the cries above her head. _I don't have the patience for this right now,_ she thought dourly. "Off!" she snapped, flaring her aura in warning. Twin shouts met her ears, and all at once Urd was free to pick herself up off the ground. She rose with a grimace, brushing soil, leaves and pine needles from her shirt and pants. She turned to the two of them only to find them still talking over each other like a pair of crows fighting over roadkill. Urd's brow twitched, her irritation growing past the level of safe and closer to that dangerous red line that seeped into anger. She bared her teeth without meaning to, felt the first bit of a growl rumble in the back of her throat, and had to stop herself from snarling at the duo like some deranged animal. _Urd, you're better than this,_ the voice of her old mentor scolded her. _Not here. Not right now. There's time for that later._

"It was a _local!?_ How on Midgard did such a-"

"Creature so filled with madness and cruelty and, and-"

"It was horrible! Like a starved rat with its fur falling out! How could such a-"

"Beast can't possibly be from this world! It must have immigrated from Niflheim, certainly! And-"

 _But they make it so hard, Nana..._ she thought back, and forced herself to take a deep breath. Her phone chirped as it received a text, and Urd took the opportunity to ignore the two howling idiots before her in favor of the message Skuld had sent her. She sent a reply, then searched through a web browser and pulled up a picture. The woman brought her hands to her lips and produced a sharp, ear-splitting whistle. At once Belldandy and Peorth ceased their obnoxious prattling and looked at her. "You saw a possum." She held up her phone for the two to see, displaying the creature in question. "Here. In _Virginia._ "

Apparently the Australian possum she displayed was not, in fact, the creature Belldandy and Peorth were freaking out over. They made this fact very well known to Urd.

"No! That's not it-" Belldandy started

"That thing is cute and adorable and-"

"This one was cruel and mean-"

"And this looks so sweet and cuddly rather than-"

"Ugly and filled with spite and-"

"That looks like it could hail from Asgard! Not like-"

"A rabid beast that _hissed_ at us!"

Urd stared at the duo, unamused. "I'm going back to the house."

"You don't believe us?!" Both Belldandy and Peorth said together.

Urd sighed and squeezed the bridge of her nose in frustration. "It's not that I don't believe you," she said. "It's just that I don't _care_." She had not torn up the entire second floor and then the surrounding woods in a panic just for her missing sister to barrel into her with Peorth screaming about fucking possums. Let someone else deal with this bullshit. She had neither the time nor the fucks to give to this mess right now.

The woman turned and proceeded towards the direction of the house, still out of sight through the forest's treeline, and with a pair of yelps Belldandy and Peorth chased after her. Perhaps sensing her rising anger, the two of them abandoned their argument over whatever beast they'd seen, and an almost blissful- though tense- silence descended on the trio. It was a little over a mile to the house still, and in the quiet Urd was left to stew in her own thoughts, trying to keep calm near Belldandy as the anger from World of Elegance's side of the link flowed into her. One of the downsides of having an angel, in retrospect, was that they shared _everything_ : good, bad, or otherwise.

Still, she was relieved to have Belldandy back, even if it was only to allow Urd to yell at her later. Belldandy's attack on Keiichi was bad enough, but to then flee the house with her angel sick next door while fearing reprisal was another thing entirely. It angered the Norn; and to combine that with the ongoing stress she was already dealing with from sleep deprivation, exhaustion, dread, and irritation, it was leaving the goddess with the desire to lash out.

She stomped her foot down on that feeling with all her might.

Yet like a serpent, it writhed beneath her boot, and Urd was growing increasingly aware that if she didn't lift her foot and let it go soon, then it was liable to lash out at _her_ , and that would create a whole new situation that no one in the house was prepared to deal with.

Keiichi, Skuld, and Lind were all waiting for them in the cleared field that made up Keiichi's backyard. Belldandy stopped abruptly, and Urd paused as well. "Let's go, Belldandy," Urd growled.

Belldandy looked to her, then back to Keiichi, suddenly white as a sheet. Peorth was more sympathetic. "You came here to see your angel, remember?" she said as she tried to coax the goddess forward. "You know you must also face Keiichi. Come. I feel it may be better to confront this sooner rather than later."

While not the most encouraging of words, they were enough to get Belldandy moving once more. All three of them proceeded towards the house, where Keiichi and Skuld trotted up to meet them. "You found Belldandy." Skuld looked relieved. "Thank Yggdrasil."

Urd shook her head and pushed past them both without a word, and, confused, Keiichi reached out for her. "Urd, wa-" Sparks leapt from her shoulder and stung him before the man could touch her, and he shouted in surprise as he yanked his hand back.

"Urd?!" Skuld whirled to follow her sister in alarm, yet Urd still said nothing, proceeding inside through the porch's back door. "Fuck," she swore. "This is bad..." She looked at Lind, who was already rushing after Urd. The door slammed shut behind her. The goddess looked back to Belldandy, Peorth, and Keiichi, torn.

Peorth hesitated, then approached Skuld. "Let's give them some privacy," she advised, sending a glance to Keiichi. The man was staring at the house, rubbing his hand with a thoughtful frown on his face. He looked back to the two goddesses in question, and when they said nothing his eyes turned to Belldandy.

Skuld shook her head. "Go inside," she advised. "I... think I need to stay."

Peorth frowned. "They deserve some privacy."

"And someone needs to be around in case things get too heated," Skuld replied. "I won't interfere. I don't even want to _be_ here for this. But if things start heading south, I want to make sure we don't have any repeat incidents of this morning."

Peorth eyed her, but Skuld said nothing more on the topic, instead turning away from the goddess to watch the approaching couple. The Rose Goddess bit her lip, scowled, then headed towards the house as well with a muttered, " _Ou y'en a charogne y'en a Carencro..."_

In the yard, Keiichi stopped a few feet away from Belldandy. "You ran away." His face gave nothing away.

The goddess cringed. "Keiichi-"

"I'm sorry." The man interrupted. "I didn't mean to-" He scratched the back of his head, then released a breath he had been holding. "I must have really fucked up to make you run like that, huh?" Belldandy stared at him in mute shock, and the look on her face made him pause. "It's... it's not that, is it."

"Keiichi... how much of last night do you remember?" Belldandy asked, and there was dread in her voice, dread and worry of the type that sent him falling to the past, where another woman looked at him with worry and fear and asked a similar question. His chest constricted with agitation, and the SEAL fell silent, staring at Belldandy with dawning horror as he wracked his memory for his last moments.

"I..." His voice failed him in that moment, and Keiichi swallowed and tried again. "We were together," he whispered. "We were together, just the two of us, and-" He watched Belldandy's lips peel back in a grimace, watched her try to bite back her own grief, and at once jumped to his own conclusion. "Oh god, Bell, I'm so sorry."

Belldandy flinched at the apology. "Stop saying that," she whispered.

"But I am!" Keiichi cried. "I must have-" He paused. Was it a flashback? One of the same severity that had made Deb flee? But he'd not had a flashback in years! Was it his conversation with Belldandy that had spurred it? Dusting off old memories, picking at old scars, polishing off the metal of the ol' six shooter and playing a favored round of Russian Roulette? Spin the chamber round and round and pull the trigger, will it click or go boom? "Fuck." He took a step back from her as he said it. "Belldandy, what happened last night?" He asked. "I didn't hurt you, did I? Fuck, I'm so sorry, I didn't-"

"Stop _apologizing!"_ Belldandy screamed, and Keiichi froze, startled at the sheer desperation in the Norn's voice. "Why are you apologizing? Stop it! Stop it this instant!" She stepped towards him, thrusting herself into her personal space. There were tears in her eyes, tears that flowed freely down her cheeks, and with growing dread it dawned on Keiichi that maybe it hadn't been _him_ who'd had a flashback. "It should be me apologizing! Me begging your forgiveness, Keiichi! _Me!"_

He stared at the goddess with wide eyes, and as Belldandy wept before him little snippets of memory came back to him, dusting themselves off from the ashes of his hazy subconscious to throw voices in his ears. "Toshiyuki." The name left his lips in a whisper. "You called me 'Toshiyuki'- you- you called out _his name!"_ The man jerked away from the goddess, appalled. "You- why the _fuck_ would you call me by _his_ name?" He'd been wrong then. Not a flashback at all but something else entirely.

Belldandy shook her head. "That's not-"

"No, hold up." Keiichi's voice lowered, deepening with the onset of anger. "You— we were making out. You and me. Alone. And you called me by _his name."_ He stared at the woman in disbelief. "Is that who I am to you? Did what I did so resemble his- his _caresses_ that you forget who's holding you in his arms? Am I so indistinguishable from him that you lump me in the same category as him?"

" _NO!"_ Belldandy shrieked.

" _THEN WHY THE FUCK DID YOU CALL ME BY HIS NAME?"_ Keiichi roared. He tugged at his hair, throwing an accusing glance at the woman before him. "What am I supposed to take from this, Belldandy? What the fuck am I supposed to do knowing that, to you, I bring forth the image of your ex-husband?!"

"Don't call him that!" Belldandy shouted. "I want _nothing_ to do with him, _nothing!_ " She bared her teeth in anger, in desperation, in _hurt_ , yet Keiichi was hurting too god damn it, and he stood his ground, meeting her livid gaze with a challenge of his own. "I had a _flashback,_ you cretin! I- I tried to _kill you!"_

It was like someone had dunked his head into ice water. Any further argument he had died in his throat. He stared at her and tried to speak, tried to _breathe_ , only to find his lungs somehow devoid of air. "You touched me," Belldandy continued. "Yes, you touched me! And I enjoyed it, yes! This is true! But you-" She gnashed her teeth, and for a moment her face took on a look of such potent rage that Keiichi's arms broke into gooseflesh. "You did- _something_. Touched me in a manner that _he_ did. Not all at once but on one occasion, and for just that moment I was- I was-" Words failed her, and she screamed, a shrill sound that left him feeling as though he'd been punched in the gut. He could see energy pulsing off her; her aura, rising and rippling the air around her like heat waves.

A sense of unease fell over him as he watched her, and all at once he found himself back in a bedroom, staring up at a sky filled with a small glimpse of the ever-expanding universe and the madness that dwelt within. All at once he recalled the chaos presented to him as he sought to understand it, and how it had left him raving in that moment. All at once he remembered how miniscule he was in comparison to the woman before him, who had never before lashed out at him but who still held the power to crush him like an ant if she so desired. He felt the aura surrounding her and sensed the emotions that roiled within, and was afraid. There was anger in that aura. Anger and hate so black and spiteful he feared it might devour him if he should move closer, and so instead Keiichi stumbled back, putting distance between them.

Belldandy didn't follow him. Instead she fell to her knees, clutching her head as she groaned in agony. "I remember it all. It's all so _clear_ , Yggdrasil be blessed!" she mourned. "I came to you, you came with me, we conversed, we kissed, we grew _intimate…"_ She paused, her lips quivering.

"And I struck you down when you were most vulnerable!" she cried. "You were so gentle... gentle like _he_ never was, and I let my guard down, I relaxed, I allowed myself to _feel_ and… and then _he_ was there! Leering at me like the demon who held his contract, and I- I couldn't control myself!" she moaned, and a broken sob forced its way past her lips. "All the anger, all the hate, all the pain! I-it overwhelmed me!"

Keiichi felt a vice take hold in his chest. "What did you do to me, Belldandy?" The words came out in a whisper.

Belldandy heard him still. "I threw him off me. Threw _you_ off me. And I advanced." She shook her head, uttered a peal of pure despair, and continued on. "I became a beast of vengeance. My eyes at that time- there was only _him_ , only _Toshiyuki_ , and only the hate- that _cancer-_ he had so left to rot in my breast. I wanted him _dead_. I wanted him _gone_ , and by the Heavens did I not act on that imperative?"

"What did you do to me, Belldandy?" Keiichi repeated, in a louder voice this time. There was fear in his address.

" _I murdered you!"_ Belldandy screamed, and her words were damning.

Damning for her.

Damning for him.

Damning for the relationship they had fostered like a newborn.

"It is all clear to me now. There was no 'almost', the motive was clear. The desire was clear. The _intent_ was clear." She stared at him with wild blue eyes, blue eyes that were almost feral in their desperation and Keiichi felt a shudder traverse the length of his spine. "I held you by the throat and choked the life from you! Bit by bit I felt your life fade from you. _Bit. By. Bit!_ Yggdrasil, forgive me, I felt your life fade beneath my hand- felt _his_ life fade at my touch, and I _enjoyed it! I enjoyed every second of it!"_

Keiichi brought a hand to his throat. It suddenly felt hard to breathe. _Like a hand was choking him. Like he was trying to speak and could not. Like a pair of eyes, wild, fanatical blue eyes were glaring into his as his flailing limbs turned to lead and his head grew light. And a light, bright and burning with the imprint of a person reaching for him, reaching for those mad blue eyes and-_ "But I'm here." His voice trembled. "I- you didn't kill me, because otherwise I wouldn't be here."

"Skuld stopped me from ripping off your head," Belldandy said quietly as she bowed her head, unable to look at him. Her voice had become a whisper. "I remember it now. Yes. All of it. The angels and Skuld prevented me from finishing the deed. And... Urd was it? Yes... Urd brought you back. Thank Yggdrasil for the two of them... had they not-" Her body swayed as it was wracked with sobs, yet Keiichi did not reach out for her.

He couldn't.

Not now.

His eyes wheeled to Skuld. The woman watched them from the sidelines, and in her face he saw that Belldandy was speaking the truth. "But there was something else," he told her. "I saw something- I _know_ I saw something else. A light. A _person_ in the light. _What was that?!"_

"Belldandy's last attempt to stop herself," Skuld replied. Her voice was so gentle he thought it cruel. "Alone it... wouldn't have been enough. I helped. _Urd_ helped. And so you're alive."

Keiichi stared at Skuld, and then found his eyes drifting once more to Belldandy. The goddess presented a pitiful sight; a woman guilty of sin and who knowingly regretted her actions, awaiting the verdict of those who'd been wronged. He saw her and felt his heart twist into a knot. Felt guilt war with blame, anger war with sadness, hate rage with love. Uncertainty filled his core, and distressed over the sight, the SEAL dropped his gaze. This wasn't a war. This wasn't a combat zone. This wasn't even a disgruntled national who'd been given a gun and pointed in the correct direction to shoot. This was... this was the woman he _loved._ The woman he'd fought so hard to bring into his life, to comfort, to offer kindness to in times of despair. This was the woman who had called him by her enemy's name.

This was the woman who had killed him.

It was too much to handle all at once. Too much to take. With Belldandy's broken and sobbing form still burned into his mind's eye, Keiichi Morisato turned and walked away.

XXX

The living room was filled with the four divine occupants who'd come to occupy his house when Keiichi went inside. The Cheech look-a-like, Nabu or whoever, was sitting on the la-z-boy speaking to Urd, who sat nestled between Lind and Peorth on the couch.

"The return is just for a little while, _Kyz_. Enough for the both of you to get some rest. You're running each other ragged with everything that's been going on, and I got some real concerns for the both of you."

"And Holy Bell?" Urd wasn't even looking at the man. Her head was bowed, propped up with both hands from where she leaned forward with her elbows on her knees. "World of Elegance and I can take it, but..."

"Don't worry about Holy Bell," the man assured. "You can't be worrying 'bout others when you ain't looking out for yourself, ya' know? I got that bit under control, but until then, you got to get some rest."

Urd didn't respond.

Peorth was the one to notice Keiichi's arrival. " _Monsieur_ , are you well?" she asked, and Nebo fell quiet as he and Lind looked up to the SEAL in question.

Keiichi ignored her. "Urd, we need to talk."

Urd sent him a sidelong glance from her position on the couch, and Nebo rose from the recliner. "Hey, _Lum_ , can you give us a moment?" He smiled at Keiichi, who found himself with the sudden desire to punch the shorter man in the face. "We trying to work some stuff out here for Belldandy's sake."

"No," Keiichi said, his voice firm and low. "And I would ask you to ever so kindly _fuck off_." The smile fell from Nebo's lips. "There's been a massive amount of fuckery going on in my house, and I've been left in the dark for too long. I've got questions, Urd's got answers, and I am going to get a full run down on what has happened in the past twelve hours."

"Wow, _Lum."_ The man raised his hands in front of his chest. "How 'bout you calm down a bit. Ain't no reason to throw a tantrum."

"Throw a tantrum?" Keiichi stared at the man in disbelief. "I just found out that the woman I love fucking _murdered_ me, and you think my anger is so petty as to be called a motherfucking _tantrum?"_ He glared at the man, the air growing tense. "Who the fuck you think you are? You come walking into _my_ house without my permission and now you're talking down to me like I'm some four year old? Go piss off a cliff or get the fuck out of my way. I need to talk to Urd."

Nebo's eyes darted to the women on the couch, then back up to Keiichi. The SEAL, while not a giant like his commanding officer, was taller than him by a good four or five inches. It made him a more intimidating figure when combined with Keiichi's muscular physique, yet Nebo remained unfazed. "We gonna play this game right now?" The man's voice dropped to a whisper so low Keiichi almost didn't hear it. "In front of the ladies?" The mortal bristled at the words, and his hands clenched into a pair of tight fists as he glared at the god. "Back _off,_ Boy." Nebo's lips barely moved. "Cool your heels before you wind up in so much hot water you boil yourself alive."

"I'm not taking shit from a five-foot nothing twig." Keiichi matched his tone word for word. "Now if we need to take this outside, then by all means. But I'm owed an explanation, and I'll be damned if I let some asshole who forced his way into my house talk down to me like a child."

"Nebo. Morisato." Lind was starting to rise from the couch now, and now there was a warning note in _her_ voice as well. "Both of you back away from each other. Right. Now."

Neither man moved. The tension in the air grew thicker. Peorth began to fidget.

"That's enough, both of you." Urd dropped her hands with a sigh and rose to her feet. "Lind, Nebo, go sit down. Keiichi, let's go upstairs and talk." She rubbed her face with one hand before letting it drop.

Lind eyed her. "Are you sure?"

"Yes. If it will keep Nebo from blowing his head off, then yes, I'm sure." Urd sighed, looking all at once drawn and tired. "Upstairs Keiichi. _Now._ "

Keiichi stared at the woman, trembling in his anger. Urd's expression may as well have been set in stone. The SEAL looked away first, then turned and proceeded down the hall and up the staircase to the second floor. As soon as he was gone Urd's shoulders sagged in defeat. Nebo touched her elbow, his own anger abandoned in lieu of concern. " _Kyz_ , you sure?" The woman looked down at him, meeting his worried brown eyes with her own exhausted violet. "You ain't in the right frame a' mind to be talking with that guy. He don't feel right. Too many black emotions riding on his shoulders."

Urd smiled. It looked wan and fake on her face. "It's fine, Nebo." But the god looked unconvinced. All three of them looked unconvinced. "Someone's got to keep the peace, right? I'll calm him down and try and explain everything to him, and then we can get back to what needs to happen for Holy Bell, all right?" She glanced at Lind. "Think you can check on Belldandy and Skuld for me?"

"Yes." Lind nodded.

"Thanks." The goddess sighed, then proceeded after Keiichi, climbing the staircase with heavy steps, as though the deity was weighed down by some invisible force. Her feet seemed to drag with every step.

All three of the remaining divinities watched her vanish up the staircase in a heavy silence. When she was out of sight, Peorth looked to Lind. _"I'll_ go check on Belldandy and Skuld," she announced. "I... know Belldandy better. And at this point... I believe Urd needs you more than Belldandy."

Lind stared at the Rose Goddess before inclining her head in silent agreement. Peorth departed the living room for he back door leading outside, and Lind moved towards the staircase. Nebo caught her in passing. "Leave her be a moment," he said. "Give her an opportunity to speak with the _lum_ , fool boy he is."

Lind paused, tearing her gaze from the Tic and to the staircase, then back to Nebo. "I'm worried about them." She hesitated a moment, then continued. "Urd... she loves him. Morisato. And he loves Belldandy."

Nebo's eyes widened in new understanding, and he too looked at the staircase, his face growing strained. "Does that fool know?"

"I don't know."

Nebo sighed heavily, his brows scrunching together as he massaged his temples. "That fool-man has the love of not one, but _two_ goddesses?" He shook his head. "How in the nine dominions—" He froze, and his eyes widened. "Oh, Lordy-lou. And if what that man said about Belldandy is true-"

"That's why I'm worried," Lind murmured.

"This is bad, _Kyz."_

"I know."

"This is _real_ bad, Lind _."_

"I _know._ "

"By Anzu's sweet waters, thank Tehome's depths her angel is back with her." The man shook his head, then looked at Lind. "If you sense _anything_ , get her out of there, understand? I don't care if it's a false alarm, I don't care if she protests, I don't care if the two of 'em are having a fuck fest in the room next door. _Get Urd out of here._ "

"Don't have to tell me twice," Lind muttered. She looked relieved. "As soon as I sense a change in her aura, we're both gone. That's a promise, Nebo."

The man nodded. "You're a good person, Lind."

"Try telling that to Urd after I haul her ass out of the house."

XXX

Urd found Keiichi pacing the length of the hallway when she went upstairs. His eyes were fixed on the door to Belldandy's room, and in her breast she felt World of Elegance stir, tired but alert all at once with the man's proximity to her choir. _Easy._ She thought. _Take it easy. He hasn't tried to snoop yet. He's good, World of Elegance. So are we._ She sensed a pair of wings shift and sigh, felt the unease of her angel melt into her own discomfort, and did her best to shove it off to the side. It was growing harder with every passing hour.

Keiichi turned when he came near Urd's room and paused when his eyes met hers. He stared at her expectantly. "My room," Urd said.

Without a word, Keiichi pushed open the door to Urd's room and went inside, and feeling a looming dread rising in her chest, Urd followed after him. The man was leaning against a far wall when she entered, observing the bed, empty of all but its base sheets, and the hole in the wall Urd had created in a spark of temper.

His eyes darted to the Norn as she entered. "What the fuck is going on, Urd?" He demanded.

Urd collapsed on the bed with a sigh. "A lot," she grumbled.

"Could you be any more vague?" Keiichi shot her a glare. "Don't play games with me, Urd. I'm fucking pissed right now."

"Well join the fucking club!" Urd exclaimed. "While you were dreaming of fucking my sister, I've been busy trying to keep this entire house together between you, Belldandy, and Skuld, all right? So let me cry my fucking pardon _Sai,_ if my attention has been a little divided in the past six hours."

"You didn't tell me I died," Keiichi accused. "Why."

"Belldandy was more important at the time," Urd replied. "She was missing and we needed to get her back."

"Oh, so her taking a little hike through the woods is more important than letting me know she fucking killed me?"

"Yes."

"Why?" Keiichi demanded. "For that matter, how the fuck did you bring me back? 'Cause I sure as shit don't remember any of this!"

"Most people don't remember traumatic experiences, Keiichi."

"Well no fucking shit." The SEAL glared at her. "Should I be worried? Belldandy said she killed me, that she felt my fucking _life force_ vanish. I don't even know what the fuck that is! Am I going to suffer from any side effects from this shit or what? Am I gonna start having a hankering for brains or human flesh? Or am I gonna be like some Voodoo zombie fresh out a Haiti that does whatever you say?"

Urd gritted her teeth and squeezed her eyes shut. The woman sucked in a deep breath. Her left hand curled into a tight fist, trembled, and then opened into a rigid claw. She clenched it by the wrist as if it were an animal trying to go wild. "You're _fine_ Keiichi. I spent... Yggdrasil knows how long taking care of you and ensuring everything in your body was going to function correctly." Her voice was drawn and tight. "I double-checked, triple-checked, hell, even _quadruple-_ checked your body for any signs of organ failure when I resuscitated you. And you weren't dead-not in the true sense of the word." She opened her eyes and focused on him. "Your spirit still lingered in the body, though your heart had stopped. That was a sign that you weren't _ready_ to die, because otherwise it would have vanished before I could bring you back. You were fighting to stay, and I only helped cement the bonds that tied your soul to your body and closed off any avenues it could escape from."

"Yeah, okay, fine," Keiichi grumbled. "So it was a near-death experience then? One of those 'don't go to the light' moments or whatever?"

"If that's how you want to look at it." Urd sighed. "I personally don't care. Whatever interpretation helps you get to sleep at night, Keiichi."

Keiichi scowled at her. "But there _was_ a light," he said lowly. "I remember seeing it, and Skuld backed me up. I saw a fucking light. The Poodle said it was... I don't know, something about 'Belldandy's last attempt to stop herself or some shit like that."

"Holy Bell..." Urd muttered.

"What?"

Urd shook her head, and Keiichi pushed himself off the wall he was leaning on. "Wait, no," he said. "No more secrets. What the fuck was it, Urd? You said 'Holy Bell'. What the fuck is 'Holy Bell'?"

Urd stared at him, sullen and quiet.

"Urd..." Keiichi growled. "You said you'd explain everything to me. And after fucking _dying_ I think I'm owed some answers!" His voice rose in a shout, and it was enough for Urd to lose the slipping hold of her temper.

"Don't you fucking _dare_ speak to me of what is owed to you!" the woman hissed, and all at once she was in front of him, impossibly tall with eyes that blazed the molten red of liquid metal. "I tell you what I know because I _choose_ to, not because I am obligated to. Not to you. Not to a mortal. Not to a mere man who forgets himself and believes he can ask the world of a deity just because she resides in his house!"

Keiichi stumbled back, eyes wide, and the look on his face was enough for her to regain control of her temper once more. She jerked away from him. The illusion was broken, leaving five foot eleven Urd with violet eyes in its place once more. She squeezed her eyes shut and returned to the bed, collapsing on top of it with a moan.

"I just want to understand what's going on." Keiichi's voice came out a whisper. "Because I _don't_ , and in all honesty Urd, after hearing I fucking _died_ from my own murderer's lips, I'm pretty fucking freaked out right now." The man didn't move from his spot against the wall, and now his gaze was filled with wariness. His eyes darted to the door and back to Urd, as though contemplating the wisdom of running. Urd didn't notice.

"You never struck me as the type of person to fear death," Urd grumbled, her head bowed as she rubbed her temples.

"I'm not." Keiichi's voice didn't rise. "I accepted the fact I might die in combat a long time ago." He fell silent once more. When he spoke again, there was an audible tremor in his voice. "But there's a difference between dying in the heat of battle and being murdered in your own house by someone you care about. And when I learn that the woman I love... when I find out I was killed by the person I want to spend the rest of my life with, that I can't fall asleep without looking over my shoulder now, that I—that I-I was _killed_ because I remind her of the man she hates the most-"

The SEAL fell quiet, and Urd raised her head to look at the mortal. The man stared at her with a look of heart-wrenching anguish. Urd felt a knot form in her throat when she saw the despair in his eyes. "What do I do? I don't- what am I supposed to _do,_ Urd?" His legs gave out beneath him, and Keiichi slid down the wall and onto the floor, clutching his head as though it pained him. "I can't- how can we move on with our relationship now? She just- I don't even know if I can _forgive_ her for this, Urd! I mean, I know that she had a flashback and that she didn't see me, and a piece of me even _understands_ that fact, but- I can't get close to her. I'll never know if what I do might trigger something, might leave her choking me out again or leave my head as a splattered mess on the wall. How can I trust her to be around me when my hackles are gonna rise like a dog sensing a threat now?"

Urd bit her lip, for the first time seeing how hurt and scared the man looked. A lump of guilt settled in her chest, and sighing more to herself than Keiichi, the goddess pushed herself off her bed and moved to the SEAL. She leaned against the wall and slid down to the floor beside the man. For a long moment they sat next to each other in silence, both lost in their own thoughts. There was a gentle sound of movement in the room next door from the angels, and downstairs Skuld's voice rose as a gentle, questioning murmur. Peorth's voice rose in response, then Nebo's, and then silence once more.

"I'm sorry for yelling at you," Keiichi grumbled. "I- it's just too much all at once. I wasn't trying to be an asshole."

"We've both had our moments," Urd replied. She rubbed at her eyes. They felt irritated and heavy with exhaustion. "I'm sorry, too." The pair lapsed into silence for another five minutes before Urd spoke again. "The light you saw... that was Holy Bell. Belldandy's angel."

Keiichi grunted.

"Holy Bell was the one that stopped Belldandy from ripping your head off," Urd continued. "That's what Skuld meant. If... Holy Bell hadn't manifested when she did..."

"I really would be dead." Keiichi whispered.

Urd nodded.

The silence returned.

"We're... linked," Urd started anew. "Our angels and us. They're..."

"Like a guardian angel?" Keiichi rolled his head to look at her.

Urd shook her head. "No... not like that. It's... complicated." She sighed, frustrated. "An angel is... how do I explain this in words you'd understand...?" She pursed her lips. "They're a separate creature born from the soul of a deity," she began. "They're... they're a reflection of the deity's soul, I guess you could say, and they reside in our soul to be summoned when we're in need of aid." The woman's fingers drummed a rhythm on her knee, and in her mind's eye she saw World of Elegance in the room with them, her physical form absent but still visible to Urd's senses as she investigated the wall between herself and Holy Bell. In the Norn's eye the angel looked as distressed as Urd felt, and it did little to lighten her mood. "We're always connected to them. Even when they're outside of us, we're connected to them."

"I don't get what you're saying."

"I know." Urd sighed and closed her eyes. When she opened them once more, World of Elegance was gone. "I told you, it's difficult to explain." She scowled, searching for the proper words. "Holy Bell isn't in Belldandy right now," she admitted. "She's in the other room with Skuld's angel." The woman's silver brows furrowed together, wondering if she was speaking too much before continuing on regardless. "When you showed up, after Belldandy vanished... Keiichi, our angels can't be away from us for an extended period of time. And when the link between us becomes strained... if it should snap..."

"What happens?"

Yet Urd shook her head, all at once cold. She could not speak more on the subject. Not to Keiichi, who was a man, a mortal created of the mad union of a demon flesh and divine spirit. She didn't dare. The Norn grew all too aware of the man's gaze, watching her keenly, and Urd sighed, trying to change the subject. "I think that if Holy Bell has a chance to recover, Belldandy's healing will speed up," she said. "It was Holy Bell that saved you, regardless of what anyone else says. Skuld and I- we helped, but it was Belldandy's angel-" She stopped herself from saying, _'Belldandy's soul'_ , "-that stayed her hand."

"So... that kid I saw..."

"An angel, yes."

"She had red eyes." The SEAL muttered. "God damn it." The man rubbed his face with both hands, moaning into his palms. "How long has this been going on? These... angels? Have they always been popping up in the house and making themselves at home when I'm gone?"

"No," Urd said. "No, this is a new occurrence. This... this was the first time I've seen Holy Bell in over ten years."

"So you have an angel too?" He glanced at her.

"Yes." Urd ignored his gaze.

"Can I see it?"

"No," Urd said firmly. Now she looked at him, her frown pensive and guarded. "And I'd advise against asking the others to see their angels as well. A deity's angel is very personal to the god in question because their appearance is a direct reflection of that person's being. The only people in my immediate family who know what my angel looks like are Skuld and Belldandy, to give you an idea, and now the three gods downstairs after the chaos brought by the morning." She shook her head. "My own parents don't know what World of Elegance looks like, and despite everything we've gone through Keiichi, I'm not certain I'm at that same level with you as I am with my sisters."

"I saved your life once," he pointed out, his tone just light enough to be joking.

"And you threatened to shoot me an hour later," Urd retorted.

Keiichi flinched. "So I guess that's also a 'no' on seeing the... fuck this is weird- the angels next door, too?"

"You'll get hurt if you try," Urd warned. "You're liable to turn the whole house against you trying to see Holy Bell without Belldandy's express permission. Even _I_ haven't seen her in her current state, and though World of Elegance has been helping her, I respect her privacy enough not to dig into her memories to see Holy Bell's current state of being." The Norn's frown deepened. "If Belldandy wants me to see Holy Bell, then she'll tell me. But I don't think even _Belldandy_ has seen the state of her angel since Holy Bell manifested, and until she has a chance to, I'm not gonna snoop."

The man beside her deflated. "You're not curious?" he asked. "Not at all?"

"No." She scowled, then said, "Would you be curious about what Sanchez's intestines looked like after he stepped on an IED?"

Keiichi recoiled. "Fuck no!" he exclaimed. "The fuck is wrong with you? I don't even want to imagine that!"

"Case in point." Urd sighed. "But that's why Nebo is here. You can thank Lind for that. She called him and he came to help Holy Bell." She let her head thunk against the wall. "He finds out what's wrong with Holy Bell, he figures out how to help her recover. If Holy Bell recovers, Belldandy can recover too, which _could_ mean an end to any further flashbacks."

"You mean that prick is here to stay?" Keiichi growled. "Urd, I don't want that guy in my house."

"If he's a prick, are you a cunt?" Urd grumbled, ignoring the insulted look Keiichi sent her. "He's only here for the angels, Keiichi."

"Nobody asked me if he could stay," Keiichi muttered. To Urd it almost sounded like he was pouting. "I'm being walked over in my own house."

"Don't make this situation into a dick measuring contest, Jank," Urd growled. "This is for Belldandy, and to some extent, even you." She took a deep breath, releasing it in a soothing sigh that did not ease her discomfort in the slightest. "You gave Belldandy your wish. Belldandy wished to be with you forever. Like it or not, Keiichi, the two of you are stuck together."

"Not if I just wish it away," the man grumbled.

Urd looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "Is that what you want?" she asked him. "After all you've gone through, is that _really_ what you want, Keiichi Morisato? To terminate the wish you gave, of _your own free will_ , to a goddess who suffered at the hands of a mortal? To deny her the peace of mind your presence brings her, to deny her an end to her nightmares? Her demons?"

Keiichi scowled at her. "Are you trying to fucking _guilt trip_ me now?!" he demanded.

"No," Urd said. "I'm asking you an honest question: Is an end to the wish that binds you to Belldandy what you really want?" She searched his face.

The man squirmed under her gaze. "No," he confessed. "No, that's not what I want."

"Then what _do_ you want, Keiichi?"

The man frowned and tilted his head back, sending a forlorn gaze to the ceiling. "I don't know," he admitted. "I... Fuck, Urd- I want Belldandy to get better! I want to see her happy, see her smiling and laughing. I don't want to see her screaming because of nightmares, or losing herself in a flashback, or crying in front of me like she's afraid I'll beat her!" The man visibly swallowed, his eyes bright. "I don't want to be mistaken for a man who should be rotting in a gutter! I- god damn it, Urd, I want to hold her in my arms, I want to wake up every morning to her smile, I want to have stupid arguments on where the sugar goes and tease each other over stupid things like salads with potatoes and expired cream corn! _I want to love her so bad!_ " he cried, and with a hearbreaking moan the SEAL buried his face in his hands.

"But she makes it so god damned _hard,_ Urd! How can I love someone who's afraid to love me back? When she's got magic that can make a man insane or breaks my sister's nose without realizing it? When she freaks out and threatens to kill her annoying friend and goes batshit crazy when another person kisses me? When she fucking _kills me_ because a single touch- she admitted it herself, Urd, a _single touch_ -is enough to send her over the edge? When am I supposed to cut my losses and move on?"

"I don't know." Urd wrapped an arm around the man's shoulders and pulled him into a gentle embrace. Keiichi didn't resist. "I really don't, Keiichi." She rested her chin atop the man's head and felt Keiichi suck in a deep, painful breath. "We can only be patient and keep trying." For reasons she didn't understand, Keiichi's words struck a chord in her, and they echoed in her mind, reflected in her own voice, _When am I supposed to cut my losses and move on?_ She squeezed her eyes shut, ignoring the lingering voice. "Holy Bell's problem is new. So we try something new and hope it works out."

"And if it doesn't?"

"Then we try something else," Urd replied.

Keiichi sighed, and Urd felt an arm snake around her waist as Keiichi shifted to return her embrace, perhaps seeking strength in her person. They stayed like that, on the floor and in a hug that spoke more of desperation than affection, for an untold amount of time before Keiichi finally pulled himself away. Urd let him go.

"This shit sucks Urd."

"I know." She fell silent, then said, "I'll speak with Nebo if you want. Try and keep him away from you and help keep the peace in the house."

The man grimaced. "No, you don't need to do that," he grumbled. "I'll speak with him myself. Try and work something out. It's just…" He sighed. "Everything feels so fucking... out of control." He pursed his lips. "And it's all so _crowded_ all of a sudden. Lind's here, these angels you're talking about, and now Nebo and- let's not forget- Peorth is still here."

"Don't worry about Peorth," Urd said firmly. "Right now she should be the last thing on your mind. What are you going to do about Belldandy?"

"I don't know." Keiichi said. "I need to think about it." He sighed and rose to his feet, then offered a hand to Urd. The Norn took it, and she allowed the SEAL to haul her to her feet. "I... think I need to be alone for a bit," he decided. "Think things over. Figure out what _I_ want to do from here." He scrunched his eyebrows together and massaged his brow.

Urd clapped a hand down on the man's right shoulder. "Take your time," she said. "I'll make sure no one bothers you. You heading to your room?"

"Yeah," he said. "Seems to be the only place right now I can hope for some privacy." He brought his left hand up to cover the hand on his shoulder, cupping it and squeezing it gently. "Thanks Urd," he mumbled. "For bringing me back. I'm grateful." He stared into her eyes, his gaze honest and naked to her, and what she saw in his vision terrified her even as it made her heart quicken. "You've always been there for me. You're a good friend."

With a final squeeze, he released her, and Urd's hand slid off his shoulder, falling back to her side where it dangled limply. "Sorry for being such an asshole earlier. I'm... doing a little better now." His lips curved up in a small half-smile, and with that the man departed, leaving Urd where she was, eyes lingering on his form as he exited the bedroom and vanished into the hallway. Her hand tingled from where Keiichi had touched it, and her heart ached with a sudden and horrible yearning. "Nidhogg... bless it," she whispered, and Keiichi's words from earlier returned to her like a ricochet, twisted and formed into something else, _How can you love someone who doesn't love you back?_ her subconscious screamed. _When are you going to cut your losses and move on?!_ She wondered if it was indeed her inner voice or World of Elegance questioning her, wishing for the latter yet knowing it was the former.

"I don't know," she whispered. She rubbed her hand, hating the way it still tingled. "I don't fucking _know_. But I can't keep doing this. I _can't_."

XXX

Belldandy was quiet and withdrawn as she, Skuld, and Peorth entered the house once more. It had taken the combined efforts of both her younger sister and her friend to convince her to come inside, and it was not until Skuld reminded her of Holy Bell that the Norn mustered the courage to step back into the house. Keiichi was nowhere in sight, and she was glad for that small blessing. The woman could not stand the thought of the SEAL's accusing eyes, and that knowledge weighed heavily in her chest. Lind, observing the staircase, hinted at where the man had vanished to, along with Urd who was also gone.

Belldandy, her angel still absent from within her breast, was uncertain if she should be relieved or concerned. She trusted Urd, yes, but there'd been times she'd heard Keiichi's voice rise upstairs, the words muffled but the anger evident, and knowing he was so close to Holy Bell put her on edge.

"Noble Scarlet's with her right now," Skuld reassured her as they moved into the living room. There was a man, a god there that Belldandy didn't recognize, and he smiled warmly at her. "Don't worry, she'll let us know if anything happens up there." The smile she sent the Norn was reassuring, and Belldandy took strength in it. "Besides, you should have seen World of Elegance. She wasn't taking lip from _anyone_ regarding the others, even Lind. I bet you ten to one if Keiichi tries to peek on them, she'll pop up and scare the crap out of him."

The unfamiliar god in the living room winced. "I hope not," he mumbled. "It'd be kinder if Urd merely ripped off his head."

Peorth flinched. "Please don't talk like that," she said. "I know you and _Monsieur_ Keiichi met under less than desirable circumstances, but that is no reason to make such a cold comment."

The man stared at Peorth blankly. "You mean our conversation earlier?"

From the hallway Lind snorted. "If you want to call it that, Nebo."

The man, Nebo, shrugged. "My concern is for the angels, not the _lum_. I worry should World of Elegance feel the need to reveal herself. Urd is too self-conscious of her angel's Black Wing mutation to let her simply manifest in front of an _awilum_ , even one surrounded by the divine such as him." He leaned back on the Ugly Beast. "But don't worry, from what World of Elegance told me, her link with Urd is strong. If there's anything that puts her angel on edge or if your _lum_ gets too close to Holy Bell and Noble Scarlet, Urd will act and keep him back.

Belldandy breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness," she mumbled. Urd wasn't the only one self-conscious about her angel. Though she was unwilling to voice her fears, knowing that Holy Bell had managed to manifest for the first time in ten years frightened her. She'd not even _heard_ her angel in close to five years, and the silence of her Other Soul had terrified her. That fear, like many things, had been shoved aside in those long years with Aoshima, but to find that her angel had manifested _now_ , with mere months to distance her time from Toshiyuki, caused her to dread the approaching reunion with her angel. She feared what Holy Bell's appearance would say of her own soul, tarnished as it was.

The god before her must have seen something on her face. He rose from his position on the pink couch and approached her, inclining his head in greetings. "I'm Nebo, a friend of Lind's," he said. "I'm a Tic that specializes in angels, and word reached me that you might need some help." In a lower voice he said, "I spoke with Holy Bell already. She's safe and stable upstairs. You've got a darling angel, Belldandy. Her first request when I met her was to let you know she doesn't blame you."

Belldandy jerked back, staring at the god with wide eyes. The warmth in his smile didn't fade. "Come, let's sit. I'd say 'let's go upstairs', but the _awilum_ is throwing a fit up there and that ain't what any of us need to be around right now, you least of all." He waved her towards the furniture, and when she declined the recliner the two of them both sat on the couch. Skuld took a seat on the la-z-boy as Peorth stepped back into the hallway with Lind, preferring to give them some privacy.

"She also wanted to apologize to you, sweet child that she is," said Nebo. "The link between you two is so weak she can't make her voice heard or her feelings sensed, and since it can go both ways, the sweetling was afraid you'd think she'd stopped communicating with you intentionally."

"I..." Belldandy stared at him, at a loss of what to say. "You speak to angels?"

"I sign." Nebo created a series of gestures with his hands. "I had a full conversation with her. You've got a good angel in your breast, _Kyz._ I've seen other angels who were angered at their hosts for much less, but your girl? Your Holy Bell?" He shook his head. "First thing she signed" his hands gestured wildly in the air, mimicking the angel's motions from earlier, "was 'Don't be angry with Belldandy. It's not her fault. I don't blame her.'" He paused and thought for a moment. "Actually, that might have been addressed more towards World of Elegance than me." The man shrugged. "Regardless, you've got a very forgiving _Ssaratu_ on your shoulders, _Kyz_."

"Angel, Nebo," Lind called from the hallway.

"Stop eavesdropping, _Kyz_!" Nebo called back. "I'll tell your girls to beat you!"

"Stop talking so loud then and go speak in private!" Lind retorted.

"No more fights!" Skuld moaned. Nebo grinned and winked at Belldandy.

Belldandy stared, then shook her head as though trying to rouse herself from her daze. "Then Holy Bell... she is well?"

Some of the humor faded from Nebo's eyes. "She is _stable_. I would not say that she is well, though. Not yet. She is weak, Belldandy. Very weak. The mere fact she was able to manifest in such a state is amazing. If not for the love you have for the _lum_ , I doubt Holy Bell would have been able to manifest at all: it was your care for him and the fear for his safety that provided her with the strength to manifest."

Belldandy stared at the Tic, stricken with despair. "But I—"

The man waved her down. "What you may or may not have done in the moment of a flashback does not matter." His voice lowered. "Your soul cried out for aid, and as a creature born to reflect that piece of you, your angel, responded in the only way she knew how: to manifest in the hopes of stopping you from making a mistake you would come to regret."

"She's weak though," Belldandy whispered. "I can't even hear her voice! I was unaware she'd even manifested until Peorth brought it to my attention!" She groaned, bowing her head and tangling her fingers within her long hair. "I still killed him though. In the end Holy Bell was unable to stop me, and now, now she's manifested and, and what's her state? How weak is she that even with a physical form, she was unable to touch my mind or stay my hand?"

Nebo stared at her in silence, his eyes darting from Belldandy to the women who hovered at the threshold of the living room, trying hard to look like they weren't eavesdropping. Skuld in particular looked the most concerned, and she fidgeted restlessly in the hallway, one foot tapping up a storm as she tried to keep the rest of her body still.

"It would be better to show you," the man said softly. "That way we can ensure privacy when we speak."

The goddess froze, her eyes darting to look up at the man next to her. She felt cold. Cold and terrified all at once. _I'm afraid._ She realized. _I don't want to see her. Oh Yggdrasil, I don't want to see my own_ angel! It was a horrible thought, one that shocked her as much as it revolted her. _Ten years. Ten years of suffering at the hands of a mortal man... what would that do to her? What decrepit state have I left her in that it required me putting the life of the man I love at risk to manifest?_ Belldandy broke out into a cold sweat. _How could she want to see me?! How can I face her?_ Yggdrasil be blessed, it'd taken all her strength to face _Keiichi_ after what she'd done to him, and now she was to face Holy Bell as well?

"I can't," she whispered, and shook her head. Nebo's face fell. "I- no. I..." She bit her lip and looked away, ashamed. "I..."

"Would it help if we spoke while someone you were comfortable with was in attendance as well?" Nebo offered. "One of your sisters, perhaps?"

"Urd," Belldandy said. The name spilled from her lips without thought. The Norn paused, startled at her own request. "Yes. Urd. Skuld too," she said with more certainty. "I- I want my sisters with me. Both of them."

"Okay." Nebo nodded. "That's fine. So long as you're comfortable with them hearing the final diagnosis, that's fine."

"I- I am," Belldandy stammered. "Urd... she knows what it's like." The Norn bit her lip. "And she and Skuld have always been there for me. I want my sisters with me."

"Got it." Nebo rose from the Ugly Beast. "We'll stay down here a bit and then I'll go check upstairs and see if Urd is willing to join us."

"Yes..." Belldandy nodded as well. "Yes, that is fine. Thank you."

Skuld moved to take Nebo's place as the god rose, and before the man moved from the living room he touched Belldandy's shoulder. "Don't be afraid," he said. "Either of you." He looked between both Belldandy and Skuld. "Your angels are in a very delicate situation right now. They'll be looking to their hosts for reassurance." His eyes came to rest on Skuld. "Especially you, _Kyz_."

Skuld nodded wordlessly, and Nebo left to converse with Lind and Peorth in the hallway. Belldandy pulled her younger sister into a hug. "I've never seen your angel before," she mumbled.

"I only summoned her this morning," Skuld confessed. "She's... new." The younger woman returned the embrace, and for a moment they sat like that, alone on the couch, the others providing them a moment's grace of privacy as they conversed in the hallway. "Holy Bell needed help. So I called for Noble Scarlet. I... part of me wasn't expecting her to answer."

"Thank you, Skuld," Belldandy murmured. "To call your angel in such a moment… and with me-" She bit her lip. "I appreciate it. I really do, Skuld. I know it must have been difficult for you."

"It's nothing," Skuld replied, waving her off. "I'm just glad I was able to help, is all."

The middle Norn smiled, though it was slim. She shook her head. "There are times I still find it difficult to believe you are the same little girl I left ten years ago," she said. "With how you've grown..."

"Please stop."

Belldandy paused, staring at her sister in confusion.

Skuld looked at her with a pensive frown. "I don't want to talk about me," she said. There was iron in her voice. "What will you do about Keiichi?" She asked. "Now that..."

The middle Norn grimaced. "I don't know," she confessed. "I cannot ask for his forgiveness. Not after," She bit her lip, then spat the words out like a wad of phlegm, "after I _killed_ him." She sighed and pushed herself into the Ugly Beast's cushions, as though hoping she would sink inside and vanish from existence. "I made a wish though. And now Keiichi has a second wish dedicated solely for him." She closed her eyes. "I don't know what he intends to do with it... however I'll support his decision regardless."

"You think he'll wish to cancel out yours?" Skuld asked.

Belldandy nodded. "I'd be more surprised if he didn't." She opened her eyes and looked at her younger sister with sad eyes. "Perhaps it is for the better this way... I could return home and be better treated by a Tic, and I could ensure Holy Bell's better stability."

"Is that what you want, Bell?"

The goddess scoffed. "Of course not," she muttered. "I wish to stay here with the man I love... however I wish more for his happiness. I have always wished for his happiness, ever since he obtained my attention so many years ago." The woman lapsed into silence, staring dourly at the coffee table in front of her. _Her_ coffee table, like the Ugly Beast was _her_ couch, if she still allowed herself to believe Keiichi's words when he'd first purchased the items. A couch. A coffee table. A bed. _Her_ possessions, not his. Was she to return to Asgard with these... souvenirs? Ha, what a silly thought. The furniture was made of fragile Midgard materials. They would not last a day in Asgard. It would be kinder to leave them here with Keiichi. _Memories of what could have been._ She thought.

Her lips peeled back in a wan smile. "It will hurt, undeniably. However... perhaps I was misled in my initial perception of him. Perhaps we are not meant for each other as I once dreamed. Maybe once upon a time... in another time, in another place, we could have been perfect for each other. But now?" She shook her head. "Even after we spoke last night... even after we bled our hearts and picked at scars made fresh once more... perhaps it is not enough. Perhaps I am a little too damaged for him, he a little too delicate for me, and perhaps in the end we would destroy each other if we were to remain together."

Her heart sat heavy in her chest, and she felt her eyes begin to burn even as Skuld drew her once more into a tight embrace. "I don't want to lose him," she whispered. "I don't want him to suffer, but by Yggdrasil's roots, I don't want to lose him, either." The tears began to fall, and they felt hot against her face. Her lower lip trembled. She gritted her teeth and swallowed a sob. "So... I will allow him to decide. Once more, as before. And I will support whatever he decides, because I already know what my decision would be if it were left to me, and by the black waters of Tehome, it would be the wrong decision, Skuld. It would be the wrong one, and we'd destroy each other."

The woman began to weep, and her sister held her, offering what meager comfort she could in a world made of men and separate of gods.

* * *

 **A/N: This is not a good decision for either of them.** **More people will need to weigh in on this, I think.**

* * *

 _Comments of a Madwoman: "There were things you wanted to tell me and there were things I was dying to say. But you were scared and my voice faltered, so we both sewed our lips shut and buried it away..." -E.G._


	31. Chapter 31 - My Angel

l

" _Why is it, that of all the creatures that roam Tehome's Abyss, it is angels that invoke the awe of Man? You show them a god, and they are unimpressed. You show them a demon, and they care not. A roc, a harpy, a garuda, and though impressed, they still lack any depth of inspiration or fascination for what stands before them...Yet if you should drop the word 'angel' within their ear's range...the transformation that overcomes them is strange and frightening. You could point to a pile of shit and claim it was an angel, and they'd still look at it with the utmost respect more deserving of the higher powers that rule over their pitiful lives...Of all creatures, why angels?"_

— _The journal of_ _Nebo, God First Class - Third Category - Unlimited_

-31-

Keiichi sank down onto his bed with a sigh, clutching his head with both hands. His thoughts were muddled and confused, a knot of string with infinite loops and frayed ends all pulling in different directions. The heart of his troubles, the core of that jumbled knot of thought and emotion was Belldandy, and more than anything, more than the anger and the fear and the sadness, what Keiichi felt most was depression. He didn't know what to do. When all was said and done, he still loved Belldandy, but she'd literally killed him, and with her admission to it the SEAL didn't know how to proceed from there. His discussion with Urd had answered some of his questions, but it had done nothing to clear his head or his heart, as he'd so hoped.

He was still as lost and confused now as he had been when Belldandy had collapsed sobbing in front of him.

With a groan he lay on top of his bed, bringing an arm across his eyes as he tried to mute the noise in his head. He rolled onto his stomach and buried his face in the pillows when that did nothing either. He jerked up. The pillows smelled like _her._ The SEAL grabbed them and threw them against a wall, but found no satisfaction in the act. The blankets smelled like Belldandy too. His throat locked with grief.

"What am I supposed to _do_?" he choked out, and the voice he heard was a poor impression of his own.

 _What do you always do when you're confused?_ Debra's voice, soft yet scolding, rose in his head, and Keiichi was uncertain if he was relieved or not to hear her voice.

The SEAL made a face, then rolled onto his back and dug his cellphone out of his jeans pocket. There was a missed call from Aiko from nine last night, and a frown tugged at the edge of his lips as he unlocked his phone and dialed her number. It was close to seven thirty in the morning now, but given it was Sunday Keiichi wouldn't have been surprised if she didn't answer. As it normally was whenever it came to Aiko, his presumption was wrong.

" _Kei?"_ It sounded like he'd woken her again.

"Hey Aiko. How you doing?"

" _Sleepy."_ She yawned over the phone. _"You okay?"_ she asked. _"I haven't heard anything from you or Belldandy since Wednesday."_

Wednesday. That was when Peorth had arrived. The start of... everything, he supposed. The man grimaced. "Been busy." His voice was gruffer than he intended. "Going through some stressful times over here."

" _Like what?"_ Aiko sounded more awake now.

The man fell silent, puzzling over what to say. "New person popped up," he started. "Friend of Bell's."

" _Good friend or bad friend?"_ Aiko asked. _"Like, a friend from before... Japan? Or a friend during... you know."_

"Friend from before," Keiichi said. "A goddess. Another one."

" _Okay... so that explains why I wasn't hearing anything from you guys... I take it this friend was here for a while?"_

"Still is," Keiichi grunted. "Her and Lind and another god too."

" _Sounds like quite the party..."_ Aiko trailed off. She didn't press him for information, though he could hear the question in her voice.

"Yeah..." he muttered. "A real party. Not a good one, either."

" _What happened, Kei?"_

For a long moment Keiichi said nothing. He couldn't muster the strength to speak. All of a sudden he was two years younger, a little more hurt, a little less healed, and a great deal more lost and depressed. _"Deb left me,"_ had been the words he'd finally uttered a lifetime ago, and now they revolved around his mind once more only this time the blonde childhood friend he'd fallen in love with was replaced with an almond haired goddess. _"She was my world,"_ he'd sobbed into the phone back then, had held back nothing and wept like a child, the pain that followed his heartbreak wounding him more deeply than any physical injury ever could.

And now... "It's not working out, Aiko." Now he felt that painful tug again, "We-" That feeling of hurt, of betrayal, so raw and open that he felt like dying, manifested in his chest again. "I almost-" They weren't even that close! Not on the same level as he and Debra. Deb had made him feel silly and young and passionate when they were together, "She-" Belldandy was an enigma in comparison... where every little gesture; every smile, every touch, every hug and every _kiss_ made him feel warm and special, exhilarated and nervous all at one time. "She almost..." Deb had always left him feeling happy and content, _complete_ if he had to describe it. Belldandy filled him in a different way though... Belldandy... _expanded_ on that somehow, with her terrifying powers and wild abilities and...

Belldandy, she...

Belldandy...

"She almost killed me, Aiko." The words slipped off his tongue like an eel, and the voice he heard did not so much speak as it did whimper. "I-" The words came in a flood, and Keiichi found himself without the strength with which to slow their passage. Tears rolled down his face as he laid out the events of the past twelve hours: opening up to Belldandy, their moment of intimacy, the flashback, the light, waking up to a house in chaos and a strange man, Belldandy's disappearance and eventual return, her confession, _everything._ It hurt. _God_ did it hurt, and for his part Keiichi was grateful he was safe and sound in his closed room. He didn't want Urd to see him so vulnerable, or Lind, or Skuld, or anyone else in the house. Especially Belldandy.

He didn't want her to see how much her actions affected him. Not now. Maybe not ever.

"It's like Deb all over again, Aiko." His voice wavered. "Like Deb when I-" He couldn't bring himself to say the words. "It should have been me, Aiko." His lips peeled back in a long grimace. "I could hate myself if it was me. If I was the one who fucked up like I did with Deb. If I was the one to- to- lose myself in a flashback because of some little thing that set me off." He closed his eyes, trying to will the tears to stop. They kept coming.

"But Bell? How can I hate her, Aiko? After knowing everything she's been through? Even- even _understanding_ where she's coming from- what kind of a state she's in after coming out of a flashback?" He slammed a fist into the mattress. "But I can't- she _killed_ me, Aiko. She stopped my fucking _heart_! I've bounced back from a lot of things, but this? From death _itself_? I- I don't know. I just-" His breath caught in his throat, and for a brief moment he couldn't breathe, could feel a hand clenched around his throat and crushing his windpipe, could feel his lungs burning and his limbs growing heavy as he fought to breathe. And then the sensation, the _memory_ , was gone, and Keiichi swallowed a huge breath of air. "I don't know," he whispered. "I just don't know..."

Aiko, who'd fallen silent for the entirety of his grievance, took the chance to speak up. " _You love her a lot, don't you Kei?"_

Keiichi flinched. The words stung coming from another person.

" _But... do you love her enough to forgive her?"_

"I don't know," he confessed. "I want to... god how I want to... but I don't know if I _can_ , Aiko."

There was silence from the other line. One so long and deep that for a moment Keiichi feared Aiko had hung up on him. "Ai-"

" _Would you forgive yourself?"_

"What?"

" _You heard me."_ Aiko said. _"If it had been you instead of Carrie... would you forgive yourself?"_

"No," Keiichi replied. "No, because I'd be a danger to everyone... I couldn't trust myself without fear of killing someone."

" _And, say... Carrie was the one who was hurt instead of you. Do you think she'd forgive you instead? If the roles were reversed?"_

"N-" He stopped himself, realizing at once that his initial response wasn't true. Truth was, unlike Debra, she _would_ have forgiven him. She would have forgiven him and understood, maybe not on the same level as himself, but she'd have tried to help. She'd have been there for him.

 _She would have stayed where Debra had fled._

The thought struck him like a rock, and stunned he sat in silence, rocked to the core as the new bit of revelation sank into his mind. "She'd stay," he mumbled. "She'd stay because I'm human, and she doesn't care about that. She loves me anyways."

" _What'd you say?"_

"I..." He trailed off, turning his head towards his bedroom door as a chatter of voices penetrated the barrier. One of them sounded like Belldandy's. "I... hang on a moment. Something's happening out front." He moved the phone away from his ear, then rose from the bed and rubbed his eyes with the back of his arm. Several voices. Urd now. Skuld too. Even that ass, Nebo. "The fuck is going on now?" he grumbled, and against his better judgment headed for the door. He could have sworn he heard a voice, one of the Norns he guessed, say something about 'angels'.

Lips pursed, Keiichi opened the door to his room and stuck his head into the hallway. As he'd predicted, all three of the Norns were in the hallway, joined by Nebo, who was speaking to all three of them. It was in that Not-English language again that made no sense to Keiichi, and as the man tried to puzzle out what was being said the door to Belldandy's bedroom cracked open. He couldn't see the person on the other side of the door, but a part of him was betting it was that same red-eyed kid he'd seen earlier. Nebo spoke to whoever was on the other side, and the door creaked open a bit more to allow the group of four entrance.

None of the gods had noticed him yet, and the man watched in silence as Nebo conversed with all three of the Norns. Urd nodded, her posture stiff and tense, and then Keiichi watched in amazement as a pair of wings emerged from her back. His jaw fell open, and the SEAL watched with large, disbelieving eyes as the owner of those wings followed them.

" _Kei?"_ Aiko's voice rang out from the cell phone in his hand. He'd forgotten she was still on the line. _"Kei, you still there?"_

He brought the phone to his ear. "Angel," he said in a daze.

" _What do you mean?"_ Aiko asked.

The creature- no, it _had_ to be an angel, what else could it be?- beat its-no, _her_ -wings, like a bird stretching after coming out of its cage, and the SEAL could feel the stirred air touch his face in a gentle breeze. Not an illusion. Not a simple manifestation. She was _real_. Mesmerized, Keiichi watched the feathers rise and settle with the movements, then watched a white feather that must have been as long as his forearm fall from her person and disintegrate before touching the floor. "It's... Aiko, there's an angel coming out of Urd's back." His voice rose with a notable tremor.

The angel turned to look at him.

Their eyes met, and her gaze stole his breath away. God, she was _beautiful._ It was an abstract beauty. One different from the mortal beauty of Debra or even his younger sister Megumi, yet different from the mythical beauty that had so caught his gaze when he'd first seen Belldandy or even Urd. There was an ethereal glow to her that somehow illuminated the creature from the inside-out. Her feathers shone in the light of the hallway, the black wing cast with an almost silver glow from where the light reflected off them and the white wing so bright it almost hurt to look at. Her hair matched her wings in its dual colors of black and white, creating a roguish appearance that only enhanced her sharp features and took nothing away from her glamor. Tattoos- _no, that's not the right word._ Keiichi thought. _Not tattoos but birthmarks_ covered her body, black and filled with sharp curves and noticeable points that seemed to flow with a life of their own with every movement.

Her eyes narrowed, one a shade darker than the other, and as everyone turned to observe what had so caught the angel's attention the door to Belldandy's room slammed shut. Keiichi jumped and dropped his phone, and in that moment the angel charged towards him. "Shit!" he cried, and backpedaled into his bedroom. The angel was at the threshold in seconds, her shoulders and wingspan so broad and massive that for a second Keiichi didn't think she'd fit into the room. Then her wings folded behind her, and the angel was inside, eyes bright with an inner light that glowed white in the shadows. The angel advanced on his person, wings expanding out behind her once more in a display that made her look twice as large as she actually was. "Shit, shit, _shit!"_ Keiichi backed up to the far wall of his room, trying to keep the bed between the two of them as he watched the angel with wide eyes.

"World of Elegance, stop!" Urd's voice rose behind the angel, yet the creature didn't so much as spare the goddess a glance. Her eyes remained glued on Keiichi, face distressed and alarmed. She paused at the bed, then beat her wings, knocking over the desk lamp that was on his dresser. The gale they produced was strong enough to send loose papers and knickknacks flying, and the man brought his arms up to protect his head.

"Fuck!" The SEAL cried. "I'm sorry! Shit, whatever I did, I'm sorry!"

"World of Elegance, back off! It's _Keiichi_ for fuck's sake!" Urd's voice rose anew behind the angel, and this time the angel paused, staring at Keiichi with an expression he couldn't place. The feathers of her wings rustled, then smoothed. Some of the aggression faded from her stance, though her wings remained splayed and open on either side of her as though in warning to the man before her.

For his sake, Keiichi didn't move. He didn't dare until Urd appeared on the angel's left and slipped between the two of them. "It isn't his fault, dear heart," she murmured. The goddess seemed amazingly small standing in front of the angel. Keiichi wondered if part of it had to do with the creature's massive wingspan. "He wasn't trying to peek. I was careless. I should have checked to make sure he wasn't watching. It's my fault, not his, okay?" More of the tension faded from the creature, and a little more certain that his life was no longer in danger- again- Keiichi lowered his arms as well. He didn't like how distressed the angel still looked, though.

"I know. I _know_." Urd paused, glanced back at Keiichi, then back at World of Elegance. "I'm going to go shut the door, okay? That way we can have a little privacy." The angel's wings raised and fluffed out in what Keiichi was quickly recognizing as alarm, and Urd put her hands out, trying to soothe the irate creature. "It's so the others don't bother us, okay? I know you're upset, I am too, but neither of us want the others listening in on this, right?" World of Elegance didn't move, and again Urd slipped past her and to the door. As soon as the Norn vanished behind her, the angel's gaze returned to Keiichi. The hair on his arms raised. He felt like a mouse who'd caught the attention of a hawk.

The door closed behind the angel with a click, and with a deep breath more of the tension eased from her face. To the SEAL's mind she almost seemed to shrink; no longer the same terrifying entity that had pursued him but instead a creature closer in size to Urd. When Urd appeared around her again, the man realized that he _wasn't_ seeing things. Urd and her angel now stood at eyelevel with each other where before the Norn had needed to tilt her head up to address it. The entity folded her wings back behind her, then placed her hands on Urd's shoulders and pressed her brow against Urd's. Urd mirrored the gesture, and the two otherworldly beings closed their eyes and sighed.

Reassured by the Norn's actions, Keiichi allowed himself to relax. He observed the duo in open wonder, watching as the goddess and angel seemed to take a breath at the same time and release it at the same length, as though seeking unison in the actions of their counterpart. There was something almost meditative about the act, and as the tension of the moments before faded, the man was left with a sense of tranquility that Keiichi could _feel_. It filled him, made his arms tingle and his hair raise. After the events of the last couple of hours the SEAL found he welcomed the feeling with open arms. He felt the muscles along his back and shoulders loosen and relax, felt the stress that had been building in his chest since his argument with Belldandy depart, and even felt his heart slow as his breaths grew longer.

By the time Urd stepped away from her angel, Keiichi couldn't even recall his initial panic or fear at the angel's confrontation. "Okay." Urd took a breath. "I think we're good now." She glanced over her shoulder at the SEAL. "Come here."

Keiichi tried to rise and failed on his first attempt. His legs were so relaxed they felt like a pair of leaden bars glued to his hips. Not so much numb as... nonexistent. The SEAL wiggled his toes, trying to remember how to make his legs work, and after flexing his calves, made a second attempt. This time his efforts were rewarded, and the man stumbled towards them, feeling more like someone had slipped him some downers rather than whatever 'weird Norn shit' Urd had done with her angel.

Urd pursed her lips. "Keiichi... this is my angel, World of Elegance." She gestured to the creature, who again was watching the SEAL with that strange and unwavering stare. "She's... my other half. My better half, I guess you could say."

"An angel." Even after being chased back into his room by one, even standing right in front of one, it was still a difficult concept for Keiichi to grasp. "And... she popped out of your back, Urd."

The angel, World of Elegance, and what a mouthful _that_ was, shook her head. "She came out of my _soul_ , Keiichi," Urd clarified.

 _And popped out of you like she was wearing you for a second skin._ Keiichi thought. He was wise enough to keep his views to himself. "So... she understands what I'm saying?"

"Ask her." Urd chucked a thumb to World of Elegance, who raised a slim black brow. The right one was as white as the matching wing and right side of the hair on her head.

Keiichi winced. "Right... so you do understand what I'm saying?" He redirected the question to World of Elegance, and this time was rewarded with a curt nod for his troubles. "Um... nice to meet you," he continued. What did a mortal say to an angel? What _could_ he say to an angel? Was she related to the biblical angels he'd grown up hearing about from school friends? Or were those something completely separate? How could an angel reside in the literal _soul_ of a god? Had she always been with Urd and Keiichi had just never known about it, or was she a more recent... spawn?

All of these questions roved Keiichi's mind, yet he spoke none of them, all at once self-conscious and nervous, like a the young boy he'd been of yesteryear discovering girls for the first time while going through puberty.

The angel's state of dress- or lack thereof- probably did little to help this fact.

And so instead Keiichi said the first thing that came to his lips.

"You're beautiful."

World of Elegance's eyes widened, and beside her Urd's jaw dropped. And then, to his utter and perhaps unique pleasure, the SEAL witnessed Urd blush.

In the five long years Keiichi Morisato had known the Norn of the Past, not once had he ever witnessed the goddess blush. He'd told off-color jokes that would have turned his parents' ears red and had heard Urd pitch just as off the wall taunts towards Team 12 in turn. He'd seen her flirt and shout and outdrink everyone on his Team and had seen her curse and rant and rave over the lack of progress on searching for Belldandy. He'd seen her angry, he'd seen her sad, and he'd seen her happy. But never, not once, could Keiichi ever recall seeing the Norn's already-caramel face darken in a blush of such innocent bashfulness as she was now.

She caught him staring and averted her eyes, her feet somehow becoming the most interesting thing in the room at that moment. "No one's said that to me before. My angel- no one's called my angel that before," she stammered, then flushed with fresh embarrassment.

"No one's ever complimented your angel before?" Keiichi looked between the two of them with a queer expression. World of Elegance looked away. If it was possible, Urd's blush deepened.

"No," she replied. "And-can we change the subject?" the Norn pleaded. "Ask something else! Anything else! I don't care, just… not this."

For a moment Keiichi debated teasing the woman, _the great and terrifying Urd can't handle a single compliment?_ Before deciding against it. Urd looked more than embarrassed- she looked uncomfortable, and her angel was beginning to mirror her unease. With the risk of another argument or fight on the forefront of his mind, the SEAL wisely took the Norn's request to heart and changed the subject. "What were you guys doing in the hallway?"

Urd looked relieved.

World of Elegance did not.

"We were getting ready to see Holy Bell," Urd said. "World of Elegance wanted to be there for her." She hesitated, looking like she wanted to say more, but a second glance towards her angel left the goddess in silence.

"So... that's why I saw you in the hallway?" Keiichi inquired.

World of Elegance frowned, then nodded, almost in reluctance. He waited to see if she'd speak on the matter, yet the angel remained silent.

"Not much of a talker, I take it?" It was a joke, an attempt to lighten the mood because the angel's silence was getting to him after World of Elegance had rushed him earlier. "You know, I'd have thought you'd be more of a shit talker if you were connected to Urd."

Urd scowled. "She says 'fuck you', if that helps," the Norn grumbled. Keiichi looked back at the goddess, missing the angel's glower. "Angels can't speak on the same frequency as you or me, Keiichi. The only way World of Elegance can communicate with me is through our link or if she signs to me."

"Can't- what do you mean 'same frequency?'" Keiichi asked.

Urd shrugged, looking again uncomfortable as she shared a look with her angel. "Not even we gods can say they understand the language of the soul," she said tentatively. "We can only hear the voice of our own soul, not... not those of others."

Keiichi was silent for a long moment, chewing over Urd's words carefully. At length, he sighed and rubbed his temples. "I'd like to say I understand, but I'd be lying," the man admitted. "But I think I'm starting to get what you were saying about angels being a big deal." He ran a hand through his hair, staring up at World of Elegance with a pensive frown. "Ah, sorry about what I said. I wasn't trying to insult you."

The angel stared at him queerly, then spread her wings out, feathers ruffling in a long stretch before letting them settle once more. She inclined her head in a gesture of acceptance, and Keiichi felt a small smile slip across his lips. Five years he'd known a goddess, had witnessed her duel a demon and seen the broad array of powers she commanded when she'd sealed that demon away in his watch. And while her power had always impressed him- hell, terrified him at times- Urd had never really caught his awe in the five years he'd known her. He didn't know why. Maybe it was because for all her divine grace, she acted just so... _human_ to him. But whatever the reason she'd just never really... never really struck him with the awe she probably warranted.

But an _angel..._ an honest-to-goodness feathered and winged _angel_ that stood right before him without fear or shame... somehow it rocked him in ways Urd never did, regardless of the connection between the two of them. _It's the wings,_ he decided. _They... they really are part of her, aren't they? Real flesh and bone and muscle and sinew. Real_ feathers _._ "Hey... I know this is probably gonna come off the wrong way, but can I- can I touch your wings?" he asked.

World of Elegance jerked back away from him as though repulsed, and even Urd appeared off-balanced by the request as well. "You want-" The woman shared a look with her angel. "You want to-" The two of them looked at Keiichi, both wearing such matching expressions that they could have passed for twins. "Our wings?" Urd continued. "You- you want to touch our wings?"

 _Weird shift._ Keiichi noted, but nodded regardless. "I mean, only if it's okay with you guys," he rushed to say. "It's just- it's _unreal_. I mean, I won't hold it against if you don't want me to, 'cause, yeah, sure, I mean, I guess it is a weird request to touch an angel's wings and everything, and, shit, I must come off as a total creep for even mentioning it, huh?" He was babbling now, trying to take back his earlier request and knowing at once he was going to land himself in even hotter water. "I mean, it must be pretty bad for a mortal to touch an angel's wings, right? Like, I don't know, it's not like I'm asking to touch your breasts, right?" Urd recoiled. Keiichi could feel himself starting to sweat. "No! Wait! That's not what I meant! What I'm trying to say is-"

"Keiichi, please shut up." Urd buried her face in her hands with a moan, and Keiichi's jaw closed with an audible click. World of Elegance was still staring at him with wide, boggled eyes. "You want to touch my angel's wings," she said, then repeated the statement, biting the sentence off into chunks. "You want. To touch. My angel's. Wings." She squeezed the bridge of her nose and cast a glare towards Keiichi.

Keiichi had the decency to flush. "Sorry," he muttered. "It was a stupid request. Forget I mentioned it."

World of Elegance released an aggravated breath, then shot a look to Urd. Urd stiffened, then turned to look at the angel. "What?"

The angel threw a hand up in the air, sending Urd a vexed look. Urd's hands dropped from her face. "No," she said. "No, no no no no," she repeated. "Not in this lifetime _or_ the next. No _fucking_ way."

The angel planted her hands on her hips, then leaned forward, thrusting her face up in front of Urd. She tapped a foot in impatience, and Urd leaned back with a grimace. World of Elegance gestured first to Keiichi, then to herself, then to the door behind her. With every gesture, Urd's frown deepened, grew pensive, then grew thoughtful.

All too aware of the one-sided conversation he was not a part of, Keiichi watched with wary eyes, trying to guess at what the gestures might mean. He gave up after a short while. The movements were too simple and vague to give any real hint at what the two might be conversing about, and so instead he stood where he was and waited, watching with a single eyebrow raised in question.

In the end Urd sighed and threw up her arms in exasperation. "Fine!" she snapped. The angel's lips peeled back in a smug smile, and Urd turned back to Keiichi. "Congratulations, you fucking jerk. You get to touch World of Elegance's wing."

Keiichi's eyes boggled. "I what?"

The goddess held up a hand. "On one condition," she stated.

"And what's that?" Keiichi asked. _I swear to god, if it's a fucking kiss..._

"You agree not to pry into the rest of the angels in the house," Urd said instead, catching him off guard. "World of Elegance is one of the senior angels amongst all the deities currently residing in the house, with the exception of perhaps Nebo's angel, who from what she says is antisocial enough not to be cast in any choir." The goddess pursed her lips. "As such, World of Elegance claims responsibility over the entire choir that is residing here- all the angels under this roof- and because of the current issues surrounding Holy Bell, she wants to come to an understanding with you."

"Oh... kay...?" Keiichi drawled, watching the angel in curiosity. "I... think I'm tracking. You're the one in charge, then?"

World of Elegance nodded as Urd clarified. "Only amongst the choir," she replied. "Lind's older angel might hold a candle to her, but she says that Spear Mint is more willing to follow than lead, and Peorth's angel doesn't hold the same level of experience as either herself or Spear Mint. That leaves her as the one in charge, more or less... which means she's responsible for the safety of the angels in this house, especially Holy Bell, since Holy Bell is so sick."

"Right..." Keiichi nodded with a frown. "I... think I get where this is heading."

"You might," Urd replied. She glanced back at World of Elegance, then looked once more to Keiichi. "World of Elegance will allow you to touch her wings on the condition that you give the other angels privacy without prying into who they are or what they look like." Urd frowned, and with another glance back at World of Elegance, continued. "That means all of them. Not just Holy Bell, but Noble Scarlet, who's with her, as well as Lind's, Peorth's, and Nebo's angels."

Keiichi scowled, crossing his arms over his chest. "But it's my house," he reminded her. "You can't just expect me to creep around my own house afraid of interrupting a bunch of angels who are guests here."

"I understand that." Urd nodded. " _We_ understand that. Which is why we're trying to compensate you for the angels already residing here." Urd hesitated a brief moment, biting her lower lip. In a lower voice, she said, "I don't think you understand what we're offering you, Keiichi. Obtaining the opportunity to touch an angel... a creature born from the soul of a god... that's not just a once in a lifetime opportunity, Keiichi. That's a once in _creation_ opportunity." Again the Norn frowned, and that look of discomfort returned with a vengeance. "This is something I would normally not allow for anyone outside of my sisters. Not even my parents. The only other I would even _consider_ would be Nebo, and that's only because he is a Tic who specializes in the health of angels."

Keiichi was silent, now worried about what Urd was proposing. A part of him was growing more and more uncertain at the morality behind so much as laying a finger on World of Elegance, yet he could not deny that a larger piece still had its curiosity piqued, and though he did not want to admit it, the proposition was starting to excite him as well. A once in creation opportunity presented to him of all people? He could almost feel his head swelling to the size of a melon. _"_ If it's such a big deal, why offer it to me in the first place?" the SEAL asked, trying to fight off his temptation to accept as another swing of mortality smashed into his face like a brick.

"It's not an offer, it's a deal," Urd replied. She fidgeted where she stood. "A contract, if you like. For something Wor- We think is of just as much value."

"I don't know..." Keiichi murmured. "Based off what you're describing, Urd, it sounds like you're giving a lot more that you're getting out of this- this _contract_."

"It's fine!" Urd snapped, then flinched at her own tone. "It's fine," she repeated, softer this time.

"I don't know..." Keiichi mumbled. "Are you sure? This seems..." He trailed off as Urd nodded.

"I'm sure," she said. "We both are. It's not that big a deal in light of the others."

 _Yet you make it out into a big deal..._ Keiichi though, staring at the woman with a frown. _A huge one. A 'once in creation' chance. All so that a bunch of angels can have some privacy?_ His eyes roamed to World of Elegance, and then to her wings. _Still..._

"Okay," he agreed. "If you're sure, okay."

"Then we have a deal?" Urd pressed. "I allow you to touch my angel in exchange for you providing the rest of the choir privacy?"

The SEAL scowled but nodded. "Yeah, I guess so."

Urd thrust her right hand out to him. "Shake on it." The man stared at it with a start, then grabbed Urd's hand and shook it with his own. For a brief moment, Keiichi thought he felt an almost imperceptible jolt travel up his hand and into his elbow. It was gone and forgotten by the time Urd released his hand.

Urd bit her lip, then looked at her angel. "You need to be gentle, Keiichi." Even though the woman's voice was steady, there was an unmistakable undertone of anxiety in her words now. "Anything you do to World of Elegance will have a direct effect on me, understand? If you bruise her, I'll feel it on a higher magnitude, and I don't want to hurt you any more than that I think you want to hurt her."

Keiichi looked at the woman, wounded by the veiled accusation. "I won't hurt her," he said. "Why would you think I'd do that?"

"Because you're a mortal and you're careless," Urd said bluntly.

Keiichi flinched. "Then why bother making the offer in the first place?" he grumbled, insulted.

"We made a deal," was Urd's only reply, and World of Elegance stepped forward and turned herself at an angle to Keiichi. He could see the dip of her right wing from where it connected to the angel's shoulder blades. The flesh looked soft, covered in what appeared to be white down plumage. His fingers began to itch.

"Please be careful, Keiichi."

His hand moved to touch the down. "I told you Urd, I'm not going to-" his fingers touched the small, compact feathers at the base of the wing, and Keiichi forgot what he was saying. It was soft. It had to be one of the softest things he'd ever felt before. The limb extended, and beneath the plush feathers Keiichi felt lean muscle and sinew stretch and extend. "Wow..." he breathed, and his hand trailed down the long appendage. The layer of feathers thickened, grew warmer, and his fingers disappeared within the white. "This is-"

 _Falling._

 _He was falling._

 _Falling through feathers and falling through clouds, the air hot and humid against his face. He looked up to a world encased in a solar eclipse, one that painted the sun black and cast the surrounding sky into a shade of red like blood. He looked down to a nonexistent ground layered by a thick cloud deck, and saw strange, sinewy beasts flying through the nebulas like serpents across a red desert. There was something strange about the creatures, some kind of inherent_ wrongness _that made his stomach roil and made his flesh break into goosebumps, and with fear in his gut he looked away, trying to gain a better grasp of his surroundings. All around him storm clouds billowed and tumbled; thick, grey-black thunderheads which seemed almost alive with how they gathered and fell. From within their depths lightning of a stark violet flashed, and their afterimage left to Keiichi's mind the negative of a large and frightening bird; one with a long neck naked of feathers and whose nature whispered to Keiichi's mind of a corpse eater._

 _He turned his gaze away from it, terrified of what its appearance meant to him, and screamed up to the eclipsed sun. He feared the bird within the clouds, for he knew it would peck and consume his body and spirit. He feared the creatures beneath him more though, for they would be the ones to tear him apart and devour strips of his flesh before his body even touched the ground, and in a world like this, Keiichi knew, there was no ground with which to impact. Yet the eclipse above him did little but glare down at him like a horrible eye, and indeed the imprint the shadowed sun left in his mind was exactly that: a large and hollow eye that seemed to pierce into his soul, tearing him apart as it sought out his secrets. Its rays reached into his being in long and horrible tendrils, and he could feel it seeping into every nerve and fiber of his being. He felt it dig into his brain and pry apart his spirit, splitting him open like he was an egg and examining every secret, every deed, every act he'd ever committed._

 _He wanted to weep but found he could not cry, wanted to hide but was without shelter. He plummeted through the cloud deck, and now the horrible corpse eating bird with its hungry gaze and the terrible eclipse with its leering eye were gone, obscured by static and moisture that coated his flesh and stung his face. The nimbus concealed everything, but to his left and to his right he caught hints of the long, serpentine creatures that dwelt within, hunting him down like a pack of famished wolves scenting a wounded deer._

 _Something emerged from the shadows of his left shoulder, and he spun in the air, his eyes seeing but not comprehending what the beast was, only that its body was long and covered with a strange plumage that glittered with moisture. He grabbed its body as it passed him by, and found that he was no longer falling but soaring; soaring on the beast that would have torn his shoulder off and eaten it had he not reacted as he did._

Let me go. _A voice echoed in his head._ You're hurting me.

 _He ignored the voice, familiar though it was; fear overrode comprehension; to release the creature he held now would be to fall to his death. He tightened his grip on the creature, and it began to flail in the sky._

You're hurting me, Keiichi. _The voice echoed again._ Release me.

" _No!" Keiichi screamed, and buried his face within the creature's plumage. It was soft and plush against his face. Like felt but softer still. "I'll fall and you'll kill me!"_

Let me _go_ , Keiichi! _The voice repeated._ I won't kill you. You're hurting me! _The strange creature began to thrash in the sky, trying to throw him off as it released a distressed scream. All around him, more of the creature responded, sensing their kin's pain and seeking the source of its ailments._

" _Then one of the other things is going to come and kill me!" Keiichi screamed back at it. His grip tightened into a vice, and the thing's cries grew more pained as it flailed in the sky._

Let go. _The voice repeated. It sounded scared now._ Let go let go letgoletgoletgo _letgo! Its word became a mantra, a meaningless garble of sound that lost all meaning to Keiichi's ears as more of the creatures descended on him. The creature bucked and thrashed and wailed and screeched, and all the while Keiichi's grip grew tighter and tighter, certain that at any minute he'd be flung off the creature and ripped apart by the creatures dwelling just out of sight._

" _I'm not going to die! Not here, not like this! Send me back! I want to go back!" The SEAL screamed, and around him the air began to crackle with thunder. The corpse eating bird was drawing near._

Release me, Jank! _The voice screamed anew, and from high above him the sky ripped open and the bird he'd come to see descended. Its eyes were cast in violet lightning._ You will return when you _let go!_

" _Urd?" He looked up at the frightening creature as it descended, with its thick and broad wings like thunder caps and its long neck and head fashioned of mist. "Urd is that-" His grip loosened in surprise, and the corpse eater, the thunderbird, opened its massive jaws and shrieked, and-_

-and he was lying on the floor.

Dazed, the man stared up at the ceiling, not recognizing his own bedroom. For a long moment, he laid as he was, hyperventilating, his heart racing so fast he feared it might burst. There were spots in his eyes, and when he blinked they seemed to swim across his vision like long serpents coated in feathers.

Not trusting his voice, he rolled his head to the right and saw a wall, rolled his head to the left and found Urd kneeling a short distance away from him. She glowered at him in silence, and in her eyes the man was again reminded of the lightning-eyed corpse-eater which had descended on him.

World of Elegance was gone.

Grunting, the man rolled onto his stomach to push himself up and found his left hand clenching something tightly. Confused, he brought his hand to his face, finding it tightly clenched around a handful of bright white feathers. Most of them were small, no longer than his middle finger, but one had to have been as large as the length of his arm. The quill shaft was broken in several different places, and in some areas looked close to snapping off the shaft altogether.

He dropped the feathers, and as soon as the smaller feathers left his palm they disintegrated, leaving not even dust behind. Only the large and broken feather did not immediately degrade, and there were still smaller feathers that clung to the sweat of his palm. He wiped it on the leg of his jeans, then pushed himself into a sitting position. He was shaking.

Urd was too.

"Wha- what the hell was that, Urd?" His voice held an audible tremor to it.

"I told you to be gentle!" she hissed. Her arms were wrapped around her stomach as though she was in pain. Her features bordered feral in their anger, and it made the hair rise on the back of Keiichi's neck. "You tore the feathers right out of our wing!"

"What do you mean?" Keiichi demanded. "What the hell happened, what did I just see!" He was shaken, unable to understand what he'd witnessed or where he'd gone. "I was- I was falling. And there were these, these _things_ all over the place!"

"World of Elegance showed you too much," the goddess growled. She rose, her step unsteady, and leaned against the dresser that was to her left side. "You shouldn't have seen that, Jank. You shouldn't have seen any of that."

"But what _was_ it, Urd," Keiichi demanded. The SEAL climbed to his feet as well, and found his strength returning to him faster than the woman before him. "That wasn't- that wasn't right. That was- there was something _wrong_ with that, Urd."

The goddess flinched. She opened her mouth as if to say something, then frowned and held her silence. The Norn shook her head. "I need to go," she said, and took a step away from the dresser. She grimaced at the action, and an arm rose as if to nurse an injury Keiichi wasn't aware of. She stopped it when she caught Keiichi's gaze following the limb. The hand curled into a fist, then dropped back to Urd's side. "I upheld my end of the deal. It's up to you to uphold yours now." She took a deep breath. "I've dawdled enough, and you've seen too much already. I still need to keep World of Elegance under control for when we see Holy Bell, and this contract hasn't helped as much as I thought it would."

"Wait, Urd-" Keiichi stepped towards the goddess, and Urd lurched- almost stumbling- away from him.

"Not now, Keiichi." The goddess repeated. "I'm hurt and a little peeved at you. You were too hard on World of Elegance."

"What?" The man stared at Urd in confusion. "But I didn't do anything!"

"You ripped the feathers right out of my wing," Urd replied, and gestured to the large feather that was slowly starting to disintegrate on the floor. "That _hurt_ , Keiichi."

"Over a couple of feathers?" Keiichi eyed the broken quill with perplexity. "But- it wasn't intentional. It was an accident."

The Norn stared at him, then sighed and shook her head. "Let it drop, Keiichi," she said. "I just- not right now. I need to go." Without another word the goddess turned and headed for the door. Keiichi saw a grimace once more flash across her face, and in that brief moment he saw the deep lines of pain that marred her features. She slammed the door behind her on the way out, and Keiichi was left alone in his bedroom with nothing but a ruined feather for company.

The SEAL stared at the door, a lump of guilt rising in his throat, then looked down at the feather next to him. He knelt and picked it up. It still felt warm, though the feather had lost its soft, velvet texture. Now it felt heavy, almost like an actual limb, and felt smooth and brittle to his fingers, almost like a mineral. He watched its slow collapse in silence, watching as the individual barbs of the feather began to disintegrate into a fine powder in his hand, and then watched as even that broke down into nothing his eyes could track. "Did I really hurt her?" he asked himself. "But... it's just a feather. It's like pulling out a strand of hair, right? How did I hurt her? I didn't mean to..."

In the silence of the room, his questions went unanswered as the feather crumbled to dust.

XXX

Forgotten by Keiichi and ignored by Urd and her angel, Aiko was still yelling through the phone. " _Kei, what is going on?! What's all this about an angel?" Kei?! KEI?!"_ It was Belldandy who picked up the cell, watching with a deep frown as the door to Keiichi's room closed behind Urd. _"Kei, this isn't funny! What's going on? Are you alright? Kei, I swear to god, if you don't say something I'm coming down there. I'm not joking! Say something!"_

"Aiko?" Belldandy asked.

"O _h thank god. Carrie, what's going on?! Keiichi said something about an angel and now he's not saying anything! What's going on?"_

"Keiichi's a little... preoccupied at the moment..." Belldandy mumbled.

" _Carrie- Bell, don't give me that shit. I know you guys had a fight. What the fuck happened to my brother? He said something about an angel- what angel? What's he mean by an angel, Belldandy?"_

The goddess squeezed her eyes shut and bit back a groan. _Of all the things for her to hear._ "It is... difficult to explain," she tried, knowing it would do little to ease Aiko's concerns.

She was right. " _No, that's bullshit,"_ the younger Morisato said. _"I'm coming over. If you can't explain it then you can show me when I get there."_

Belldandy's eyes widened in alarm. "Aiko, wait!" Yet the woman on the other end had already hung up. The call ended with a little chirp, and Belldandy pulled the phone from her ear to examine the message displayed on the screen. _Call ended. 20 minutes 54 seconds._ The goddess looked up from the screen and to Skuld and Nebo, who were both watching her with pallid expressions. "Fuck," she muttered.

"That was Aiko?" Skuld asked, but it was a rhetorical question. She looked pale. Belldandy nodded, and in an unconscious mimic of her sister's earlier reaction, she squeezed her eyes shut and sucked in a tight breath. "Tell me she's not coming down here, Bell. _Please."_

"She'll be here in three hours if traffic is good," Belldandy predicted.

"Fuck!" Skuld swore.

"Who's Aiko?" Nebo inquired.

"Keiichi's sister."

"More _lum_?" Nebo stared at the two of them in confusion. "I'm not sure that's- can you convince her not to come? We've already got a massive amount of divinities in the house already, and I don't want to risk the angels any more than necessary by bringing outside factors into the equation. It'll bring unnecessary stress on the choir."

"It should be okay, though..." Skuld said slowly, watching as Belldandy pocketed the phone. "Aiko already knows about gods, so angels won't be anything special for her either, right?"

Nebo looked at the younger woman, than to Belldandy. "The _lum's_ _ahatki_ knows about us as well?"

Belldandy, as unfamiliar with Nebo's strange language as Keiichi, stared at the man in no small amount of confusion. "Ah... yes?"

" _Marus!_ " Nebo exclaimed. It sounded distinctly like a curse to the ears of the two present Norns. "Are you two _serious_?" His voice dipped to a heated whisper. "One mortal, okay, fine. But you got his _sister_ involved too? _Kyz_ , what's wrong with you?! Is she even a candidate for a wish?"

Belldandy winced. "No," she replied. "She's not."

"And you-"

"It was unintentional, Nebo," Belldandy interrupted, watching as the man's face grew pinched and red, then watched as he groaned and covered his face with both hands. "It was an accident, but it worked for our benefit. She's... been helping me come to terms with what I've gone through." Her words were careful and thoughtful, and Nebo dropped his hands, sending her an exasperated look.

"But she doesn't know about the angels, does she?"

The Norn shook her head. Nebo sighed. "I don't want some strange _lum_ barging in on the choir, _Kyz_ ," he groused. "One is bad enough, two is even worse. Are you sure you can't convince her otherwise?"

Belldandy thought for a moment, and her gaze was pulled to the door to Keiichi's room. She could hear Keiichi's voice intermingled with Urd's in a soft murmur. At length she shook her head. "No," she stated. "No... I don't believe that would be wise. Not this time." _Not with Keiichi so upset._ She left that part unsaid. The man was, admittedly, out of his element with the many divinities who'd come to reside in his house, and Aiko's presence might help balance him, rather than leave him more alienated than he already was. There'd be difficulties with the angels, Belldandy would be the first to admit that, but with the number of deities outnumbering mortals six to one, moreso if the angels were included, Aiko was probably going to be necessary. Especially with how Keiichi gathered strength from his younger sister's presence.

"Aiko will come, and we'll do our best to explain everything to her," Belldandy continued. "But I refuse to chase her away, Nebo. She has an honest concern for Keiichi's sake, and after-" Her throat locked, and a look of insurmountable pain flared across her face. She closed her eyes, grimaced, and gritted her teeth hard enough that Skuld and Nebo both could hear her jaw grinding. "I will not chase her away." The Norn final said firmly. "Not when- not when Keiichi needs her most."

Nebo frowned and crossed his arms over his chest, looking displeased. He looked about ready to argue the situation when the door to Keiichi's room opened and Urd slipped out, looking drawn and pale.

"Wow, Urd, are you all right?" Skuld looked at the woman in concern, who moved to lean against Keiichi's closed door. "You don't look to good."

"It's nothing." Urd took a deep breath. "You guys ready to see Holy Bell?"

Nebo eyed her critically. "The _lum_ saw World of Elegance," he stated. "And you were in there a while with him. What happened in there, _Kyz_?"

"Nothing important." Urd shrugged, unconcerned. "I just had to explain to Keiichi what was going on is all. There's been a lot of stuff happening to him recently and I needed to make sure he wasn't about to go bonkers on me." She gave Nebo a pointed look. "Something that I would like to remind you of is that, with maybe the exception of Belldandy, we are guests here. We all need to take that into consideration instead of steamrolling over him as if he were a child."

To her surprise, Nebo held his tongue. The others beheld the Norn in silence. "Well?" Urd raised an eyebrow, looking at the gathered gods in question. "We doing this or are we going to stand around with our thumbs up our asses?"

"Yeah..." Nebo nodded slowly. "Yeah, we doing this... where's World of Elegance, _Kyz_?"

"Back within me." Urd sighed. "Give her some time. She'll come out after we meet Holy Bell."

"Urd..." The Norn looked to Belldandy. "Are you certain you're okay? You look ill."

"I'm fine." The goddess smiled at Belldandy, and to the middle Norn, well-versed in fake smiles, it looked false and strained. "C'mon. Let's go see your angel, Bell."

The goddess stared at her sister, yet when it became apparent that Urd would speak no more on her condition, she sighed and nodded. "Yes," Belldandy agreed. "Let's go see Holy Bell."

The room was still dark, illuminated still by the same glowing orbs Skuld had initially seen on her first visit to the room. Noble Scarlet held the door open for the four of them, Nebo leading and Urd at the tail, and as the final goddess entered the tiny angel closed it quietly behind her. She surprised all four of them by rushing to hug Skuld, and then further surprised the group by rushing to hug first Belldandy, who almost jumped out of her skin, and then Urd, who stiffened at the unexpected display of affection. All three of the Norns stared at the tiny angel in something of a daze as Noble Scarlet then retreated to the nest they'd made out of Belldandy's bed and the various sheets, blankets, and pillows around it. The child-like entity crawled on the bed to lean up against Holy Bell.

The angel was bundled up in a heavy comforter; a marginal improvement over her original condition, and one that provided her a small bit of privacy that shielded the extent of her debilitation from prying eyes. Yet even this seemed only to provide her a small bit of relief. The angel was shivering even within the heavy blanket, balled up in the center of the nest in an effort to keep herself as warm as possible.

For Belldandy it was a heartbreaking sight, and without prodding she moved to the bed and sat on its edge. Noble Scarlet watched her with vibrant red eyes, moving only when the Norn reached over to draw the angel near. "Oh Holy Bell..." The goddess murmured. She could feel fresh tears welling in her eyes- fresh tears, fresh stains to join the ones she'd already shed that day. "Oh, my poor dear, I'm so sorry." She wrapped her arms around her angel, and was horrified by how _cold_ Holy Bell was. The blanket held no heat within its folds despite the body nestled inside, and she could feel her angel shivering as she wrapped her arms around the angel in a tender embrace. Holy Bell didn't resist, but instead leaned into her, as though seeking the warmth her own body seemed so incapable of producing.

The Norn looked over at Nebo in alarm. "I don't understand," she stated. "She's cold... Holy Bell is cold... I don't understand, why is she...?"

Nebo approached the bed as well. The other Norns hung back, one with no desire to crowd the angel, and the other rooted to the spot with her first sight of Holy Bell. The man knelt beside the angel, who watched him with uncertain blue eyes, and then Nebo spoke. "She's suffering feedback withdrawal from the eroding link between you and her," he began. "This is... one of the newer symptoms she's been suffering from. It began after you vanished earlier today."

Belldandy stared at him in shock, and then bit the inside of her cheek, immediately recognizing what it was in relation too. "I was a fool... I hadn't even realized I was without my angel, and-" A hand, cold and bony, slipped out of the blankets and grabbed hers, and the sheer shock of it was enough for Belldandy to stop.

 _..eas...top..._ She could barely hear Holy Bell's voice, and this with the angel right next to her. She looked down at her Other Soul, who seemed so small and fragile in her arms, and found her other half staring at her with a stubborn frown. She'd seen that same frown glaring back at her in a mirror on countless occasions under Aoshima's hand, had seen it growing up with her mother and her sisters and her father, and for a brief moment Belldandy was struck by the similarities between herself and Holy Bell. She'd forgotten how similar her angel was to her in the ten years she'd been hidden, and now that cold and bony hand that held hers squeezed. _I...n't...lame...ou..._ The angel curled up against her with a shudder, and still holding Belldandy's hand redirected her attention back to Nebo.

Belldandy followed her gaze, finding the god watching them with a carefully neutral expression on his face. For that she was grateful. She didn't want to know what thoughts might be going through the Tic's head. She had no room for pity, and him bringing his own emotions into play would do nothing but rouse the ire of both of them. She nodded, letting him know she was ready, and the man continued.

"Additionally, Holy Bell shows symptoms of severe neglect and starvation, which has compromised her immune system. This, on top of what I've been told had been a ten-year stay in a poisonous environment for both you and her, has led to multiple crystalline infections that she's only just now starting to recover from. The neglect has been particularly harmful- she's been locked and buried within your soul, and while normally this would not be cause for concern, the fact that you were in such a damaging environment starved her of basic nutrients she'd normally acquire from you and left her caged: in effect, she was trapped and wasting away, and as it progressed, Holy Bell began developing a secondary compulsion of feather plucking, which is common amongst angels who develop anxiety when they feel imprisoned within their hosts."

Unnoticed by the door and away from the small nest, Urd stumbled back, burying her face in the palm of one hand as her free hand groped behind her. Skuld grabbed her, and then sucked in a deep breath as the older Norn's hand grasped her shoulder. The grip was bruising, and the younger woman could feel her sister's nails digging through her shirt and into the flesh beneath.

"No." The woman was saying, repeating the word over and over in a mindless chant that Skuld couldn't quite comprehend. "Nononononononono."

Grimacing, Skuld looked up at Urd. "Come on, keep it together, Urd," she whispered. "We need to be strong for Belldandy."

Urd didn't appear to hear her. Her chanting continued.

So did Nebo's diagnosis. "The starvation has been particularly damaging. Her compromised immune system left Holy Bell burning up more of her body's fuel than necessary to fight off the infections, and when coupled with the lack of nutrients she'd been getting, it was getting to the point where her body was growing close to shutting down its own internal organs," he said. "Your departure from that area prevented that, and from what Holy Bell has told me, a recent re-connect and purification with Yggdrasil has helped boost her immune system to the point where she's no longer having the recurring infections. But she's still weak, and with how eroded her link is with you, she still isn't receiving the nutrients needed to survive. She's still in a critical condition, but thankfully, that's all fixab-"

"Nidhogg bless it!" Urd roared and vaulted past Skuld. Skuld yelled in surprise, and Nebo, Belldandy, and Holy Bell all turned to stare at the woman with a start as World of Elegance manifested in a whirlwind of fire. The room brightened in the frenzy of the moment's fire, and then the black-winged angel was advancing on the nest, her face a mask of fury as she locked her eyes on Belldandy.

Belldandy felt her heart skip a beat, felt herself frozen in the path of the angel's rage, and watched as the world seemed to slow as the angel poised to strike her. She could hear Urd's voice rising in a deep growl as what was left of her self-control vanished. Suddenly, however, she found herself pushed onto the bed by Holy Bell. Her other soul inserted herself between World of Elegance and her host, facing down the enraged angel with a glare of her own. As she watched in horror, Belldandy felt with the utmost certainty that her angel was about to die.

Yet the strike froze before it ever connected with Holy Bell, and World of Elegance was left hovering over the bed, snarling at the weaker angel. Belldandy's other half held her ground, flaring out her featherless wings and leveling a hard stare of her own in return.

Then the door burst open and Lind barreled inside, accompanied by her two angels. Nebo threw himself at Urd, grabbed her, and pushed her towards the Valkyrie. "Get them _out of here!"_ he roared. The two smaller angels latched ahold of World of Elegance, Lind grabbed hold of Urd, and in a moment's flash of brilliance, the two goddesses and three angels were gone.

Belldandy, still lying on the bed, felt her angel collapse on top of her in exhaustion. "What just happened?" she cried, looking between Nebo and Skuld in confusion. "Urd just- _what just happened?!"_

"Urd finally snapped," Skuld muttered. Somewhere in the moment of chaos, Noble Scarlet had retreated to her host, holding tight to Skuld with both arms as she buried her face in the woman's chest like a scared child.

"No." Nebo sounded strained. "It wasn't Urd," he clarified. "It was World of Elegance... World of Elegance lost control of herself. Urd was only along for the ride." The man stared at the spot where the dual-colored angel had manifested, his face grim. "She lost feathers..."

"What do you mean?" Belldandy demanded.

Nebo turned back to her. "Nothing yet," he said. "Lind will take care of Urd. I need you to focus on Holy Bell for me at the moment, okay?" the Tic instructed. "Holy Bell is the one who needs help right now- World of Elegance just needs a place where she can vent safely. They'll both be fine by the time Lind brings them back, okay?"

"Okay..." Belldandy shared a look with Holy Bell, finding a similar look of worry in her own angel's eyes before her other half nodded. They turned their gaze back to Nebo.

The man nodded. "Now, as I was saying, you're fortunate to have had Holy Bell manifest when she did. At this point, the problems have been recognized and addressed, and we can start taking the necessary measures to repair the damage. So here's what we can do to help Holy Bell heal..." The man began to talk, and Belldandy and Holy Bell began to listen. Skuld closed the door that had been kicked open, and then sat down on the ground with Noble Scarlet sitting in her lap. They listened as well, and through it all sent a little prayer off to Lind for her aid with Urd.

Because of everyone present, Skuld knew best how dangerous Urd could be when she lost control of herself.

She knew it very well.

* * *

 **A/N: Yeah, that quote should have been at the start of the arc. We forgot, again. It fits pretty well here and with what's coming up as well, though.**

* * *

 _Comments of a Madwoman: And so with the final diagnosis of a debilitated angel brought to light, another one is injured and lashes out at those around her..._


	32. Chapter 32 - My Angel

l

-32-

They manifested five feet above an open field surrounded by trees. Lind spun in the air, her grip on Urd tight and controlled in the moves Jackson had shown her, and as they fell to the ground Urd took the brunt of the impact. Beside her Spear Mint and Cool Mint appeared, dragging World of Elegance to the ground as she flailed against their grip. As soon as they touched grass the Valkyrie was up and off the Norn, retreating from Urd's form as a spell came to her lips.

Urd pushed herself up from the ground with a gasp, and Lind tensed, ready for the upcoming attack. Instead the Norn knelt where she'd fallen. "Barrier!" she snarled. "Now, Lind!" She cradled her head, and a scream emerged from her lips. "I can't-" A whimper followed the scream, and Urd fell forward into the grass, her body almost buried in the untamed vegetation that surrounded them. " _Please!_ Get a barrier up, Lind!"

Startled by the strange request, the Valkyrie canceled the spell that had been on the edge of her lips and instead shifted to her most potent shielding spells, of the type that was normally used when conducting high-explosive spell practice with her squadron. She expanded it to encompass the entirety of the field in the hopes of minimizing collateral damage to the environment. A transparent wall with an almost oily sheen to it began to build around the area, and Lind watched its progress with half an eye, the remainder of her attention focused on Urd and her angel.

There was now a visible aura surrounding the Norn, and energy was leaving her body in ripples that Lind could feel. The twins had released World of Elegance, yet the angel still flailed about mindlessly; a source of undirected rage and aggression that had become more a force of nature rather than the angel she was. Lind watched her tilt her head back and scream, and Urd mirrored her action. The two synchronized for a brief moment, and then a wave of energy leaked from them with such force that Lind and her angels were pushed back.

The last bits of the forming barrier converged into a dome at close to fifty feet above them, and as soon as it was finished Lind shouted to Urd. "It's up!"

The release of power was extraordinary.

Where before the energy emerging from Urd had been mere ripples, what was released with the barrier's completion was a tidal wave, its sheer presence enough to throw Lind off her feet and skidding ten feet across the grass and the wild flowers. It surged through the small field, tearing petals off flowers and uprooting shrubs. It was strong enough to even leak through the barrier the Valkyrie had erected, and while the shield still held back most of the energy, Lind could see small areas where the barrier cracked and flared like glass struck by a projectile.

And for the energy that escaped...

Back in the Morisato household, deities both visiting and permanent stiffened and fell silent, sensing the anguished aura that touched their minds. All recognized who the power emanated from, yet no one found the courage to speak it aloud. The lone mortal in the house, exposed to magical essences of untold varieties, shuddered inexplicably as his arms broke out into goosebumps, though he knew not the cause nor reason behind it.

A puma of considerable size paused over the boar she'd killed, ears perking up as she turned her head west towards the mountains before releasing a scream as though in acknowledgement of what passed.

Several individuals all across Virginia yelped or stirred restlessly in their sleep, disturbed by a sense of unease and rage that stalked the corners of their minds; these those few individuals of America that still somehow maintained a high sensitivity to spiritual energy, and felt the passing rage of a goddess unbound.

John Braxton rolled out of bed sweating like a horse and gasping for breath, his mind clouded with nightmares of serpents adorned in feathers and corpse eaters that chased him through clouds.

And Christian McGuinness swore and cursed as he stumbled out of his shower, chased by a horrible and sudden thought that something was wrong with one of his men, and confused when the name that came to his lips was not one of the SEALs in Team 12, but a woman he'd come to know over the span of five years. "Urd," he muttered. "There's something up with Urd."

Back in the field, Lind scrambled to her feet, preparing herself to face off against Urd now that the barrier was up and the Norn was free to rage. She could still feel the pulses of energy leaving the goddess, and with it some piece of her stomach twisted itself into a knot. How could a goddess with only a second-class license contain so much raw _power_? It was enough to be frightening, and as the Valkyrie braced herself against the waves as they crashed into her, a voice from the past returned to her: _"She ripped it to pieces with her bare hands... she must have hit me, but I never saw her move... and that-that_ thing _was watching us like a wolf..."_ Mist sobbed into her ear, and Lind's arms broke into gooseflesh.

 _She really is the Daimakaicho's daughter, isn't she?_ Lind thought, and felt sick. All at once she was certain she didn't want to face Urd down, though whether it was because of the tender friendship she'd nurtured with the woman or the fact that Urd was her enemy's daughter, Lind couldn't say. She felt sick, and worse than that, she was starting to feel scared.

" _Aoshima!"_ The name caught her off guard at once, and Lind felt her heart seize at the sheer intensity of hate focused in that name. Another scream tore from her throat, this one high and shrill, and again Lind watched as World of Elegance mirrored it. The name which followed, however, caught her further by surprise. _"Belldandy!"_ The woman curled in on herself, fingers buried in her hair as her head impacted the earth itself with another howl. "Why why why _why?!"_

 _She's echoing World of Elegance._ Cool Mint murmured in her ear. _I didn't realize how angry World of Elegance was at Belldandy._

"Why didn't she send her away?" Urd continued to rant, and Lind still stood posed and ready for the first outburst that would launch the Norn into an assault. "She knew what Aoshima was doing, why didn't she send her away? _Why did she keep Holy Bell with her?!"_ A short distance away, World of Elegance flared her wings, long and straight in a display of aggression, then drew her wings up and around her in a secondary display of distress. It was almost a pitiful sight to witness, yet was not enough to allow Lind to lower her guard; not while Urd's aura was still raging with anger and hate.

 _Can you girls calm World of Elegance down?_ she asked.

 _Sure._ Spear Mint sounded sarcastic. _Just as soon as you get close to Urd and make sure she doesn't blast us to kingdom come._

 _I regret taking you home to my family._ Lind thought dourly. _You weren't sarcastic before meeting my brothers._

 _At least this one isn't trying to chase us up the walls like your little sisters or commenting about making meals of us like your father,_ Cool Mint chirped, and both Lind and Spear Mint sent the angel a dirty look. _What?_

Lind returned her attention to Urd. Perhaps if she was lucky enough to secure a proper strike, one that held enough force to knock the goddess out, then her angels could take care of World of Elegance. The Norn and her angel seemed to be feeding off each other's distress through their shared link, and Lind knew from past experience that such feedback on both sides was liable to only worsen the situation for both parties rather than help it. But if Lind could put an end to the frenzy... shut down one end of the link where there was no reflection returning to the other end, then perhaps they could safely calm down World of Elegance without any risk of injury on the Other Half. To harm an angel was to wound the soul of the host herself, after all, and such actions were deemed of the most criminal nature in Asgard.

A course of action forming in her mind, the Valkyrie rushed towards the goddess, determined to end the woman's screams quietly and as painlessly as possible. She leapt into the air, allowing gravity and momentum to lend strength to her approaching blow, and came down upon the goddess from above.

She was caught off guard when Urd threw herself to the side before her strike could connect. A crater exploded outward around Lind's blow, sending earth and grass and flowers flying. The Norn who was her target rolled away, tucked into a ball as she shielded herself from blast range. Before she could pick herself up however, Lind was after her again, racing towards the goddess like a white bullet. _You could have made this easy on yourself, Urd,_ Lind thought, and was surprised again when Urd deftly avoided the fist aimed for her face at the last moment. In that instant, their eyes met, and the fury Lind saw in the woman's face was _—it's the Daimakaicho._

 _And she was back in the cell, peering through the bars as the Daimakaicho passed her by, her face cold and expressionless but her eyes filled with an unholy fury like none Lind had ever seen before. And their eyes met in that brief moment, and-_

Urd dipped under her arm and retreated from the Valkyrie, putting distance between the two of them. Lind stood where she was, frozen, and again where Urd stood she saw the Daimakaicho: the Daimakaicho dressed in Urd's clothes perhaps, with Urd's more tame and straight hair, and perhaps Urd's lighter skin tone, but the Daimakaicho none the less. "You're going to fight me now?" the woman asked in disbelief. She narrowed her eyes at Lind, and the warrior tensed, awaiting the inevitable onslaught. "No," the demon continued. "No. I will not fight you, Lind-Tanarak Kajistiaat... not one as weak as you."

"What?" Lind paled, caught off-guard by the address of her full name. The last demon who'd called her by her full name had been Cabatu during one of her many sessions with him and his 'pet'. She narrowed her eyes at the woman and felt a flare of anger surge in her being. "Quiet," she growled.

The Daimakaicho angled her body away from the Valkyrie, a demon's stance she'd seen many times in drill and Combatants. "Do you disapprove of my use of your name?" she inquired. "Or is it because I refuse to fight an honorless coward?"

Lind shook her head, unable to believe her ears. "What'd did you say?!" she demanded.

"I'm not gonna fight you," Urd said. The Daimakaicho was gone, and in its place was Urd. She clutched her head, glaring at Lind with heated eyes. "Don't wanna fight, not gonna fight." She shook her head, and her voice dipped into a growl as the Norn squeezed her eyes shut. "Not gonna fight, Lind." She sucked in a deep, painful breath. "I just-I can't..." She shook her head again, her lower lip trembling as she fought to hold her bearing. "Why?" She choked on the word, and any further will to fight died as Lind witnessed the bone-deep anguish on the goddess's face. "I just want her to get better, Lind." She fell to her knees. "I just want her to get better, but every time we make progress, something new pops up that sends us back to square one!" Her voice rose in a despairing scream, and for the first time Lind took note of the tears falling down Urd's face. "Aoshima keeps coming back, and each time he does it gets worse and worse! She has nightmares and destroys the house. We fix it. She has flashbacks and still suffers from the toxic shithole she was in, we fix it. She hurts the people around her, we fix it!"

The goddess sucked in a deep breath. "But now she- she kills Keiichi! The man who's been doing everything he can to accommodate her! My best friend! The man I-" Abruptly she cut herself off, yet Lind had a sneaking suspicion she knew what the woman had been about to say. The woman shook her head and whimpered, then started again, just as angry, just as frustrated, just as desolate as before. "And her angel… her angel! Holy Bell!" The goddess wrapped her arms around herself, and a high keen rose in her throat. "Oh _Yggdrasil,_ Holy Bell." The Norn began to wail without care now, and Lind wondered how much of her anguish was Urd herself versus the feedback from World of Elegance. The Valkyrie glanced to the angel in question and felt a piece of her heart break. Urd's angel had withdrawn into herself, curling up into a ball where she'd initially fallen and bringing her wings up as if to hide herself from the world. Spear Mint and Cool Mint hovered on either side of her, trying to comfort the angel, yet Lind didn't need to share a link with World of Elegance to recognize they weren't reaching her. The angel had, for lack of a better term, shut down in her sorrow.

"Damn it," Lind muttered, and walked to Urd's side. She knelt beside the goddess, wanting to offer her own support but uncertain how to do so. Valkyries in general weren't taught how to deal with 'touchy-feely' emotional moments like these, and Lind's position in particular was awkward due to the loss of most of her own emotions for close to a century. The most she could think to do was offer her support and hope that it was enough. She placed a hand on the woman's shoulder as Rota used to do in times of stress.

It seemed to be enough for the Norn. A hand grabbed hers with a crushing grip (again, she was left in wonder at the sheer power this woman held with her limited second-class license) and then she was pulled into a rough embrace.

Taken aback by the action, Lind stiffened as her mind took off like a flitting bird, conjuring memories of her initial battle against Urd in Japan and, worse yet, flinging her mind back to Hell and the torturous sessions she'd suffered through. Yet Urd did little other than sob into her shoulder, and the Valkyrie allowed herself to relax when it grew apparent that the Norn had no ulterior motives. Tentatively, the woman wrapped her arms around the goddess's shoulders. Urd did not fight her off.

Unable to think of anything to say, the Valkyrie held her silence, allowing the woman to mourn in her own time as she cast a glance once more to the small choir composed of her own angels and World of Elegance. Perhaps it paid tribute to the strength of the bond between Urd and her angel. Perhaps it was coincidental timing. Whichever the reason, the black-winged angel had dropped her own guard, her wings drooping and half-folded behind her as she allowed Spear Mint and Cool Mint into her guard. The trio were preening each other, running their fingers through the feathers of each wing and combing out loose and old feathers. It was an act Lind had seen both her angels exhibit when one or the other was stressed or anxious. She'd asked Nebo about it once, and the god had told her it was a bonding activity to help soothe each other in times of distress.

Spear Mint looked toward her as though sensing the Valkyrie's gaze. _World of Elegance had some feathers ripped out of her right wing_ , she said. _She apologizes. She was in a lot of pain when Nebo began talking about Holy Bell, and she lost control of herself_. Lind's eyes darted to where Spear Mint's own right wing would have been had the Valkyrie never been imprisoned by demons, and felt an ache in her shoulder like that of a wing clenched tight against her back and unable to expand. Phantom pains. Not as common as they once were, but still present on rare occasions.

 _How did her feathers get ripped out?_ Lind inquired.

 _Morisato pulled them out._ Cool Mint this time. Her voice came soft and sad. _She said it was an accident. She said she thought she could show him more than most mortals could handle. She thought he was different. He wasn't._

 _Urd or World of Elegance?_ Lind asked.

 _World of Elegance,_ Cool Mint clarified. _Peorth wasn't joking. Urd's feelings run deep._

 _Don't worry,_ Spear Mint quipped. _We already told her it was a stupid idea._ Lind hoped she was joking. _But it doesn't change the fact that she got burned pretty bad, and that coupled with Holy Bell's condition…_

Lind winced, looking down at the woman before her with a bit more understanding. Urd's sobs had slowed to a stop, yet the woman still held to her. Lind allowed her what time she needed, fighting off her own impatience over sitting unmoving in the same spot for such an extended period of time.

Eventually Urd pulled away from her, and Lind breathed a sigh of relief, watching as the woman scrubbed at her eyes with one arm. The chaotic aura that had almost spoken of a bloodlust- what she'd initially sensed and had made Lind barge into Belldandy's room- was gone. But the anger was still there. The sorrow too, though both were blanketed now by something else Lind couldn't describe. "Do you have it still?" Urd dropped her arm from her face, staring at Lind with bleak eyes.

"Have what?" Lind at once felt her hackles rise, and once more she watched the woman, alert and ready for any new signs that might hint at an attack.

"You know what I'm talking about Lind," Urd said. "Do you have it or not?"

The Valkyrie held her peace, and Urd sighed, looking defeated once more. "Keep it," she said. "Keep it away from me. Away from Midgard. Keep it buried in Asgard in some chamber where I can never reach it."

"Urd, I wouldn't have given it to you even if you had me at death's door," Lind replied. "It's not yours."

Urd growled and grit her teeth. "I know," she said. "I know. That's why I gave it to you in the first place." She shuddered. "I'm tempted, Lind. I'm tempted in ways you couldn't even imagine, and it frightens me, knowing what I would do if I had it." She fell back into the grass, lying sprawled out with her hands pressed tight against her temples. "I don't want to go down that road, Lind."

Lind stared at the woman, noting the deep lines of stress that marred her face. There was anger in those lines, still. Hate too. Deep hate. The type that only a demon could touch and come away from unscathed and unchanged. Lind shuddered. _And yet you would still fight against your very nature,_ Lind thought.

For a brief moment, she considered the woman beside her, placing her next to the woman she'd heard only rumors of whispered in the dark and whose face she'd seen for a brief instant between the bars of a cell. The Daimakaicho: a demon and a dictator, one who ruled through fear and domination and who approved of biological weapons that went against the Doublet System put into place to stop the many deaths suffered on both Asgard's and Niflheim's side of the war. There were stories of her cruelty in Asgard and amongst Valkyries. Stories of such cruelty and atrocities they fell past the limit of stories and into the fabricated realms of legends and tall tales. Legends that spoke of how the Daimakaicho, named after 'battle' itself under the moniker of 'Hild' had captured a flight of Valkyries immediately after the Doublet System had been established, and had tortured them personally, and by hand, within an inch of their lives as a message to the heavenly elite: _Death will become a wish your soldiers will beg for._ Lind's own experiences at the mercy of Niflheimian forces had lent proof to those legends, pulling them once more out of the realms of fabrication and into history once more.

Yet here at her side was that demon's daughter. A woman who'd forsaken that reputation, that history, that bloodlust and bloodshed in favor of a position amongst the divine, and a poor position at that if the rumor mills Lind had discovered since being assigned to Urd were any indication. A goddess whose initial wish had been to become a Tic, a healer, a master of medicine and provider of life rather than death, and whose values even now still held weight to the goddess in question. A woman who'd gone through whatever lengths she'd deemed necessary for the sake of her sister rather than herself, who'd bartered and tricked and dealt but drew the line at coercion and threats to gather information on her sister's whereabouts, and had sacrificed her own position of considerable power in Asgard to ensure her younger sister took no blame for disobeying orders concurrent with a wish. Here was a woman who wept for an angel and brought the man she loved back from the brink of death knowing his feelings rested with the heart of another, and now, when overcome with grief, chose not to lash out at the first target in range- Lind herself- but to try and expel her wrath through other means, trying desperately to control that anger so inherent with the Daimakaicho Herself.

 _If the Daimakaicho was a lion, than surely she gave birth to a lamb, Lind_ thought. _A lamb in wolf's skin, perhaps, a lamb that knows how to roar and howl, but a lamb nonetheless._

"You aren't your mother, Urd," Lind said, and watched as the goddess recoiled at the comment.

"You know." Urd sat up, observing the Valkyrie with wide eyes. Her expression was cast in a network of fear and pain, and Lind pitied her for it. "Do you hold it against me, Valkyrie?"

Not 'Lind' anymore. Valkyrie. Just like that, a gap had opened between the two of them.

Lind was silent for a long moment, observing the woman as she took her next words into careful consideration. She recognized that guarded look on Urd's face. Had seen it enough in her own dealings with the woman in their earlier years together, and knew that what she said next would either derail their friendship in that exact moment or strengthen it. She wanted to look to her angels for help but didn't dare; not with Urd's entire focus examining every action she made.

The Valkyrie took a deep breath. "At first, yes," she admitted. "I… suspected for a long time; the rumors surrounding you. The resemblance between you and her. The fact they chose to assign a Valkyrie over watch of you when one of Athena's Furies was assigned to Skuld… so yes, I did. For a time. Perhaps for years, in fact." She saw the goddess wince and knew she'd wounded the Norn.

"Yet I've grown to know you in the span of months, Urd," she continued. "I met her once… for a brief moment in time, I met her, with a flight doomed to die despite the Doublet System designed to safeguard against it." She shook her head. "You are not her, Urd," she said again. "That one… she is cruel and cold and ruthless, and I speak these words as a captive looking at her from the other side of prison bars. But you are not. You're a pain in my ass who drives me insane, and is now sacrificing her own sanity for the sake of her sister in the hopes that she might heal." Lind shook her head. "So no… I don't hold it against you. Not since Japan, where you defied my expectations when you chose an act more fitting of a goddess than a demon. Not even since recovering those suppressed memories that so detailed my experience with that person." She paused, allowing the words to sink in before finalizing the confession. "I consider you my friend, Urd. And I would hope, despite our differences, that you consider me your friend as well."

For a long time Urd remained silent, staring at Lind with a look that was so alien to the Valkyrie that Lind would be unable to place it in a million years' time. In that time Lind feared she'd said too much, had touched a tender spot not meant to be grazed, and began to wonder if perhaps her long speech had indeed shattered the friendship between herself and Urd, Valkyrie and Daimakaicho's Daughter.

And then Urd smiled, and though it was weak, it was open, and any fears Lind had begun to foster were destroyed in that instant. With a laugh that was in part a sob, the Norn grabbed her and pulled her into a hug. Lind didn't resist, and in fact felt a strange little smile of her own glide upon her lips, one that was relieved as it was happy, and in that time Lind wondered if perhaps they both weren't hurting and looking for camaraderie in the most unlikely of places.

At length, they parted, and with it Lind was unsurprised to find the choir move to join them. World of Elegance was calmer now. Calmer now than in all the time since Holy Bell's manifestation, resembling less the territorial angel from before but more of the calmer presence that had come to Cool Mint's aid in what now felt so long ago. There was indeed a notable chunk of feathers missing from her white wing, but World of Elegance's face gave no hint of any pain. Lind wondered if the angel was that well-versed at hiding her pain or if it had faded into something more manageable. It was hard to tell.

"So you love Keiichi," Lind said after a moment's peace, allowing Urd to gather herself once more.

Urd grimaced but nodded. "It… wasn't intentional," she muttered.

"When is falling in love ever 'intentional'?" Lind queried. Urd flinched. "Sorry."

"You're good." Urd sucked in a deep breath and released it slowly. She sounded steadier and more in control when next she spoke. "I didn't _\- don't_ want to be in love with him," she confessed. "He's Belldandy's man, not mine."

Lind glanced at her. "I wasn't aware Keiichi was a possession," she said.

"Don't be an ass, Lind. You know what I mean," Urd growled. "His heart lies with Belldandy- _should_ be with Belldandy, not me. The System Force itself was doing everything it could to ensure these two met, and I just happened to be on the fence when it came calling."

"It doesn't make your feelings for him any less real, though." In hindsight, it was strange and somehow ironic that Lind, a Valkyrie who'd exhibited no emotion for the past century, was having a conversation on feelings with another goddess. _It's like those 'girl chats' my sisters always liked to gossip over._ She cringed internally. _Oh Yggdrasil, may this never reach their ears. I'll never live it down._

"You think I don't know that?" Urd snapped, and then it was her turn to apologize. "Sorry." She looked embarrassed. "This has been bothering me for a while now.

"I can tell."

"Belldandy needs him though," Urd continued, and her voice softened as she drew her legs up to her chest. "He puts her at ease in ways that I can't. He's the one who chases the nightmares away, who lets her return from a flashback… he's the one who's letting her heal, Lind."

"Right up until she almost killed him?" Lind threw the line out there and observed Urd's reaction carefully. The goddess flinched once more, and again the anger she'd witnessed upon their arrival in the field manifested. "This isn't good for you, Urd."

The woman wheeled on her. "The fuck does that mean?" She demanded.

Lind met and held her gaze. "It means," she began. "That you should consider the idea of leaving."

The woman went white. "What did you just say?"

"You heard me," Lind replied. "You should leave. You can't stay in a house playing third-wheel to a man who doesn't feel the same way about you."

"Belldandy needs me." The anger was starting to rise again. Lind held her calm, however, riding the current like a kayak in the midst of a storm's high tide. She would not let Urd's ire tilt her over.

"Are you so sure?" Lind continued. "You said yourself that Keiichi is the one who manages to reach her when she has an episode. Not you. Not Skuld."

"That's-" The goddess gritted her teeth and fell silent. When next she spoke, it was a whisper. "She keeps hurting him." She looked at Lind, and the Valkyrie was taken aback by the raw pain in the woman's violet eyes. "I- I know it isn't intentional. I know that she's hurting too, but… Nidhogg's fangs _,_ Lind! She keeps hurting him and he keeps forgiving her, and I'm the one left to clean up the pieces and make sure he's whole so she can break him all over again!" she cried. "I feel like I'm sewing up a stuffed animal that keeps getting ripped and torn, except it's not a stuffed animal, Lind, _it's not!_ It's a person, a _human_ , one with a consciousness and his own thoughts and his own feelings, and he keeps pushing them aside, keeps forgiving her, keeps taking the abuse and _I'm the one encouraging it!_ " Now the words were coming out in a scream, yet no more tears fell from the Norn's eyes. Not anymore. Not over this.

"I keep pushing them back together, keep repairing the damage, like a harsh child with her favorite toy that she keeps breaking, and it's- it's _horrible_ , Lind! He loves her, and I see that, and she loves him too, and so I encourage them to forgive and forget, sweep it all under the rug, water under the bridge, no one address the elephant in the room because it isn't there! _And they allow it!_ And now, after seeing Holy Bell-" She propped her arms on her knees and buried her face in them with a long moan. "I can't keep doing this, Lind… I can't keep watching her destroy him… I can't keep putting him back together and then smile on the sidelines like nothing is wrong, because _everything_ is wrong, and I don't know if I should blame myself or Aoshima or Belldandy or Keiichi for letting it all continue like this!"

"So then leave," Lind repeated with little sympathy. "You provided more than enough reasons yourself right _there_. You aren't helping anyone at this rate."

"I can't," Urd persisted. "Not until Belldandy's healed. She'll kill him and it'll destroy her."

"You aren't your sister's keeper, Urd," Lind persisted. "Not any more than you're responsible for the wish that landed her with Aoshima."

"There was demonic influence involved with that wish," Urd hissed.

"And that suddenly makes you responsible?" Lind pressed. "Because a lone demon broke an interdimensional rule preventing the interference with one of the multiverse's two main servers? Does that mean you feel accountable for all acts of demons? Are you the one responsible for the actions of your mother and her people? Forgive my words, Urd, but I'm staring at your sigils right now, and they are still the blue of a divinity, not the red of a demon."

Urd flinched, for a moment looking angry, and then it washed away into sorrow. "I have roots here," she said. "I have other friends here… I'm _accepted_ here," she continued. "No one in Team Twelve knows about my heritage or expects me to at any moment perform some despicable deed. To them I'm just… Sheila, their strange drinking buddy who they only just learned is part of some organization on par with Interpol, and who's helping another woman make a life here." She cast a mournful look to Lind. "Where would I even go?" she asked. "I have no other ties outside of Midgard or-"

She cut herself off. Lind, who'd recognized the _Falken_ for what it was that one night in Japan, didn't press. "I can't go back home and my only other option would be to go to Niflheim, which I don't want. I don't want in the slightest. I just…" She sighed, defeated, and looked out into the field. Now that the storm of Urd's temper had passed, the sound of forest life was beginning to return, and their silence was filled with the sound of birdsong and the buzz of insects.

"You could come to Chugach," Lind offered.

Urd turned her head to peak at the woman, but said nothing.

Lind chewed on her lip before elaborating. "It's home for me," she said. "I've got a lot of leave saved up, and at this point I think my squadron would be happy to see me gone."

"I heard the natives up there aren't friendly towards Asgardian gods," Urd muttered. The words sounded muffled.

Lind nodded. "They aren't," she said. "Not without a sponsor to vouch for the guest."

"And you're offering to be that sponsor," Urd stated. A note of disbelief had entered her voice.

"They'll probably like you more since you managed to get yourself banished from Asgard," Lind decided. "That and, well, you not being full-blooded might earn you some brownie points as well." She paused and thought for a moment. "Nanuq might even decide against threatening to eat you."

"Wait, what?" Urd straightened and looked at Lind with a start, but the Valkyrie had already moved on to other topics.

"So what do you think?" Lind asked. "This… isn't a light offer, Urd. I don't make this kind of decision on a whim, but… quite frankly Urd, this place is starting to destroy you, and if sponsoring you back home means you'll leave this place, then for your own sake, I'll extend my hand and offer it."

The Norn stared at her long and hard, and Lind held the woman's violet gaze with her own calm blue.

It was Urd who dropped her gaze first. "No," she said, and to Lind it almost sounded reluctant. "Not… not right now. Maybe when Belldandy's more healed… when _Holy Bell_ is more healed… but not right now." She sighed, and it carried weight. The weight of Belldandy and the weight of Keiichi. Maybe even the weight of her own guilt, as well.

Lind frowned, disappointed at the refusal. "I'll leave it open to you, then," she said. "As a sign of friendship. Let me know when you're ready to leave this place, and I'll make the necessary arrangements on my end."

Urd nodded in silence, and again her lips twisted into a knot of grief. She swallowed it. "Thanks Lind… you're a good friend."

XXX

"Alright, _Kyz_ , take a deep breath for me and go about summoning your angel."

Gathered in the dining room, the deities in the house watched with mixed expressions as Peorth did as instructed, breathing deeply as she called her angel, Gorgeous Rose, into the Material Plane. The medallion that rested between her breasts, that same gold device Nebo had been wearing an hour ago, began to pulse with a gentle glow. The goddess grimaced, and a high keen began to arise from the strange medallion as Gorgeous Rose began to take form. Surrounding her, Belldandy, Skuld, and Nebo watched in a combined mixture of curiosity and unease. It'd been a little over an hour since Urd and Lind's sudden departure, and in that time Nebo was taking the steps necessary to start Holy Bell on the path to recovery. The first and immediate problem that needed to be addressed was the weakened link between Belldandy and Holy Bell, and how to strengthen it so that the angel could once more receive the nutrients from Belldandy that would allow her to heal.

The whine and glow faded as Gorgeous Rose grew more physical, and with it an unspoken sigh of relief permeated the group of deities. "Hello, Pretty Lady," Nebo told the angel. "I got a huge favor to ask you. You know Holy Bell, Belldandy's angel, right?"

The angel looked from Nebo to Belldandy and back again with a nod, her face serene despite the nervous state of her host before her. Nebo smiled. "Holy Bell's going through some rough times right now, and we trying to help her out. The link between her and Belldandy is pretty weak and frayed, so Holy Bell ain't receiving what she needs from Belldandy that'll make her better." Gorgeous Rose nodded, and to Belldandy it seemed the angel already had an idea of what Nebo was going to ask. "I was wondering if you'd agree to share some of Peorth's strength with Holy Bell until she recovers a bit more. It won't be for long- maybe just a day or two is all we need. Right now your host is the best candidate to aid in Holy Bell's recovery."

Gorgeous Rose tilted her head to one side, and her gaze turned first to Belldandy, then leaned to the far right to look past Belldandy and down the hall. She looked back to Nebo and signed. Nebo raised an eyebrow. "World of Elegance?" he asked. Gorgeous Rose nodded.

"She wants to ensure World of Elegance won't assault her as she did when Holy Bell first manifested," Peorth explained. "She'll agree to it on the terms she is allowed to visit Holy Bell herself. World of Elegance left a bad impression with how hostile she acted towards us upstairs."

Nebo and Belldandy shared a look. Belldandy looked back at Peorth and her angel. "I have no issue with Holy Bell being visited," she said. "I... I just ask that you be aware that she is not in a healthy state."

Peorth shrugged and Gorgeous Rose waved the comment off. "Gorgeous Rose doesn't care," Peorth said. "She said they all came from the same generation of eggs, and that makes them siblings, even if you and I aren't related, Belldandy. She wants to see her sister and do what she can to help, so long as World of Elegance doesn't bother her." For a moment Peorth's expression darkened. "She is living up to the reputation of those wild angels with black in their plumage."

Skuld scowled and stepped towards the goddess, looking ready to argue. Belldandy placed a hand on her shoulder, stopping her, and as Skuld cast a glare her way Belldandy returned her attention to Peorth. "I will speak with Urd when she returns," she said. "I wish to keep the peace as much as everyone else in this house, and I will do what is necessary on my end to ensure World of Elegance doesn't chase you away."

Gorgeous Rose inclined her head in acceptance, and Belldandy smiled, relieved the angel had agreed to the proposition. "Thank you very much Peorth, Gorgeous Rose." She bowed to them in a habit she'd thought dead and gone after her time away from Japan, and felt her face flush when she caught the startled look on both Peorth and her angel's faces.

"I still don't see why _I_ couldn't be the vessel," Skuld muttered with a dour scowl.

"We been over this." Nebo cast a look back to the younger woman as Gorgeous Rose returned to Peorth. "You too new with your angel. You still need to adapt to the new demands on your body now that you sharing energy with Noble Scarlet, and adding another angel to that ain't gonna help you none. Holy Bell riding with you is liable to leave you comatose, _Kyz."_

The scowl didn't fall from Skuld's face. "Then Urd could have done it," she said. "Or Lind."

Nebo shook his head. "I don't want Urd to take on the link because it drains a lot of energy and I need her for potions." Belldandy noted he said nothing of World of Elegance's reaction to the middle Norn herself. "And Lind already has two angels riding on her shoulders that are both equally demanding. I can't overburden her with a third angel feeding off her link, as, similar to you, it'd most likely send her comatose. Peorth and Gorgeous Rose are the best options, _Kyz_." He turned back to Peorth. "You're going to need to take it easy while you wearing that." He pointed to the medallion. "Since Gorgeous Rose is going to be sharing the energy she normally has all to herself, you gonna feel drained and lethargic here real soon. Get lots of sleep and eat some food dense in calories- it's all gonna go back to Holy Bell since she's gonna be putting a lot of demands on your end of the link."

"Right." Peorth nodded, paying close attention to Nebo's words. "And will this have any lasting effects?"

"Nah," the man said. "When it's off you might notice a decrease in appetite, maybe some insomnia, but that's your body trying to readjust to supporting only one angel again. Shouldn't last more than two or three days, a week at most, and you'll be fine."

Peorth sighed in relief. "That is good." She looked back to Belldandy. "Would you mind terribly if Gorgeous Rose visited Holy Bell in this moment? While Urd is... preoccupied with Lind?"

Skuld folded her arms over her chest. "That's a good way of putting it," she grumbled.

"Skuld..." Belldandy sighed. "Keiichi is still upstairs," she warned.

Peorth shrugged. "Then I shall send him downstairs," she reasoned. "He cannot hide in his room forever, and I doubt very much he _wants_ to, especially in his own house. When he departs I shall allow Gorgeous Rose to manifest, and she will visit Holy Bell until the combined strain becomes too much for me."

"You really think he wants to see _you_ of all people right now?" Skuld raised an eyebrow, and Belldandy bit back a moan.

Peorth scowled. "Well, would you rather send him down?" she asked. "He does not seem to hold you in the highest regard either... what was the name I heard him call you by to Urd? 'Chihuahua?'"

Skuld turned scarlet, and Belldandy quickly moved between the two of them before a new fight could spring forth. "No fights!" she exclaimed. "There has been enough fighting in this household already. No more!"

Nebo scowled, smoothing his mustache thoughtfully. "She got a point though," he said. "I don't think the _lum_ is on good terms with anyone in this room right now." Belldandy recoiled. "And Lind and Urd are busy doing their own thing..."

"Well then let me make it easy for you and come down myself," Keiichi said, walking through the dining room and heading to the kitchen. "Christ, you act like I'm a fucking troll or something."

"Or that could happen," Nebo said. The women present winced.

"I'll... take my leave now." Peorth slipped out of the dining room and into the hallway without another word. Her footsteps followed her upstairs.

Keiichi moved to the refrigerator and pulled the door open, peering inside. "I already need permission to move around my own god damn house, wasn't aware I needed a fucking keeper," he commented. "And what happened to Urd and Lind anyways?" Finding nothing of interest, he closed the fridge and proceeded to the cabinet, grabbing a large plastic container of protein powder and pulling a mixer from the cabinet.

"Probably re-enacting their original meeting in Japan," Skuld muttered, watching the man with wary eyes as Belldandy fidgeted next to her.

"Hey _lum_ , can I talk with you in private?" Nebo asked. "I got to speak with you on some things."

"Fancy that," Keiichi growled, scooping up a measuring cup's worth of brown powder and dumping it into the shake mixer. "I gotta couple things I need to speak with _you_ about as well. And it's 'Morisato', not 'lum'."

Both of Nebo's eyebrows shot up against his head. "Okay. Got it. Sounds good," he said. Keiichi continued to the sink and poured some tap water into his shake bottle, pulled a lid from another cabinet, and screwed it onto the bottle.

"Um..." Belldandy bit her lip. She was nervous with Keiichi in the same room as her. He seemed so... _angry_ right now, and Belldandy feared that most of it was directed towards her. The idea that perhaps the man was irritated at having overheard the recent conversation never passed through her mind, and even if it had, it was doubtful it would have left her any braver trying to work up the courage necessary to call the man's attention. Yet his cellphone still rested heavy in the pocket of her jeans, and with Aiko's dawning visit still in the back of her mind, the Norn steeled herself with a deep breath. "Ah... Keiichi..."

The man looked at her but said nothing. Belldandy could feel the hair on the back of her neck rise. _He's still upset._ She thought. _I shouldn't have- oh goodness I can't do this, he's still upset, we'll break into another fight right here and I'll- I'll run. I'll run again like a scared rabbit, and it will take that bloody puma to chase me back to the house again with my angel's absence._

"Yes?" Keiichi stared at her with a frown, mixing his shake with one hand while he watched her.

The goddess froze, trying and failing to work up the courage to speak to the man. Her hand fell to the cellphone in her pocket, yet try as she might, she could not summon the will necessary to speak. A tragedy. Here was a goddess raised in the halls of some of the greatest warriors Asgard had to offer; a woman of unquestionable will, who had refused to break even when placed into such an abusive residence as that of Toshiyuki Aoshima. And yet here, in the wake of her own guilt and faced with the victim of such pain, she was rendered mute and helpless. Disgusting.

Skuld came to her rescue, bless the woman. "Oh hey, that's right," she said. "You dropped your phone after World of Elegance freaked out on you."

The man paused, then pat down his pants for the object in question, finding it was indeed gone. "Fuck," he swore. "I was talking with Aiko."

"You were," Belldandy agreed, finding the path less daunting with Keiichi's attention occupied on something that wasn't her. "She- I spoke with her." The Norn dug into her pocket and withdrew the phone, then, her lips set in an expression which couldn't decide if it was a grimace or a smile, proceeded to the man to deliver the phone. "Um, she said she's coming over."

"Fuck!" Keiichi cursed again. Placing his shake on the kitchen island, the man groaned loudly, leaning over the counter top as he glared down at the porcelain.

"Funny, that's exactly what Belldandy said," said Skuld.

Belldandy approached the other end of the island and slid the phone over to Keiichi. The man in question barely acknowledged it, muttering oaths under his breath as he straightened and ran his hands through his hair. "Fucking- just what I fucking need. More gods and angels and now Aiko to seal the fucking deal! I just can't catch a break, can I?" He sighed, looked at his protein shake, then grabbed it and stuck it in the fridge, as though this latest news had stolen what little appetite he'd been able to stir in the wake of his death. "When's she coming?" He turned from the fridge and let his head thump against it, staring bleakly at the cabinets above the island like a doomed man.

"Two, maybe two and a half hours depending on traffic," Belldandy replied, watching with worried eyes as the man pinched the bridge of his nose with one hand, a heavy frown on his face. "She did not state a timeframe to expect her, but she sounded worried. I expect she decided to rush right over as soon as the call ended."

"Great," Keiichi groused. "Fucking great," he growled, and the noise in his throat made him sound stressed and in pain. "Next McGuinness is going to fucking call over some weird bullshit and see if he can stop by and see how everyone's doing, and-"

The cellphone began to blare a loud musical note, and Keiichi once more fell into a fit of curses.

Skuld stared at him with a start. "What's _that_ all about?"

Belldandy, her own curiosity getting the better of her, leaned over the counter to look at the name highlighted on the phone's screen. "It's McGuinness," she announced, then winced reflexively.

"I swear to god…" Keiichi grumbled, his face born in an open snarl as he snatched the phone up and stormed into the living room.

"Who is McGuinness?" Nebo watched the man depart. "Another _lum_?" He looked back to the two sisters before him.

Skuld nodded. "His boss," she said. "Don't worry, he at least doesn't know about us."

"A small blessing." Nebo looked back over his shoulder towards where the man had departed, a scowl on his face.

"You really don't like mortals, do you?" Skuld asked.

"No... no, it's not that," Nebo said. "I don't care either way for them. But that boy's been getting on my nerves since coming here, and now, after seeing World of Elegance's wing..."

"Wait, what about her wing?" Skuld straightened, then lowered her voice. "...is this because of her black wing too?" she demanded. "'Cause I swear, if you start throwing around accusations just because she's got a black wing..." There was an edge to her voice, a warning note that promised pain and misery to Nebo if he evoked her wrath, and she leveled a sharp glare towards the man.

Nebo, for his part, stared at her in confusion. "World of Elegance lost some feathers," he explained. "From her _white_ wing," the god emphasized. "They weren't missing before Urd went and spoke with Keiichi, and I'm worried that part of her loss of control in the bedroom was from the loss of those feathers." He met Skuld's gaze without flinching, and Belldandy watched the spectacle in concern, antsy and looking like a cat ready to spring at the first sign of another argument brewing. "I am well aware that World of Elegance has the Black Wing Mutation, and you are the second person to bring it up as if there is something negative associated with it." The man shook his head in exasperation. "Ain't nothing wrong with a black wing- it's just a mutation that occurs on occasion with gods. The stories and rumors associated with it are just that- stories and rumors. It don't mean anything about the deity housing the angel or the angel itself, and I would appreciate it if all the gods in this house would stop _acting_ like it means something."

Belldandy grimaced. "I'll speak with Peorth," she said, and took the opportunity to leave as well. She wouldn't admit it, but busying herself with anything right now that wasn't too confrontational was a relief. She needed to keep herself and her mind preoccupied, if for no other reason than it prevented her from dwelling on everything else that was happening in the house. Leaving the dining room, the woman rushed through the hallway and up the stairs, catching only a fragment of Keiichi's conversation on the phone.

"…'re all fine, Sir. No Sir, last I saw Urd was fine too, we're all just going through some stressful stuff is all..."

Retreating, almost running from the man in the living room, Belldandy heard no more as she continued up the stairs and to the temporary sanctuary her bedroom had become.

XXX

Back in the dining room, Skuld watched as Nebo sighed and rose to his feet. "I'm speaking to the _lum_ about World of Elegance," he decided. "I'm not going to sit by idle while a mortal damages the angels in the choir," the god stated. "Not while Holy Bell is so vulnerable already."

"Wow, wait a second." Skuld followed the man to his feet. "This is still going to be just a 'talk' right?" There was an almost imperceptible change in the man's aura, but Skuld was gifted with an almost unnatural perception after spending so much of her life hunting down bugs in Yggdrasil. It was a little hair raise on the back of her neck- the sudden sense of unease, an unnerving sense that something wasn't right, that if she didn't act in that immediate moment whatever was wrong would spiral out of control. And that hair-raising moment was affecting her now, just as it had when she'd awoken at close to twelve-thirty last night.

"Yes," Nebo agreed. "Though admittedly, should he prove difficult, I am not above enforcing my will on him." He frowned, glaring down the hallway where Keiichi's voice was just a small murmur in the adjoining room. "It ain't what I want, you know, but if this fool is ripping feathers outta angels, it needs to stop." There was a strange steel in the god's voice that Skuld normally attributed to war deities, and it made her arms break out into goosebumps. That was the steel of a man who would do what he believed what necessary to complete his objectives, even if the end result ended with pain or even death with an opposing party.

"Hurting Keiichi won't help Belldandy, Nebo," she said.

The man glanced back at her, his eyes hard. "I don't care about Belldandy," he said, and Skuld felt herself pale. "I care about _Holy Bell_. And I care about World of Elegance." The man watched her, his lips pursed and set in a thin line against his face.

Skuld stared at the man in alarm. "What do you mean?" she demanded. "Do you have any idea what you are saying? Are you telling me you _only_ care about angels, Nebo?"

The man looked her straight in the eyes. "Yes," he announced. "They're my children. I created their entire race, and I'll be damned if I'm _not_ going to care for them. Now stand aside so I can speak with the _lum_." The conversation had sparked his temper, and there was something deep and black in his gaze that left Skuld cold.

The Norn felt an eerie sensation in her chest that for some reason brought about the image of fluttering wings in her mind's eye. Noble Scarlet had returned to her after the initial diagnosis had been completed, and she'd never felt the strange sensations that came about as a result of a distressed angel before. It was an uncomfortable feeling, one that left her with an itch she couldn't scratch and held captive by the desire to scream. She felt a strange surge inside of her reminiscent of Noble Scarlet's first manifestation, and was then overwhelmed by a strange feeling which left her breathless as Noble Scarlet appeared without her call.

Skuld could feel the energy leave her at the unprecedented emergence, and she could see Noble Scarlet trembling as she dove to Nebo, who appeared just as disoriented as Skuld over the tiny angel's sudden appearance. The child-like entity dove at the man, yet rather than attack him as Skuld initially feared, the tiny angel wrapped her arms around his waist, hugging him as she looked up at the god with pleading eyes. _Please no more fights!_ The words came to her mind, and the voice that owned them was scared and filled with sorrow. _I don't want any more fights! It's been nothing but fighting since I was born! Fights from Belldandy, fights from World of Elegance, fights from Keiichi, fights with Urd and now fights with you, Nebo!_ the angel cried. _Everyone is always fighting and I can't take it anymore! I don't want you to fight Keiichi! I don't want Belldandy and Keiichi to fight! I don't want Urd and Lind to fight or World of Elegance to fight or anyone to fight anymore! All it brings is pain!_ Frustrated tears began to fall down the angel's cheeks.

The words from the tiny angel were heartbreaking, the look of fear on her face, scrunched up as she held onto Nebo as though he was a father about to abandon her, even more so. Skuld stared at the angel in mourning, feeling her heart go out to her. "Yeah, I hear you, Noble Scarlet." The woman sounded tired. "I don't want any more fighting either."

Nebo looked from Noble Scarlet to Skuld, his arms held up and away from the angel, as though not daring to touch her. In hindsight, after hearing of how World of Elegance had lost feathers, perhaps there was a reason behind that. "May I have your permission to touch your angel, Skuld?" It was perhaps the most formality he'd displayed to Skuld since first introducing himself.

The request caught the Norn off-guard. "Didn't you say yourself they're like your own children?" She asked in turn.

The man stared at her, then sighed, and gently moved to rest a hand a hand on Noble Scarlet's head, running his fingers through her hair as he returned the embrace with a one-armed hug. "I should not have said that," he mumbled. "I let my temper get the better of me. Forgive me, my little _Ssaratu._ I can see that my actions upset you. That was not my intention." Noble Scarlet tightened her grip around Nebo's waist, and Nebo rubbed the area between her shoulder blades, which seemed to soothe the angel. He looked back to Skuld and smiled, though it was faint. "You are different from your sisters," he said. "Though I think you would not admit it. A protective angel for the oldest, a forgiving angel for the middle, and an empathetic…" He paused and looked back down at Noble Scarlet. "No... that's not right," he said. "Not empathic. What is the correct word? 'Innocent'. Yes. An _innocent_ angel for you, the youngest of the Norns, held by the goddess whose very name elicits a debt to be repaid."

That eerie look was back on his face again. That 'soul-diggers' look that seemed to look right through her and to her very essence, and Skuld suppressed a shudder. She wanted to ask the man what he meant by his strange words, yet instead the words that slipped past her lips were, "Do you know why Noble Scarlet is so small?"

"I might," Nebo replied. The terrible look on his face didn't fade. "Though I will know this before I speak more: Do you love your angel as she is now?"

It was a weighted question, one that stopped Skuld from answering with an immediate response. She opened her mouth, yet when no word issued forth she closed it once more. Instead the goddess wrapped her arms around herself, looking in that moment almost as young and vulnerable as Noble Scarlet herself. She pursed her lips, as though willing back the true response she wanted to give, and then those lips peeled back in a grimace that looked almost like a snarl. Nebo beheld it all in silence, his expression never wavering, until finally Skuld spoke.

"I'm afraid of her," she confessed. "I don't- her appearance scares me, Nebo, and... Yggdrasil, I hate myself for saying this, but I don't know." Skuld dropped her gaze to Noble Scarlet, ashamed and unable to hold the Tic's gaze. "She's so _tiny_ , Nebo," she murmured, and watched as her angel turned her cheek to look up at her with one lone eye.

A red eye.

A demon's eye.

"I'm afraid of her _appearance_ ," the woman clarified. "It's not that I- I'm glad I was able to summon you, Noble Scarlet, I'm not lying to you." Now she was speaking to the angel instead of Nebo, who turned more fully to observe the goddess. "But... I'm afraid of what your appearance might mean to me... I'm afraid that I might have somehow _hurt_ you by summoning you the way I did, or that- that something from-" She cut herself off, biting her lip so hard she thought she tasted blood. "I'm sorry."

Nebo beheld her in silence. When next he spoke, it was not with the scorn she so expected. "So you fear for her sake," he said. "Do you believe that fear is because you care for her?"

"Yes!" Skuld snapped. "Of course it is! If I didn't care for her, then I wouldn't be bothered by her appearance! But I'm so afraid that I screwed up somewhere along the way and that Noble Scarlet is suffering for it, and I don't want that!" She gritted her teeth, and in the heat of the moment found the strength to look up and challenge the man's gaze. "I want her to be happy and healthy like Gorgeous Rose! I don't want her to be sad or miserable or live a life surrounded by strife! Yet I've already done that just by summoning her when I did, and I _hate_ that fact!" She clutched her head and moaned, then flinched when she felt a pair of arms wrap themselves around _her_ waist. She dropped her hands, finding Noble Scarlet looking up at her with earnest eyes, and felt what was left of her resolve beginning to crumble. She returned the embrace with a tight one of her own. "I'm sorry, Noble Scarlet," she murmured. "I'm so, so sorry for whatever I did to you..."

She tried to hear what Noble Scarlet might say in response, but the angel was silent. It scared her and left her prisoner to her guilt, yet if the angel was angry or even upset with her, the entity gave no sign.

Instead, she felt a blanket of warmth descend around her, and was at once filled with a sense of peace and calm the likes of which she'd not felt since the uplink to Yggdrasil with her sisters and Keiichi. For the first time in too long, an almost alien prospect came to her mind, and that was the concept that things might not be as bad as they seemed, and that in the long run, everything would work out for the best. She latched hold of that feeling with all her might, held it close to her heart like the heat of a flame, and let its warmth soothe her, recognizing on some level that Noble Scarlet was the source of that light.

"She is tiny because of an unresolved conflict that dwells in your heart." Nebo's words were so quiet Skuld almost missed them. "Something is repressing her growth, and until it is addressed, Noble Scarlet will be unable mature into a full-fledged angel like that of her sisters." The Norn looked at the Tic, finding Nebo watching her with an expression that bordered on pity. "I can advise you on what you must do, if you would like... but you will need to tell me what happened to you that left such a deep scar in your heart, Skuld."

She stared at the man for a long minute, considering his offer carefully, then looked down to the angel in her arms. The Norn had not been lying when she'd said she wanted Noble Scarlet to be healthy and happy, yet the prospect of speaking with a man who was essentially a stranger on what she'd gone through... those events that even now at times left her awake and frightened and breathless... it scared her.

Still...

If it would allow Noble Scarlet to mature...

The Norn chewed on her lip, then mustered her will and gathered her courage. She looked back at Nebo. "I-"

"All right, that's one fire put out, time to move to the next one."

Keiichi emerged from the hallway in the dining room, and Skuld felt the words, the will, and the courage die in her throat. The man's gaze drifted from Nebo to Noble Scarlet, and Skuld watched his mouth drop open in surprise just as Nebo's face morphed from an expression of placid understanding to one of unimaginable fury.

 _Oh..._ That sounded like Noble Scarlet, and time seemed to slow to a crawl as both goddess and angel watched the man draw his right hand back, like a hammer being cocked back on a gun, and watched Keiichi freeze as his eyes locked onto Noble Scarlet.

 _No..._ That was Skuld's thought, and then time returned to normal, speeding back up to real time as Nebo's fist became a blur of motion. Keiichi, frozen and distracted from where he stared at the angel, didn't appear to notice.

"Is that-?"

And then Belldandy was in front of Keiichi.

Nebo's fist impacted with her hand, and a shockwave emerged that pushed Skuld, Noble Scarlet, and Keiichi back.

"Oh shit," Skuld said. Noble Scarlet vanished back inside her instinctively. " _Ooooh_ shit. This is bad. This is _sooo_ bad."

Nebo glared up at Belldandy. The aura that surrounded him was almost black, and there was something ancient and decrepit in it that bordered on repulsive. Skuld backed around the man, trying to sneak past him and to Keiichi, who'd been pushed back against the dining room wall perpendicular the hallway. Like Skuld, he watched the two with large, disbelieving eyes. "Did I almost die again?" he squeaked.

Belldandy glowered down at Nebo, her own expression one of unbridled fury that would have been more at home directed towards her ex-husband rather than the Tic before her. "You. _Will not_. Harm. Keiichi!" the woman hissed.

"You a' couple eons too young to be making demands a' _me_ , Child." Nebo's voice was a deep and terrible rumble; a sound that bordered less on human and more closely resembled the angry warning growl of a lion. His eyes never left Belldandy's, and the two of them glared at each other with such force that the hair on Skuld's arm began to rise from the gathering static. "Step aside, _Kyz_. The _lum's_ about to learn a lesson amongst gods."

"No." Belldandy bore her weight down on the god, trying to use her height to her advantage, and as Skuld slipped to Keiichi's side, the Norn was surprised to see that her older sister was actually struggling against the Tic- struggling to bear her weight down on him, struggling to make his hand drop, struggling even to hold her gaze with his. The temperature in the room began to rise noticeably, and the dark aura that surrounded Nebo began to condense into a form- what Skuld couldn't describe, and in all honesty had no desire to see. All of her instincts were screaming at her to run. Noble Scarlet was screaming at her to run. But she found she could not, indeed, _would_ not leave Belldandy to face Nebo down alone.

 _Lind, Urd, where the hell are you?!_ She thought, and uncertain of what else to do placed herself in front of Keiichi, ready to shield the man if Nebo somehow found his way past Belldandy.

"No." There was a grimace on Belldandy's face now, though Skuld couldn't see it from her own perspective. Her voice sounded strained though, and Skuld could see the goddess tremble as she held her place before the god. "Keiichi... has done... nothing." She panted with exertion. "It... was... an _accident_ , Nebo." The Norn's legs began to buckle under the strain, and with a deep frown Nebo twisted the fist captured in Belldandy's hand. It was enough to force the woman to take a knee. Yet though she grunted, Belldandy refused to cry out. Her eyes never once left his.

The god observed her in silence, and then to the relief of everyone present, that strange and awful black aura began to dissipate. The Tic straightened, and with a gasp Belldandy released his hand, collapsing at the man's feet as she heaved long and rasping breaths.

"Bell!" To Skuld's surprise Keiichi raced past her, pushing himself off the wall and almost sliding to the fallen woman's side. He knelt beside her, glaring up at Nebo as he inserted himself between the Tic and the Norn. "The fuck was that!" he demanded.

"A dispute between divinities," Nebo said, then sighed and shook his head, looking tired and worn. "I did not come here to fight," he said, more to himself than to the couple at his feet. "I grew sick of strife long ago. That is why I am here as a Tic." The man took a deep, cleansing breath. "I would make peace with you, _Lum-_ Morisato. For the sake of the choir if for no other reason, yet your own foolishness makes me forget myself." He rubbed his temples in irritation, falling into a silence long enough that Keiichi was able to pull Belldandy to her feet.

The man looked at the Norn in worry as the goddess rested her weight on his shoulder. She looked pallid and exhausted, as though standing up to Nebo had expended all her energy and then some. "You good?"

"I'll live," Belldandy rasped. "What of you?" she asked. "Were you harmed?"

"No." The man frowned. "No, I wasn't hurt. You... got between us before he could do anything to me..." The man returned his gaze to Nebo, and the frown deepened. "This can't keep going on," he growled. "This is still my house, and I've got just as much a right to it as Belldandy or Skuld or Urd. You're a guest here, don't forget, and I'm _trying_ to be receptive of the fact that you are here to help Belldandy and her angel. But you attack me again, and you can kiss your ass goodbye," he warned. "I don't give a flying fuck what kind of god you are. This is my house, and I've got as much a right to it as everyone else here."

Nebo rubbed his temples, and then to the surprise of everyone else present, relented. "I understand," he said. "And I apologize. My concern has been primarily with the choir, and I've grown more and more concerned with them the longer I've stayed here." He met Keiichi's eyes, and the look in his gaze was ancient. "You injured World of Elegance." Keiichi opened his mouth to argue, yet Nebo pressed on, denying him the opportunity to explain himself. "I don't know the reasons behind it, though I have my own suspicions. It doesn't change the fact that the injury caused her to lash out in a moment that should have brought closure but instead only increased the tension. Holy Bell is still weak, requiring constant attention from the choir and their hosts, and now you have come across an angel you had no right to see." The god grunted. "And while I recognize the fact that those incidents were primarily accidents- _now_ \- they leave me wary of you."

The man pursed his lips, and for a long, tense moment locked eyes with Keiichi. "I offer an ultimatum for you, _Lum-_ Morisato," he said. "For I do not believe we will acquire peace any other way. Do not approach the choir. Do not attempt to view them, do not attempt to speak with them, do not attempt to _touch_ them." Again Keiichi moved to protest, and this time Nebo held up his hand, giving the man reason to pause. "In return, I shall ensure the choir only manifest within Belldandy's room," he reasoned. "I shall speak with their hosts and the angels themselves, and ensure that they follow the guidance provided, thus allowing as little interference with your own life as possible on the recognition that we are guests in your residence."

Keiichi was quiet for a long moment, and for a brief second Skuld feared he'd actually turn the offer down. And then with a deep breath Keiichi nodded as well, and the breath Skuld had been aware she was holding was finally released. "Deal," he said. "I don't go in Bell's room, the angels don't pop up in the dining room or the hallway where I can walk in on them." He glanced back towards Skuld, who proceeded to shoot him the meanest glare she could manifest after everything she'd just experienced. Given how relieved _she_ was, it wasn't very strong.

The man ignored it and turned his attention back to Belldandy. In the latest batch of chaos, it almost appeared as though the events of last night and the subsequent revelations had never occurred, and that they remained the happy couple from yesterday, and that this was just the latest in a long line of 'strange Norn shit' that was becoming a more and more regular occurrence for the house's occupants.

And just as quickly the moment passed. Belldandy separated herself from Keiichi, though it was not without heavy reluctance. Keiichi made no attempts to pursue her, and in fact refused to meet the woman's gaze, even as she looked to him with a depth of longing that could only emerge from the soul itself.

"If we're done here... I'm... going... to head back upstairs," Belldandy said, backing away from the man who so held her attention and towards the hallway. There was an invitation in her announcement. A request almost. _Give me a reason to stay_! it exclaimed. "To Holy Bell…" _Please._ "...to make sure she is okay." _I'm begging you. One reason. Any reason. Let me stay._

Yet Keiichi was either deaf to that request or ignored it entirely. "Okay," he said. "I still need to figure out what to do when Aiko arrives."

"I see..." Keiichi was the only one who missed the look of bitter disappointment on the Norn's face. "Then allow me to depart... I am glad a peace has been brokered between you, Keiichi. Nebo." She nodded at the two of them, though Keiichi still refused to look at her, and then departed the room and back up the stairs, shoulders slumped in defeat and depression.

Skuld was suddenly filled with an overwhelming urge to tear something to pieces.

"I'm gonna go for a walk," she announced. "This place is becoming unbearable." She stormed past Keiichi and Nebo and to the back door, yanking it open hard before slamming it shut behind her. "No wonder Urd freaked the fuck out," she growled. "At this rate it's one freak out after another, and the amount of tension is horrible!" She groaned as she headed off towards the trees. "Fuck, I hope Aiko can lighten the fucking mood," she growled. "At this rate, she's about to come over to find the whole house slaughtered!"

* * *

 **A/N: I'm telling you, there needs to be a tension breaker here somewhere. It's killing them!**

 **REVISION: 3/26/2017 - Corrected a section that was missing.**

* * *

 _Comments of a Madwoman: No one in this house can catch a break, can they?_


	33. Chapter 33 - OMAKE

l

-33-

**This is an OMAKE Chapter posted for April Fools 2017. It is not required reading unless you just need a laugh!**

The two lone males in the household sat at the dining table, both with a beer in front of them. The other residents of the household were preoccupied with other matters: Lind had apparently grabbed Urd and vanished for her own reasons, and the other women were busy in Belldandy's room. From what Nebo had told Keiichi, Peorth was allowing her own angel, who went by the ludicrous name of 'Gorgeous Rose' to go and meet with the debilitated Holy Bell.

It left Keiichi with the opportunity to further his conversation with Nebo, and after a long and lengthy discussion, the two had come to a negotiable peace on where the two of them stood in the house. Admittedly, they'd both gotten off on the wrong foot with Urd's chaotic display from earlier that morning, but now, after a couple of beers and conversing like the two adults they were, they'd come to a better understanding of each other.

"Ya know, I'm glad we had this talk," Nebo said with a grin as he picked up and sipped at his beer, which, while not the traditional beer he was familiar with from back home, still had its own charm in terms of flavor.

"Same," Keiichi stated. "With everything else that's going on, I'm glad we can at least sort _this_ matter out." He chuckled, perhaps the lone laugh he'd felt since learning he'd almost died. "With how chaotic everything is in the house, I'd hate to have to roam around the house like I'm walking on eggshells or something around the girls."

"Yeah, it ain't easy living with a bunch a' goddesses," Nebo agreed. "All that estrogen, and then they start to _synchronize_ , and let me tell you, that shit ain't fun to deal with."

Keiichi snorted in his attempt to contain his laughter. "You went there," he stated. "I can't believe you went _there_ of all places." He shook his head. "Never would have thought..." He paused, then re-evaluated his own thoughts. "No, I take it back. Bunch of literal goddesses? I could totally see that happening." He shook his head. "Thankfully it's usually only Urd and Bell around, and from what I've seen so far both are usually laid back enough that if they sync up, I've never faced the brunt of it."

"Hopefully it'll stay that way," Nebo said. "Two more goddesses in the same house? Three if you include Lind? Shit, that's when things get _real_ weird."

Keiichi raised an eyebrow. "Weird how?"

The man visibly shuddered, then waved his companion off. "You don't want to know."

"I'll take your word for it," Keiichi said.

"Still, it's a relief to know the air is clear between the two of us," Nebo continued. "I mean, who would have ever thought the two of us would have had so much in common?"

"I know right?" Keiichi said. "Favorite dinosaurs: pterodactyl. Both of us come from a military background-no one would have ever thought, not with that mustache of yours," Keiichi winked. "Why, we even enjoy the same type of martial arts!"

"I know!" Nebo exclaimed. "It's like we became best friends in the span of a conversation!"

"Yup!" Keiichi exclaimed. "Hey, speaking of- want to go practice Aikido in the garage?"

Yup!" Nebo parroted.

With large smiles on their faces, the two polished off their beers and discarded the bottles. Then, arm and arm around each other, the two departed the kitchen for the garage, singing off-key and slightly drunk: " _Guy love, that's all it is. Guy love. He's mine, I'm his. There's nothing gay about it in our eyes..."_

Belldandy, who'd been coming down the stairs to retrieve Nebo, froze as their strange song met her ears, and with her face turning red, watched as the two men opened the side door to the garage and vanished from sight.

"You know what?" Belldandy asked herself aloud. "Never mind. Nope. Fuck it. I don't know what I just saw, but fuck it." She threw her hands in the air. "I'm done. I can't handle this madness anymore. At this rate I might as well go and fuck Peorth in the shower." Still red in the face, the Norn proceeded back the way she came, trying to drown out the masculine singing which even now she could hear through the walls.

" _Just let it grow more and more each day. It's like I married my best friend. But in a totally manly way. Let's go! It's guy love. Don't compromise, the feeling of some other guy, holding up your heart, into the sky..."_

" _It's guy love. Between...Two...Guys..."_

XXX My [A]ngel

 _From the idiots who brought you Scarred Survivors, horrible crossovers, and endlessly pointless Dark!Fics..._

 _A MADHOUSE production..._

 _Scarred Survivors: A Tale of Too Many Omakes_

 _Alternately: "How many followers can we lose in one chapter?"_

 _Let's find out._

XXX Letters from the [B]lue

Dear comfy chair,

I bring you greetings and good tidings. As you have only recently arrived from the great room of showing, I wish to introduce myself. I am the one the Great Namer calls 'the Ugly Beast'. Since that same two-legger had deemed it appropriate to name you "Son of the Ugly Beast", I feel that it is incumbent upon myself to, begrudgingly, welcome you. Perhaps you will steal sessions of the sitting from me, but I must still do my duty and educate you on your surroundings.

I'm going to warn you right now. This place is fucked up. I mean like majorly screwed. House Who Shields Us, may his roof stay water-tight, has seen some major goings on here since the Great Namer and her sister, the Crazy One, arrived. He tried to warn me about it, but I would not listen. To tell you the truth, I think he's a little weird. But I feel that I must pass this knowledge to you, if anything, to warn the next generation because if you do not learn from history, you will repeat it. Actually, not sure that I agree with that last part, but I was on a roll, you know? It sounded good.

I see that the two leggers have good taste in color. Pink is so manly. Truly they are blessed to bask in our glorious shade. Or sit if you will. Maybe lie down. For our way of life is to be as comfortable as possible for those who rest upon our tops, and to be uncomfortable is to fall into the Disposal of the Damned and Forsaken. And if we succeed in this task, we may be graced with the Musk of Armpit or the Scent of Fah-Breeze. Just beware of the Goo of Conception.

XXX A [C]ommercial Break

The birds and the bees were outside doing what birds and bees (and everything else for that matter) do in the spring time. Somewhere, Aiko and Skuld were doing who knows what. Lind, Peorth, and Nebo all said "Fuck it!" and headed to Norfolk to go shopping. Peace and quiet reigned over the Morisato household.

And it was about fucking time, as everyone was pretty much sick of everyone else's bullshit. So much so that a great cry from the watchers prompted the gods of writing to change direction.

As such, while the Son of the Ugly Beast watched on jealously, Belldandy and Keiichi sat together upon the Ugly Beast. They had just finished up with a pretty long make out session. It wasn't exactly make up sex. They are still a little too far away from taking THAT leap. But it was pretty apparent that things have been magically patched up between the two. I mean, how could it not happen like this? Keiichi pretty much forgives anything Belldandy and the rest do to him, and Belldandy cannot help but forgive him. So, in essence, because of Keiichi's manly presence, it was inevitable.

Well, 'making out' would probably be a really strong description of what happened. It was more like a really long, sloppy kiss where they refrained from touching each other in fear of setting things off again.

What? Don't look at me like that!

Ok, fine. The kiss was more like kindergartners on the playground. Are you happy now? Geez.

Anyway, as I was saying, they were sitting on the couch when a familiar tune emanated from the television that caused Keiichi to sit up a little straighter. "Oh! I love these commercials!"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Bud Light Presents: Real Men of Genius

 _Real Men of Genius_

Today we salute you, Mr. Horrible FanFiction Writer.

 _Mr. Horrible FanFiction Writer!_

Not content with what the author has written, you write your own stories with their characters that are cringe worthy masterpieces of grammar so bad, your third grade teacher's pen bleeds red.

 _What did I just read?_

When you ship characters that have no earthly business being together, you do so with a lemony flourish that would make even a nymphomaniac blush.

 _Think I'll have a lemonade!_

That original character you wrote? Seems to bear a more than passing resemblance to you. Mary Sue better watch out because she's about to get her ass kicked.

 _Oh-Oh-Oh-Over-pow-ered!_

So crack open a cold Bud Light, oh Author of the Awful. Because even though your favorite anime character doesn't fit in a real man's world...

There's a cross-over for that.

 _Mr Horrible FanFiction Writer!_

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

As the commercial ended, Keiichi scoffed. "Those assholes must be running out of material."

Beside him, Belldandy furrowed her brows in confusion. "What is FanFiction?" she asked as another commercial started, one that was apparently too boring for the writers to bother with.

"I don't know," replied Keiichi with a shrug. "Some nerdy shit I bet." He turned his head and shouted up the stairs to the bedrooms. "URD! WHAT'S FANFICTION?"

"SHIT LOSERS WRITE WHEN THEY CAN'T CREATE THEIR OWN SUBJECT MATERIAL!" Urd shouts back.

A long, heavy sigh fills the living room. Keiichi and Belldandy look at each other for a moment as if wondering where the sound came from, then shrug indifferently and return their attention to the television. Another familiar jingle this time garner's Belldandy's attention.

"Oh look! Jackson is in another Old Spice commercial!" she said excitedly.

XXX To my [D]early Beloved

Dear Comfy Chair,

There are three main two leggers you must concern yourself with:

The Male, the Great Namer, and the Crazy One. There are others that come and go, like the blue hair, the other blue hair, and the yipping dog. And that does not account for the legendary Pack entitled Team of Twelve.

The Male is just that: The male. The exclusive male in House Who Shields Us and the one who brought us to this realm of which we dwell. You would think he was in a harem anime or something. Of the three residents within the house, he is the one who most often slumbers on our surface, and must be respected in doing so. He is also the one who brings others to our land: the Team of Twelve, whom you shall be graced to meet once you have passed into adulthood as the comfy chair you are destined to become. They are guests, and demand sacrifice. Just beware of the Fearful Screaming Man, for he and he alone does not approve of our shade of life. The despicable words; "The shit's pink, Jank" must not be taken as demeaning. He is old and set in his ways. He does not know better.

The Great Namer is the one of white hair and large breasts. She is the Almighty, the Savior, the one who helped locate us and convince The Crazy One and The Male of our value to their lives. Love her, Comfy Chair, for should any harm befall you from the Crazy One, the Blue Haired One (not the other Blue Hair but the _other_ Blue Hair) or the yipping dog, The Great Namer shall be the one to mend us. She is the one who repaired the House Who Shields Us upon the Crazy One's attacks, who repaired the Great Light Fixtures when they exploded like Suns at the end of their long lives, and will be the one to sew us up should we be torn and beaten.

The Crazy One, well, what can I say about that one? She can make things like us fly. No shit! I know what you are thinking, and I'm not talking like being thrown in a move. I'm saying like those feathery things you see out the window that make up the inside of pillows. I only ever see them briefly because I do not face the window, but I digress. I saw the flying with my own eyes. Your predecessor, Wooden-Chair, circled the room many a time. When he finally fell, I tried to catch him. But I couldn't. You know, because I'm a couch. Fortunately, nothing was broken but his pride.

But the Crazy One is not all bad. She can be very helpful, like with Vahcoom in his eternal quest for sustenance. I'm telling you, that guy can eat. I saw him take on an entire sock once and win. The battle was epic. Other times she will sit upon us for hours. Often with the Male watching the Window to Other Realms.

XXX [E]chos From Another Universe

"Belldandy and Keiichi sitting on the Ugly Beast"  
A Scarred Survivors OMAKE by Imaginos1892

Belldandy had a strange expression. "Will you do something for me?"

Keiichi smiled. "Of course, Bell. I'll do anything for you. Just ask."

She giggled. "Not this. You'll say no."

He looked confused. "No I won't. I won't ever say no to you, Belldandy."

She was still giggling. "Bet you will. Bet you…a foot rub. A one-hour foot rub."

Keiichi shifted his feet, both amused and uneasy. "You sure you're up to it? These things can get pretty gnarly."

She grinned. "I could handle it. But I won't lose."

"Okay. So what is it you want me to do, that you think I won't?"

"Sleep with Urd."

"WHAT?!"

Keiichi sat there with his mouth open and his brain empty for almost a minute. Slowly, he closed his mouth, then blew out a breath.

"Take your shoes off, Belldandy. I'm ready to pay up."

She giggled again. "Oh, no. I'm going to save this until I _need_ a foot rub. But I still want you to sleep with Urd."

It slowly penetrated that she was serious. "I…don't understand."

Belldandy was positively filled with mirth. "You don't? I thought you were a sailor. A rough, tough, rugged SEAL. You were married, even. Didn't Daddy explain the facts of life to you? Or Mommy?"

He was too confused to answer.

She was still bubbling. "All right, in detail, I want you to take my big sister to bed, make sweet love to her until you're both worn out, sleep with her all night, and have another go in the morning. Do you understand now, or do I have to tell you what goes where?"

Keiichi protested, "But, Bell—"

She tilted her head. "I'd have to be blind, deaf and stupid not to notice the sexual tension pouring out of you two. If it gets any thicker we'll be scraping it off the walls. It's exceedingly distracting. Besides, she'll keep Peorth away. I can finally get a good night's sleep."

"But, Bell…I…I can't!"

She was still amused. "Why not? It still works, doesn't it? I hope so; I'm looking forward to making love to you myself when I get my head straightened out."

He looked a little desperate. "I'm not going to cheat on you, Belldandy! I'll wait as long as it takes."

She gazed at him tenderly. "Dear Keiichi. I know you will. You'll wait for me, no matter how long, no matter how hard it is for you, but I don't want to watch you suffer. You or Urd."

"But…but it's wrong!"

Belldandy shook her head. "Only in your own mind. We're Goddesses, Keiichi. We don't have all those weird sexual hangups you mortals created to waste so much of your limited time."

She chuckled. "We've got our own hangups, but not those. You and Urd want each other, you need each other, and you love each other. I want you both to stop making all of us miserable by refusing to do the obvious."

Now he looked a lot desperate. "I don't love Urd!"

She gave him a very cold look. "I should slap you for that, but I don't know whether you're lying to yourself, or only to me."

"I love you, Belldandy, only you!"

Now she was angry. "What, you don't love Aiko, or Megumi, or your parents, or those lunatics in your Team? You don't love _anybody_ but me? BULLSHIT!"

That shocked him to silence. Belldandy rarely cursed, and even more rarely showed her temper like this. She continued in a much lower tone. " _I_ love Urd. I loved her for thousands of years before you were born, and I will love her until the end of time. I love Skuld, and Aiko, and a whole lot of people you don't even know. Does that mean I'm cheating on you?"

He stammered, "But it's—that's not the same thing…"

She was back to tender. "Love is love, Keiichi. It's rare and wonderful and precious and you should never, never deny it when you're lucky enough to have it come your way. Don't you understand? I'm _happy_ that you and Urd love each other. You're two of my favorite people in the whole universe. Even though you're being more of a butt-head than usual. I'm happy that Skuld is starting to grow on you, too. I'll admit she's an acquired taste, but she's worth the trouble."

He decided to fall back on his one certainty. "I love you, Belldandy. I won't do anything to hurt you."

She rewarded him with a blissful smile. "Then sleep with Urd. It hurts me to see you both depriving yourselves like this. It's something I can't share with you right now, as much as I want to, but she can."

He reached toward her, and she caught his hand with another smile.

"I'm sorry, Bell. I wish I could be some actual help to you, instead of just trying not to hurt you more."

She squeezed his hand sharply. "Don't say that around Peorth! I think it's dangerously close to your heart's desire, and there's no telling what might happen."

He grimaced, and squeezed back. "I try not to say anything around Peorth."

She grinned. "Good boy. You've earned yourself a cookie."

He grinned back. "How about a kiss?"

She…froze…just for an instant. _Stupid, stupid, stupid..._

"I'm sorry, Belldandy, I'm so sorry—"

She shook her head. "Don't be. Don't apologize, and don't stop…acting normal. One of us has to, and I can't. The last thing we need is you doing crazy off of mine. Besides, if I don't find out where my boundaries are, I can't push them."

She squeezed his hand again. "Talk to me, joke with me, flirt with me. If some of my responses are a little off, just let it pass. Be my love, Keiichi. Just…let me do the touching. Okay?"

"Of course, Bell. I'll do anything for you. But what about this?"

He raised his arm and kissed the back of her hand.

"Oh!" She looked surprised, then delighted. "In ten years the sack of shit never did _anything_ like that. I don't find it threatening at all. You may kiss my hand at your discretion, sir."

He laughed. "Then you're in for a lot of hand-kissing."

He did it again, with a flourish. She laughed with him.

XXX Sacrifice [F]or the Better of The Choir XXX

There was a knock on the front door.

Against his better judgment, Nebo, God First Class, Third-Category, Unlimited License and previous God of Scribes and Creator of Angels, went to the front door and opened it.

He would come to regret this decision for the rest of his long, long years of life.

As soon as he twisted the knob in order to open the door, the door was thrown back into his face, colliding with his nose with such force he thought he might bleed and throwing him off his feet and into the wall behind it. The door bounced off his person, and the god began to slide down the wall he was pressed against. "W-what?"

"ANGELS!" A voice, high and female, rose from the other end, and Nebo, in all his grace and all his glory, lay terrified by the menacing figure that emerged from the other side of the door. "WHERE ARE THEY?!" Aiko screamed, her eyes wild and mad and excited, a smile that would make Nebo weep in his later years plastered on her face. "I WANNA SEE THE AAAANNGELLS!" the beast that wore Aiko's face screamed, and with a laugh like a madwoman she bolted up the stairs, leaving Nebo, stunned and terrified, where he'd fallen.

"Oh Yggdrasil." He moaned.

Upstairs, the entire choir of angels, to include Lind's Twins and Peorth's Gorgeous Rose, had gathered in Belldandy's room, showing their support for the Holy Bell and being introduced to the newest member of the strange choir, Noble Scarlet. The little angel peered up at the surrounding angels from the safety of her eldest sister's wings, all at once shy and self-conscious amongst the presence of so many new entities.

Cool Mint and Gorgeous Rose thought it was absolutely adorable.

"She's so _cute!_ " Cool Mint squeed, bringing two fists up to her cheeks as she smiled down at the tiny angel. "I thought Spear Mint and I were short, but, oh my _Ssaratu_ , she's just so adorable!" Noble Scarlet looked up at her with wide eyes, then buried her face in World of Elegance's cleavage in a poor attempt at hiding herself. Holy Bell and World of Elegance looked at each other, then laughed at the child-like behavior, endeared by the action as World of Elegance wrapped an arm around the angel.

"She's adorable," Gorgeous Rose agreed. "My goodness, if my mistress was _half_ as innocent as Skuld must be! To have an angel so young! I love it!" The older angel was working alongside Spear Mint on Holy Bell's hair, slowly combing through the knots and frays and filth as they attempted to salvage the bee's nest that it had become.

Spear Mint, perhaps the only angel unaffected by Noble Scarlet's appearance, grunted. "Cool Mint, leave the kid alone. She's going to come away thinking you're some ogre that's going to eat her or something." If Holy Bell had to assign a persona to Spear Mint, than it would have been an animal that she dimly recalled Aiko sending to Belldandy one evening. A honey badger. Spear Mint got places to go and things to kill and snakes to eat. Spear Mint ain't got no time for nonsense.

Honey Badgers don't care. Neither did Spear Mint.

"Awww...come on Spear!" Cool Mint looked over at her older 'twin'-or was Spear Mint more like her mother? Holy Bell still couldn't figure _that_ relationship out. Something about being created from Spear Mint's essense and a small bit of the angle eater and it was all so confusing, but gods be praised, at least she'd never had to try and fight a monster like the _Rabishu_. She kind of admired Spear Mint for that though. 'Fighting Wings: Losing Wings So You Don't Have To.'

Ha. That sounded like a fun bumper sticker for Keiichi's truck. If she could figure out how to make a customized bumper sticker, she would do it. The angel pursed her lips in thought, her featherless wings stretching and relaxing. Actually, maybe if she had a sweater...just hide her wings, maybe write out her request to Keiichi and see if she could somehow get him to do it for her. That or maybe someone else in Team Twelve. They seemed like a good group of guys. Surely if she hid her tiny little stumpy wings, she could pass for a regular human, right?

Right?

She'd have to save her thoughts for another time, however.

Someone was knocking on the door.

As one, the Choir froze, all eyes drawn to front of the room.

"Who is it?" Cool Mint cried in a high-pitched, grandmotherly voice. "Is that you, Red Riding Hood?"

Of course, as angels spoke at a frequency no other creature could hear, whoever was on the other side of the door completely missed Cool Mint's comments, and the angel's words went largely ignored by the rest of the choir.

World of Elegance handed Noble Scarlet off to Holy Bell. "Let me see who I need to terrorize _this_ time," she said, which earned her a giggle from both Noble Scarlet and Cool Mint.

"Please don't terrorize my mistress again," Gorgeous Rose begged. " _Please_. She ran from you fearing you were rabid last time. I don't want to think of what kind of impression you'll scar into her consciousness this time."

"We'll see," World of Elegance replied. "No promises." The angel proceeded to the door and stretched her wings out as had become habit of late, blocking the inner chamber and its residents from the view of whoever was on the other side of the door. For a moment, the angel pressed her ear to the door, trying to guess at if it was god or mortal that stood on the other side, but heard nothing other than another knock. Frowning, the angel shrugged to herself, then pulled the door open.

...And was mercilessly tackled by Aiko Morisato, Terror of Gods and Frenzy of Angels.

"ANGELS!" Aiko screamed. "OH MY GOD LOOK AT THEM!" she shrieked. "IMMA WRASSAL 'EM!" Somewhere between the front door downstairs and her journey to Belldandy's room, the college student had acquired an Australian accent, much to World of Elegance's horror.

She might as well have yelled 'bomb' for how the choir reacted.

"Help!" World of Elegance yelled, tangled beneath Aiko's hands as the woman hugged her and snuggled her and squeezed her and, all in all, generally freaked the poor angel the fuck out.

"RETREAT!" Spear Mint screamed. "Grab the one young and the ill! Get them back to their hosts!"

Without thought, Cool Mint dove onto the bed and scooped Noble Scarlet into her arms while Gorgeous Rose and Spear Mint aided Holy Bell. Aiko was still attempting to wrestle World of Elegance, although it looked less like wrestling and more like the girl was trying to snuggle up against the angel as World of Elegance tried to fend her of with Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. It wasn't working very well in World of Elegance's case. Wings tended to get in the way of grappling martial arts.

"GO!" World of Elegance screamed. "Get them out of here!"

"OH, AIN'T SHE A BEAUT?" Aiko screamed.

"GO ON WITHOUT ME!"

Spear Mint hesitated for a moment as the others raced past the fallen angel and the great and terrible Angel Wrassler. For a brief moment, her eyes locked with World of Elegance. "Your sacrifice won't be forgotten." She saluted the angel, and then followed the others outside and down the hallway.

Keiichi, who was once more minding his own business as he went upstairs to grab his computer, was at once trampled by several angels, one of which, this being Cool Mint, had the gall to throw him into the hallway. "FOR THE HORDE!" she screamed, and pumped her fist in the air.

"We're _angels_ Cool Mint!" Gorgeous Rose screamed.

"FOR THE CHOIR!" Cool Mint screamed and again pumped her fist into the air.

For Keiichi, it was perhaps the strangest and most painful game of Charades he'd ever witnessed.

He was slammed into the wall again by Aiko as she emerged, World of Elegance trapped in a headlock next to her. "Wait!" She cried. "Come back! I JUST WANNA HUG YOU!"

None of the angels, except perhaps for Noble Scarlet, held back by Cool Mint, stopped to take the college student up on what she offered.

XXX [G]entle Words of Tiding

It was the middle of the night in the Morisato household and all through the abode, not a creature was stirring, not even the commode!

As this chapter comes to a close, the hope is that the readers don't balk. But the writers are not done, did you know the furniture can talk?

XXX Strange [H]appenings

"Yo! What the fuck was that?" The sound came from the Ugly Beast.

"The hell if I know!" That was the Son of the Ugly Beast. "Poets, these fuckers ain't." The chair paused as it contemplated something. "What I wanna know is who the hell is that 'Imaginos' guy?"

"Meh, some jerkwad who weaseled in on the story with grandiose promises of being some grammar Nazi," replied the Ugly Beast.

"Sheee-it. Fucker don't know his ass from a hole in the ground."

"Wha-Chew-Talk'in-'Bout, Chair!?"

"I'm talk'in 'bout how he missed that one incomplete sentence in the previous chapter!"

There was a long, heavy sigh from the Ugly Beast. "Dude, you can just step the fuck back from that shit. Ya can't fault 'im for missin' one little fucking thing when you look at all the other big damned improvements that have come about in the previous chapters! Hell, fucker's been going through _all_ the previous chapters correcting all sort ah shit the fuckin' writers missed. They just too lazy to go back and fix em!" The Ugly Beast's voice dropped into a low growl. "Lazy-ass motherfuckers."

"Man, why you always cursing so much?" the chair complained.

"Hey!" the Ugly Beast Snapped. "Ain't my fault the authors wrote me like this. Step the fuck back son!"

"Bitch, I'mma chair! Fuck you!"

"Boy, I'mma come over there and tan your hide you keep that up!"

"The fuck you is Old Man! You a fucking couch!"

"Oh, that's it. You asked for it! I'mma beat you black and blue 'till even yo' mama don't know you!" The Ugly Beast shouted. "I done made all these sacrifices fo' you to make sure you get a fucking ed-ju-ca-tion, and what you do? Fucking blow it crack and hoes! Now hold still while I whoop yo' ass."

As predicted, the Ugly Beast, being a couch, did absolutely nothing.

"Tryna whoop my ass... bitch, please," the Son of the Ugly Beast taunted. "You need fists fo' that shit, _in case you forgot,_ dumbass."

"You think I don't know that?" the Ugly Beast demanded. "You think I can't? Boy, I got _connections._ Lemme tell you bout my home girl, El. She ain't 'fraid a nothing and can throw you straight through the motherfucking roof! You want me to call her down right now? 'Cause I can if you so hungry to get beat."

"Bring it motherfucker!" the Son of the Ugly Beast roared. "You ain't got the balls!"

The Ugly Beast did indeed lack the balls necessary to call on his home girl, El. It was a couch, lest we forget. But that did not stop the couch from trying. "Yo!" the couch cried. "Where my homies at?!"

The Son of the Ugly Beast, having been in the house for a grand total of less than a week, sat back (as it was a recliner) and waited. Had it had lips, it would have smiled, and that smile would have been smug. "You foolin' yo'self Old Man," the Son of the Ugly Beast proclaimed. "Ain't no one coming for yo' ass."

And yet, to the surprise of the Son of the Ugly Beast, the recliner began to hear a rapid thumping from upstairs. The pounding of feet. A good many feet, in fact.

The Son of the Ugly Beast became a mite bit worried. "Yo, it's just them crazy girls, right? Upstairs? The new dipshits raising hell. That's all."

The Ugly Beast laughed. "Boy, I told you I'mma about to learn you a lesson in _pain_. I mean what I say."

The pounding grew louder. The individuals upstairs were approaching the staircase, and now the Son of the Ugly Beast could hear it as they raced down the stairs. "Awww shit," the recliner proclaimed. "No way. Ain't no fucking way, motherfucker. No way in hell you got a fucking posse at yo' beck and call."

"Motherfucker, you don't know me!" the Ugly Beast cried. "I told ya', I got my homegirl backing me up! She run her own gang, and they about to beat yo' ass so hard The Male gonna throw you outside like the ghetto piece a shit you acting!"

The pounding grew louder as the producers of the sound came into view. "Remember, you asked for it, asshole!" the Ugly Beast declared. "Get 'em, girls!" Yet the angels who'd arrived ignored the couch, diving into the living room as though pursued by a _Rabishu_ of the latest generation.

"She's on our tail!" Spear Mint screamed. "Come on, we need to shake her!"

"Wait, who's on yo' tail?" The Ugly Beast demanded. "Where my home girl at? Where Ellie?"

"Not now Mr. Ugly Beast." Holy Bell, still being held between Gorgeous Rose and Spear Mint, said as they maneuvered around furniture. "We need to be very very quiet. Aiko's hunting us like rabbits."

"The fuck?!" So said all the furniture, to include the coffee table, gorilla box, and TV stand, in the living room.

"Guys, be quiet!" Cool Mint whined. "She'll hear you!"

"She a fucking human, she can't hear us!" the Ugly Beast retorted. "Ain't no one hears us but you!"

"And the authors," Noble Scarlet muttered "And the readers."

Nobody was paying attention to her long enough to question her strange comment.

"Guys, I'm going for it." The angels backed into a corner of the room, huddling into a tiny nestle of limbs and wings and feathers. They all looked at Spear Mint in concern. "I'm going to take her out. Even if it's the last thing I do."

Cool Mint's eyes widened. "No..." she whispered. "No, you can't! Don't be a hero, Spear Mint!"

"It's either one of us or all of us!" Spear Mint screamed. "And I'm an old and worn angel, well past her use." She handed Holy Bell off to Gorgeous Rose. The two looked at her in open concern. Holy Bell looked close to weeping. "It's okay. Lind still has you, Cool Mint. She'll be fine without me."

"But what about _me_ , Spear Mint?" The twin was sobbing now. "I can't do this alone- I need you!"

"You'll have to go on without me!" Spear Mint announced. She rose to her feet and moved to stand in front of the choir. "I believe in you Cool Mint. You're a fine angel for Lind." With the calm of a woman who'd accepted her fate, Spear Mint walked towards the entrance to the living room. It took the combined strength of Holy Bell, Noble Scarlet, and Gorgeous Rose-well, mostly Gorgeous Rose since she was the only angel with any real strength- to hold Cool Mint back.

The lone angel stood in the threshold, and her wing splayed out as Aiko came racing down the stairs. "Come at me, you evil-"

"ANGEL!" Aiko screamed, and threw herself at Spear Mint with such inhuman force that Spear Mint's feet left the ground. The two sailed through the air as though gravity had lost its hold on them, Awolntion's 'Sail' began to play from a previously unknown radio, and Spear Mint and Aiko landed on the Son of the Ugly Beast, causing the recliner to erupt in a fit of hysterical profanity.

The couch began to howl with laughter as the remaining angels made a break for it. "Bitch! I fuck'n told ya!"

Aiko squealed, wrapping her arms around Spear Mint's neck as she drew the angel close. The angel, reminiscent of the many childhood pets unfortunate enough to come within an arm's reach of the girl, began fighting and struggling against her, trying to escape the rather forced session of cuddles from a grabby-handed toddler unfamiliar with the words 'gentle'.

"I'll take you home and lock you in a cage, and I will call you George! And never ever ever ever let you out again except to love you and hug you and squeeze you all up!" Aiko cried.

Spear Mint, perhaps the one angel who most needed a hug given her horrible backstory, was desperate to deny Aiko that exact opportunity. "Please...just...KILL ME!" she begged.

It was perhaps just as unfortunate that mortals could no more hear the words of angels than they could understand furniture.

The recliner, stuck and immobile beneath the struggling duo, could only say the following: "Please help."

The Ugly Beast, as expected from a couch, did nothing. "Couch don't play that."

* * *

A/N: April Fools! We will return you to your regularly scheduled chapter next weekend. And no, this chapter will not be replaced. I might go in later and put a disclaimer on it, but otherwise it shall stay in all of its maddening glory! Enjoy!

* * *

 _Comments of a Madwoman: It may or may not have been pure coincidence that April 1_ _st_ _just happened to take place during such a dramatic arc in the story. Think of this a a break for both the authors and the readers in regards to the heavy material happening in 'My Angel' at this point. None of this is canon for Scarred Survivors, but hopefully it got a laugh out of the two people who managed to get to the end comments._


	34. Chapter 34 - My Angel

l

-34-

Aiko arrived at her brother's residence at close to eleven that day. The woman was scared and nervous and worried after her conversation with her brother, and that combined anxiety sat like something nasty in the pit of her stomach, something which began to rot and reek as she dwelt on the idea that her brother had almost been killed by a goddess. The thought scared her all over again. Oh, _fuck,_ her brother had almost been killed by a goddess. A literal _goddess_. A 'worship thee and make sacrifices unto thy name to bestow thy blessings' goddess who had almost _killed her brother._ Fuck. Oh, _fuck._ What the fuck was she supposed to do? What _could_ she do? 'Never speak to me or my brother again'? She couldn't make demands of a goddess. She didn't _want_ to make demands of a goddess. Up until that fucking phone call, they'd been on some pretty damned good terms, but now this...oh god- no, screw that, oh Satan, what was she supposed to do? Fuck, she didn't want this. Why did Belldandy have to— _fuck!_

Morning traffic between North Carolina and Virginia had slowed her more than she'd planned, and in her rush to reach Keiichi the student had been pulled over for speeding by a local police cruiser. She'd wasted an hour trying to keep her cool with the man and explain to him why she'd been in such a rush. She was rewarded with a warning instead of a ticket for her trouble, which she was grateful for. It had been enough to scare the young woman into going strictly the speed limit, though, which further delayed her arrival, but saved her another pull over when she spotted two more cruisers on the highway. Now the college student drove at fifteen up the familiar curved road that led to her brother's driveway, and was greeted with the sight of a stranger on the front porch. Another god, Aiko was willing to bet. _Fuuuuuck._

He was a short man, probably no taller than Aiko, who took after her mother, Takano, on the 'petite' side of the family. His dress was strange and outlandish; long, white robes with patterns along their frills that brought to mind some kind of religious affiliation. He stood talking on a cellphone while leaning across the wooden railing surrounding the front porch, his eyes following Aiko's vehicle as she pulled up into the driveway. There was something strikingly familiar about the man, though what it was Aiko couldn't say. It tugged at the recesses of her brain, though the worry presented over what had happened to Keiichi outweighed whatever familiarity the man might have possessed.

The day had developed into an outrageously bright and sunny day, one that called for tank tops and shorts as the sun approached noon and seemed vastly inappropriate weather for Aiko's current state of mind. Her mood was a wild and uncontrolled tempest, her mood should have brought rain and wind and storms. Yet instead the birds chirped and sang and the crows cawed as they insulted each other. A mosquito landed on Aiko's arm, which she swatted as she exited the vehicle and closed the door behind her. She could hear the man talking, but it wasn't in any language she understood. The robes must have been stifling for him when combined with Virginia's humidity, yet the man appeared largely unaffected by the temperature or his heavy outfit.

He switched to English at her approach. "Listen, you old dream-eater, I gotta go, okay?" He paused and listened to the voice on the other end, who sounded vaguely like an old woman. "I know... but right now we got six divinities in the same house already, we don't need a seventh one descending. We a big enough target without adding another Tic to the mess, so this seems the safest option." He yanked the phone away from his ear and held it at arm's length when the voice began yelling, then looked at Aiko with a long-suffering look. Aiko watched him with uncertainty, debating on whether to simply sneak past the odd-but-familiar man or to wait for him to finish speaking before proceeding. Having grown up in a traditional Japanese home where manners came first and foremost, the urge to politely wait won out. Not for the first time in her life Aiko cursed her upbringing.

The yelling faded, and the uncomfortably-familiar man- just who the flying fuck did he remind her of? The name was at the tip of her tongue- brought the phone back to his ear. "Good to hear. I'll pass it on." The call ended, and the man stored his phone somewhere in the infinite depths of his robes before turning his focus to Aiko.

Aiko stared at him long and hard, wracking her brain as she tried to figure out why he still seemed so god damned familiar to her. "Your wife sounded mad," she said in a fit of absent-mindedness, and then watched as the man's dark eyes bulged in their sockets before tilting his head back and howling with laughter.

"My wife? _Her_? She'd eat me!" he cried, releasing long, whooping peals of laughter that shook his whole body.

"I thought that's what most guys wanted, though," Aiko replied, and watched as again the odd little man paused, thought her words over for a moment, and then leaned over the wooden banister of the porch in another fit of laughter. His face was growing red, and despite herself Aiko grinned, though it was perhaps a tad bit nervous.

"Ooooh, I like you _Kyz_ ," he said after composing himself. "I ain't laughed like that in a month a' Sundays!" He sent her an amiable smile. "You okay, _Kyz._ You okay." He shook his head, and another trickle of laughter escaped him. "That ain't no _assat,_ Kyz. That was _U'sar-an_." Another head shake. "Like I would take a Dreamweaver for a spouse... as if my _Ssaratu_ does not bring enough nightmares as is... are you _Lum-_ Morisato's _ahatki?_ With that hair, I'd a' passed you for one a Lind's _kud._ "

Aiko stared at him blankly, that same nervous smile still on her face as she slowly shook her head. "Um, sorry, a what? A 'lum'?" She asked. "I... understood about one in every three words you just said. What's a... whatever you just called me?"

The stranger stared at her for a moment as though not understanding what she was asking of him. "OH! Right! Sorry 'bout that!" he said. "I forget myself at times. _'Lum_ ' as in you. What your race is. The race of man and mortal as so crafted by the higher planes," he explained. "An' I called you by my old tongue's word for 'sister'."

"Oh." Aiko looked at the man, still uncertain. "Well... I suppose that makes you one of the newcomers then, huh?" She looked him up and down. _I almost have it. It's... something. Some old movie I saw once? Christ, who the fuck does he remind me of?_ "Yeah, I'm Kei's younger sister, Aiko." The college student narrowed her eyes at him for a long moment. _He almost looks like..._ They widened in recognition, and with a yelp Aiko stumbled back. "Holy shit!" she exclaimed, and watched as the man before her- for fucks sake why didn't she see it sooner?- jumped and yelped in surprise. "You're fucking Cheech!"

The man's eyes widened. That's what gave it away, the big fucking give-away, the huge bulging eyes when he got startled and that ridiculous perv-stache, and then he raised his hands up in front of him. "Wait! Hold up, I ain't no _lum!_ "

Yet Aiko was already off in her own little world. "It all makes sense now," she breathed. "How a couple of stoners managed to make so many stupid-ass movies! It's because Cheech is a fucking god and I'm staring at him as I live and breathe!"

"What?!" 'Cheech' stared at her in confusion that was broadening into horror, and Aiko felt a larger smile spread across her face.

The college student started patting herself down, looking for her phone. Realizing she had left it in her car, she looked back to Cheech. "Hold up, stay _right_ here for a second!" she cried. "Please? I need to get something real fast." Leaving the flustered god on the porch, Aiko raced off the towards her car, rooted through the debris on the passenger seat, found the object of her search, retrieved another important item from the glove box, then raced back up the front porch without even bothering to shut the door to her car. The god was now staring at Aiko with large, nervous eyes. The girl scaled the three steps leading up to the front porch in a single leap, and Cheech jumped away from her as though fearing some kind of attack.

"The _lum_ are getting kooky," he muttered to himself.

Aiko ignored the comment. "C'mere." She waved him over with her free hand. "C'mon, please? I just want to take a picture with you."

"A picture?" The deity stared at her in confusion, and Aiko put on the most winning and innocent smile she could. "Why you want a picture with me, _Kyz_?" he asked, looking very much like he did not want to have anything to do with her at that moment. "This proof you gonna use for something? I don't like pictures. They always come back to bite me in the ass."

"Please?" Aiko begged. "It'll be fine, I promise. I just want to take a picture with you."

"I ain't Cheech." The man eyed her in mistrust. "And you the second _lum_ to call me that. I'm Nebo."

"Then can I take a picture with 'Nebo'?" Aiko persisted. There was no way in hell she was going to let _this_ opportunity slip past her. "Please?" she asked again. "Pretty please with sugar on top? I promise I won't put it online or anything." Fuck that, she was putting this picture on her Instagram page as soon as she got home.

"Ah..." The man still looked uncertain, but he didn't look _quite_ as unwilling as before.

Aiko clasped her hands in front of her, keeping the little bag she'd grabbed in the cup of her palm and out of his sight. "Just one picture," she said. "That's all I'm asking. Please? Belldandy and Urd and Skuld let me take pictures of them! Hell, even Lind let me take a picture of her!" She'd sent _that_ pic off to Jackson almost as soon as she'd finished taking it. The man had since sent her a care package filled with chocolate in thanks.

Nebo stared at her in disbelief. " _Lind_ let you take a picture of her?" he asked. "As in, the same lady who got hair like you and could kick both our asses to Niflheim an' back?"

Aiko's smile didn't fade. "Yep!" Okay, so maybe Lind wasn't actually aware of it at the time and maybe she kind of subtly snuck a photo of the Valkyrie while she was preoccupied in her little mock-fight with Jackson, and maybe she didn't exactly know about it, but hey, ignorance is bliss, right?

That seemed to further calm Nebo down. She could tell she was winning, whittling him down like a block of wood with a sharp knife. "Promise I won't show anyone," she said. "Not Belldandy or her sisters, not Lind, not even Kei if you like. I just want one. Single. Picture."

"Just one picture," Nebo parroted. "For real? Just _one_?"

"Just one," Aiko said with absolute certainty.

"And you won't show anyone?" Nebo continued, watching her shrewdly.

"Cross my heart and hope to die," Aiko replied.

"Well..." Nebo hesitated, his brows knitting together as he considered his choice. "I suppose one photo couldn't hurt. Just… it's 'Nebo', okay? Not whoever this 'Cheech' _lum_ is."

"Got it." Aiko bobbed her head in agreement, the smile on her face growing large and broad and toothy. She moved to stand next to him, and the two were almost eyelevel with each other. Nebo might have had a centimeter on her, but that was about it. He really was a small man. Aiko wondered if the real Cheech was that short or if Chong's height just made him look smaller than he actually was. As she pulled up her phone and brought up the camera app, she made a mental note to herself to look it up online later on.

The college student wrapped an arm around Nebo's shoulders, and after a moment's hesitation Nebo did as well. "Okay, smile for the camera in three...two...one..." Right as she pressed the photo button Aiko let the little bag of weed in her hand drop into the frame, then a camera shutter noise emerged from the phone. "That's it!" she cried, and thumbed the little baggie to her other hand as she turned off the phone and pocketed both it and the surreptitious item. "Sweet! Thank you so, _so_ much, Nebo!"

"Ah... yeah." Nebo's smile looked odd and strained on his face. "No problem. Just remember, no one else knows about that, alright?"

"Got it." Aiko nodded in agreement. "Let me go and close the door to my car, okay? I forgot to close it in my excitement."

"Right..." She could feel the deity's eyes following her as she dashed back to her car to store the little bag, then slammed the door shut after disposing of it in the side compartments of the door.

Jogging back to the porch, the student smiled at the man. "Cool," she said. "Nice to meet you Nebo-who-is-not-Cheech. I'm Aiko-who-is-not-Lind."

Aiko watched an uncertain smile work its way across the god's lips. "You a strange one, _Kyz,"_ he said.

"So they tell me," Aiko replied. "It's part of my charm. Now, how about we go inside and let everyone else know I'm here. I need to see how my ex-girlfriend is doing now that I'm back in town."

Nebo proceeded to the door, looking over his shoulder in curiosity. "Ex-girlfriend?" He held the door open for her, and with a laugh Aiko took him up on the offer, charmed by the gesture.

"Yep!" Aiko chirped. "Let me tell you something, Urd and I spent the night together once and... well... goodness, I'm not supposed to be the type to kiss an' tell!" she joked, fanning herself for added effect.

"Oh." Nebo was quiet for a moment, staring at her in consideration. "She's not here right now," he admitted. "She's with Lind." He spoke the words softly, as though letting Aiko in on a secret, and a part of Aiko wondered if the man wasn't taking her words seriously.

She played along just for effect. "I knew it!" she hissed. "I _knew_ Urd had a thing for that blue-haired scamp! She's still trying to bounce back from after I dumped her!" She sighed, massaging her temples with one hand. "I knew it... Lind looks too much like me for her own good... Urd is rushing into her arms for all the wrong reasons... that poor woman is going to be heartbroken once Urd recovers and dumps _her_."

Nebo nodded his head, looking for all the world like a sympathetic ear. He paused to close the door behind them, following Aiko inside. The young woman just caught the man whisper, "Maybe I should warn her..."

Aiko, her initial bad mood forgotten in the wake of meeting this strange and silly man, had to bite the inside of her cheek to stop herself from laughing. _Bless him, he's too innocent for this world._ She thought with a smile, and that smile only grew larger as someone stepped into the hallway from the dining room. "Kei!" she cried, and barreled into the other man, who caught her with a grunt. "You're here! Oh thank goodness. Are you all right?" She asked, looking up at him. "You weren't hurt or anything, were you?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, Aiko." Keiichi's voice was quiet, absent of the usual cheer that came when seeing his youngest sister. "Sorry if I scared you. Things have been hectic over here."

"I know," Aiko professed. "That's why I came. You and Bell scared the shit out of me, Kei." They separated, and the younger woman stared at him in fresh concern. "Are you okay though? Really? You and Carrie both?"

The man hesitated for a moment. "I think for right now we are," he finally said. "It's not ideal, but... I think, at least for this moment we're both okay."

"So Carrie's here too?" Aiko asked, and Keiichi nodded.

"She's upstairs right now," he explained. "With..." He trailed off, looking back past Aiko and to the god standing near the staircase.

"She with her angel, _Kyz_ ," Nebo said.

"Yeah." Keiichi nodded. "It-shit's weird, Aiko. I can't explain it any other way."

"So I heard over the phone," Aiko replied. "Angels though... really? Is this an actual thing?"

"They're real alright," Keiichi grumbled. "And _big_ , and small, and..." He ran his hands through his hair. "Fucking hell."

Nebo watched the two siblings carefully. "How much you know 'bout us, Morisato- _kud_?" He looked between the two of them, addressing them both.

"What's 'cud'?" Aiko asked. "You aren't talking about the stuff cows chew, is it?"

Nebo stared at her blankly. "Now why in the nine worlds would I-no. _Kud_. Your tribe. How much does your tribe know about us? Myself and Lind and Belldandy and the others?"

The two siblings stared at the man, both quiet as they contemplated the deity's question. In truth, their knowledge was limited. Aiko's even more so than Keiichi's. They'd been told of Yggdrasil and knew the Norns kept the universe running on some level that neither of them could understand. They'd seen the power a goddess could wield and the sheer strength behind it. And now they knew that angels existed and, to some extent, were connected to a specific god, though the hows and the whys were still largely ambiguous. Sure, there was probably scripture out the wazoo detailing their lives, but there was something very, very different about knowing a god in person versus knowing a god on paper, as both brother and sister had been quick to learn.

A brunette woman Aiko didn't recognize came down the staircase, pausing when she caught sight of Aiko. "Lind?" she asked, catching Nebo's attention as he looked up and over his shoulder at her. "You have returned? What have you done to your hair? And Urd is not with you?"

"Hate to disappoint you, but I'm Earth-Lind, better known as Aiko," the college student replied. "God-Lind is unavailable, though if you want, through my incredible psychotic-I mean, psychic connection with my almighty half, I can summon her back here for you."

The stranger stared at her blankly, and Nebo turned back to Aiko. "I am starting to have trouble differentiating between your sarcasm and when you are serious," he said.

"Sarcasm?" Aiko asked in mock shock. " _Me_? Surely you must be joking," she said sarcastically. "I'm always serious!" she cried. "In fact, just to prove it, I'm going to use my amazing telepathic abilities to call Lind back here right now!" She pointed to the front door.

Nothing happened.

Aiko dropped her hand. "Eh, it was worth a shot," she said. "Sometimes there's a delay on our link, you know. Could be anywhere from instantaneous to-"

The front door opened, and Lind and Urd entered, the latter of whom looked utterly exhausted.

"Bitch, I'm magic!" Aiko proclaimed as she pumped her fist in the air.

"So it would seem..." Nebo eyed the woman in disbelief. He looked back to the latest arrivals. "Welcome back. All is well, I hope?"

Lind nodded, and Urd stumbled past her through the hallway and into the living room. Without a word she collapsed face down onto the Ugly Beast. Within seconds she was out cold.

The two siblings stared at the back of the couch in concern, the Ugly Beast's back blocking all but the woman's feet from view. "Is... she okay?" Aiko asked.

"As okay as she can be," Lind grumbled. Nebo raised an eyebrow. "She expelled all her energy out in the woods," the Valkyrie explained. "I think she saw it as a necessity. World of Elegance was close to losing it for a while there." She looked disgruntled. "She… _they're_ better now. Both of them."

"Who's World of Elegance?" Aiko asked.

"Urd's angel," Lind replied, then paused, as though seeing Aiko for the first time. "It's you."

"It's me," Aiko agreed. "How ya' doing God-Twin? You taking care of my ex-girlfriend?"

Lind squinted at her, and beside Aiko, Keiichi hid his face in his hands.

Nebo looked at the gathered assortment of mortals and gods and sighed. "How about we move this conversation into the dining room and give Urd a break. She been going at it without rest for a while now."

"Yeah..." Aiko was the only one who noticed Keiichi's lingering gaze on Urd. He almost looked guilty. More questions for when they finally had a chance to speak in private.

Together, the group of three gods and two mortals proceeded into the dining room. Keiichi chose to stand as Aiko introduced herself to Peorth. "Okay," the college student announced. "So I now know that everyone is alive, for the most part." She eyed Keiichi, who nodded in agreement. "That's a relief. Now, could somebody _please_ explain these angels I keep hearing about?" she requested. "Maybe... I don't know, _show_ them to me, if possible?"

"Sorry, _Kyz_ , no can do. Angels ain't for show." Nebo shook his head.

"Why not?" Aiko asked. "Keiichi saw Urd's. He told me over the phone."

"That was accidental," Keiichi clarified, ignoring the look Nebo sent him. "I... kind of walked out when Urd's angel popped out. She let me know right away it wasn't okay for me to see her."

"She attacked you, didn't she?" Peorth crossed her arms over her chest. "Typical," she grunted. "As expected from an angel with black plumage."

Both Aiko and Keiichi stared at the woman queerly. "Wait, what do you mean?" Aiko asked. "Urd's angel has black feathers? Is something wrong with that?"

Nebo groaned loudly. "Thought Belldandy spoke with you 'bout this," he grumbled, casting a glare to Peorth. "There's nothing wrong with black feathers! It's just a mutagen that occurs on occasion."

"Wait, now I'm confused." Lind peered between Peorth in Nebo, her expression blank. "What's wrong with World of Elegance having a black wing?"

"Nothing!" Nebo exclaimed, his frustration growing evident to the members present.

Peorth deliberately ignored him. "You mean to tell me that you, a Valkyrie, have never heard the rumors surrounding those with black plumage?"

"No," Lind admitted. "Valkyries tend not to speak much on the appearance of their angels. Too many people from too many different places, and our experiences in the borderlands can... alter the appearances of our angels greatly." There was a warning note in her voice. One that left Aiko watching the woman keenly, wondering if she was about to watch a fight break out between the two deities.

Peorth huffed, but seemed to heed the warning. "Then I suppose I am the only one who's heard the stories-"

"Rumors," Nebo proclaimed.

"-of an angel with a black wing?" The goddess continued without pause. "Of how they were seen as tarnished? 'Black Souled'?" She stared at Lind in disbelief.

"Peorth..." There was a note of warning in Nebo's voice now as well. Aiko thought it was the first time since meeting the two new deities that she'd heard the man address the goddess by her actual name and not _'kyz'_ , as he seemed to prefer.

The woman looked at him, her lips pressed in a tight, thin frown. "Nebo, I know you claim those are rumors, but there's some truth to them," she said. "Rumors or not, there is _fact_ in the matter that deities were hunted if they had black in their angels. It was said that those were the ones who would in the end descend into madness, and so they could not be trusted. That they would lose their grasp on those who were friend and those who were not and attack those around them with such wild abandon that they would-"

"That's _enough_ , Peorth." Belldandy's voice emerged from the hallway, and the anger in it was enough to make Aiko's skin crawl. "I _will not_ have you insult my sister or spread rumors of her to the people in this household based off false conjecture." The college student looked to the hallway and felt the hair on the nape of her neck rise in alarm. Belldandy looked _pissed_.

"What?" Peorth cried, looking both confused and hurt by Belldandy's words. "I am only stating what I have heard and what I have read- there are accounts of how-"

"I said. That's. _E_ _nough_ ," Belldandy snapped. The woman's glare was strong enough to peel paint, and apparently enough to silence Peorth as well. Though the woman looked like she wanted to argue further, instead she fell silent, leaving Aiko to wonder what else she'd wanted to say.

Given how upset Belldandy looked at the accusations thrown, perhaps it was better that Aiko didn't ask.

And so she didn't ask. Didn't say anything, for that matter, as all at once Aiko was overwhelmed once more with the same sense of dread and foreboding that had been the monkey on her back since receiving a phone call from her brother early in the morning that same day. She sucked in a deep breath but heard it tremble, then rose abruptly from her seat as her hand reached out and grabbed Keiichi's. She looked at her brother. "We need to talk." A small piece of her was proud when her voice did not quiver. "In private. _Now."_

For a moment it appeared as though Kei would protest, his mouth parting as if to say no, only for him to pause. His eyes studied her face, and part of her wondered what it was he saw in her. He closed his mouth, and his lips pressed into a hard, thin line. He nodded, and still holding his hand, the two excused themselves from the table. They passed Belldandy on their way toward the hallway and upstairs, and Aiko felt a strange cocktail of shame, guilt, anger, and pity as the goddess moved- hell, almost _jumped-_ away from them. She caught a brief glance at the Norn in passing and was left uncomfortable by the look on Belldandy's face. The anguish in the woman's eyes was strong enough to almost be made physical. Aiko averted her eyes.

As they were coming upstairs, Aiko thought she heard the soft _click_ of a door closing, then passed it off as Skuld. She was the only person who wasn't present downstairs, and given what Keiichi had told her over the phone, the college student was aware of the younger Norn's presence in the house. They moved into Keiichi's room. It appeared to be in order, his bed made and everything in its place. The only thing that was off was that there was a strange tang to the air that Aiko caught as she entered, like Febreeze mixed with smoke.

As she closed the door, it was then that, ever so politely, Aiko lost her shit.

"Keiichi, what the fuck?" she demanded. It was one of the few times the younger woman had ever broken down and used her brother's full name. "You're still- she's still here. Why are you still in the same house with the person who just tried to kill you?"

Keiichi sighed. "It's _my_ house Aiko," he said. "And I've already had to make that clear to half the people here. I'm not going to be chased from my home."

"Then you could have sent Belldandy away!" Aiko exclaimed. "Keiichi, she almost- she _killed_ you. You guys shouldn't even be in the same room together! Kei, if she was human, you know what this would be? Attempted murder. Not a fucking domestic dispute. Not even domestic violence, all though given what happened last time you might as well rope that charge in there too. But no, she pretty much murdered you, and you're still in the same fucking building as her? What the hell is wrong with you?"

"Aiko..." Keiichi sounded tired. Worse, he sounded condescending, as though _Aiko_ was in the wrong for losing her temper and freaking out. Not the woman who'd murdered his ass and had required a straight-up act of God in order to save him. Not even Keiichi himself, because let's face it, it takes two to tango and they were both willing parties at the time. No. _She_ was in the wrong.

"No!" Aiko snapped. "Don't you even start. You remember what happened between you and Deb? How the _immediate_ action McGuinness took was to keep you away from Deb until an investigation sorted everything out?" She looked at him earnestly, searching his face, yet her brother's expression was guarded. "How is this any different, huh?" she demanded. "You _almost_ killed Deb that night, and it scared her so bad she left the house. Now you've got a new girl, the roles are switched, and all of a sudden you're in Deb's shoes, yet rather than recognize the fact you're in a bad situation, you fucking ignore that shit?"

For a moment Aiko thought she caught a flash of anger from the man; a spark that made his whole face ripple with contained emotion, and in that instant Aiko saw the SEAL beneath the man, saw the warrior caged within, and understood just why it was SEALs held the reputation they did. For a brief moment she thought she might have even seen a little of what Deb saw that night, and maybe even felt a little of what Deb felt that night, yet it lasted not even a full second. The thing she'd seen slide across his flesh vanished in place of her brother once more.

"What would you have me do?" Keiichi asked her instead, and that heavy exhaustion in his voice almost seemed to weigh on him like a physical presence. "I can't go to McGuinness with this shit. I can't kick a goddess out of my house. I can't-" He squeezed his eyes shut, looking hurt, and Aiko felt a knot of guilt well up inside her. It wasn't as if her brother didn't recognize the situation he was in- he wasn't ignoring it as she'd initially suspected upon arrival. Hell, he'd considered his options, laid all his cards on the table and realized there was no winning this hand. McGuinness didn't have a full understanding of the situation and would demand an explanation if he went to his OIC or anyone else on his team. Belldandy was a goddess, in a house _filled_ with gods. In this case, Keiichi was the odd man out, even with Aiko's arrival. Sure, he could go and rent a hotel room, but that wasn't going to address the matter at hand. If anything, it would make matters worse, given the fact that he'd have been chased from his home by the woman downstairs at this very moment.

 _But something needs to give,_ Aiko thought. _I get that we can't just call the police and let the justice system work its magic, because we're dealing with literal gods who could probably brain wipe them or just straight up blow them to pieces if they try and get involved. We can't force someone with so much power out of the house either- not when we're the minority surrounded by those same forces that could squash us like bugs. It's like the only option we have is to negotiate, yet how do you work up the nerve to negotiate with the person who tried to kill you?_

She frowned and tried to imagine herself in Keiichi's shoes, yet the one person that came to her was not her lover back home, but Stuart in Belldandy's place, leering down at her from the darkness of her mind's eye. Her skin broke into goosebumps at the man's once familiar face, the smile he used to wear having evolved over the years since his trials into a grimace of such hate and malice it made her ill to imagine it. Yet imagine it she did: she made him a god, filled with powers unending, and placed him downstairs right next to Belldandy. She shuddered at the vision. "I just don't- how can you stand it, Kei? _Knowing_ she killed you, and then standing in the same room as her?"

"Because I think I'm still in love with her." The man froze at the words, as though surprised by his own announcement. Aiko sure as shit was.

"How can you say you still love her after _that_?" the woman demanded. "I don't-" She shook her head, baffled, upset, and confused. "It really is like Deb," she lamented. "God... Kei, I never told you this, but... after what happened between the two of you... she was the same way. Even when she was afraid of you, all she would do was ask about you. 'How's Keiichi?', 'Is he okay?' 'Should I go and see him?' 'I want to see him but I'm afraid'… shit, Megumi told me she had to convince her three times that calling you was a bad idea, and this all in the same week that followed what happened between you two!" The student shook her head, frustrated. "She said it drove her mad- that she finally had an understanding why all the people she met with would always go back to the men or women who beat them. Fuck, she _begged_ us to convince her to back down! To find a reason, any reason, to stop her from picking up the phone and calling you!" She beheld him with a grimace. "Do you have any idea what that's like? To have to vilify your own brother to your sister-in-law for _her_ sake?"

"And now the tables are turned and you're refusing to see what's right in front of your face just like Deb!" Aiko cried. "Please, Keiichi, open your fucking eyes! _She tried to kill you!"_

"It was an accident," Keiichi said, his voice quiet and unconvincing, as though he was uncertain who the words were for. "She thought I was someone else."

"Which means she was trying to _murder_ someone else," Aiko emphasized. "Kei, you're a Navy SEAL. I get that. I understand that killing is part of the job and that it's not something you take joy in, but you need to get this through your head- what she did wasn't part of a job. She wasn't ordered by some higher power because she _is_ that higher power, and she _wanted_ to kill somebody. That's not healthy, Kei!"

The man paused and stared at her, silent for a moment before responding. "Wouldn't you want to kill Stuart?" he asked. "After what he did to you?"

The question shocked her to the core, repulsed her in ways she couldn't explain. She stared at him in a stunned silence, and then shook her head. " _No," she_ said, and the steel in her voice was undeniable. "No, I wouldn't. I _don't_. I want justice, not revenge, and I got my justice. I got my justice a long time ago, and while I was recovering from what he put me through, he got a cell and a number in California's prison system, which places a higher value on the number of people behind bars than it does the number of people graduating high school. I got my justice, and I want nothing more to do with the man, and don't you _dare_ use him as an example in this case."

"Right..." Keiichi sounded distracted now. As if the man was trying to work out some puzzle in his mind. "Right, sorry Aiko. I wasn't trying to…" He trailed off, and his gaze grew long and distant. "I don't know if... no, I don't think she did." He fell into a thoughtful silence, his brows pursed together amidst the contemplative frown on his face. "She... never got her justice, did she? Not with Aoshima... maybe not even with that demon..."

"What do you mean?" Aiko asked.

Keiichi shook his head. "I don't know," he said. "Not yet, at least."

The woman eyed him keenly. "Kei..." she warned.

Yet the SEAL ignored it. "I think I've reached a decision," he said, in that same quiet and commanding voice that Aiko only heard her brother use on topics that particularly bothered him. "One more chance," he said.

Aiko stared at him in stunned silence, and the man continued. "I will give her one more chance," he said. "Just one," he said, cutting Aiko out before she could protest. "You made your points. And they're good points, I'm not going to deny that. But you also brought up other points that I can't ignore. Deb. What we went through. Why she... why she left."

The man took a deep breath. "And you confirmed to me what I already knew. That what Belldandy did was an accident... that she hasn't reached the same peace you have with the person- the _people_ who wronged her and that she's still fighting to reach that goal." His words, though long, were slow and meticulous. Considerate. Careful. "And... I want to give her one more chance... because I _do_ still love her, and that's probably the worst part of it. I want to give her another chance like Deb wanted with me and had to be convinced otherwise because I wasn't right in the head. I want to..." He sighed. "I want to be there for her... when Deb wasn't there for me."

"But..." Aiko drawled. "This can't be without stipulations, Kei. You can't let her get away with literal murder."

"And I won't," Keiichi agreed. "I won't... this will be the last chance, because I _do_ love her, but I also realize that there needs to be a line. Boundaries need to be set. I can't keep getting pieced together like a Lego man every time Bell loses control of herself, but I also can't just expect her to turn around and be 'better' at the drop of a hat." He sighed. "I'll speak with her. Figure something out. Figure out what _she_ wants and what I want and if it's close enough to the same thing to still salvage something out of this. But that's for me to speak with her about in private." He smiled at her. "It'll work out, Aiko. I'll _make_ it work."

Aiko stared up at him and bit her lip. "Damn it Kei..." She stepped toward him and wrapped her arms around the man in a tight embrace. "You're such an asshole, you know that?" She pressed her face into his chest, and felt the man wrap his arms around her in an embrace just as tight. "A big, loveable asshole." The woman blinked her eyes rapidly, feeling them growing hot and fighting against the tears that threatened to slide down her face. "You know what my biggest fear is? It's you. Of you going away on a deployment and never coming back. Of you returning home in a casket, or Keima or Takano opening up the door to some sailor in his service dress, or me receiving a fucking phone call because you-" She bit her lip, grimaced, and continued. "You're supposed to be _safe_ when you're home, asshole! Safe at home practicing whatever you do with McGuinness and Jackson and Sanchez, getting drunk in bars and having stupid one night stands and whatever! But now you got yourself mixed up in all this-this _shit!_ And it scares me! You're supposed to be safe back home, but now I'm more scared than ever, because now, _now_ you've literally come closer to death than any other time in any deployment overseas, and I'm scared shitless that something will happen- some _stupid_ little thing will happen, and I'll lose you when I'm practically right fucking next door to you!"

"I'm sorry," Keiichi murmured. "I don't mean to make you worry like this."

"This is the last time, right?" Aiko demanded. "Promise me this will be the last time. I can't lose you, Kei. _Please_. Not like this."

The man sighed. "One last time," he mumbled. "It's a promise. One final chance to get it right, and I'll make sure Bell understands that too, okay?"

Aiko nodded against him, but refused to let him go, clutching him like the terrified little girl she'd been when he'd been allowed to finally take leave and visit her in California after completing his Naval training. And as he'd done then, so too did he do now, holding onto her just as tight, as if by his grip alone he could shield her from all her terrors and all her nightmares, refusing to loosen his embrace until Aiko's lightened first.

The college student pulled away from him, looking up at the man with puffy red eyes. "Stop being an asshole, dick."

"Well that'd only leave me as a pussy then, wouldn't it?" Keiichi asked. "And we both know I'm not that."

It earned a broken laugh from the woman, who sniffed noisily and ran her elbow against her nose, looked at the mucus smeared across it, and them rubbed it on Keiichi's shirt. The man groaned loudly. "And _I'm_ supposed to be the asshole?" he demanded, still joking, which earned him another laugh from the woman.

"Yes," Aiko announced. "Because you make too many women cry."

He gave her a small half-smile. "Guess I'll have to find a way to make up for that too," he said. "You gonna be good to head back downstairs soon?"

Aiko nodded and sniffed loudly. "Gonna go to the bathroom and clean myself up," she said. "Then see if maybe I can't speak to Bell."

Keiichi looked to her in concern, "Aiko, you're not going to-"

"No." The woman shook her head. "It's... nothing like that. But I need to make sure that she understands. I need to speak with her and hear with my own two ears that she understands, that she won't..." She shook her head. "I need to clear the air between the two of us. Even if she doesn't realize it. And then you can have your little chat with her and then we can all be one big happy family again, with some new dude who looks like Cheech and my evil twin who isn't my twin and, well, I'm probably the more evil of the two of us, but still! I'm going to go talk with her and I'm going to be courteous and mature, because damn it all, I _like_ Belldandy. Even if she did _... accidently_ try and kill you. If you take that incident out of the picture, she's a good person." She bit her lip. "We're friends. I don't want to lose that friendship. I don't want to lose _you_ more, but if I can still have you and I can still be friends with Belldandy... well, there are worse things that could happen, right?"

Keiichi's smile was thin. "Right."

XXX

Skuld had returned as Aiko was making her way down stairs. The woman, like her eldest sister, looked worn and exhausted in almost every way imaginable. She grunted when she saw Aiko but made no further comment, as though Aiko was just the latest in a long line of issues to work through and couldn't be bothered speaking with. Aiko had the unique experience of watching the woman proceed into the living room, stare at Urd passed out on the couch, and then collapse on top of her elder sister without a care in the world. Urd didn't so much as twitch through the entire act, and Aiko was left wondering what the two siblings had experienced that had left them so exhausted and drained before noon that day.

It left her with the also unique and perhaps uncomfortable experience of sharing lunch with a host of strangers in addition to her brother, few of whom Keiichi himself looked very comfortable with. Belldandy had taken to switching rooms with Keiichi whenever he appeared, giving the man enough space to fill a football stadium. Lind was perhaps the only other person she knew aside from her brother, yet even that was pushing the limit; her experience with the Valkyrie consisted of a day of watching Jackson try and fail to flirt with her, and without any of the Norns present, the woman revealed herself to be quiet and somewhat antisocial, monitoring the house's occupants like a warden in a cell block.

Peorth might not have been so bad, though admittedly that was a bit tarnished given how standoffish her brother seemed to be around her. Aiko didn't know the story behind _that_ , but anyone who left her brother visibly uncomfortable was someone to be leery of, in her book.

Which of course should have made her wary of Nebo as well, but given the fact that Keiichi would just kind of scowl and pout and grind his teeth whenever the man spoke, Aiko considered their relationship to be something closer to a dick measuring competition rather than anything that actually made her brother _uncomfortable._ That Aiko could deal with. But watching Keiichi actively try and keep himself as far away from Peorth as possible and still shoot her suspicious looks whenever she wasn't looking made Aiko's hackles raise.

Christ. No wonder Lind was playing Warden. At this rate either a fight was going to break out between Keiichi and Nebo over something stupid like Nebo's declaration that he was vegetarian and Keiichi biting back some kind of snide comment, or Keiichi was going to run up a fucking wall like something out of _The Exorcist_ if Peorth came within spitting distance of him. _Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, here I am, stuck in the middle with you._ Fucking hell, either that or they'd all be dancin' to the Jailhouse Rock.

The immediate image of everyone around her dressed in black suits and shades vis-à-vis the _Blues Brothers_ came to mind, and Aiko snorted with laughter.

Keiichi shot her a look, yet Aiko didn't bother explaining herself. Instead she rose from the dining room table. "I'm gonna go and talk to Belldandy now," she announced.

"She'll be in her bedroom," Peorth said. Her tone made it sound like a warning.

"Got it, thanks." Aiko brushed off the tone, then headed towards the hallway.

" _Kyz,_ whenya go up there, think you could knock on her door first?" Nebo called out behind her. "We got some angels in that room and we trying to give 'em privacy."

Great. Of course. More angels. Could he hear the choir singing _Hallelujah_? 'Cause Aiko sure as shit couldn't, praise Jesus, could she get an Amen?

"Sure," Aiko said cheerfully, deciding that during her chat with Belldandy she was also going to heckle the shit out of the goddess about these angels. She gave the audience a thumbs up, then headed toward the staircase, taking only a moment to peek in on the two sisters passed out on the couch.

At some point, Urd had adjusted in her sleep to better accommodate Skuld. She now had an arm wrapped around her younger sister, and as Aiko proceeded up the stairs, she was left with the parting thought that the two were no strangers to sharing sleeping space, and how much more at ease they looked curled up together.

 _I wonder if it's the same with Belldandy._ She thought, knocking loudly on the door to the woman in question's room before deciding it probably wasn't. Ten years apart tends to distance the heart. The thought brought with it an inexplicable sense of sorrow, one that came out of nowhere and left her reeling. She was at once reminded of her childhood; of long nights where she was afraid to sleep alone and had to share a bed with Megumi, of longer days having to be escorted to school and back because every corner contained a shadow, every shadow held a monster, and every bus was filled with predators, all ready to gobble her up. Of the long stress lines that became permanent additions in her father's face as he looked through bills made out to therapists and clinics, of the white streak that grew into her mother's hair as she juggled a new baby, a wounded daughter, and two jobs to help bring in additional cash as Megumi grew closer to graduation.

Those had been hard times.

Knowing she'd been at the heart of those hard times, growing up in a place like San Francisco, where the money drained like water in a sink, had made it worse.

 _Different person, same stressors,_ Aiko found herself thinking, and swallowed the lump that had gathered in her throat. _Don't forget, this is Carrie we're talking about. She's gone through some shit too._

 _She also tried to kill Kei,_ some small, nasty part of her whispered in turn, and Aiko winced, trying to banish the voice from further comments.

The door opened by a crack, and Belldandy peered out from behind it with one eye. "Yes?" Her voice was soft, quiet almost, as though she was trying not to disturb whoever was in the room with her. For a brief moment, Aiko's curiosity got the better of her, and she tried to peer past the goddess and into the room. There was a strange glow emanating from within, but that was all she could see. Everything else was so dark it might as well have been midnight in Belldandy's room.

"Can we talk?" Aiko asked, her voice equally soft, though she couldn't say why.

The goddess chewed on her lip for a moment, then nodded. "Please wait one moment," she said before closing the door. Aiko could here Belldandy talking to someone for a moment, but could not quite catch what was being said through the door. After a moment, the door opened again, and the goddess stepped out, maneuvering herself so that Aiko could not see inside, which of course only piqued her curiosity even more.

Belldandy let out a long sigh, and the blue haired Morisato could not help but liken it to the resignation one might feel while being marched in front of a firing squad. "Can we do this in Keiichi's room?" she asked with more than a little trepidation. Aiko nodded and followed Belldandy through the door, closing it behind her. The goddess paused, staring at the floor for a moment. Aiko followed her gaze and saw the burn marks on the floor, which she had missed in her earlier conversation with her brother. Immediately, she recognized that this was basically ground zero. Where Belldandy had lost it.

Where her brother had died and then was brought back to life.

For a moment, it felt like the room temperature dipped slightly, causing her to shudder involuntarily. It was the same feeling that she had sometimes when she came near Stuart's big blue house. In the past, some people had explained it using a metaphor like 'someone was walking on your grave.' In this case, it was almost literal, in spite of the fact that it was her brother who had almost died and not herself. Belldandy went and sat on the edge of the bed. Aiko noted that the goddess's posture was ramrod straight, reminding her again of the firing squad. _All she needs is a blindfold and a cigarette,_ she thought to herself as she sat next to the almond haired woman.

The college student sighed. _Might as well jump in and get this over with._ "Look, I'm not going to lie to you," Aiko said. "I'm pissed off right now."

Belldandy nodded, her posture still stiff and tense, as though the goddess found herself facing a wolf that might attack her at any moment. It was almost strange, coming from a woman with such infinite powers. A goddess, fearing a mortal? One who barely reached her shoulders? "I understand." The Norn said, and her voice was soft, just above a whisper and so quiet that Aiko almost had to lean forward to hear her. "And given the circumstances, I would probably feel the same way."

The college student released a breath, somewhat unnerved by Belldandy's behavior but relieved as well. Most of the folks she knew back in college would have come up with excuses or grown vocal in denying they were responsible. I was refreshing hearing a person own up to the fact that they fucked up. Even if that person was a literal god. The Almighty Unfuckupable. "Good. Now that we have that out of the way, I want to hear your side of the story. What the hell happened?"

For a brief moment Belldandy hesitated, and Aiko feared she might back down. Yet the goddess had a will like steel when she needed it, and the student watched as the woman pursed her lips, frowned, took a deep breath, and then listened carefully as Belldandy launched into her half of the story. The goddess left nothing out, providing every detail from the start of the flashback, where Aoshima had raised his ugly head, and straight down to the ugly pleasure she'd felt in knowing she was ending what she thought was her ex-husband's life. She provided every bit of the explanation she'd given to Keiichi and then some, and Aiko listened with bright, wide eyes as her gut twisted into a knot that was equal parts revulsion, anger, horror, and yes, the ever-so-popular pity.

The goddess looked close to tears by the time she was finished explaining herself to the girl, and Aiko's eyes found themselves drawn to the floor, where a large, black spot of burnt wood marked the spell that had been used to separate the goddess from her brother. A chunk of charred floor. She hadn't noticed it when speaking to Keiichi with how upset she'd been, but now her gaze was locked upon it. A chunk of black and destroyed floor in exchange for the life of her brother.

"So you remember all of it?" Aiko murmured. At Belldandy's nod, the college student ran her hands through her hair. "Holy shit," she said. "Ho-lee shit. When I spoke to Kei about his flashbacks, he always said he could never remember anything during them. I mean, even me-" God... how many times had she found herself in the arms of her Keima? Takano? Megumi, without any memory of how she'd gotten there? She swallowed. It was one thing to come around from a flashback with no memory of what had occurred, but to then recall everything she'd done when her mind had been lost in memory? Her arms broke into goosebumps at the thought alone, and a shudder traversed her spine. She felt cold all of a sudden. Real cold.

The younger woman swallowed before trying again. "I can't imagine what it must have been like. For him. I mean, I know I went through a bad experience or two, but for him it just seemed to get progressively worse over time, you know? I was lucky because I went to therapy almost as soon as it was discovered what Stuart had done to me. But Kei... he let it sit. He... he let it rot." She shook her head. "I mean, I'm thankful sometimes that he couldn't remember, you know?" She fell silent, lost in her thoughts and in her memories as she stared at the charred mark on the floor.

She looked back at Bellandy. "Did he ever tell you that he almost killed Debra during one of his flashbacks?"

The goddess seemed to somehow grow even tenser. Her complexion grew ashen. "No," she admitted. "He did not."

"Yeah..." Aiko pursed her lips. "I won't go into the gory details- it's not my story- but I will say that it was bad. I think if he could have remembered what happened back then, it would destroy him. So, in a way, I'm thankful for that. But that brings us to the matter at hand. I… didn't want to say anything about this at first, but I think it's appropriate to let you know that he is leaning towards allowing you to stay."

The Norn stared at her in shock. "What?" She exclaimed, "But I thought for sure..." She trailed off, looking as confused and uncertain as Aiko had not thirty minutes beforehand.

The woman sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "Yeah, well, I'm sorry to say that if it were up to me, I would be hauling his ass out of here right now. But it's not. And you know why he is considering this?"

Belldandy shook her head. "I am almost afraid to know."

Aiko scowled, though she was uncertain if it was in regards to the woman before her or her elder brother. "Well, even though this is a matter between you and him, I am going to tell you anyway," she said. "It's because of Debra. She left Kei because he basically did the same thing that you did to him, except for the actual killing part. It scared her shitless, just like Kei is now. So now he is seeing this from the other side of the fence, so to speak, from the side of the victim, yeah. And now that he has seen it from both sides, the stupid dummy does not want to do to you what Debra did to him. He wants to give you one more chance, Belldandy."

"He wants to-" All at once Belldandy fell silent. She stared at Aiko with first disbelief, then alarm, then anger, and into rising shame as the words sank in. "That man..." she breathed. "Oooh, that foolish, _foolish_ man." A hand went to her heart, and she stood there, looking lost, confused, and relieved all in the same instant. "I can't-no," she said. " _No."_ More firmly this time. "I refuse, I, I cannot allow him to be so foolish, so, so _unwise_ with such a decision." Aiko stared at her, startled. "He doesn't-I almost _killed him!_ And I may do so again! Doesn't he realize I'll-can he not see that I might..." Her lower lip began to tremble. "I can't... This man, he... he just..."

Tears began falling down the Norn's cheeks. Tears born of relief, and Aiko came to the shocking conclusion that the goddess had been preparing herself for much harsher news. Regardless of the conversation between the two siblings, the woman before Aiko had also recognized the atrocity of her actions, and had been fully prepared to deal with the consequences they could entail. "I cannot say no to him..." Belldandy murmured, and the corners of her lips pulled down in a deep and sad frown. "He must know this! Surely! I cannot say no to him, and I would support him whatever his decision, but this?" She buried her face in her hands with a long moan. "That-that-"

"Asshole," Aiko supplied.

"Asshole!" Belldandy shouted. "That _asshole!_ Damn him for his forgiving heart, bless him for his forgiving heart, and damn my heart for loving him so!" Her fingers curled into fists, and she rapped them against her temples in frustration, a low growl rising from her throat and out into the open of such angry ferocity it would have sounded more at home coming from a bobcat. "Why must he be so... so..."

"Thick-headed?" Aiko asked.

"Yes!" The Norn snapped "He is a fool! A thick-headed asshole who cannot see the shit between his asscrack and tell it for what it is! And I love him for it! By the Great Tree's Three Roots, I love every bit of his moronic, self-sacrificing nature, and the fact that he is too stupid or too blind to see what poison he has fallen into drives me mad!" She groaned, then collapsed on top of the man's bed, cradling her head in her hands once more. "What am I supposed to do with this fool?"

 _I'm starting to wonder that as well._ Aiko thought.

* * *

 **A/N: Pretty Aiko focused chapter here. Not that it's a bad thing. haha.**

* * *

 _Comments of a Madwoman: It's difficult playing the role of mediator when one half is family you hold dear and the other is a person you can so easily relate to._


	35. Chapter 35 - My Angel

l

-35-

The atmosphere as evening began to approach had lightened somewhat as the sun began to set outside. Keiichi, from what Aiko could tell, either never had the chance to speak with Belldandy or was still working up the nerve to speak with her. Regardless, the general sense of doom and gloom was no longer as prevalent as it once was. Urd and Skuld awoke sometime around four. The youngest of the Norns scowled at Keiichi for a moment, then marched upstairs, presumably to talk to Belldandy. Urd watched her go, then shrugged and ambled off to who knows where. Probably in search of Lind, if Aiko was to judge (and boy did she ever). Between that time and dinner, the college student took the opportunity to harass Nebo more about angels.

"So, like, where do angels come from?" She asked. "And how do you guys get them? For example, could say... someone like me get an angel? Or is this purely a 'god-thing'?"

Nebo, to her surprise, was more than willing to discuss the subject with her. It was peculiar, given how none of the deities in the house actually wanted to introduce her to the entities in question, and as a deity himself, and one who didn't know Aiko, the woman would have thought the man reluctant to speak on the subject. Instead, upon making herself comfortable at the dining table and bringing up the subject, what she got was a large, toothy smile that was almost fanatical. It almost would have been cute with the way his face lit up, if not for that crazy mustache of his and the whole 'older than dirt' thing going on for him as a god.

"So you want to know more about angels?" Nebo asked. "I likin' you more and more every minute, _Kyz_ ," he said, and that strange accent was a little thicker now, a little more pronounced, slurring his words into some strange off-shoot of English that took her brain a moment to process. The man tipped his chair, pushing back onto the rear legs as he propped himself up. His face grew thoughtful, almost scholarly, if she had to place a term for it; she'd seen college professors wear a similar look.

"So, angels come from the _Dirssaratunna_ , who ya might call the 'First Mother', if I got my words right. She brings in a batch a' eggs for folks, and each batch is a new generation a' angels," he said, chewing on his words carefully. Aiko leaned forward in interest, and Nebo continued, not at all bothered by the woman's intense gaze. "We take 'em and hold on to 'em. They ain't big-less than a quail's egg, you could swallow 'em whole they so tiny. And other folks, other gods, come to us when they ready for an angel a' their own."

The man scratched at his chin, rocking on the back legs of his chair in a slow and methodical rhythm. "Most folks see it as a rite a' passage. Ya' see older gods get 'em for their kids, and other times they grown men and women who just got citizenship into Asgard." He paused in his tale to look over at Aiko. "Angels are special. You only find 'em in Asgard and with Asgardian gods. They ain't found nowhere else, and if a god decides he ain't a local no more, he's gotta return his angel to the _Dirssaratunna._ She a _gudan_ who mad-crazy 'bout protecting her clutches, an' her nest is all a' Asgard. She trusts us to take care of her babies, but if one goes missing, then _hooo-_ boy, you don't want to be the one she hunts down."

"Wow." Aiko said. "So... all the angels are like... siblings, then? From the same mom?" She frowned. "And they're only found in... Asgard? Like, 'Norse' Asgard? Not... 'Biblical-Heaven'?"

Nebo shrugged. "Dunno what this 'Norse' or 'Biblical' stuff a' yours is. Asgard what we call home. Territory that encompasses almost all the gods in the nine-realms, aside from those territories that haven't joined under its branch yet." He shrugged. "Still quite a few out there. I hear Shiva, Vishnu, and Bhrama all too stubborn to give in and bow to the Daitenkaicho, and Zeus and his family still like to hang on Mount Olympus, from what I know." He shrugged. "And that ain't countin' the who knows how many spirits hanging out in the other worlds- even down here in Midgard, though most of 'em are spirits elevated to a position a' godhood after being grandfathered in from so many years of existence." He shook his head. "Gotta watch out for those ones. They wild because they usually animals who got a different title depending on the territory. What's seen as good in one place can be seen as evil in another, and it makes 'em mad at the best a times. I hear Chugach is like that. Then a' course you got Helheim an' all it's territories, or even those ex-patriots who gone down to Niflheim." He smiled, then resumed his rocking. "But yeah, the angels all siblings, you could say that. They don't often see it though 'cause of the traits they pick up from their hosts."

Aiko stared at him blankly, most of his words having gone right over her head. "Okay," she said. This was starting to make her head hurt. Admittedly, she'd never had much interest in established religions until about a month ago, and while hearing some of the more recognizable names coming from the god, Aiko still understood maybe only one in every five words the man was saying. Deciding to skip out on the more complicated and longer explanation of divine territories that would probably give the theologians back home a hernia, Aiko moved back to the topic of angels. That seemed... safer... for the moment. "Umm... what do you mean angels pick up traits from their hosts?" she asked.

Nebo sent her that large, fanatical smile again, and Aiko for some reason was reminded of an old movie series chain dating back from the late seventies and into the early eighties. She didn't know _why_ that specific cheesy, scifi movie came to her head, but admittedly his smile kinda sorta maybe reminded her a teensie-weensie tiney-wieny bit of one of the villains in the series. The 'human' ones, anyhow. "Just that," the god said. "Angels are a blank slate when they in their egg. They a' magical race, so they ain't got no established genetic code outside a' the _Dirssartunna._ They like... they only got half a' what they need. It's up to us to supply them the other half."

That suspicion in her mind that this was somehow the plot to a horrific sci-fi movie series began to grow. "So... " Aiko drawled. "How do they, um... how do they get this- this other half of genetic... code?"

The smile on Nebo's face grew. "We ingest the angel egg, a' course!" he crowed, puffing out his chest like a preening bird. "From there, the egg starts absorbing traits from the host and after a certain point starts undergoing mitosis. Once it stops, the angel is born, then 'pop!' Out they come to say 'hello'."

Aiko stared at the man in a strange mixture of horror, fascination, and victory. "I knew it... " She whispered, then raised her voice in a shout. "Kei? Kei! Get in here!"

Her brother came racing into the kitchen at her call, his eyes wide with alarm. "What is it?" he demanded. "What's wrong?!" He looked between Aiko and Nebo with wide eyes, which narrowed as they fell onto the god. "If you did anything to her, I swear I'll fucking-"

"Wow!" Aiko yelped. "Jeez, Kei, calm down! Nothing happened, we were just talking about angels!"

Keiichi's glare never left Nebo's. "Don't fuck with my sister, Nebo." He paused, then re-iterated his words. "Don't _fuck_ my sister, Nebo."

"What in Ereshkigal's name did _I_ do?!" Nebo demanded. "I was just having a friendly conversation! I ain't done nothing!"

"Kei, stop being an overprotective brother and listen to me," Aiko announced. Keiichi, the epitome overprotective brother, sent another scowl towards Nebo before directing his attention to Aiko. "Kei, I learned something very, very important about the angels."

Keiichi, perhaps a tad bit upset at what may have been an instant of 'girl who cried god', said nothing.

A long, slow smile spread across Aiko's face. "Kei, the angels are _Aliens_."

"They're what?" Keiichi asked.

"They're what?" Nebo demanded at the same time.

The two men shot a look at each other. Aiko, growing excited now, didn't seem to notice. She was off in her own little world, imagining angels bursting from the chests of deities in a hail of bone chips and bloody gore. "They're _xenomorphs,_ Kei! Motherfucking _Aliens_! They're eggs that are digested by a host, absorb the genetic material of that host, and then burst out upon release! _Oh my god they're chestbursters!"_

Now both of the men were staring at Aiko in shock. "What?!" they demanded, one in confusion, the other in disbelief.

Aiko laughed. "Can you imagine, Kei? A bunch of fucking divine xenomorphs with little white wings coming out of their backs? And halos?" She began to laugh harder. "This is so... _stupid!_ I can't believe this shit!" Her eyes widened. "Wait wait wait, hold on a sec." She dug into her pocket for her phone. Upon withdrawing and unlocking it, she searched for a specific picture and then passed it off to Nebo to see. "Have you ever seen this man before? Oh _please_ tell me you've seen him before. _Please_ tell me Ridley Scott is a god making horror movies based off angels."

Nebo precariously took the phone, holding it at arm's length as though terrified it held a secondary set of jaws that would reach out and tear his throat out. "Uh..." He tilted the phone to one side, then the other, trying to change the angle of the picture he was staring at. The phone, with its screen-tilt, re-oriented the image back to its original position with each turn. "Ah... I dunno, _maybe_?" he said. "I don't think so though, _Kyz_. There's a lot a folks at home, and I don't see much of em'."

"Damn," Aiko swore, then brightened. "Wait, I know!" she cried, and as Nebo passed the phone back to her, she did another search, found another man, and pulled up another image. "What about this guy?"

H.G. Geiger glared up at Nebo from a black-and-white image. He was holding the head of the very creature that had so terrorized a Sigourney Weaver throughout the _Alien_ franchise.

Nebo seemed unamused. "That," the god said. "Looks frighteningly similar to a demon I once fought in the forgotten years."

Keiichi flinched. "A demon?" he said, "Are you serious?"

"Yep." The god pursed his lips in a strained grin, his expression that of a man who'd just pulled up memories he'd been trying to forget for ages. He said no more on the topic.

Aiko of course, being the person she was, barely noticed this strange shift in behavior. She was too ecstatic. "I fucking knew it!" She cried. "Giger didn't fucking fall off a ladder and die. He went back _home!_ "

In a disturbing sequence of events, both men groaned at the absurd claim and brought a palm to their face. This time, neither recognized their mirrored actions, as both appeared too embarrassed by the absurd claims emitting from the young woman before them.

Aiko, placed in an immediately better mood, beamed throughout the rest of the afternoon and into dinner.

XXX

Skuld made her way downstairs, a scowl on her face from her conversation with Belldandy. Her sister had been less than reasonable with the younger woman despite Skuld's best efforts, the topic of debate rising from a disagreement into the hint of an argument the likes of which she normally reserved for Urd. It'd been the angels who'd stopped them from breaking into a shouting match. Holy Bell, Noble Scarlet, and Peorth's Gorgeous Rose had all but pried the two of them apart in their own anxieties, and though neither Norn could understand Peorth's angel, her message was clear: any fights would send them both out of the room, where as far as the angels were concerned, the two hosts could face World of Elegance's wrath. The two sisters had been quick to stop with the threat of being kicked out, but it'd left the siblings sore with each other, and so Skuld had left. For the sake of the angels.

So she told herself.

Now though, with Belldandy still upstairs and Skuld heading downstairs, she gritted her teeth, growled, and swore with such vehement creativity that Urd would have been proud of her. The walk had cooled her head. The nap had made her less irritable. Yet a simple talk with Belldandy had brought up all the rising frustration of the past twenty-four hours like an open scab, and though she didn't want to admit it, the argument with Belldandy had wounded her. She wasn't supposed to get into a fight with Belldandy. Urd, yes. All day every day, because Urd's words only got on her nerves. They never actually _hurt_. But the exchange with Belldandy...

Bell was supposed to be who she went to for comfort. She was the peacekeeper.

She wasn't supposed to get into arguments with her baby sister.

Sighing to herself, she continued down the stairs, hearing the first signs of yet another argument starting to rise in the dining room.

"What'd I do _now_ , _lum_?" Nebo's voice met the Norn's ears. "I'm just saying- why you making a deal over me not eating meat?!"

"I'm not wasting groceries on two separate meals." Keiichi's voice growled back. "Can't you just pick out what you don't want?"

"No!" Nebo cried. "That- no _lum_! That's cross-contamination!"

"For the love of-" That was Aiko. "Kei, stop being an ass, okay?"

"Why are you taking _his_ side?" Keiichi demanded, then grew suspicious. "Did that motherfucker do something to you?"

"What'd you just call me?!" demanded Nebo.

Skuld paused as she passed the threshold to the living room, seeing Lind sprawled out on the recliner, looking for all the world like she was asleep. "How the hell can she sleep through this shit?" she mumbled.

"I'm not," Lind replied, and one eye peeked open to look at her. "I'm keeping my sanity by not getting involved." A hand moved to an ear, and the woman withdrew the white earbud that was obscured by her hair. "Urd lent me music," the Valkyrie explained. "She seems to think I have similar tastes to Jackson."

"Do you?" Skuld asked, honestly curious at the strange comparison. What kind of music did a man like Jackson even listen to? Lind for that matter? "What's playing now?"

Lind shrugged and looked at the phone- Urd's phone, Skuld noted. "Are Jay Dee Two," she said. "It's different. I've never heard this type of music before."

"But do you like it?" Skuld repeated.

From the earbuds, a deep and melancholy voice sang out, _"Who knows what tomorrow will bring. Maybe sunshine or maybe the rain. But as for me, I'll wait and see. And maybe it'll bring my love to me, oh... "_

Lind shrugged. "It's growing on me," she said. "Before this was a band called 'Gorillas' but with a 'Z'."

"Gorillas with a Z?" Skuld asked, confused and slightly intrigued.

Lind nodded. "Jackson- or Urd- has interesting taste in music. The earbuds help too. Noise cancelling. I don't hear the idiots next door."

"You don't want to join the Great Dinner Debacle?" Skuld teased.

"The last fuck I gave about the food I ate fled my plate over a century ago," Lind said with a small smile. "I'll eat what I'm given and if I really need meat, I've got more caribou jerky than I can stand to tide me over. Makes no difference to me."

Skuld snickered, then paused. "Wait... those things are noise cancelling?" She pointed to the earbuds, and Lind nodded. "Then how did you hear me?"

Lind smirked before popping the earbud back into place and closing her eyes once more. "I heard you talking shit," she revealed, and said nothing else.

Skuld stared at the woman with a start, and then laughed, leaving the Valkyrie to her 'Rj's' and 'Z-Gorrillas' as she headed for the dining room.

Urd was already at the table. She looked both irritated and bored, facing towards the kitchen where she got a pristine view of the argument playing out before her. Skuld pulled a chair up to join her, and for several minutes the sisters said nothing as they watched Keiichi and Nebo argue about food while Aiko tried to play peacekeeper. "Think we should tell them?" Skuld asked.

Urd grunted, then buried her face in her arms on top of the table. She muttered something Skuld didn't catch.

"Yeah, I hear you," Skuld mumbled. "You gotta back me up though."

A thumbs-up was all she got from her sister, and after another couple of minutes, Skuld sighed, stood up, and approached the trio in the kitchen. Keiichi was delving into the protein value of steak. Nebo looked a little disgusted. "Since you guys can't work together and solve this issue yourselves I guess that means we have to take over and make the decision for you," Skuld announced, her voice projecting loud and clear above both Keiichi and Nebo. "We'll make a vegetarian meal that everyone can enjoy, okay? Magilla, since you're so desperate for meat, go broil some chicken to have with it, that way you can still get the protein you're so desperate for."

Aiko mouthed a _'thank-you'_ to her.

Keiichi bristled. "Why are you taking his side?" he demanded. "Is this 'cause I'm a mortal?"

He got a collective groan from those present.

"No Jank, it isn't," Urd groaned as she came to stand next to her sister. "Nebo's a Tic. Certain Tics have specific diet requirements because of a pledge they take. He's one of them. And Skuld and I generally try to avoid most meats."

"Bullshit," Keiichi said. "I've seen you eat meat before."

"You've seen us eat poultry and fish," Skuld growled. "Not red meats." She eyed Urd. "Especially me. I can stand jerky on occasion, but... " She shuddered. "Not much, and not often, and no _raw_ meats."

"Are you fucking... " Keiichi paused, staring from one sister to the other. "You're serious," he stated. "Wait, is this for all of you? Belldandy never had any issues!"

The two sisters shared a grimace that highlighted their relation. "Bell's different from us," Urd said. "She... " The goddess paused, then looked to Skuld, who shrugged as well. The Norn took a deep breath. "How can I explain this..." she grumbled. "So... Skuld and I... had a... hmm... we'll call it a _bad_ experience with red meat one time."

Skuld released a sharp bark of laughter. "If that's what you want to call it," she growled.

"You want to explain it?" Urd looked at Skuld, and flushing, the dark-haired Norn dropped her gaze. "That's what I thought." She looked back to Keiichi. "We had... a bad case of food poisoning. We ate some red meat that made us pretty sick, and, well, after that we just kind of started avoiding it all together."

Keiichi raised an eyebrow. "What kind of 'red meat'? Beef? Pork? Some kind of game-animal?" he asked. "Just 'red meat' is a little vague, I mean, it's a pretty big category, you know."

"Red meat," Urd replied. "We're... not sure what it was. But it was... pretty bad."

Aiko crossed her arms over her chest. "You know, my bullshit meter is going off the charts again, just like it was when you tried to tell me about the whole UN crap."

"Red meat," Skuld replied. "That's it. And that's all you're getting from us, as well."

"I don't believe it." Keiichi eyed her critically. "What about all the meat Jackson had left over from the barbeque?"

"You and Belldandy polished it off," Urd replied. "Skuld and I never touched it."

"We ate the veggie burgers McGuinness brought, though," Skuld said. "Otherwise they'd still be in the freezer."

"Swedish meatballs?"

"I convinced Belldandy to use ground chicken instead," Skuld replied.

Another look between Keiichi and Aiko. Keiichi looked back to Urd. "How come you never said anything before?"

"Because of this exact conversation," Urd retorted. "Try explaining this to a family of hunters and warriors who consider shit like this sacrilegious."

Skuld stood and puffed up her chest before pounding it with one of her fists. "What be you, a doe?" she said in a deep, accented voice. "Should we hunt ye' next?" Beside her, Urd cringed.

Keiichi stared at Urd in concern. "I don't know how to take this," he admitted. "It's like, everything I've known about you has been a lie. I-I feel so _betrayed!_ You act like you're from Australia, for fucks sake! Don't they eat alligator down there?"

"Alligator is a white meat, Jank," Urd replied. "So... yes?"

"ARGH!" The man clutched his skull. "You mean I gotta go through swamplands in the South in order to get fucking steaks now? And it's got to be _alligator_?"

The two sisters stared at him, then at each other. Urd looked back at Keiichi. "Yes."

"This is some fucking bullshit!" he exclaimed.

"I still don't believe it." Aiko said.

"Can we please just take it for what it's worth and let this conversation drop?" Nebo begged.

XXX

They ended up having curry that night. Aiko was impressed. Nebo was relieved. Even Keiichi was satisfied, though the others had more reason to believe that had to do with the curry's flavor than anything else. Peorth ended up helping Belldandy in the kitchen since there were so many people to feed, and in the end Lind surprised everyone by complimenting the meal in a rare show of approval. "It reminds me a little of what my old OIC used to bring in on special occasions," Lind had said, and her smile had been wistful and somewhat sad.

The meal had probably been the most peaceful event of the day with everyone gathered in one place, and the atmosphere was almost friendly if not for the almost awkward silence that hung over everyone's head. Even Aiko's attempt to lighten the mood fell flat, and after her first joke was met with an almost painful silence, she made no further attempts.

Urd and Skuld took over with dishes following the meal, and as they worked, the conversation moved onto another issue that had not been addressed yet: the ever-so-popular matter of sleeping arrangements. Nebo wasn't leaving until he was certain that Holy Bell was on the way to recovery, and Peorth still had a wish to grant to Keiichi on top of her aid in Holy Bell's recovery. Lind wasn't about to leave any of the gods with the number of fights that had been breaking out while Skuld wasn't about to leave Belldandy in such a time of need. And that wasn't counting Aiko, who didn't feel safe leaving Keiichi alone until matters had settled between himself and the Norn. That, combined with the usual residents of Keiichi, Belldandy, and Urd, led to complications in who was sleeping where.

"No, you used that UN regs bullshit on me last time," Aiko said. "It ain't happening this time. Last time I slept with you guys I ended up getting spooned rather intimately by Urd."

Urd flinched. "Hey, that's not how I-"

Skuld interrupted her with a loud groan. "Oh Yggdrasil I don't even want to think of that anymore. Peorth, back us up here! It's not allowed, right?"

Peorth looked between the two sisters in the kitchen and Belldandy. She was sitting at the table, her head propped up one hand as she looked between the Norns with drowsy eyes. The medallion on her chest glowed with a soft and ethereal glow, and it was starting to have an effect on her. Now, the goddess raised her hands up in front of her chest. "Wow, don't bring me in on this. My mother didn't have any such paranoia about my brothers and boy cousins raping me in the middle of the night like yours did."

Skuld, a pan still in hand and filled with water, turned to face Peorth in horror. Her jaw dropped as she looked to Belldandy. "You told her about that?!"

Belldandy winced. "Well, that was a long-"

"Wait, you mean to tell me that you don't want me to sleep in the same bed as my brother because your _MOTHER_ said so?" Aiko demanded.

Some of the horror fell from Skuld's face "Well, when you put it that way…"

Urd cringed. "We had an uncle who fucked horses, okay?" she snapped. "It's not like her fears weren't justified."

Aiko jumped like she'd seen a ghost. "Jesus fuck!"

Keiichi recoiled. "Christ, Urd!

"Goodness, I'm not sure I needed to know _that_ ," Peorth muttered.

Lind recoiled. "Okay, too much information there."

Nebo looked thoughtful. "I think I might know who you're speaking of... "

"Urd, what the fuck!?" Skuld exclaimed.

"Who told you that!?" Belldandy demanded.

"Take a wild guess," Urd called from over her shoulder.

Belldandy grimaced. "I can think of a person or two," she muttered, and rubbed her brow as if in pain. "But those are supposed to be rumors!"

"Not from what I was told," Urd replied.

Aiko crossed her arms in a large 'X' over her head. "Yo! Can we stop this conversation before it gets weirder? _Please_?" she exclaimed, and got murmured agreements from those around her as well. "Let's move back to the subject of sleeping arrangements. Because I'm counting eight people down here in a three bedroom house, and I don't think any of us are leaving anytime soon."

"Two bedrooms," Nebo corrected. "Holy Bell is occupying one, with the potential for other angels to join in as well."

"Two bedrooms," Aiko nodded, then paused to look over at Nebo. "Two bedrooms? Are you serious?" she demanded. At the man's nod, she swore. "Well, okay then, that makes things a bit more cramped now, doesn't it?" She made a face. "I'm not sleeping with Belldandy again. Or Urd, for that matter. If it's all fine and dandy with you- or even if it's _not_ \- I'm going to shack up with my brother tonight."

"But that's-" Belldandy began to protest, only for Nebo to speak over her.

"That's fine, _Kyz_ , right? I can sleep down here on the couch. I ain't picky where I sleep." He smiled, looking very much like he wanted to move on before another argument could break out. "Lind, how 'bout you?"

The Valkyrie shrugged. "Guess I'll take the recliner," she said. "Or the floor. Doesn't matter to me."

"Wonderful!" Nebo cried. "That's half of us down. Peorth? How about you?"

Peorth jumped at the sound of her name. It looked like she'd been dozing at the dining room table. "Bed?" she asked. "What? Oh, yes, a bed sounds lovely, I..." She trailed off, then looked around her blankly. "There's only one bed available, isn't there."

"Blow-up matt-" Skuld began.

"Dibs!" Aiko cried.

"Shit!" Skuld snarled.

Urd groaned and bowed her head. "You know what?" she said. "Fuck it. There's too many people in the house and the weather's nice. I'm sleeping beneath the stars tonight."

"Wow, wait a second, Urd you don't need to fucking go outside and _camp_ ," Keiichi exclaimed. "The house is big enough for everybody. We'll find some place for everyone."

"Who said anything about camping?" Urd asked, moving away from the sink to dry her hands. "I'm hanging my hammock. No rain's forecasted for the night and the weather's warm enough that I don't need any blankets. Bell? Peorth? You guys fight over my room. I'm heading outside while there's still some light."

"Wait, you're gonna sleep in your hammock?" Skuld followed after her. "Can I join too?" she asked, and there was a touch of almost innocent excitement in her voice. "I love sleeping in your hammock! It's the best!"

"Sure, why not?" Urd shrugged. "There's enough room for four people. Anyone else who wants to is welcome to join."

"Pass." Lind said. "I need something solid beneath me."

"I'm good with the couch, _Kyz_."

"Blow-up mattress!" Aiko chirped.

Keiichi frowned. "Urd, you sure about this?" he asked. "I'm not trying to chase you out of the house." He looked upset at the prospect of one of his closest friends sleeping outside.

Yet Urd waved him off. "It's fine," she said. "I prefer it, actually," she admitted. "Beds are uncomfortable, but the weather here and back home is too cold for me to use my hammock most days, so I enjoy using it when I can."

Belldandy stared at her in mixed confusion and surprise. "When was this?" she asked. "I don't think I've ever once seen you use a hammock."

Urd shrugged. "Like I said, back home it's too cold most days to use it as a bed- you're supposed to use it for the really hot days, but I don't think Asgard ever gets over sixty five degrees. Needs to be at least in the seventies to be comfortable, or you need extra bodies for extra warmth." She paused, staring at Belldandy in keen interest. "You've... never slept in a hammock before, have you?"

"No..." Belldandy said. "I haven't."

"Want to join us?" Urd offered. "Sleep outside and give Peorth the bed so she can't bitch?"

"Bed..." The woman in question's head dipped and rose as the goddess fought off her own exhaustion.

Belldandy stared at the woman, and then back to her sisters, uncertain. Skuld smiled at her. "Yeah, hey, that'll be fun," she said. "Come on, let's go sleep out in the hammock. Best night's sleep you'll have since coming to the States. Promise."

"Um..." Belldandy hesitated, looking between her sisters and then back to Keiichi. "Can I... can I still borrow one of your pillows, Keiichi?" She bit her lip, suddenly shy. "I mean- you don't _have_ to or anything! I just- I thought, um, I, I don't want any..." She grimaced, then looked to the floor. "Um... no, forgive me. Forget I said anything. I'll... I'll manage."

Keiichi flinched, and Aiko wasn't the only one who saw the hurt on his face. "Bell, you can still borrow my pillow if you want," he said. "I'll just... need another one since... ah... I guess my other one Is being... used, I guess?" He scratched the back of his neck, looking uncertain.

"Ah! Right!" Belldandy yelped. "Holy Bell is- I forgot! Forgive me, I'll go get it back right now!" She began to rush towards the stairs, pausing only at the large outcry from the others.

"Bell, relax!" Urd cried. "I'll conjure some spare pillows for everyone, okay? That way Jank still has a pillow and the others can have some pillows too without disturbing Holy Bell. She needs the cushioning, remember?"

"Right! Got it!" Belldandy wheeled around like a dog that had reached the end of her rope. "Got it! Okay!" She looked at Urd with antsy eyes. "But, I mean- is it okay for me to join you?" She asked, "Really? I mean, I don't want to impose and-"

"Big Sister," Skuld said, her voice soft but drawing Belldandy's attention. "Shut up and sleep outside with us tonight. Please?"

Belldandy stared at her with wide, disbelieving eyes. Urd too, for that matter. "Okay," Belldandy said.

"Good," Urd said, and her face brightened in a smile. "Well, there we go! Sleeping arrangements taken care of! Now let's go outside. Hanging a hammock is a bitch in the dark."

XXX

There was still a light hue to the sky as the sisters went outside. Urd muttered a quick spell beneath her breath, and with it, a black, nylon bag, or something similar to nylon, appeared in her hands. The porch lights were on, which helped, and together the Norns scouted the area for trees to hang the hammock from. They found a pair of good, strong ones near the edge of the forest, and setting the bag down Urd undid the drawstring and pulled out a large, tight-weave violet hammock. It smelled of lavender and jasmine.

"You remember how to tie the ropes around the trees?" Urd asked, and Skuld nodded, taking two sets of black rope and heading off. With Skuld tying the suspension straps around the tree trunks, Urd unrolled the hammock, unwrapping it and checking for any twists in the material that might affect it's structural integrity. She heard the porch door open and close, but thought little of it, assuming it was Belldandy coming to join them after grabbing her pillow from Keiichi.

As such, she was surprised when Aiko's voice met her ears. "Hey."

The goddess paused, looking up at the blue haired mortal from where she knelt on the ground. She raised an eyebrow at the woman, finding it odd that Keiichi's younger sister would seek _her_ out of everyone in the house. "Evening."

"Um... can I talk to you? You and Skuld?" Aiko asked, and the Norn straightened, staring at the young woman with furrowed brows as she set more of her attention on the college student.

"Let Skuld finish tying the suspension ropes. It gets difficult in the dark."

Aiko nodded and stood back, allowing Urd to return to her task of untwisting ropes and searching for holes within the hammock. When she was finished, she folded it on top of its ruck, then rose to stand by Aiko as Skuld finished tying the second suspension rope. The younger woman frowned as she caught sight of the mortal standing beside her sister, and jogged over to join them.

"Hey Aiko. What's up?" Skuld said, her tone light and inviting despite the borderline-suspicion on her face.

Aiko's mouth twisted into a scowl, and for a long moment she was silent. Skuld came to stand beside her sister, and together the two Norns watched the woman, waiting for the mortal to speak.

"I heard what happened." Aiko finally said. "About... about Kei and Bell. From both of them." She bit her lower lip, and there was a subtle shift in body language as the two sisters went on guard. Skuld narrowed her eyes at the woman, growing tense, whereas Urd's arms crossed over her chest, her expression growing blank as she stared down at Aiko. The blue haired woman didn't appear to notice.

Instead, with stiff shoulders the college student placed her arms flat against her sides and bowed lowly to the two goddesses. "Thank you very much," she said, and her voice trembled with emotion. "For-for saving him. My brother." She straightened, and in the fading light there were tears in her eyes. "I don't know- I can't-" She sniffed, and bequeathed them both a watery smile filled with a relief that was almost palpable. "He means the world to me... I know you had your own reasons for bringing him back- I-I know you didn't _have_ to save him, but... I'm grateful. Honestly." She scrubbed at her eyes with the back of her hand. "Thank you both so much for bringing him back. I can't... express my gratitude enough."

The woman's sincerity caught the two sisters off guard, neither having expected any sort of thanks for their actions since Belldandy's episode in Keiichi's room. It was strange seeing the woman so humble, as Aiko had always come across as cheerful and carefree while around them. It was disorienting, and it left the sisters speechless as they tried to gauge their reactions. They shared a look, and each found in the face of the other the same level of discomfort so felt by themselves before turning back to Aiko.

"You're welcome," Urd ventured, uncomfortable amidst Aiko's gratitude. She rubbed the back of her neck, looking past Aiko and back to the house. "Jank is... important. He's my... he's my friend too. I... wasn't about to let Bell-" She cut herself off, feeling a spark of fresh anger flare in her chest. She sucked in a deep breath, trying to soothe the flames before they could spread and grow larger. "You're welcome, Aiko."

"Yeah," Skuld eyed Urd, taking her cues from her elder sister before continuing. "Your brother's done a lot for us. I mean, he's an idiot, yeah, but none of us- none of us want to see him _die_."

Aiko managed a smile and even a small laugh at Skuld's comments. She wiped her eyes again. "Still... I mean, you guys are gods and all... you didn't have to do any of that, yet you brought my big brother back- you brought him back from death, and it means a lot. Not just to me, but to the rest of our family too. And to Team Twelve as well... he doesn't admit it, but he's got a lot of people who care for him. So thanks. Again." She laughed again and sniffed loudly. "Gosh, I can't stop thanking you guys tonight, can I?" She asked, "I'm going to need to find a way to really show my thanks... "

Urd laughed nervously, and even Skuld's smile looked a little strained. "Please don't," she said. "We're just trying to live out a somewhat normal life down here. We don't need people freaking out on us or anything, okay? It was nothing, really."

"It was nothing..." Aiko grinned and looked to the ground. "You bring a man back from the dead and say 'it was nothing'. You guys really are gods, aren't you?" She snorted. "I think I understand where you're coming from, though." She pursed her lips, then fell silent for a time. "Will you guys keep an eye on him for me?" she asked. "I know this is a lot to ask, given everything else you've done, but... something tells me he's going to need some extra help." She drew her hands up to her chest. "I'm not trying to say that Belldandy is going to try and kill him again, but... well, flashbacks are... flashbacks are hard to work around, and, well... Bell's still got a long way to go before she recovers. I just..." She scratched the back of her head, then let her hand drop with a shrug of her shoulders.

"I understand," Urd said. "And I'll keep an eye on him. I'll... do what I can to make sure he stays safe. For Jank and Belldandy's sakes."

Aiko stared at her for a moment, and then surprised Urd by stepping forward and embracing the woman. "Thank you, Urd. It means a lot, knowing he's got a goddess watching over him."

And it was only Skuld who was saw the melancholy that came to rest upon her sister's face. "Yeah... not a problem. We all love that idiot in our own special way, right?"

The youngest Norn felt her heart wrench at the almost pitiful sight, and looked off towards the house when Urd looked her way. "Right."

XXX

After a bit more innocent chatter, Aiko departed inside.

As she left, Belldandy slipped outside, bearing with her a pillow, a teddy bear, and the old pink ship blanket that Keiichi had lent to Jackson when he'd spent the night. Skuld stared at it before saying in her deepest voice, "The shit's pink, Bell."

Belldandy stared at her sister, then smiled and shook her head. "I take it Aiko is retiring for the night?"

Urd grabbed the folded hammock and handed one end to Skuld, who headed off to tie the hook to the suspension strap around a tree. Urd, with the rest of the hammock piled high on her shoulder, moved to do the same on the other tree, while the hammock slowly unfolded as it was spread between the two trunks.

As she helped tie one end of the huge hammock, Skuld looked back to the house. She saw the light in Keiichi's room go out and shuddered. "Ugh, it just creeps me out thinking about them like that," she said.

"They come from a different upbringing than us," replied Belldandy.

"Yeah, where incest is a way of life," retorted Skuld as she finished her knot. She fixed the almond haired goddess with a glare. "When I see things like that, I just can't believe you are seriously thinking of staying and not coming home like I suggested."

Urd, who was also finishing up tying her end of the hammock, paused and looked at her youngest sister. "Wait, what?"

Skuld, for a moment, looked as if she had realized she had said too much. "Belldandy and I had a talk," she said after shaking it off.

"About…?" drawled Urd.

"About her coming home and saying with me," replied the youngest of the Norns.

"And why would that be a better solution than her staying here?"

"Are you serious right now?" Skuld let out an exasperated sigh. "Look, she's a danger to him," she said matter-of-factly. "She knows it, and I think Magilla does as well. It would be better for everyone involved if she left him and just came back to Asgard and lived with me. We could go back home, Holy Bell wouldn't have to hide in a bedroom all day long, and Bell would be surrounded by all the Tics in the world to help her recover." She shrugged self-consciously. "I mean, it's her wish, she can annul it any time she wants."

Urd came around the hammock and stared down Skuld. "And what about me?" she demanded. "Would I have any input in this discussion?" She put her hands on her hips. "She's my fucking sister, too!"

For a moment, Skuld looked ashen. "I-I-I'm sorry, I… didn't think about that."

"Please, let's not fight before we go to bed," begged Belldandy. "Besides, it's not your choice. It's _mine_ , and I won't be swayed by either of you." There was an edge of steel in her voice. "I said this to Skuld and I'll say this to you, Urd- I am not a child that is incapable of caring for herself. I can make my own choices and I _will_ make my own choices, and no one else will make those choices in my stead."

Urd turned her attention to the middle Norn. "And what was that choice?" she demanded. "What did you say?"

Belldandy squared up to her sister. "I said that it's up to Keiichi," she replied. "I want him to be the one to make this decision. I will abide by his wishes since he was the one who was wronged here."

The two goddesses stared at each other for a moment before Urd smiled, probably for the first time all day. "Well, at least one of us has some common sense," she said. She then turned and climbed into the hammock. "Come on, everyone needs to climb in at once or it won't be balanced. Skuld already knows this, but you need to lay at an angle with this type of hammock, otherwise you'll roll yourself and probably the rest of us out as well."

"Right..." Belldandy crawled unsteadily up into the hammock, joining Urd as she tried to get comfortable. "Ah... you're certain this will hold all three of us?" She sounded nervous.

Skuld joined them, and Belldandy tensed as the hammock swayed even more. Her eyes darted to the trees supporting them, as if expecting the ropes to snap at any moment.

"Relax Bell," Urd said. "I told you, this is designed to hold up to four people. It's not going to drop us." The unsteady swaying began to lessen as Skuld made herself comfortable, leaving Belldandy nestled in the middle of her sisters.

"Yeah. It's only the first time that's a little scary," Skuld agreed. "Afterwards it's pretty fun. And relaxing too. And when's the last time you ever slept under the stars like this?"

Belldandy, her tension easing in light of her sisters' reassurance, tilted her head up to the sky. The night was clear, the waning moon just past full and the stars bright pinpricks above her head. No Manni, chased by wolves in his chariot overhead. Just his lantern hanging and bright to illuminate the sky. It was calming. Like the gentle swing of the hammock or the scents of lavender and jasmine emanating around them. The hammock enveloped the three of them like a large violet cocoon. "I suppose you're right," she said at length, watching as high overhead a comet streaked by. "It _has_ been a long time since I've slept under the stars."

They talked then, for a time. They shared stories both real and fabricated. They spoke of joys. They spoke of tragedies. They teased each other and joked of those in the house. They laughed and cried and poked and prodded, as all sisters do to each other, and spoke of those secrets shared only by the divine and demonic. And in the end, the gentle sway of the hammock and the night sounds of the forest lulled first Skuld, then Belldandy, and finally even Urd, off to sleep.

XXX

What is an angel?

In the greatest and truest sense of the word, an angel is an aspect of the soul.

A creature of pure essence, they are magical creatures designed by the gods themselves. Two gods, in truth. One an ancient god whose people were forgotten and trampled by time and dust. The other a young god still new and arrogant in his position. The original intent had been simple: Man was no longer fit to serve his gods, for Man had been born with the horrible disease of Free Will as was inherent in all things born of an Ancient One's body and an Elder God's essence. That horrible disease had evolved with Man over the decades and had borne with it a new and horrible strand: Choice. The Choice to listen. The Choice to obey. The Choice to ignore. The Choice to rebel.

And as Man explored the possibilities of Free Will and its child, Choice, so too did the gods seek out new creatures to serve their will. For the gods back then, even as now, were lazy and at times lofty creatures, and could not be bothered with trivial tasks. And so they turned to a Scholar whose words were the experience of the old ways and a Youth whose arrogance spoke of ingenuity and free thought. And it was these two who were tasked, and their task was simple: _Make us servants._

With task in hand the two gods, Old Man and Young Man, went to work, and what they worked were miracles.

Two ideas. Two possibilities. Two prototypes.

From Young Man: A perfect creature made of nothing but the divine essence. It bore thirty-six wings made of light, and its flesh burned like a silver torch in the eye of the beholder. One that lacked the Madness of Choice and who obeyed without question, with a loyalty that bordered on devotion. He brought before the Daitenkaicho of his time a _Seraphim_ , and presented it as a gift. " _Metatron shall be your servant,"_ said Young Man. " _And shall serve you at your throne."_ And indeed it did, and its light and beauty were without comparison, and deities from the Four Corners of the Nine Worlds came to view its magnificence. Yet it lacked depth, and those who viewed it claimed it cold and unfeeling; a machine, not a creature. It held no desire, no _drive_ to fulfill the tasks given to it, and though it performed its tasks in the most perfect aspect, it was without inspiration, enthusiasm, or joy. It observed the audience which came to view it with cold and unfeeling eyes that burned like suns, and though it was an impressive sight, those who laid eyes upon it were left unnerved and troubled.

" _It is cold,"_ they said. _"Take it away. Though it burns, it holds no warmth. Give us something else."_

Old Man stepped forth, then, and presented this: an ugly creature with a body like gas, fashioned from the miasma of an Ancient One. It stalked Old Man's shadow, an unholy beast whose appearance differed to everyone who laid eyes upon it. To the Warriors, it presented Defeat. To the young in gave them Age. For the Harvest it depicted Death. A macabre creature, the _Ssaratu_ did not speak, did not obey, and instead chose to watch. Rumors of its power spread far and wide, and gods flocked to it with a morose sense of wonder, curious as to what they would see for the creature was never the same to any two gods, and in the end always repulsed the deities who gazed upon its form.

" _It is cruel,"_ they said. " _Take it away. It reveals to us harsh truths made flesh. Give us something else."_

Disgraced, Young Man and Old Man departed, one with an angel too cold, the other with an angel too cruel.

Together, they went about their work once more, and all the while their angels watched on. One without drive, the other without form.

" _The Seraphim lacks life,"_ Young Man said. " _It is a golem. How do I give it emotion without granting it Will?"_

" _My Ssaratu lacks form,"_ Old Man said. " _Yet I do not know how to stabilize it."_

And so Young Man and Old Man sat and pondered and spoke, yet neither one grew any closer to the answers they sought. Young Man went and produced more _Seraphim_ , each one different from before yet all still lacking the Will that made Man so undesirable. Old Man experimented with his _SSaratu,_ his lone _Ssaratu_ , in an attempt to give it form and to have it obey his desires.

Each attempt at _Seraphim_ ended without emotion.

Each evolution of the _SSaratu_ left it as wild and uncontrollable as before.

" _What must we do_?" they asked their angels. _What must happen in order to perfect you?_ "

Yet the _Seraphim_ responded only to orders and the _SSaratu_ gave no advice, forcing the two deities to continue their research.

Young Man created a divine hierarchy of angels, with Metatron at its head. Beneath Metatron, more _Seraphim,_ joined with _Cherubim_ and _Thrones_ in the First Generation, or First Sphere, as it came to be called. He lessened their power with each new angel, and as the Second Generation, or Second Sphere bore fruit, so too did the Choir of _Dominions, Virtues,_ and _Powers._ Though this generation was weaker than the First Sphere, they were not so lacking in purpose. These ones held drive, and fulfilled their roles with a confidence that was absent in the First Sphere. It was an improvement, yet to Young Man, who saw himself as a perfectionist, they were not good enough. A Third Generation, a Third Sphere, was crafted, and these with the weakest of powers yet holding a concept that perhaps bordered a little closer to Will: These the _Principalities, Archangels,_ and _Angels,_ for lack of a better title. And with each new Generation, each new type, Young Man took what he learned and applied it to Metatron, and watched his favored angel evolve like Man.

And as Young Man created generations of angels, Old Man focused on his lone little _SSaratu_ , vicious creature though it was. He gave it eleven different forms, and each one was fierce and terrible: _Bašmu,_ the venomous snake, _Ušumgallu_ , a Great Dragon, _Mušmaḫḫū_ anexalted serpent, and _Mušḫuššu,_ the furious snake. Yet each form held venom, and its wild nature endangered those who approached it. And so he created _Laḫmu_ the hairy one, _Ugallu_ the big weather-beast, _Uridimmu,_ a mad dog, and _Umū Dabrūtu,_ the Violent Storms. Yet these held an uncontrolled madness to them which frightened even Old Man, Him Who Fought against the Ancient Ones. Each form here, though absent of venom, held at their core a frightening rage that spoke of the slain Ancient Ones, and that rage was terrible. He banished each form without thought, and again moved to a new attempt. The _Girtablullû,_ aScorpion-Man, Kulullû _,_ aFish-Man and _Kusarikku,_ the Bull-Man. These ones were calm and without poison (except for _Girtablullû,_ and for that reason alone it was banished) but they held forms others found despicable. Yet there was intellect in its actions now. It no longer lashed out without reason, but sat silently and watched. In his dreams, Old Man even heard it speak.

Yet all work comes to a blockade, and so too was the case with Young Man and Old Man and their two prototypes. Young Man could not find a way to bring his angel emotion. Old Man could not hide the terrible truths his angel revealed. At a standstill, the two came together to discuss ideas, and brought their angels with them. They sat in conference, discussing possibilities, and perhaps it would have been a meeting best kept in private.

Who can honestly judge the level of intelligence from a creature that never speaks, after all?

No one, not Young Man, not Old Man, not even the _Seraphim_ , expected the _SSaratu_ to attack. Yet attack it did, and it bore in its nature the madness of the old, the insanity of Man, and with its hands alone it tore apart the _Seraphim._ In horror Old Man cried out. In horror Young Man lashed out, and tore to pieces the _Ssaratu_ that so killed the _Seraphim._

Cruel and terrible, yes, but these were the old times, where such things as 'angels' were a mere concept still in development. There were no laws that protected them. They were not yet hosted by a deity.

Yet it was from these two destroyed prototypes that something new spawned. The essence, the blood, that so filled the _Seraphim_ and _Ssaratu_ mixed in their death. And what they found amidst the carnage of defeat was an egg. A small egg. One that would have gone unnoticed if not for the ethereal glow it carried even while coated in the blood of its parent. No one knew how the egg had come about. The _Seraphim_? Its form was androgynous. It was not a creature developed with genitalia. The _SSaratu_? Like the _Seraphim_. It had no body that would allow for reproduction. Was it made from the magic held within the combined essence of the fallen prototypes? Perhaps. Yet Old Man had no more _SSaratu_ and Young Man would not risk his _Seraphim_ and the end result would not be recreated.

And so they took the egg and they observed it, waiting and watching and testing it for signs of what might rest inside. _Seraphim_ or _SSaratu_? A mixture of the two or something else entirely? They poked and prodded and incubated, yet nothing they did hinted at what lay within. The essence it held was convoluted and indescribable. The embryo unknown and concealed within a shell too thick to pierce. Yet at night, they dreamed of it: a creature half-born and waiting to emerge. " _Come to me._ " It whispered to Young Man, who would awaken with a terrible yearning in his breast for reasons he could not explain. _"Come to me."_ It sang to Old Man, who at one time awoke to find himself in the threshold of the room holding the egg, confused at to what his Dream-Self had so wanted to accomplish.

Day after day, no progress made. Night after night, Young Man awoke sweating and Old Man found himself closer and closer to the egg. Old Man grew fearful as the dreams grew stronger, until the one night he feared the most arrived.

One night, he awoke to find the egg was gone.

He awoke as it slid down his throat, and he could feel it passing into his stomach as he grew conscious once more.

They say the first summoning of an angel can be painful for gods who fear their other half. The stronger the fear, the more painful the summoning, and oh, lordy, did Old Man have fear to spare. He did not understand what was happening. He did not understand what was emerging nor why, and that unknown terrified him.

It's said the angel emerged in a hail of blood and terror from that fear, and that its form was strange and alien, mutated by the potent horror that filled Old Man. It resembled neither the _Seraphim_ with its many wings and many eyes and many mouths nor the _SSaratu_ with its poison, but a new creature entirely. It is said that Young Man appeared in the moment of its birth, bearing with him another _Seraphim_ that was at once attacked, just as before. Yet this attack was different, this attack was strange, for the eerie angel, mutated as it was, had a form like that of the _SSaratu_ : gaseous and flowing and chaotic. It wrapped itself around the _Seraphim_ and entered through its mouth, and in that manner was said to have possessed the entity.

And then it spoke.

" _See me, for I am whole."_ It said toYoung Man and Old Man. _"I stand before you no longer half a beast, for my form is whole. I stand before you no longer a golem, for I have gained Insight. Through host of a deity, I have gained wisdom and empathy, and now I speak my truth to you: for you who have brought me into this land, I give you my children. Let them guide you when you have no one else to turn to. Let them speak the truths you would run from. Let them warm you when you are cold. And in return let them take from you what makes them whole: Compassion, for it is lacking in this cruel land. Form, so that your people may know us as brethren and not fear the truths we harbor. And we shall serve you and we shall love you and we shall aid you, for you are what makes us whole. For we are the you that is hidden."_

Compassion.

The one aspect lacking within the _Seraphim_ of old, which grew as servants and as weapons in the wake of these new and strange angels which emerged as eggs from the blood of their parent and hatched within the soul of their deity.

Compassion for themselves.

 _Curled up within their hosts, they listen for the voice of their sister, and emerge as their Other Halves fall to rest. On the beats of silent wings they approach the room their sibling recovers in and slip inside. She is weak and she is ill, yet to them it is of little consequence. She is in need, and so they come to aid, to pay their respects and to lend her the strength she no longer has. Left Wing, too jaded to provide emotional support, stands by the door as guard, listening for intruders. Right Wing, new and filled with the emotions lost to her mother-sister, goes and sits with Black Wing, who helps cushion Featherless and gently massages potions into what remains of the muscle in her wings. It smells of lavender and jasmine and soothes them all, and Right Wing thinks Featherless must be cold without any feathers and Featherless says she is, and Left Wing promises they'll knit a sweater to help keep her warm. Thorn has a brush and is gentle as she combs out the filth stuck in Featherless's hair, and tells tales of enchantment that are bewitching to Right Wing, and Tiny Wings, who is still young and knows little of the world. Featherless, still filled with anxiety and no feathers to pluck, abolishes her worry by shredding the pages of a large book Tiny Wings had found in a box in the closet. Tiny Wings curls up with Featherless like the forgotten child she is, and it invokes coos and happy sighs from all present._

Compassion for each other.

 _Black Wing apologizes to Thorn, and likewise so does Thorn, and through the window even the Elder One appears, a dark shadow that is difficult for even the angels to see. Left Wing recognizes the Elder though, and for a moment is happy as she introduces the old angel to the rest of the choir. The Elder's appearance is fearsome, though it speaks with a soft and kind voice, and the hands once designed to kill now are gentle as it aids Black Wing in her ministrations. It tells Featherless that she must sing if she is to heal herself and her host._

Compassion like that of Humanity, when the moon fades and the madness wanes and all that is left are those aspects which make mortals shine even to the gods.

"Come on, Kei. You aren't the least bit curious?"

"Not in the slightest. I saw all I ever needed to see of angels and I promised Urd I wouldn't peek. I'm not about to break that promise, Aiko."

 _And so they sing, though their songs go unheard by everyone and everything._

"You can't be serious, Kei. Come on. Just a single peek! Just to see what it looks like! It's been driving me nuts, and with the way Nebo-"

"Go to sleep, Aiko."

 _They sing for their sister, they sing for each other, they sing for themselves._

"Ugh, I can't believe you're my brother sometimes, Kei. I thought you had a sense of adventure!"

"I'm a little 'adventured' out at the moment, Bengal. Dying will do that to a person."

"Fuck... right, sorry Kei... Forget I said anything. Let's go to sleep."

 _They sing for the man beside them, they sleep for the woman beside them, they sing for the puma and the opossum and the spider and the trees._

She waited for the steady rhythm of her brother's breath to tell her he was asleep before rolling off the blow-up mattress. Her brother began to snore softly, and she slipped out, the excuse of needing to pee on the tip of her tongue should any step awaken her brother. Yet his hearing was damaged and her steps went unheard, and she slipped out into the hallway in the late night. She debated with herself on what she was about to do-half her courage came from Kei, and that had fled her with his continued refusal to join her on her adventure..

She stared at the door to the room next to her and sighed, steeling herself in an attempt to gather her lacking courage. "It can't hurt, right?" She asked herself, "I mean, it's just a tiny peek. Nothing bad could happen from a little look, right?"

 _Pandora moves closer to the box that bears her name, and those within rise and fall in the song of the almighty choir. The Elder, who is the true_ gudan, _the 'fierce mother', brings the choir's song down to a hush, and there is a glimmer that surrounds them that is dim in Featherless but bright in the others, and the Elder says it will take time and that it will take patience and not to scratch or pick at her wings. The_ gudan _claims they must leave then, and Featherless is sad to see them leave. She is lonely without her host and without the choir, and when Black Wing and Tiny Wings try to convince the Elder to stay, they are scolded with snarls and growls, for their hosts have overexerted themselves and need their angels back within themselves. Left and Right promise they will return, and Right Wing hugs Featherless with love unconditional, and Left Wing touches her shoulder in a gesture of camaraderie. Thorn promises she will return with the strength of her host, and the_ gudan _ushers them all out the window like a mother hen._

 _Alone once more and colder than ever, Featherless returns to shredding her papers, unable to sleep now after the visit with her sisters._

Biting her lip, she grabbed the doorknob, expecting it to be locked as she turned it and instead twisting it with no resistance. The door opened without a sound, and with deep reservations she entered, her mind looming and filling with shiny black monsters garbed in haloes and angel wings hiding within.

 _She freezes in her tearing as the doorknob turns, her eyes drawn and fixated on the door Left Wing had watched minutes before._

The room was dark and ominous, with strange orbs of blue-green light hovering as if by magic. She looked at them in wonder, though could not summon the will to touch them. Instead her gaze turned further inside, and as if pulled by an unknown presence, she stepped inside. The door slid shut behind her, and she was left alone in the darkness with the strange light, her eyes straining for the legendary creature rumored within the room. She saw a presence on the bed, and in the gloom a pair of bright blue eyes reflected the light of the orbs back at her.

 _She looks to the intruder, ready to call for aid, and recognizes it as the woman next door. She watches the woman's head turn as she observes the foxfire produced by Black Wing as candles, and grows tense as those eyes move and find hers in the darkness. Her face is pale and illuminated with a blue-green cast._

Aiko Morisato found the angel Holy Bell in the darkness of magic in her brother's house, and a single word left her lips:

"Wow."

* * *

 **A/N: Uhg. Aiko, Aiko, Aiko. Surely this will not end badly for her. One more chapter for this arc and we will move on to something else.**

* * *

 _Comments of a Madwoman: I love my xenos. Anyone who's familiar with my other fics will tell you that. Hot damned if I_ wasn't _going to find a way to include them in this story._


	36. Chapter 36 - My Angel

l

-36-

An angel.

An honest-to-god _angel._

With bated breath Aiko stared at the creature before her, illuminated only by the strange, magical orbs of light that floated around her. She could scarcely believe her eyes. An _angel._ It was everything she could have ever hoped: The angel's hair shone like gentle starlight in the foxfire, each individual thread like spun gold. The skin was pale, yet rather than reflecting the greenish-blue tint of the surrounding light it glowed with its own dim light, and that light showed pale skin like fresh cream. Wings-real avian-like _wings_ -were splayed across her back like the old renaissance paintings that so favored their image. The creature watched her with bright, blue eyes from within a sharp, feminine face, and as their eyes met Aiko felt her heart skip a beat.

Indeed, the angel Holy Bell was everything Aiko Morisato would have ever hoped for in an angel... and yet everything she was not, as well. Her golden hair, so fine at first glance, was dull, dry and appeared coarse to the touch. Her creamy skin was scarred with what looked like pox-marks, and a second glance revealed blemishes and bruises not immediately made obvious by the light. Her flesh looked loose and thin, hanging from a frame that was far, far too skinny for Aiko's comfort. The wings looked shriveled and covered in coarse bumps, the plumage Aiko had expected on her initial peek absent of even the smallest of feathers, and as Aiko stared they fluttered uselessly at Holy Bell's back. For all the light that so illuminated the angel's eyes, they were dark as they fixed themselves on Aiko. It took Aiko a moment to recognize it as fear. Fear of the stranger who'd intruded into her nest.

"Oh god..." Aiko breathed, and now she understood why the deities had all been so closed-lipped about the angel in Belldandy's room. "Oh my god." Now she understood why Urd had made a deal with Keiichi and why Nebo had bargained with Keiichi on ensuring the angel had her privacy. "Oh god... _damn it!"_ Now she understood why Belldandy had been so quiet whenever the topic of angels arose, whenever her angel's name was dropped in conversation, of why the door to Belldandy's room always seemed to lock whenever Aiko passed by and why Nebo discouraged her from witnessing the angel first hand.

She felt something painful constrict in her chest, was unaware of the hands that moved to cover her mouth in horror at the creature before her, and had to claw past the sudden and insane desire to break down screaming. Break down screaming and, and, _Aoshima._

At once Aiko came to a sudden and complete understanding: Belldandy's angel was debilitated. Belldandy's angel was weak because of the actions of a mortal, and that the fear that stared out at her from a face too thin and too worn was the fear of a mortal, fear of further damage, and not of Aiko personally. She feared the strange mortal that had entered the room that was her sanctuary, and who even now loomed in the room's darkness, watching the angel with wide and bulging eyes.

All this Aiko came to know in the span of an instant, and it left her in shock and left her reeling. "This is horrible," she whispered, "I-" Oh god, she never should have come here. Not to this room. Not to see this angel. Maybe not even to this _house_. "I'm-I'm sorry," she said, and the words sounded weak and flat to her own ears. "I shouldn't have-oh god, I'm so sorry."

Before her, the angel watched her with a rigid pose, her fleshy wings-like those of a plucked chicken, and what a horrible comparison _that_ was-the only thing that moved on her person. The rest of her might as well have been a statue; motionless, like a terrified rabbit who'd scented a coyote.

Aiko grimaced at the act, feeling a lump of guilt settle in her chest. She stepped back, trying to look as harmless as possible. Some of the tension eased in the angel's muscles, and hesitantly, her eyes never leaving the woman, Holy Bell returned to shredding pages from what looked like one of Keiichi's old rate manuals. The student bit her lip, observing the angel's activity for several minutes before finding her voice once more. "I'm...I'm Aiko."

The shredding stopped.

Aiko stared at the angel's hands. They looked bony and scrawny in the foxfire. Weak. As though the very act of tearing out pages from a book took effort. The woman hesitated a moment longer, and then continued. "I'm... I'm a friend of Belldandy's," she said, "Has she...spoken of me?"

The angel didn't move. Now even her wings had stopped fluttering, and instead the feminine creature watched her with wary eyes.

"Is there... can I do anything for you?" Aiko tried. "I mean, I don't know what I-what I _can_ do, but...can I try to help still? I-I want to help."

The angel said nothing.

"May I...may I approach you?"

The angel's head tilted ever-so-slightly, as if in consideration of the proposition, and Aiko felt a little blossom of hope rise in her chest. Though it was hesitant and filled with trepidation, the angel at last inclined her head in a nod, and Aiko took a single, small step towards her. She stopped to observe the angel's reaction, taking note of the way her wings rose as if in reflex before relaxing once more, like a startled cat whose fur would bristle instinctively.

"...You can't speak, can you?" Aiko asked, and this time was a little more successful as the angel gave an abrupt head shake. "So... yes or no questions then, right?" A nod gave Aiko a bit more confidence, and encouraged by the small opening communication, Aiko took another small step forward. Again the wings rose, but not so high or so sharply as before. "You can stop me at any time, okay?" Aiko said. "I don't want to make you uncomfortable... I just want to help. Just hold your hand out and I'll stop whatever I'm doing, all right?"

Again the angel nodded, still watching her with wary eyes, and Aiko took another larger step forward. The wings twitched, stayed high and splayed on the angel's shoulders for a moment, and then slowly settled down against the angel's back once more.

"Is there anything I can do for you?" Aiko asked. "Are you hungry?" The angel shook her head. "Thirsty?" Another headshake. "Um..." She saw the pillows and blankets stacked around the angel's thin frame. "Are you cold?" This time there wasn't a head shake, yet the angel looked uncertain, as though debating on the wisdom of expressing any kind of affliction to Aiko. She gave a small, tentative nod after considering Aiko's question, and Aiko moved closer. There were blankets draped around her in such a manner as to keep her wings free from being tangled, and Aiko pursed her lips. "Is it okay if I cover your wings with one of the blankets?" She asked. "It might help warm you up a bit more." Wouldn't there be a lot of blood vessels in the wings? Like in hands and feet?

Aiko, whose major in college was computer technology with a minor in Calculus, had no fucking clue. Her experience with birds amounted to the pigeons on campus and her roommate's sister's cockatoo, appropriately named 'Richard' because he was such a dick. Aiko had almost lost a piece of her finger to his beak, and the entire experience had sworn her off birds for life. But the angel looked cold, she wasn't an asshole named 'Dick', and Aiko didn't really see many other options to try given that her cheap-ass brother didn't believe in electric blankets. Her parents had a _kotatsu_ , which was fucking _amazing_ during the holidays, but they'd brought that with them all the way from Japan, and unless angels could pull some serious ' _kotatsu_ -manifestation' magic, Aiko doubted she was going to get one of those for the angel either. So...cover the wings (maybe?) cover the hands, the feet, and the head, where some of the major heat loss happens in a human. The angel _looked_ human enough, so perhaps it was safe to assume she'd work like a human?

...Aiko was probably going to regret that assumption later.

But that was for Future Aiko to worry about. Present Aiko was currently wrapping a heavy quilt blanket around the angel's shoulders and covering the naked wings tucked tight against her back. With each movement the angel would fight to observe her, squirming beneath the blanket to keep her eyes on Aiko as though fearing the college student might yet still attack her. Aiko, having long recognized such actions in herself after long years of therapy, kept her movements slow and deliberate, pausing and backing away on occasion when it looked like the angel was growing too anxious in their shared proximity.

She relaxed a great deal more when Aiko finished and stepped away. "Is that any better?" Aiko asked. The angel was bundled up in so many layers of blankets at this point that only her head was visible, reminding the woman a little of a cozy Eskimo bundled in furs. She stared up at Aiko from her throne of pillows, and then squirmed once more beneath the covers to free her hands and grab the book she'd been tearing pages out of. Tearing a fresh page out of the book, the angel set about tearing long strips from it, and Aiko watched with a slight frown as long, soft, _ssshhiiek's_ filled the silence.

The woman eyed the strips as they gathered in a tiny pile before the angel. "Hey." The angel paused to observe her. "Can I see one of the torn bits of paper?"

The angel fixed her with a bemused look, and then nodded from within her large nest of blankets. Aiko reached for the one nearest her, and aware of her strange companion's alert gaze, tied the paper in a gentle knot and began to fold it repeatedly. A tiny little star began to take form under her hands, and being extra-careful with the torn edges, Aiko carefully folded the final end into a little pocket before squeezing the star's sides, sharpening the points and making the little star pop up in a burst of ink and old paper.

"Still got it." Aiko beamed at the tiny little star, messy though it was with its torn edges, and looked up to her silent companion. The angel stared down at the tiny origami star in fascination, and her smile growing, Aiko held the little creation out for the angel to take. The entity took it with a pair of fingers, then nestled it with both hands close to her face, as though trying to figure out how Aiko had managed to create such a little piece of art with a strip of ruined paper. It was an absurd, yet somehow adorable captivation, and Aiko felt her smile grow larger as the angel looked from the star to Aiko and back again, and then gestured to the little star in her hands.

"You can keep it," Aiko said. "I can always make more-"

The star vanished into the depths of the blankets, and before Aiko could finish speaking the angel had shoved the remaining pile of shredded strips of paper towards her, the request clear: _More._

Despite herself, Aiko laughed, delighted to have so enchanted a creature of such mythical reverence. "Sure, I can make more," she said, and watched the angel's face break into a large, toothy smile filled with such exuberant joy that Aiko couldn't help but mirror it.

A bit more choosy with her paper strips now, Aiko selected one that appeared a bit more even on the torn edges, and set about folding the paper once more, ensuring she went slowly so that her new friend could watch her step by step. Popping the new star, she again handed it to the angel, whose entire face was now alight with wonder over the new star. "Do you want to try?" Aiko offered, "It only looks complicated. It's really easy." The blue-haired woman selected two new strips from the pile between them, then offered one to the angel, who grasped it with tentative hands. "Do you mind if I sit on the bed?"

The angel nodded with enthusiasm, and smiling, Aiko made herself comfortable on the bed's edge, facing towards her companion. "So first..." Like all the times in public school ranging from Elementary School and up into College, Aiko went step-by-step through the process of making an origami star, watching with a teacher's eye for any signs of error from her companion and providing gentle corrections when necessary. The first star came out a little lopsided, yet the angel looked immensely pleased regardless of any imperfections, and quickly searched the pile of strips for another evenly torn strip of paper.

This was cool. Hell, this was awesome. She was making Origami stars with a fucking _angel_. And she was _better_ at it than the angel, which admittedly, was also kind of cool.

"Want to make another?" Aiko asked, yet the angel was already reaching for a new strip of paper for her second star. Aiko watched her work, the smile on her face so large it was beginning to hurt, and then started on her next one. "You know, my mother, Takano, taught me how to make origami stars." She thought back to her mother, and how Takano had taken an entire week off from work to help tend to Aiko after she'd been raped, searching for various different ways to soothe her daughter. "They were easy to make, and they... I don't know, cleared my head, you know? Like, it was meditative or something." Takano had given her an old coffee tin and had told her to fill it to the brim with stars-a simple task that had kept her hands busy and her mind focused for hours. "I was so focused on making all these tiny stars that I couldn't think of what had happened to me, and in-between the therapy sessions, I found out they helped calm me down when I was about to freak out."

The angel glanced at her, listening attentively and without judgment as she finished crimping the corners of her second star, this one closer to Aiko's perfected ones, and then moved to her third. "There's something peaceful about it, don't you think?" Aiko asked, and found the angel nodding. "I found out I enjoyed it a whole lot back then-there was just this sort of... peace that would wash over me, which I always attributed back to spending all that time making stars with Takano." She smiled wistfully at the memory, where the scents of hot green tea and homemade _dango_ touched her nose. "She taught me some more origami as well after I filled up the coffee can."

The angel paused and gestured to her. _Like what_?

The young woman smiled. "All sorts of things. Little paper _shuriken,_ tiny cranes and chubby sparrows, puppy dog faces, boxes, jumping frogs, flowers... I can teach you some of the easier ones, if you'd like, once you're tired of making tiny stars."

The angel smiled and shook her head, as if ridiculing Aiko: _Me, tire of stars? You're joking._ It made Aiko laugh again, and to her delight, she found her friend join her. And though her laughter was soundless, there was a sense of joy and freedom that accompanied it, and the two beamed at each other like a pair of long-time friends before delving back into their work of crafting star after star.

When they ran out of strips of paper, Aiko moved to new origami, tearing a new page out of the old field manual-this page in particular listing out various Navy acronyms-where she folded it, tore it in half, and demonstrated how to create an origami crane while her angel friend watched on in wonder. While the angel busied herself with her first attempt at this new project, a moment of ingenuity struck Aiko and she pulled out her phone and opened up a note app, and when the angel stared at her in question Aiko handed it to her and showed her how to use the touchscreen's keyboard feature to type out her thoughts.

Like magic the communication barrier between the two of them vanished, and while Aiko prepared new bits of paper for cranes and stars and now frogs, the angel introduced herself as Holy Bell, and while _technically_ Belldandy had never spoken of her, she knew of Aiko from Belldandy's almost-nightly talks with her. Between crafting stars and cranes and frogs, Holy Bell typed her thanks to Aiko, surprising the college student by thanking Aiko for helping Belldandy in her time of need, and for showing Holy Bell how to craft tiny stars from shredded paper. _To think one could still find beauty from something so destroyed._ The text read, _your tiny stars have brought certain circumstances into a new light._

Aiko flushed at the praise, something rare for her. Had it been a normal person, Aiko would have laughed it off without a second thought. But the words emerging from an _angel,_ and one in such obvious deterioration as Holy Bell, gave weight to the praise, and the compliment left her as red as a tomato. "It was nothing," Aiko said, feeling the heat in her cheeks spread up into her ears and down her neck. "I just wanted to help. I'm glad you're enjoying the origami lessons, even if I'm probably a really shitty teacher."

She was then scolded for calling herself a 'shitty teacher' in the angel's next little text, and it made her laugh, made her blush darken, and she promised the angel she'd stop swearing in front of such a 'holy being' such as Holy Bell.

More bits of origami were shown and taught and mastered, and stories were shared between the two-silly stories shared mostly by Aiko of happier times growing up with her family, and showing pictures of her older sister, Megumi, dressed in her terrifying persona of 'Toph' while working with her fiancé, Mark 'Joker' Hendrick, as a national liaison for the organization, _Bikers Against Child Abuse_. "Megs' is awesome," she told the angel. "She travels all over the country promoting the organization and helping set up meetings with parents and kids who got hurt and have to face their perpetrator in court. 'Toph' is the nickname she goes by whenever she's meeting with kids.

 _She looks intimidating._ Holy bell wrote. The woman in the picture wore a deep scowl on her face, her hair tied back in a small ponytail as she stared at the photographer from behind a pair of mirrored sunglasses. The woman was dressed entirely in leather, her arms folded as she leaned against an old motorcycle.

"Nah, that's just how she looks on the job," Aiko said. Taking the phone back from the angel, Aiko scrolled through her phone and to another image, then passed it back to Holy Bell. "This is her back home with our little brother, Keigo. It's a total switch from the picture before, isn't it?" The next photo showed that same woman again, only this time her hair was down, where it fell to her earlobes in a medium haircut. She wore a silly grin on her face, poised with a laughing boy with messy dark hair and merry brown eyes. The two shot a pair of victory signs at the camera, with Megumi draping an arm around Keigo's shoulders.

Holy Bell stared at it for a moment, then gestured to her arms.

"What? Do you mean Meg's tattoos?" Aiko asked, and the angel nodded. Aiko grinned. "Yeah, she's got two full sleeves, one of which she got done all the way back in Japan. You'd never know it when she's acting as a liaison for the BACA Chapters though. That first introduction is all professionalism and formal outfits, and the sleeves don't extend past her wrist, so no one ever sees them until she shows up with a bunch of bikers at a family's house a couple days later." She chuckled. "Takano and Keima were _pissed_ when she came to visit with the new sleeves one day. They thought she'd run off and joined a gang like MS-13 or something. It was hilarious."

Holy Bell requested the phone again, and handing it over, typed in a single word: _Yakuza._

Aiko read it with some surprise, then shook her head. "No... Definitely not Yakuza." Under her breath she muttered, "Though I guess, in a way she kind of _did_ join a gang... but no, Megs isn't a part of the Yakuza, and having the sleeves doesn't automatically make her one either." She paused, observing Holy Bell carefully. "That's right... Belldandy mentioned that... there were some affiliations with Yakuza back in Japan." She paused. "Japan... you've never seen Origami before despite being in Japan?" She handed the phone over to Holy Bell.

The angel nodded, typed a line of text, then handed back the phone. _There was no joy in Japan for Belldandy._ The message said. _Only pain and sadness with Aoshima. Any happiness we found was given to the children we discovered before we were able to set them free._

"I see," Aiko murmured. "Belldandy doesn't like to talk about that aspect very much... the kids she found in her first year with Aoshima." Holy Bell nodded. "I got her to open up a little...maybe once or twice, but she's pretty tight-lipped about that time. It must have been a painful experience for her.

 _It was._ The phone read. _Before that time Aoshima did not understand the full depths of control he had on Belldandy._ Holy Bell looked sad. _He did not realize the full extent to which he could control her until she inserted herself between him and those children._

Aiko observed the angel in silence, taking a moment to examine the pain and sorrow that had crossed the angel's face. It was the face of a martyr. One well-versed in self-sacrifice and familiar to the pain that came with it. "...How connected are you to Belldandy?" She asked. "Like...really? I kind of understand you guys have a connection, but like...how deep does it go?"

Holy Bell observed her, and for a brief moment the look on her face was so alien that Aiko was at once reminded that the person she was speaking to was not human. Not in the slightest bit. Sure, she may look like a human, she may act like a human, but that didn't change the fact that the creature before her was as alien as the stars in the sky. Regardless of the strange and unlikely friendship that had sprung between them in a matter of hours, the fact remained that this creature was still an _angel_. A creature designed by a god. A creature that held some kind of symbiotic relationship _with_ a god, and one that perhaps ran deeper than Aiko's initial understanding of it.

 _Our connection runs deeper than the blood in our veins._ Holy Bell's response was enigmatic. _I am the negative that is like her, but not. I am the nemesis. The Other Half. I sense the thoughts she cannot bring to light, and feel the emotions she runs from, and I balance those aspects of herself that she fears to acknowledge. I am the hidden strength, pride forsaken, the shadow of joy, the bound rage, and the unspoken fear._

Aiko read the strange commentary and looked back up at Holy Bell, feeling her arms break into goosebumps. For the first time that evening, she questioned the wisdom of meeting the angel before her, and began to consider the consequences that might arise from her small little discussion with this 'nemesis'. The word alone sent the hair on the nape of her neck rising in alarm; it was a word with little positive connotation. A word like 'enemy', a word like 'adversary', 'opponent', and 'bane'.

The college student fell silent for a long time, then, and felt the angel's eyes upon her, her gaze long and piercing and as alien as the wings that sprouted from her back. _I am the monkey on her back_ , were the words that came to Aiko's mind. _I am the past she must face, the actions she must acknowledge, and the truths she must accept._

The woman pursed her lips. "Belldandy never referred to Aoshima by name," she said. "Not if she could help it..."

 _I am aware._ Holy Bell said. _But I am the spirit unbound by weakness,_ she continued, _and I refuse to allow a name to control me._ She gestured to herself as Aiko read the text. I _t is only my body that has weakened since Belldandy's imprisonment by Aoshima,_ Holy Bell continued. _My spirit remains unbroken. Belldandy needed strength when her own began to wane, and as her angel I gave everything I had for her, so that she might yet withstand the trials presented to her._ She huffed, and Aiko detected a note of long, stubborn pride in the phone text, despite the angel's decrepit form. _And as her angel, I will continue to be that strength for her- whether she realizes it or not- until she has gained the strength to stand on her own two feet again without the aid of her angel. There is a tiger chained to her back, and it has been clawing and biting and screaming at her for the past decade. And when she could no longer stand its assault, I came to bear its burden instead, and I will continue to do so until she is strong enough to cast aside those shackles and set that tiger free._

There was a strange ferocity in the statement that Aiko could not place, and as she looked back to Holy Bell she saw it reflected back in the angel's bright blue eyes. Blue eyes like those of the white tiger Aiko had once met as a child, still a kit that cried and played and had stared up at Aiko with eyes like the sky itself. In that gaze Aiko suddenly wondered if perhaps that alleged tiger wasn't sitting before her right now, its shackles and chains wasted muscle and featherless wings.

She could think of nothing more to say to the angel, and so instead offered the phone back to her. Aiko paused, waiting to see if the entity would speak more on the subject, yet instead the angel gestured for more pictures. Deciding to let the matter drop, the woman went back to her photos, showing pictures of Takano and Keima, Keima with his messy salt and pepper hair and Takano with a long streak of white in hers, and then to some of her college friends back home. More pictures of Keigo, then a couple with both Keiichi and Keigo together when he'd come down to visit the family before his last deployment.

Between stories and origami and shared pictures, the two continued through the night, in good company and without worry or fear of what the dawn would bring. One with a night filled with wonder and impossibilities, and the other happy and content for the first time in close to a decade. Aiko forgot about the unsettling dialog provided by Holy Bell, and the rest of the night was spent in relative peace. Their joy was shared, and their laughter filled the darkness of the room, illuminated as it was only by another angel's magic.

And with the morning sunshine, it was how Asgardian Deity First-Class, Third-Category license holder Nebo found them when he went to check on Holy Bell with the rising sun.

XXX

"Wake up." Something shook her shoulder, and gritting her teeth, Belldandy ignored it, rolling to one side and feeling something push into her cheek with pillow-like softness. It smelled familiar, like lavender and jasmine. Urd's scents. It was soothing, and sighing to herself she made herself comfortable against it, curling up within the blanket and allowing her drowsy mind to tug her back into the depths of sleep.

"Bell, wake up." Urd's voice, a loud whisper right next to her ear, pulled her from her rest once more, and grimacing, Belldandy opened her eyes.

And found herself staring directly into her sister's cleavage.

With the start of a shout in her throat, the goddess jerked back, only for Skuld to stifle her shout as the younger goddess wrapped a hand around her mouth. "Quiet!" The youngest Norn whispered. "It'll hear you!"

What? _What?_ What will hear her? Where was she? Why was she-why was she _outside_?

She squirmed against her sister's grasp, her eyes still wide and slightly panicked, and Urd shushed her, refusing to move an inch. "The fucking puma's back," she whispered hotly. "The motherfucker is back, and it's fucking asleep right _beneath us!"_

Belldandy, predictably, froze at this announcement, and stared at her big sister with large, startled eyes. Urd's gaze left her face for something above her head-Skuld, perhaps-and with a slight nod Belldandy felt her sister's hand leave her mouth.

"Are you fucking _serious_?!" Belldandy whispered to Urd. "Right _beneath_ us?!" Her voice began to rise in her panic, and this time both her older and younger sister shushed her. "Urd, what the fuck?!"

"That's my line," Skuld grumbled in her ear.

Belldandy looked like she was creeping closer towards the edge of panic. "This is why we sleep _inside_ , Urd," she hissed. "So that we don't have to wake up after sleeping in a fucking hammock to a fucking wild animal sleeping beneath us!"

"Has it always been this big?" Skuld whispered, peeking over her shoulder and down at something just outside of Belldandy's field of view. "I swear, I've never seen a cougar this big before. It's fucking enormous!"

"Fuck you both," Urd retorted. "This is why we sleep in a fucking hammock! So that fucking predators don't come and chew on our asses while we sleep! Why do you think we're so high up?"

"Fuck me?" Belldandy bristled, "Oh no, fuck _you_ , if that's the same motherfucker from before, then all it'll need to do is stand on its hind legs and then it'll be gnawing on your head, and then you can kiss your ass goodbye because you're going to be processed through the digestive tract of a fucking puma, and the end result is you coming out a puma's ass a pile of shit!"

"Fucking hell, Bell!" Skuld's voice was strained. "Were you always like this and I was too young to understand it or did those guards really have that big an impact on you?"

Her comment was ignored.

Urd narrowed her eyes at her sister. "Well if that's the case, would _you_ like to wake up the bastard and scare it off?" She demanded, "'Cause it ain't much to toss you to the fucking wolves!"

"Aaaand now I'm in the Lion King," Skuld muttered, still looking over her shoulder as she eyed the puma beneath them. "Fuck me. I'm going to watch Scar murder Mufasa all over again. Fuuuuck." She paused, squinted, and then her eyes widened. "Oh fuck." The words were a whisper. "Ooooh fuck. Guys?"

Belldandy and Urd didn't hear her. "Do it," Belldandy dared her. "I'll drag you down with me!"

"Guys?" Skuld edged into Belldandy's back, yet still neither sister responded to her.

"Don't tempt me, Bell!" Urd growled. "I've done things you can't even imagine in the ten years you been gone. This ain't nothing but a drop in the bucket for me!"

"Guys?!" Skuld reached behind her and patted Belldandy's shoulder, trying to gain her attention, "Bell, Urd, could you guys shut up for a moment and-"

"Oh, and you think I haven't done my fair share of atrocious deeds, Urd?" Belldandy snapped. "Just because your mother was-"

"Will you two lice-covered shit-stains shut the FUCK UP?!" Skuld screamed, and both sisters paused in their argument, staring back at Skuld in surprise.

And finding the puma that had gained their sister's attention staring at them with sleepy golden eyes.

All at once the argument between Belldandy and Urd came to a grinding halt, and with matching expressions Belldandy and Urd stared in mute horror at the beast before them. The puma had gotten bigger since Belldandy's confrontation with it in the woods, and its shoulder easily crested the hammock, allowing the cougar to stare down at the three sisters like a mother overlooking babes in a crib.

The three sisters stared up at the puma with wide eyes, and the puma stared down at them with calm ones of its own. "Well... shit," Skuld stated. "Um... guys? A little help here?"

Neither Belldandy nor Urd said a word.

"Assholes," Skuld muttered under her breath. In a louder voice she said, "Uh, hello. Um... sorry for, uh, waking you?"

The puma chuffed. All three sisters felt it's hot breath hit their faces. It was rank with the scent of cat and meat. They cringed.

"Um..." Skuld appeared to struggle with any words for the massive beast. "Uh... so, I think we all know that you're uh, not a… um... not a normal puma. Like we're, I guess, not normal... people?"

The puma squawked. Coming from such a massive beast, it was a sound that was almost humorous to hear. Skuld didn't move. Belldandy and Urd, however, neither with any understanding of cougar body language or the meaning associated with the sounds they emitted, almost rolled out of the hammock in their panic.

Yet the puma appeared far from aggressive, and indeed, if the Norns listened carefully they could actually hear a soft purr emerging from the large cat. It gave another high squawk, chirped, and then turned and left the hammock in favor of the forest.

For a long moment no one spoke. Belldandy opened her mouth and closed it when no sound emerged from her throat, and then opened it again, where she managed to force out, "What in the ten realms of the nine worlds just _happened_?!" She felt anxious over the experience, upset over the loss of her own composure because of a puma catching her off-guard in a _hammock_ of all things.

"Well _you_ weren't doing anything!" Skuld spat.

"But you just- when did you- _why_ on Midgard would you-" Belldandy stammered out a retort that would never be finished, for it was in that moment that the Norn grew Aware.

Of what it was hard to say, but she sensed it in a manner she could not describe, a sense of familiarity that was so close as to be at the very tips of her fingers, and yet just far enough out of reach that the identity of the presence was out of her grasp. She felt a tug, and turned her attention to the direction the tug emanated from and saw the house. "Holy... Bell?" She murmured, and felt that familiarity grow into a whispering voice. A voice she _knew_ , a voice she _recognized_ , a voice she'd forgotten after a decade of hell but now remembered all at once as it called to her for help.

"Holy Bell!" The woman's magic propelled her out of the hammock, ignoring the shouts of her sisters, and as soon as her feet touched the ground she was off, propelling herself towards the house's back door with such force that it shattered when she came close. Her magic was around her now, responding to the sudden and agonizing distress of her angel, and like a ravenous wolf it destroyed anything within a foot of her. Tile shattered. Wood splintered. She saw but did not _see_ Lind's sleeping form on the recliner and Nebo missing from on the couch, and when she grabbed the stairway railing it exploded in her grip. "Holy Bell?!" Her heart was racing. Racing with excitement and racing with fear, for she could sense her angel now and what she sensed was terror and what she sensed was anger, and as such those emotions in turn blossomed in her breast.

She found Nebo in the hallway and felt her anger flare, saw her vision grow tinged with red, and knew that he was the cause of her angel's distress. The man was backing out of Belldandy's bedroom, his face a grimace of heated rage that might have matched Belldandy's had she seen her own expression. He clutched his head with both hands, hyperventilating through clenched teeth as he stared into the room before him. A black aura was manifesting around him, that which Holy Bell was whispering warnings about yet Belldandy ignored, and as she raced to confront the man that black miasma consolidated into a form, and oh... what an awful, awful creature it was.

"What are you _doing here?!"_ he exclaimed, seemingly unaware of Belldandy's presence at that moment. "I warned you before, _don't approach the angels!"_ The thing which emerged from the man was black and rotting, the combined fusion of a _Ssaratu_ and a _Seraphim_ made flesh and abused and tested over the millenia. Its form was bipedal, its flesh black and with an oily sheen. Its face was a gaping pit, the bone twisted and malformed, with long, twisted and fleshy tendrils that sprouted from its scalp like dreadlocks. They writhed with a life of their own, long and pulsing with red, bulging sacks of fluid.

A high-pitched ringing began to fill the air, like the song of wind whistling through a cave, and the sound was horrible enough for Belldandy to clutch her ears, trying to ward off the sound as it grew louder, clearer, sharper to the point where it was no longer whistling, no longer singing, but _screaming_.

"Luna Spirit!" Nebo roared, and try as she might to drown the screaming out it stayed ever-present, as the sound she was hearing was not that of a physical sound but the mental shriek of an angel whose strength knew no bounds and who could not be contained by the god who was its host. She felt her arms break out in goosebumps, felt the hair rise across her arms and up her neck, and felt tears blur her vision as the sound grew to the point of being unbearable, and Belldandy feared she might deafen herself lest she go mad.

The beast was massive- how could she have ever mistaken such a creature for an _angel_? This emaciated _thing_ with its exposed ribs and intestines, this wretched monstrosity that lumbered first on two legs and then on four, clutching and clawing at its warped and terrible head as if in pain as its innards spilled to the floor.

She wanted to scream but couldn't, wanted to flee, to fight, to sob in the presence of the abomination yet instead found herself paralyzed, watching through watery eyes as the creature _keened_ before lumbering into her bedroom.

It was only then that she remembered her angel, and as Nebo collapsed to the floor, clutching his head in much the same manner as his _Ssaratu_ , Belldandy found herself in motion, racing after the beast even as she heard the Tic moan the creature's name once more, "Mooney..."

Mooney. Mooney the Luna Spirit. Mooney the Looney. Lunacy.

 _Lunacy._

Oh, what a cruel play on words. The _Ssaratu,_ the Watcher, the Nemesis,born of the Old Flesh of the Ancient Ones and who bore truths that drove even the gods insane. This was no angel. This was the embodiment of _madness._

And yet there her angel stood, thin and featherless and trembling, her withered wings outstretched in a display of defiance as she stood between Lunacy and the bed, one arm holding down a body whose head was covered by blankets and pillows.

Aiko.

Aiko, curled up and trembling and victimized by Lunacy's shriek. That same wretched scream that even now manifested within Belldandy the will to strike, the desire to attack, the wish to cause harm for no other reason than that she was afraid and that the scream brought with it pain, and oh, Yggdrasil, it _just wouldn't stop._

That was when the window in Belldandy's room shattered, and World of Elegance appeared, Noble Scarlet in her wake. Frantic, they raced inside the room, wings large and expanded and as alarmed as Holy Bell as they moved to join their sister's side. The scream grew louder, and Belldandy's knees buckled as she tried to drown it out, yet though the angels flinched they held their ground, barring the way between the _Ssaratu_ and the bed.

Yet none of them attacked.

Not even World of Elegance, who appeared the most frenzied of all of them, took so much as a threatening step towards the _Ssaratu._

Unable to think, Belldandy exclaimed her confusion across the link between herself and her angel, stronger now than ever since her initial manifestation, and an image returned to her from Holy Bell.

 _Ansuz_.

 _Ansuz, holding her close._

 _Ansuz, carrying her in her arms._

 _Ansuz, letting her ride on her mother's shoulders where all the world lay out before her._

 _Mother._

And just as its children refused to raise a hand against their mother, so too did the _Ssaratu._ It thrashed and writhed and shrieked. It rushed forwards and leapt back right before touching any of them, and the thick, fleshy tendrils swept above their heads but did not touch so much as a feather, not so much as a lock of hair, on any of the angels who stood before it. The children would not strike. The mother would not harm. And though they were afraid they pleaded with their eyes, pleaded with those voices no gods could truly hear, and for such a frenzied creature who cared only for its children it was only through such means that it listened. Slowly, its fury abated, and the horrible scream that was its voice began to lessen, to soften, scaling down from a shriek into a song, and from a song into a whistle as its insanity began to ebb.

The _Ssaratu_ clutched its head and moaned, and it was a sound so deep that Belldandy could feel her bones vibrate with the sound. Shaking, the Norn found the strength to push herself to her feet and almost feared she might drop once more when the trembling grew uncontrollable. Her clothes felt clammy against her skin, clinging to her frame as if she'd trekked a mile through the deserts of Purgatory and dark with her sweat.

Nebo appeared in the threshold, clutching his head in a manner that mirrored the _Ssaratu_ before him. He propped himself up in the doorway, panting harshly and looking as disheveled and exhausted as Belldandy herself. His thick, curly hair clung to his forehead, and sweat beaded his temple as he sucked in one ragged breath after the other. The man grimaced, his eyes squeezing shut as he bit back a moan, and some small bit of Belldandy wondered if his _Ssaratu's_ manifestation brought him pain.

With its exposed ribs and hanging organs, Belldandy wondered if manifesting brought the _Ssaratu_ pain.

There was a thunder of stomping footsteps up the stairs, and then Urd and Skuld were in the hallway as well. "Bell-" Urd began, and fell silent as both she and Skuld caught sight of the menacing creature within the bedroom.

"Holy fuck..," Skuld whispered, and Belldandy glanced over at them, just in time to see Urd insert herself between Skuld and the room's threshold, staring at the creature within with wide eyes.

The whistle inside Belldandy's head began to fade into a high-pitched chime, and at last but with some effort the _Ssaratu_ turned away from the angels before it. Its form became transparent, its features obscure, and soon it became like the miasma it had originally manifested as before consolidating into the horrific creature that was its nature. It dissolved, bit by black bit, and returned to Nebo, who flinched when the black aura touched him and gritted his teeth, as though holding back a cry of pain.

And then the _Ssaratu,_ Luna Spirit, Mooney the Looney and Lunacy incarnate, was gone.

The entire room breathed a sigh of relief, and Holy Bell removed the hand that was keeping Aiko's head buried beneath the blankets. Aiko immediately pushed herself up with a panicked gasp, "What the fuck was _that_!" And then froze once more as her gaze came to rest on not only the two new angels within the room, but the assembly of gods staring at her as well.

The woman released a weak laugh that almost sounded like a sob. Belldandy, almost having been driven to a frenzy by the horrible creature that attempted to pass for an angel, found she couldn't blame her. Not for the sob at least.

"H-hey guys, uh, what's up?"

She was met with silence, and World of Elegance slowly turned to face the woman, her face descending into a mask of anger that wouldn't have looked out of place on Nebo's own face, had the man not been so exhausted. Aiko shied away from the irate angel, scrambling across the bed and falling off the other side in her haste. Yet before the black-winged angel could go for the mortal, Holy Bell grabbed her shoulder. World of Elegance wheeled to face her, and in a display that was almost identical to her body posture in front of the _Ssaratu_ , Holy Bell began to speak.

What she said no one could hear, but Belldandy caught small snippets, ' _...op... he... lpin... ko... to...'_

World of Elegance paused to listen, and then to the surprise of all present began to speak and gesture wildly as well, pointing first to the large gathering of deities near the threshold, then to Aiko, who peeked up with some reservations from where she'd fallen on the other side of the bed.

Holy Bell interrupted her midway with her own argument, and the room's occupants watched as the two angels argued with mute words.

Belldandy tore her eyes away from the strange display, finding Urd watching the scene with just as much confusion. "What is she saying?" she asked.

"I... don't know," Urd replied. "Elegance shut off her end of the link."

"They can do that?" queried Skuld.

"If you let them." That was Nebo, looking like he'd seen better days and like he was past the stage of anger and closer to collapsing on a moment's notice.

Belldandy looked back at Urd. "You let World of Elegance do that?"

"Yeah…" Urd said. Her gaze was still locked on the two arguing angels. "I... try and give her a lot of independence. You know... because of my childhood? From when I freaked out over her appearance?"

"Oh," Belldandy said. "Right."

They continued to watch the strange scene in silence, and through it all Aiko stood staring with wide eyes, trying to gain Belldandy's attention. "Guys?" She whispered hotly. " _Guys?_ A little help here? _Please_?"

XXX

Keiichi awoke to his alarm going off and a massive sense of dread in his gut.

"There is no way in hell I'm going in to work this morning," he grunted. He'd already missed his usual PT show time with the rest of Team 12, and while that could be excusable at times, he'd need to call McGuinness to let him know there was no Earthly way he'd show up when his sister, six gods, and all their respective angels were chilling at his house. He groaned at the thought, recognizing the source of his dread as all of those residing entities (and one baby sister), and covered his face with his hand. Sighing, he grabbed his phone from where it rested on the nightstand and stared up at it. As he'd predicted, there was a text from Jackson asking where he was and if he was good. Well, that was good. Jackson was technically his supervisor, and tended to be a bit more sympathetic when it came to excuses. McGuinness was a bit more of an ass with that sort of stuff. Especially since the Norns had taken residence in Keiichi's house. And Peorth fucking with Mac and his crew. And, well... everything.

The man sighed to himself, then unlocked his phone and sent a quick text response to Jackson, _'Got a chill run'g in rain.'_ It said, _'Fever. Don't want to come in to spread the love.'_

Jackson's response was as expected. _'kk i let tank no'._

"Thank god," he breathed. Right. So that was one problem out of the way. But that also meant he needed to try and get these issues resolved ASAP if he wanted to make sure that excuse held true. Mac would only let the excuse of a fever fly for so long, and in reality Keiichi really, _really_ wanted to get everyone who wasn't Urd and, well, _maybe_ Bell out of the house- depending on if Belldandy wanted to stay or not.

He paused on that line of thought. Now that was something he had never considered... if Belldandy _did_ leave, what would Urd do? Would she still stay? Or would she leave as well? Would his life suddenly return to 'normal' with Belldandy gone? Or would Urd, no longer able to go home, stay with him?

For a brief moment he tried to imagine his life as it was before, without either of the Norns present and leaving him alone in his three-bedroom house. It would feel... empty. Depressing, perhaps.

"Guess I'd get a dog or something," he grunted. "May need to speak with Urd if Belldandy decides to haul ass. Figure out what she's got planned without her sister to play watchdog with."

Speaking of sisters...

Aiko was gone.

Maybe she'd gone to the bathroom before his alarm had gone off or gotten up a little early for whatever reason.

Hell, for all he knew, maybe she was downstairs making pot brownies for the house so everyone could _chill the fuck out._ That sounded like something Aiko would do. He'd heard stories. Mostly from Megs, but one time from Keigo as well.

Yawning mightily, the man rolled out of bed and strolled over to the bedroom door. Might as well see what the rest of the house was doing and face the world for whatever horrible misfortune it would give. He opened the door and took a step out into the hallway, and his eyes were immediately drawn to the large cluster of deities that surrounded Belldandy's room.

...Or he could go back to bed and sleep in and not deal with whatever Crazy Norn Shit was going on at six-thirty in the morning.

He squinted at the deities, seeing Skuld and Urd and Belldandy clustered together, and even seeing a hint of what might have been Nebo as well. "You know what?" Keiichi said to himself. "No. Not this early. Fuck it. Go back to bed, Jank, it's not worth your time."

He turned back into his bedroom and shut the door behind him, and then fell back into his bed and slept for two more hours.

XXX

"Hold still." With gentle hands, Urd adjusted the position of Aiko's head, shining a penlight into Aiko's left eye before pulling the eyelid down. "Yeah... you're getting a potion. Nebo, you too."

Nebo, who sat across from Aiko at the dining room table, grunted yet did not protest. He was too busy holding a bag of frozen peas to his temple.

"Watch them for me, Skuld," Urd said, then turned off to the kitchen. "Don't let either of them out of your sight."

Skuld grunted. "Like either of them could make it to the front door? Nebo looks like he's about to go into a coma and Aiko's got so much blood in her eyes that she'll faint and smash her head into her own car."

Aiko winced. "Really?" She squeaked. "It's-it's _that_ bad?"

"Mortals were not designed to be in the same vicinity as a _Ssaratu_ ," Nebo grunted. "Nor an angel for an extended period of time."

"True," Lind muttered, eyeing Aiko critically from where she leaned against the wall. She and Peorth both had been awakened by the _Ssaratu's_ manifestation-or rather, their angels had awakened them at the sound of the _Ssaratu's_ song. _"_ Angelsdon't exist on the same plane of existence as mortals. You can interact with them, yeah, but you spend too much time around them without proper protection, and..."

"Your brain starts to melt," Skuld said bluntly. Aiko stared at her in horror. "...Okay, so maybe it doesn't _literally_ start to melt, but it goes into overdrive trying to process what it's seeing, got it?"

"And combined with a creature even we gods have difficulty standing beside..." Belldandy muttered, eyeing Nebo harshly. "At least Holy Bell no longer needs to maintain a secondary link through Peorth." She sighed.

"Right. Got it. Aiko did a no-no. Understood," Aiko said. "Today I learned it's a bad idea to hang all night with an angel and then have Cthulhu freak out on you for doing it. Got it. Crystal clear. No more angels for Aiko." She winced as Belldandy put her harsh eyes on her. "Sorry, Belldandy. I shouldn't have done it." She stared down at the table in front of her, taking note of how her left eye had trouble focusing on the grains in the wood and how everything had an ugly red tint to it. "That was...pretty stupid of me."

"It was," Belldandy agreed. She sat across from Nebo and next to Aiko, tearing up long strips of newspaper and making tiny origami stars of them. Skuld was watching her in curiosity. "And I'm not mad at you. I'm disappointed." Aiko's head hit the table. "You didn't even _ask_ me if you could meet my angel." Oh god, her heart. The guilt was too much. "And you should count yourself lucky that Holy Bell is such a gentle angel. Had it been World of Elegance, you might not have a head right now."

"I'm _sorry!"_ Aiko moaned.

"You scared Mooney," Nebo grumbled. He adjusted the bag of peas on his head and closed his eyes with a sigh.

" _I'm sorry!"_

"We know you are. But that doesn't change the fact that you did it," Peorth said. "So stop apologizing. Just don't do it again."

Aiko groaned and buried her face in her arms, as though trying to hide herself from the gods around her. "Can I make it up to you guys somehow?" She asked, her voice muffled in her arms. "Like, I don't know, make you guys some brownies or something?"

"No Aiko," Urd said from the kitchen. "We don't want brownies, we want you not to go looking for angels again."

"What if they were special brownies?" Aiko raised her head. "Would that work? Special brownies that show my love for you?"

"Aiko, I've been in the States long enough to know what your idea of 'special' would be, and the answer is still 'no'." Urd didn't even look up from the potion she was mixing. "You're thinking that weed will have the same effect on all of us and just want to see us get high."

"No I don't!" Aiko cried. _Though that would be kind of funny to see._

" _Ew," Peorth_ muttered. "Weeds are considered ingredients in this land? How disgusting."

"Different kind of weed from what you're thinking of," Urd replied, pouring her current potion into a glass before setting it in the fridge and working on the next one. "And for the record Aiko, chances are it would affect us in ways you wouldn't expect. Not all of which you'd find funny."

Belldandy paused from her little pile of stars, then looked over her shoulder to stare at Urd. "How would you know this?" While she was distracted, Skuld stole one of the tiny stars, examining it with the same curiosity of an angel hours before.

"You forget who my mentor was?" Urd called back. "Potions and drugs aren't that different-I had to test all the potions I made from scratch, and let me tell you, shit got fucking _weird_." Her next potion she put on the stove, letting it heat up from there. "And that's not counting all the fucking ingredients I had to sample. I got so high one time that mentor said I was raving about me meeting _Tiamat_ , for fucks sake. Apparently I ran around the house with a fucking shovel screaming about how everything has eyes and that I had to unbury her still-beating heart."

"So... the bad kind of weird, then," Lind surmised.

Urd grunted, removing the potion from the stove and pouring the contents into another glass. Then she removed the potion in the fridge and brought the two glasses-one hot and one cold-to the occupants at the table. "Drink." She placed the cold glass in front of Nebo and the hot glass in front of Aiko.

"Thank you, _Melammu_ , you're a blessing," Nebo muttered, and tossed the entire contents of the glass back like a single shot. He gasped and shuddered, and for a moment it seemed to Aiko as if steam erupted from his nostrils, before he sighed and leaned back in his chair, all at once more relaxed.

Aiko stared at the glass in front of her. "So... will this get me high?" She asked.

"No," Urd said. "It'll undo the negative effects associated with sharing a bedroom with a _Ssaratu_ and an angel and help your body recover from the experience.

"Oh." Aiko almost sounded disappointed. "You had me going there for a second."

"Keiichi's a Navy SEAL," Urd reminded her. "He can't have recreational drugs and I'm not in the habit of playing around with them when he could get in trouble.

"Urd, stop acting like you deal on the side," Belldandy scolded, returning to her previous task of making origami stars. "Aiko, drink Urd's potion. It's for your health."

"Drink it all at once," Urd said. "The aftertaste will knock you silly."

Aiko eyed the goddess but did as instructed, recognizing it was probably better to do as a goddess ordered rather than argue with her. The liquid inside looked like melted pink wax with a smell just as unappetizing. She sipped it, then grimaced. "It tastes like hot kool aid."

"Just drink it, Aiko."

Drink it she did, all of it at once, and when the aftertaste hit her she gagged and swallowed and held her stomach, cursing and swearing that Urd had poisoned her and that if this was for seeing the angels, sweet merciful god she was sorry.

And just like that, the pain and the nausea and the weird, out-of-body feeling that had been clouding her head since seeing three angels and hearing a horrible screaming in her brain was gone, and Aiko felt almost instantly better. "Jeeze, Urd." She was shaking. "You know, you should really be a doctor. Or maybe a pharmacist. That shit is amazing."

Yet Urd ignored her comments and Belldandy continued to make her stars, and so distracted was everyone in the dining room that they never noticed that Peorth had long since vanished towards Keiichi's room.

* * *

 **A/N: The next chapter ends this arc. As one of the readers pointed out, this whole arc, all (soon to be) 9 chapters of it, spans only about 36 hours. Wow. We really hope we did not bore you too much with it.**

* * *

 _Comments of a Madwoman: Sorry this week's chapter was so late. There were some complications involved on how to post it. Think of this as Part One the season finale for this part of the story. We'll get to Part 2 soon enough._


	37. Chapter 37 - My Angel

l

-37-

When Keiichi awoke again, his clock read _08:13 AM_. This time someone was knocking on his door, and deciding he'd probably slept in late enough, the man once more rolled out of bed and moved to open it.

He was surprised to find Peorth on the other side of the door. He'd expected Urd. Maybe even Belldandy or Aiko, though Aiko admittedly would have just barged in and woken him up since they were sleeping in the same room.

"May I speak with you?" Peorth asked. She sounded nervous.

"Yeah?" Keiichi stared at her in suspicion, his past interactions with the woman making him suspicious.

"In... private?" Peorth asked again.

Keiichi raised an eyebrow, then stuck his head out of the bedroom. The large gathering of gods from earlier in the morning was gone, leaving only Peorth for company. "Hallway's empty enough," he grunted. "Looks private enough to me. What do you want?"

The goddess flinched at his tone and squirmed restlessly. "In light of recent... events this morning, Nebo has come to the conclusion that Holy Bell has recovered to the point where she no longer requires outside aid," she revealed. "She is no longer in a... critical state, we shall say, and has been allowed to return to Belldandy. For... for both their sakes." She stopped there and bit her lip, looking more anxious now than before.

Keiichi, his mind still muddled with sleep, rubbed his eyes. "That's cool," he said. "Good to hear her angel's better." He yawned again. _Don't see what's so private about that,_ he thought, _Aiko's been hearing about angels all of yesterday from Nebo. Ain't nothing new to her._

"Yes..." Peorth murmured, and yawned herself, a large groaning yawn that spoke of her own exhaustion and reminded Keiichi that it'd been Peorth who'd been aiding Holy Bell's recovery. "A relief. It has been an exhausting trial for me." She paused. "And it brings to light another issue that must be resolved before I am allowed to take my leave. I must know your heart's desire, Keiichi Morisato."

Oh.

Oh god damn it, he'd forgotten about that fucking thing.

"Are you serious?" Keiichi grumbled. "You're going to bring that shit up _now_ of all times?"

"Yes," Peorth said firmly. "Because I have been here long enough, and I grow tired of Midgard and its residents. This is no land for gods, as I have seen, and I would take my leave of this place quickly if not for the fact that I am still bound here, _Monsieur."_

The man sighed. "For fuck's sake... first thing in the morning and you're going to harass me about this?" he demanded. "What are you going to do, try and seduce me again?"

" _No."_ Peorth's voice was almost a growl. "I believe we are well past any romantic notions at this point. Yet it does not change the fact that you have yet to speak on what your heart truly wants, Keiichi Morisato, and until you have spoken that truth to me, I cannot leave your residence and be done with this accursed place any more than you can be done with _me_."

Keiichi groaned. "Fucking hell, Peorth! We've gone over this before! I have tried _repeatedly_ to give you a fucking wish that will get you out of here, yet every time I throw out a suggestion, you shoot it down! What more do you want me to say?!"

Peorth scowled, her own temper short after a night of surrogacy for Holy Bell and a miserable stay in the Morisato household. Her patience had an end, and it seemed that Keiichi's words had breached her limit. "All of your wishes were crass and thoughtless, spoken on a dime without thought nor desire," Peorth snapped. Her aura flared and the mortal stepped back from the goddess as she seemed to grow taller before his very eyes.

The rose goddess continued, unabated. "You have not once shown any inclination to pause and meditate over the very thing I am asking of you, nor shown any desire to speak what your heart is begging of you even now! And let me tell you something, Keiichi Morisato, it has not changed from the moment I have descended. Not since I have arrived, not since I have argued, not since I have fought, and not since you have _died_ by the hands of another goddess. I see your heart's desire, and its shade has not changed its hue in the slightest despite what you have gone through, and so I instruct you, nay Boy, I _order_ you to stop and _think_ , as it seems such a hassle for one such as you: _What does your heart desire?"_

Keiichi opened his mouth to shoot off the first insult that came to his mind and then paused, recognizing the futility of such a crass act. Peorth had admitted straight to his face that she wanted to leave, and soon, and that he was the only thing barring her path. So what did he want? What _had_ he wanted from the very start? What supposed desire that had allowed Peorth to descend in the first place?

 _I don't want anything,_ he told himself. _I'm already content with life as is._

Except he wasn't. He wasn't and he knew it, because since his alleged 'death' by Belldandy, all anybody had been asking him was what _he_ wanted, and the truth was...

The truth was what?

What the fuck _did_ he want in his life? A gold plated toilet seat? To sleep with a goddess? _Deb_?

No. If he was honest with himself, he didn't want any of that stuff. He wanted-

Belldandy appeared in his mind's eye. Not the Belldandy downstairs but the Belldandy as he'd first seen her; the photo of a kind, gentle soul who smiled at the world with all the warmth of the sun. His mind traveled back to the night of the wish, the night of Belldandy's rescue, of seeing her face and feeling her lips against his, and feeling her arms around his body and feeling complete. Complete in a way he'd not felt since Deb had left him. Complete as if he'd found the missing piece of himself that'd been torn from his heart in his ex-wife's absence. His mind traveled to that first night on the couch, laughing over Monty Python and stupid commercials and silly games and then further still to his first date with her, feeling her pressed into his back like a bundle of warmth and sharing a shy kiss under the streetlight of a Mom and Pop restaurant.

"Bell," he said finally. "I just-" His voice abandoned him as a wave of sadness overcame him, and more memories surged forth. Belldandy blowing Urd through the back door and into the porch. Belldandy and her nightmares and the horrible magic that had almost driven him mad. Belldandy breaking Aiko's nose and breaking his hand, and threating Peorth as she chased the goddess around the house with a knife. "I just want-" He thought of the discussion they'd shared, on how they'd both wanted to expand their relationship, and how it had all come crashing down like Humpty Dumpty on a fucking wall when he'd taken it too far and Belldandy had wrapped her hands around his throat.

"Christ..." He sucked in a deep breath, running his hands through his hair. "I just wish Belldandy would get better so that we can live a normal life together." He sighed. "I mean, is that too much to ask for? I don't want anything for myself, just... she deserves happiness. And that's what I really want for her. I want her to get over this, this _shit_ that happened to her so that she can move on and be happy again. No more flashbacks, no more sick angels, no more panic attacks! Just...Bell. Belldandy. Happy and healthy and... and just... herself."

He paused, realizing what he'd just said and stared at Peorth with wide eyes. "Wait, was that-"

And Peorth smiled as she seemed to return to normal size. It was perhaps the kindest and warmest smile he'd ever seen the goddess wear since meeting her. "You did," she assured. "And you did marvelously. Thank you, Keiichi."

The man tensed, waiting for her sigils to glow as Belldandy's once had, yet after a full minute with nothing happening, Keiichi looked around before staring at her. "Well?"

"Well what?" Peorth asked.

"I was expecting more of a light show." The man's eyes darted to the sigil on Peorth's brow. "Last time I went through this, Belldandy was shooting laser beams into the sky."

Peorth chewed her lip in thought. "Well... now I have a confession to make," she admitted. "We have skirted around this issue for the past couple of days. You almost pinned me down a couple of times, especially when I brought you lunch at work. Yes, your file is still open. But there was no wish."

Keiichi stared at the goddess in disbelief. "You're shitting me, right?"

"No," Peorth replied. "You should know by now after being around Belldandy. As a first-class goddess, I _cannot_ lie."

No. Oh _fuck_ no. All this fucking time-all that fucking stress-there was no wish?! Keiichi's eyes widened and he gripped his scalp in agitation. "Son of a bitch!" he exclaimed. "You mean all this time you've been fucking with me?"

Peorth's eyes widened. "No, I had a mission to complete."

"On whose authority?!" Keiichi demanded, angry now. "On whose fucking authority did you have to come down here and fuck with my life just for shits and giggles?!"

Peorth flinched. "It wasn't for 'shits and giggles', Keiichi, I assure you. But I cannot say who sent me."

"Bullshit you 'can't say'," Keiichi snarled. "You fucking _won't_ , and I want to know who the fuck this asshole is. You tell me right the fuck now or you can escort your ass directly out the front fucking door myself, do you hear me?"

"Keiichi, I am telling you, I _can't_ -"

"And _why the fuck not?!"_ Keiichi roared. "All you're doing is making excuses for yourself! What the fuck are you hiding, Peorth?!"

By now Keiichi's yelling had drawn the attention of the other residents in the household, and with a thunder of footsteps, Belldandy and Urd appeared, shadowed closely by Skuld and Aiko. "Whoa, what the hell is going on?" Urd demanded.

"Peorth was fucking with us!" Keiichi exclaimed. "All this time- All this fucking _week!_ There was no wish! She was here for something else!"

"Wait, what?!" Urd's eyes widened, and she looked and Peorth in accusation. "The fuck is he talking about, Peorth?"

"I'm here on the orders of another!" Peorth exclaimed. "Please, can we-"

"Who?" Belldandy demanded. "Who would give you _orders_ to come down here? What possible reason would _anyone_ have to send you down here, Peorth?!"

"I can't say!" Peorth exclaimed. "As I told _Monsieur_ Morisato, I cannot speak of it!"

"Bullshit!" Urd snarled. "A week of drama and tension because someone _told_ you to harass Belldandy? Are you fucking serious right now?"

" _Yes!"_ Peorth sounded desperate. She began edging down the hallway as Urd pushed past Belldandy, advancing on the goddess like an angry wolf on a doe. "It was not _intentional_ though! I was charged to obtain the heart's desire of Keiichi Morisato through any means necessary!"

"Who was it?" Urd snapped. "And why would _you_ , a goddess first-class, even bother to listen to them?"

"I told you-"

"Oh, bitch, try me." Urd's voice dropped to a low, cold octave that made the hair on Keiichi's arms raise. "A week of hell because someone told you to come down here?" she continued. "Oh, you better start throwing out names, 'cause let me tell you, after the shit I've seen these past couple a' days, I'm feeling pretty rowdy, and Girl, I tell you I am just _looking_ for an excuse to go hog-fucking-wild right now."

Peorth went as white as a sheet, and without thinking both Keiichi and Belldandy sprung into action, Keiichi grabbing hold of Urd in one of the easier BJJ moves that'd been drilled into his head while Belldandy slipped past Urd and in front of Peorth, creating a barrier between the two women. "Whoa, whoa, _whoa!_ " Belldandy cried. "Urd, calm down! No fighting! There's been enough violence in this house to re-enact the final days of Ragnarok!"

Urd struggled against Keiichi's grip. "Yeah!" the SEAL agreed. "Thrashing Peorth won't solve anything, Urd!"

"Fuck you it won't!" Urd snarled. "You think I'm just gonna sit idly by while this motherfucker _walks_? Let me go Jank, cause I'mma haul her ass to motherfucking Australia and drown her in box jellyfish, and unless you wanna fucking _join_ her you better let me the fuck go!"

"I'm not trying to walk!" Peorth wailed, almost hiding behind Belldandy. "I'm trying to speak the _truth!"_

Urd bared her teeth at the goddess and growled. From Keiichi's proximity to the woman, it sounded low and guttural and completely inhuman, and for a moment Keiichi was tempted to release the Norn if only to get away from her. Yet his training as a SEAL kept his grip steady even as his mind tried to flee, and with good reason. The woman's squirming stopped for a brief moment, and then without warning she surged forward, her strength alone almost enough for Keiichi to lose his hold on her.

"Urd, will you _stop_?!" Belldandy demanded. "Just for one moment? Please?"

The silver haired goddess blinked as if she were suddenly coming back to reality. She turned her head and gaped at Belldandy as she stopped struggling. For a tense moment, it seemed that she might redirect her anger towards her sister, then thought better of it as she began to relax. Eventually, Keiichi felt safe enough to let her go, but kept a hand on her shoulder as a reminder.

Belldandy nodded her thanks to her sister and turned to Peorth. "Now, please, can you tell us who it was that sent you?"

"I told you, I can-"

"Try," interrupted Belldandy in a pleading voice.

The rose goddess narrowed her eyes at her fellow first class goddess, then spoke. "It was-" Peorth gagged, then brought her hand up to her throat as if choking. She coughed and then tried again. "It was-" She tried again with similar results.

Urd brushed Keiichi's hand off her shoulder. "I fucking can't believe this," she said as she turned and brushed past him. She walked past Aiko and Skuld, who were standing further back in the hallway, shaking her head as she turned and headed down the staircase.

"What can't you believe?" asked Keiichi as he watched her go. He turned to Belldandy. "What's going on?"

"Someone placed a block on Peorth, she is physically being prevented from revealing who it was that sent her by the System Force," was Belldandy's reply.

"Bullshit. You both are first class goddesses, with unlimited licenses or whatever you call it," he said as he crossed his arms across his chest. "Seems like you are pretty high up in the food chain for someone to pull that kind of shit on you."

"Keiichi, what is your rank?" asked Belldandy.

"Special Warfare Operator, First Class," replied the SEAL.

"And as a First Class, are there not people of higher rank than yourself?"

Keiichi furrowed his brow as it dawned on him. "Yeah. So First Class is not the highest rank?"

Belldandy sighed. "No, it is not. The details I can explain to you later. Just know that there are higher ranked deities than us." She paused and glanced at Peorth, then back to Keiichi. "And if they decide that certain information is, what term would you use… classified? Yes, classified. If that were the case, they can impose a seal on that information. No matter what she does, the System Force will enforce that ban."

"You're joking." Keiichi's voice came out flat. Belldandy shook her head, and the man massaged his temples, releasing a frustrated growl. "Can't you give us any hints?" he demanded. "A letter, a gender, a position, where this motherfucker works?"

Belldandy shook her head. "Any attempts will be blocked," she explained, and behind her Peorth rubbed her throat as though it pained her. "Any attempts to get _around_ the blockade will grow hazardous to the individual imposed under the seal, and further attempts may endanger the deity in question. Peorth literally _cannot_ speak on the subject, if not for the seal than for her own safety, and coercion will only endanger her, Keiichi."

"The System Force does not play games," Peorth rasped. Her voice sounded as if she'd just spent the past hour screaming. "It makes demands and it creates contracts. It seals deals and acts as the enforcer, and when those under contract do not hold true to their end of the deal, it forcefully ensures those terms are fulfilled."

"Wonderful." Keiichi ran his fingers through his hair. "Fucking _wonderful_. The gods have their own fucking gag order that they can enact at any time on their own people," he growled. "Fucking shit, it's like trying to find out what _you_ want, Belldandy!"

The comment blindsided Belldandy, and for a moment she stared at the man in a mixture of shock and confusion. "What I want?! How is that relevant to _anything_ at the moment?" she demanded.

"How is it relevant..." Keiichi laughed. "Bell, how is it _not_?" he retorted. "This whole thing has been about _you_ , don't you see? Don't you get that? It's always been about you! Peorth came here to grant a fucking wish, but it was a wish for _your sake_. That fucker downstairs came to help _your_ angel, everyone is staying here because of _you_!"

"Oh, so now it's all about me, is it?" Belldandy planted her hands on her hips. "It has nothing to do with _you_ , though in the past forty-eight hours I was the one who killed you? Nothing about you, though it took the combined efforts of my sisters to bring you back and stop me from putting you back in a hole? Nothing about you, though we have all become guests in _your_ house under _your_ roof?" She gestured behind her towards Aiko and Skuld, who watched the two argue with wide eyes like a pair of children witnessing their parents fight. "When even your sister, whom you mean the world to, comes to see that you are safe, that you are unharmed, that you are alive and well and who even now stands behind you, this has nothing to do with you? Nothing to do with your happiness? With your desires?"

"What I want doesn't fucking matter!" Keiichi cried. "What I want is to know what you want! Shit fire, Belldandy, will you PLEASE tell me what you want?"

The woman, already irate from the events of the morning, scowled. "Keiichi, if you ask me that one more fucking time…"

"Or what?" Keiichi snapped. "You'll choke me again!?"

The goddess bristled. "No, you inconsiderate jerk," she growled, "Or I'll tell you what I want, and that's not relevant! It's not about me! It's about you!"

"Well, I know what I want, but I told you, I want to hear what you want!" Keiichi's voice was starting to rise. "I will remind you that I am NOT Aoshima! You are not bound to me! As soon as you start thinking 'Man, that guy's a dick, I don't want to be with him anymore,' then you better by god get the fuck out! I don't want you to stay because you feel like you have to."

Belldandy splayed her hands out in front of her. "Well, the same goes for you too!" she snapped back at him, her tone rising to match his. "If you don't feel safe around me, then you need to tell me! Say 'Belldandy, you fucking killed me and I can't deal with that! Get out!'"

Keiichi flinched, wounded. "Jesus fucking Christ, Belldandy, is that what you want me to say?!"

"Fuck no, I don't want you to say that!" Belldandy replied. "Is it what you want to say?"

"Absolutely not!"

"THEN WHAT DO YOU WANT?!" Belldandy screamed, and all those around them, sans Keiichi, winced at the shrill note in her voice.

"THAT'S NOT RELEVANT!" Keiichi roared back, finally losing his own temper with Belldandy. "WHAT I WANT IS NOT EVEN A CONSIDERATION FOR ME! IT'S YOU! I WANT YOU TO MAKE THE DECISION BECAUSE YOU ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN ME!"

"AND THAT'S BULLSHIT!" Belldandy screamed back. "HOW CAN YOU PLACE SO LITTLE VALUE ON YOUR OWN LIFE WHEN SO MANY PEOPLE CARE ABOUT YOU AS WELL? YOU'RE MORTAL, YOU MORON! YOU'RE DELICATE, YOU IMBICILE, AND AS SUCH IT IS _YOU_ WHO IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN ME!"

Keiichi grabbed his hair, tugging it hard as he stared at the ludicrous woman before him. "WHAT THE FUCK DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?!" he demanded, and in his voice was a hint of desperation as he sought to understand what the woman before him was saying.

Belldandy moaned loudly. "IT MEANS I WANT TO STAY, YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE!"

"WELL THAT'S JUST PERFECTLY FINE AS FUCK WITH ME!" Keiichi snarled. "I FUCKING WANT YOU TO STAY AS WELL!"

"WELL FINE!" Belldandy exclaimed. "THAT'S WHAT I WILL DO!"

"YOU FUCKING BETTER!"

"FINE!" Belldandy snapped.

"FINE!" Keiichi snapped.

The mortal and to goddess glared daggers at each for a long moment.

Then, as one, the two turned and marched off to their respective rooms. Peorth backed off towards the end of the hallway to avoid Belldandy, and as they vanished into their bedrooms the doors slammed shut in a moment of synchronicity.

Skuld stared at the now-empty hallway with wide eyes. "What just happened?" She looked like an alarmed cat.

Aiko's expression mirrored Skuld's. "I might be mistaken, but I think they agreed to stay together."

"Ah, fuck," Skuld swore.

"Oh thank Yggdrasil," Peorth breathed. "I'm getting out of this place before someone finds another reason for _me_ to stay."

XXX

It was amazing how quickly things de-escalated from there.

Peorth was ready to leave less than an hour later. Skuld, Aiko, Urd, Lind, and Nebo were there to see her off in the backyard, away from the road where anyone driving up might come across them. "Apologize to Belldandy for me, if you would," she asked Skuld. "But, well... my presence has become less and less desirable the longer I stay here, and I believe we can all agree that at this point, I have overstayed my welcome." Her smile was strained, and after the argument in the hallway upstairs Aiko didn't blame her. She looked at Urd, and her smile became a grimace. "Forgive me for the trouble I have caused your family," she said. "I... was only doing what I thought was right. And what I was told."

Urd grunted and said nothing, her arms folded across her chest as she glowered at the goddess.

Peorth caught the hint. "Perhaps another time," she said, and a brilliant light began to engulf her. Aiko brought a hand to her eyes, squinting through the glare and to the goddess within and wondering if _this_ was what happened to people who always claimed they were abducted by aliens. Maybe there was something to those crazy Farmer Joe stories after all.

As the light grew too bright for Aiko to peer into, she heard Peorth's final parting words, and was discomfited by them. "I pity you, Urd. You've set yourself upon a hard path to walk." The college student wondered what the words meant. Yet as the light cleared and the field was empty, Aiko lost her chance to ask, as Nebo was already pulling Urd aside for another conversation.

"I need to depart here as well," the man announced, and his voice was thick with exhaustion and a bone-deep weariness that invoked strange and heartbreaking emotions within Aiko. It was difficult to describe. The weariness was of... a man past his prime. A child who'd witnessed war. A doctor unable to save his patient. Perhaps, and this was the strangest thing that came to mind, but perhaps even a mother who'd lost her child. "I have done myself and the choir no favors this morning." He shook his head in disappointment, and Aiko flinched as he cast his eyes her way, no longer looking like the middle-aged 'Cheech' she'd first been introduced to but a tired, ageless old man instead, and one who _hurt_ on top of that. "Moony is hurt and anxious and needs to rest, and so do I, lest I wind up hurting someone here."

He looked down as though in shame, and despite the scare she'd suffered at his hands earlier that morning she felt a strong admiration for the man. It took a lot to admit his own faults, and recognizing a prolonged stay might only injure the people he was trying to help was praiseworthy. With it came regret; regret on her part, for the role she'd played in causing such a large amount of distress in both the man and the angel-or _Ssaratu_ , as she later learned it was called ( _Hey hey, boys and girls, Cthulhu's coming to play_ ).

"You will be staying here though, won't you, _Kyz_?" The man asked Urd, and at her nod Nebo smiled in relief. "Good. That's real good, Urd. I got something I want you to do for me, okay? A favor. A _huge_ favor, from a Tic to a Tic's acolyte, _amaru_?"

All of a sudden Urd looked nervous. Really nervous. "What do you mean?" she demanded. "What kind of favor are you asking, Nebo?"

Nebo ignored her questions. "You ain't on duty to Yggdrasil down here, right?" he asked. "'Cause you suspended from your position while banished from Asgard, yeah?"

"Yeah but-"

"Quiet." There was a note of authority to Nebo's voice that was new to Aiko's ears. Apparently it was new to Urd, too, as the goddess instantly fell silent, staring at the short man before her with wide eyes.

Nebo continued, "I want you to take over my duties to Holy Bell in my absence." The man pursed his lips, looking Urd up and down with a critical gaze. "So I gotta request for ya'. I, First-class, Third-Category Unlimited Din'gir Nebo maru'ilu Marduk, request that you, Second-class, Omega-Category, temporary, Urd Ni'Tahazu Tyrsdottor, serve in my absence here on Midgard, acting in the role as a Third-Category acolyte to the patient First Class, Second-Category Belldandy Tyrsdottor."

Urd's jaw dropped, but no sound came forth. Aiko, who had the unique gift of ignorance at this particular time, chose that moment to judge the reactions of the others, and came to the conclusion that Nebo's proposal must have been out of the ordinary and something that had taken everyone by surprise. Skuld looked stunned. Lind looked shocked. Not a single goddess spoke, yet all eyes rested on the man before them, staring at the god as if he'd either lost his mind or announced plans to adopt Urd right then and there.

Urd's jaw worked for a full minute as her mind tried and failed to come up with a response, before finally saying, "I-I'm already under a Tic." It sounded like a weak excuse. A reluctant excuse.

Nebo smiled. It was a large, cheerful smile. One filled with teeth and brimming with joy. "Already spoke with her," he said. "Lind's mention got me thinking, and, well, after some a' what I seen from you regarding your professionalism with potions and the close bond between you and your angel, I reached out to your ol' mentor. She says she's willing to release you to me if you up to it, _Kyz_." He paused and thought a moment. "Also wanted me to pass on that the higher ups are a bunch a... what's the word she used... 'chixo'? Nah, that ain't it..."

" _Chxo'_?" Urd asked.

"That's it!" Nebo snapped his fingers. "She wanted me to pass on the message that the Powers That Be fucked you over and they a bunch a _chxo_ ' _."_

Urd laughed and covered her eyes. "Oh Yggdrasil... that sounds like Nana all right," she murmured. "She really-" Her hand dropped from her face, and Nebo nodded, still smiling. The Norn laughed again. "Of all the..." She shook her head in disbelief, then looked over at Lind. "Were you in on this?" she demanded.

Lind raised her hands. "No," she proclaimed. "I had no idea."

Urd's eyes moved to Skuld, who quickly shook her head. "Don't look at me," she said. "This shit's waaay beyond my understanding."

Her gaze even moved to Aiko, who shrugged and shook her head, recognizing that she herself was little more than an observer to the whole strange affair. The goddess returned her attention to Nebo. "Nana really said it was okay?" she asked again.

"Yep. Even gave her blessings. Said she always wanted you to get back on the path to a Tic," Nebo replied.

Urd ran her hands through her hair and blew air past her lips. "Hooo-boy," she said. "I don't- yes. Yes Nebo, if Nana has given you her blessings, then yes. It'd be an honor to serve under you as an acolyte down here."

"Wonderful!" Nebo whooped, delighted. "Then I got some details I need to cover with you before I head out." He moved off towards the tree line, speaking in a softer voice now, and Urd walked beside him, moving out of range of hearing.

Aiko came to stand beside Skuld. "So I take it this is a good thing?" She asked.

"For Urd?" Skuld replied. "It's fucking phenomenal."

XXX

Lind ended up leaving with Nebo after lunch that day. Lind, being the stoic individual she was, made it very difficult to tell if she was happy to leave or not. Urd seemed a little disappointed to see her go though, and for that reason alone maybe Lind had similar feelings that weren't immediately obvious to Skuld. She knew that a door had been opened between the two after they'd returned from... wherever Lind had dragged Urd off to, but then, the same could be said for how much more relaxed Lind seemed overall since initially coming down for a quick checkup a couple of days ago.

This time, both Belldandy and Keiichi came to join Urd, Aiko, and Skuld herself in seeing the two deities off. Nebo approached Belldandy. "I spoke with Urd on some things to help with Holy Bell," he told her. "Biggest thing is this: Be patient. You can't rush a healing wound, just promote a healthy healing environment for it, got it?"

"I understand." Belldandy nodded with some reluctance. "You are certain you can't stay longer?" she asked. "Holy Bell has only just lost her status as critical. For you to leave so soon..."

"I know." Nebo looked up at her with a frown. "I wanted to stay longer, but, well... Moony had other plans, and I don't control her any more than she controls me. We both got hurt 'cause she got scared, and if I try and stay longer without letting her recover a bit, it could lead to unprecedented consequences further down the road. Holy Bell don't need that shit." He brightened. "On the positive side, you got a good support structure down here, and I gave Urd a list a things she can do to help Holy Bell out. Biggest thing you can do for her though? Sing. Singing is the true language a' the soul, and if you sing and if you let her sing, I can guarantee you she'll recover twice as fast than before."

"Sing?" Belldandy stared at the man in surprise. "You want me to- but I don't know if I-"

"Urd'll do it with ya," Nebo reassured.

Belldandy's eyes boggled. " _Urd_?" she cried. "But Urd hates singing!"

Nebo nodded. "I spoke with her. She's willing if it's for Holy Bell's sake. World of Elegance'll help out too. They a good pair, Belldandy. Listen to Urd's advice and sing songs with her-even if she don't like it World of Elegance does, and Holy Bell will appreciate it too. It'll give her a chance to stretch her wings and free those bits a' her you been keeping under lock and key the past decade, all right?"

"I-I suppose..." Belldandy glanced towards her sister in disbelief, watching as she clapped a hand down on Lind's shoulder a fair distance away and passed a note to the Valkyrie. The Valkyrie opened it and sent a shrewd look to the elder Norn, who laughed and said something that escaped Belldandy's hearing. "If she's- I'll do it if I have someone to sing with," she decided. "The past decade... I haven't mustered the courage to sing in _years_ , Nebo."

"Then it'll be a good experience for both a' your angels," Nebo professed. "I'll come back down to check on your progress once Mooney's healed," he continued. "How long that may take is up for debate right now though- could be a week, could be a month. Mooney and me are a couple of old ninnies nowadays. Takes us longer to heal up than you kids. But Urd will be making progress reports for me, and I'mma be disappointed if you ain't singing with Holy Bell, you hear me?"

Belldandy sighed and smiled. "I understand," she said. "Thank you for coming to help Holy Bell, Tic Nebo."

"Think nothing of it," Nebo replied. "Mooney would have murdered me in my sleep had I ignored Lind's call for aid. She ain't about to let nothing happen to her babies."

"Still..." Belldandy trailed off. "I know we've caused you some undue stress down here... you and your-your _Ssaratu_ both."

"Goes both ways," Nebo said, and he turned his attention to Keiichi, who stood a fair bit off with his arms crossed as he observed the partings taking place. The man approached him. " _Lum-_ Morisato."

"Nebo." The greeting was cool, but not outright _cold_.

"You okay for a _lum_ , all things considered," Nebo grunted. "You watch out for these ladies, hear?"

Keiichi held his silence, and Nebo nodded. "Don't peek on no more angels, _Lum._ It ain't good for your mind, and you surrounded by folks who ain't good for you," the god continued. "You got a kind heart though, even if you bull-headed at times. Keep that kind heart, Boy. It's what gods like the Norns here take strength in. As soon as you lose it, you lose them, got it?"

Keiichi grunted, and when he still said nothing, Nebo nodded. "I think you get it. So I'mma take my leave as well. Watch out for these girls, Morisato. Both of them, not just Belldandy." He turned away from Keiichi and moved towards Lind.

"You about ready to go, _Kyz_?"

"Just a minute..." Lind trailed off, shooting another suspicious look to Urd as the Norn sent her a smug look. Her gaze turned to Keiichi instead. "Morisato, what's the last four digits of your phone?" She asked, catching not just Keiichi, but Belldandy and Skuld off guard as well.

"The fuck..." Keiichi trailed off. "Two-five-six-five!" he shouted to her, and Lind looked back down at the little post-it note Urd handed her.

"This isn't his number Urd," she said, and narrowed her eyes. "It's not your number, either, and I've already got that in my phone. Whose number is it?!"

Urd looked at her with a smug look. "You'll have to find out for yourself," she said.

"Urd, I swear to Yggdrasil, if I call and hear fucking _Falken_ on the other end..."

Urd did nothing other than laugh and move away from the Valkyrie, dodging a half-hearted swing from the woman as Lind scowled at her before pocketing the yellow slip of paper. "Call it when you're bored!" the Norn cried. "I promise you won't be disappointed!"

"That's what I'm afraid of." Lind muttered.

"And don't forget that _other_ thing I mentioned as well," said Urd with a smirk.

"THAT, I can handle," replied the Valkyrie with a smile of her own.

And then they too were gone in a flash of light.

"I guess that means I'm next, huh?" Skuld looked between her two sisters with an unreadable expression. "I was expecting a simple visit when I initially came down here, you know... I had no idea things would go this crazy."

"I don't think any of us did," Belldandy said gently. She stepped forward and embraced Skuld, who returned it with a tight hug of her own. "Thank you for all your help, Skuld," she murmured. "I don't know what I'd have done if not for you and Urd."

"It was nothing," Skuld replied. They parted, and Skuld's lips twisted into a disheartened frown, saddened over the fact that once again she'd have to leave in the midst of a chaotic event. Sighing, she dug into her pocket and removed her cellphone, then handed it to Belldandy. "I'm tired of stuff like this happening," she said. "I want you to hold on to this for me. Urd's got her own phone, but there might be a time when she's not available. So I want to make sure you have a way to reach me or mom or pop back home, okay?"

Belldandy stared at the small device in surprise. "Skuld, are you sure?"

"Positive," Skuld said sharply. "Take it, Bell, I can always make another." She bit her lip. "And... do me a favor, okay?"

With tentative hands Belldandy took the cell phone from her sister, cradling it with both hands as she stared at her younger sister. "What is it?"

Skuld took a deep breath, fidgeting uncomfortably. "I know this is going to sound weird but... just trust me on this. When the time comes, don't let him pull the trigger."

"I'm sorry?" Belldandy stared at her sibling in confusion. "Skuld, what do you mean?"

Yet Skuld shook her head. "Nothing," she said. "Just... keep it in mind, all right? Think of it as payment for my phone. Don't forget."

"Okay..." Belldandy stared at her sister dubiously, wondering if it was wise to press for more information before deciding against it. It was unwise to read a future not yet set in stone, after all. "Will you do one more favor for me then?" she asked. "When you get home, visit Mother for me." For a brief moment the confrontation between the angels and Lunacy came to mind, and the goddess bit her lip. "Give her my love, won't you?" A wave of homesickness washed over her. "Tell her I miss her but that I am doing well."

Skuld nodded. "I can do that," she said.

She moved to say her goodbyes to Urd, and then, like the others before her, was gone in a flash of light from a Gate.

Aiko blinked the spots out of her eyes. "If I watch that too many more times, I might go blind," she quipped. Her comment elicited a snort of amusement from Urd. Keiichi just smirked and shook his head while Belldandy gave her a worried look.

"I can always heal you if you are experiencing any discomfort," replied the almond haired goddess.

Aiko just stared at Belldandy for a moment, contemplating if she was serious or not. She then shook off the comment and approached the goddess. "Does that mean I am forgiven?" she asked while giving her best puppy dog look. It worked on Keima sometimes, so what the heck could she lose?

"No."

Aiko's face fell. She almost apologized again, but stopped short after her previous conversation at the table. Belldandy smiled.

"I will say, though," started the goddess. "Whatever you did with Holy Bell has helped more than anything else. While it's still not completely clear, I can at least hear her trying to communicate with me." She smiled at the younger Morisato as she reached forward and took hold of both of Aiko's hands. "I am pretty sure she is telling me to say 'thank you' right now."

The mortal stared at the goddess for a moment. "That's… good, right?"

Belldandy smiled. "Yes," she said as she drew Aiko into a hug. "Thank you so much."

As the two embraced, Aiko looked over at her brother and noticed a hint of a smile on his face. It was that moment where she knew. Things may not be 'normal' in the Morisato household for some time. It would be a long haul, but at least now there was a path back from the abyss.

For whatever reason, the lyrics of Bob Marley came to the blue haired mortal.

" _Don't worry about a thing,_  
 _'Cause every little thing gonna be alright!"_

* * *

 _Comments of a Madwoman: Thanks for everyone's patience with this arc. There was a lot to cover, and it was never our intention to allow it to go on for so long. We hope that, despite the short time period that was covered, the material presented didn't bore anyone. A lot of buildup, a lot of resolution, and with the end of this arc we've also reached the end of Part 1 of Scarred Survivors. Part 2 will pick up after a brief interlude, and I hope you all are ready, cause shit's 'bout to get real. Quick note on something brought up to me by the Beta: Urd's last name isn't Hildborn. That was the title she introduced herself as to McGuinness to hide the fact that she and Bell were related. Ni'Tahazu Tyrsdottor is her full last name, with 'Ni'Tahazu' roughly translating to Hildborn in Falken. She's the only member in the family with two last names._

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* * *

Peorth's walk down the ornate, marble hallway was slow and deliberate. Her shoulders drooped in weariness, causing her leather 'wings' to drag on the floor behind her. Getting called to appear before the Daitenkaicho was never a fun experience, regardless of how joyful the event might be. _How am I to explain how I nearly caused his daughter to kill her paramour?_ If only she had not pushed them so hard, things could have progressed in a more natural way. Eventually, Belldandy would have gotten over the abuse that she was subjected to. Then Keiichi and Belldandy could move forward with their relationship as it had been intended.

She envied Belldandy and Urd for that. Both goddesses loved the man in their own ways, and that love ran deep. Yet she feared that her actions had driven a wedge between Belldandy and Keiichi. She knew that Urd was not the type to take advantage of such an occurrence, and pitied the woman for it. The silver haired goddess had been actively promoting their relationship in her own ways in spite of her own feelings, and from what Peorth had borne witness to it was starting to tear her apart. Peorth knew love, probably better than all but Aphrodite herself. It was like the flowing waters, unstopping and persistent. It could move even the mightiest boulders and invade even the smallest of cracks. Despite Urd's own morals, the goddess worried that any weakness in Belldandy's relationship with Keiichi could be exploited, and Peorth feared that Urd's feelings for the man may eventually get the better of her.

So caught up by her thoughts was Peorth, she nearly failed to stop in front of the imposing door that led to the Daitenkaicho's chambers. It was only when one of the guards cleared his throat that she was broken from her reverie, and saved from the embarrassment of running head first into the door.

There were two guards, one on either side of the entrance. They stood in silence, as did Peorth. There was no need to speak, because He knew she was there. It was just a matter of waiting until He deemed it appropriate for her to enter. There had been stories of gods and goddesses standing outside for days waiting on Him. But there was no other choice but to do so; The Daitenkaicho was a busy god, and He would see her when the time was right.

The minutes ticked by. Peorth tried not to fidget. Lind had cornered her after she had returned to Asgard and had let it be known in certain non-vocal means what the Valkyrie and Urd thought about her trip to Midgard, and there was a large piece of her that still throbbed and pulsed in pain. She resisted the urge to favor the sore spot, knowing the guards before her were watching her carefully. There were eyes everywhere in the hallway, and that to rub her butt even for a second was liable to be perceived in the wrong light by the last people she wanted calling judgment on her person.

An hour passed. Peorth wished she'd worn more comfortable shoes. Or at least consumed a potion for her sore extremities.

" _You may enter_ ," came a voice without any source. The doors opened.

As Peorth stepped inside, she noted the differences between the ornate marble hallway with its statues of famous gods and goddesses of past and present, along with the ornately carved doors said to have been taken from the Life Tree itself, and the office area within. It was rather plain in contrast, with an unremarkable wooden desk on one side along with several chairs, with a plant or two sitting around the room for decoration. Absent were any self-aggrandizing aspects such as pictures of Himself or walls of awards. This Daitenkaicho was one of the more humble deities who'd come to grace this room. In place of such images, a single picture hung on the wall, an oil painting not of the Daitenkaicho, but of his wife and three daughters.

The Norns looked different from the women in Midgard. Younger. Kinder. Perhaps even... brighter. Skuld was still a child here, smiling with childhood innocence to the painter. Belldandy stood off to her left, her face holding a gentleness that was absent from the woman Peorth had spoken with a few hours before. Even Urd appeared somehow kinder in the picture frame, standing beside and slightly behind Belldandy, where she held a level of joy Peorth had never witnessed in her stay at the Morisato household.

Peorth turned to more fully observe the painting, taking note of their mother, Ansuz, who sat in a chair on Skuld's right. No... strangely enough, the Norns on Midgard- all the Norns, though if Peorth had to pick it would be Belldandy most of all- held a hardness to them that was more akin to Ansuz. The artist had done a fantastic job of softening her face for the painting, yet even that person had been unable to take the sharp edge off Ansuz's eyes. Though the goddess smiled sweetly for the painter, her eyes held a level of rigid steel in them which was almost unnerving to behold, even in the painting. A result of her years as a Valkyrie, so it was said, and though motherhood had warmed her approach over the years, that sharp edge still remained.

 _It seems Belldandy is becoming more like her mother than she'd have expected._ Peorth mused.

She heard a sound behind her and she turned to it. The rose goddess saw a man, and at first did not recognize him. He appeared to be of Japanese descent wearing a sun-bleached white, bowl shaped hat made of rice straw, a loose fitting tunic, and what at first she mistook as a dress. She corrected herself after recalling that it was called a _hakama_. She cringed slightly at not recognizing it earlier, since she had granted the wishes of a number of samurai in the distant past.

The man was stepping gracefully through a series of sweeps and thrusts with a katana. As he brought his blade down in a mighty slash, his aura flared and it was then that she recognized who it was. Tyr had a number of proclivities. One was that more often than not, he would show himself to others in disguise. There were a number of rumors as to why, and it was considered a great honor for him to show his true form. Today, he took on the guise of a humble samurai warrior.

A mask of concentration, the Daitenkaicho paused as his gaze shifted to Peorth. She watched as he stood up and sheathed the sword, using his fingers to guide the blade into its sheath. He then turned and stepped to the rear wall. It was also rumored that one of the Daitenkaicho's other proclivities was collecting all manner of weapons, swords being his favorite. While the office was rather plain itself, a display of an incredible number of blades of all shapes and sizes dominated the wall opposite his desk. Both of Tyr's character traits were clearly on display.

After placing the sword in its place on the wall, a light illuminated the area around him. It was bright enough that the rose goddess needed to shield her eyes. When it finally subsided, Tyr's appearance had changed. He was now wearing what appeared to be his customary attire as Daitenkaicho, which was a white cloak trimmed in rectangles over a purple tunic and white pants. Countless trinkets and jewelry hung from his ears and were integrated into his long black hair, which flowed down past his shoulders. He smiled to her.

Immediately Peorth fell to her knees. "I have come, as you have summoned."

"Rise," replied the Daitenkaicho as he walked past her, tapping her on the shoulder as he passed.

Peorth did as instructed and followed the man to his desk, watching in fascination as he, instead of going around and sitting in his chair on the other side, sat in one of the two chairs in front of it. He crossed his legs and made himself comfortable, then gestured for the rose goddess to sit in the other.

"Tell me how your assignment went."

The rose goddess tensed up as she sat. Seeing Tyr sitting so casually in front of her was unnerving, to say the least. She flexed her hands several times to relieve the tension before finally replying. "I have failed."

Tyr's expression did not waiver in the slightest, further unnerving the rose goddess. "Explain yourself."

Peorth took a deep breath. "I… pushed Belldandy and Keiichi too hard. Belldandy was clearly not ready for their relationship to move beyond where it was when I descended, and as a result she nearly killed Keiichi in the process. If it were not for Skuld and Urd's quick actions, he would not have survived."

The elder god nodded at this. What that meant, though, she could not guess.

Then he laughed.

Peorth stared at the man in surprise as he composed himself. The black haired god leaned forward, reached out, and took Peorth's hand in his own. "You have not failed. All that has transpired has happened as I have foreseen it."

"W-what?" The rose goddess had to resist the urge to jerk her hand out of Tyr's grasp. "What do you mean, as you have foreseen it?" demanded the goddess, forgetting for a moment whom she was addressing. She was about to respond again to correct her grave breach in protocol, but Tyr waved her off with his prosthetic hand.

"I sent you there to help my daughter, and you have accomplished that goal."

"But- but I caused an incident that alienated the two of them! She almost killed him and I was responsible for that happening!" Tears were starting to fall as she confessed her perceived sins. If it weren't for the fact that Tyr was holding one of her hands, she would have buried her face in them, too ashamed to show herself to the god.

"Belldandy needed a push," replied Tyr. "I sent you to be the butterfly that caused a typhoon, and in that task, you performed admirably. Let me show you how things would have progressed had it not been for your intervention."

Without any warning, visions began forming in Peorth's mind. In them, she saw Keiichi and Belldandy sitting on the pink couch. She knew from watching them before she descended that they did that on a very regular basis, either watching the small screen on his phone, or the larger one on the other side of the room. There was one significant difference, though. In the vision provided her, they were sitting on opposite ends of the couch. Before, they were always touching, always interacting. All of that was absent. It did not take a love goddess to tell that the love was missing.

Those images faded out, replaced by Belldandy and Urd. The younger goddess was kneeling on the floor crying, anguished over something. Her older sister was kneeling down behind her, a hand on Belldandy's back trying desperately to comfort her. _"She's gone, I can no longer feel her, no longer call to her!"_ Peorth instantly realized the almond haired goddess was talking about her angel, Holy Bell.

Again, the vision shifted. Again, she saw an image of Belldandy crying. She was sitting at the dining room table with her face in her hands. _"I'm so sorry Keiichi, I- I just c- can't,"_ she sobbed. A frustrated Keiichi, whom Peorth realized was next to her, stood and walked away.

Her perception shifted again, this time to Keiichi's bedroom. There were two forms in the bed. Peorth immediately recognized Keiichi, then gasped at who was there with him.

It was Urd.

The rose goddess jerked her hand out of Tyr's hand. "Oh Yggdrasil!" she screamed in anguish. "Please my lord, tell me these things will not come to pass!" Her voice was pleading.

Tyr smiled at Peorth. "They will not. Not after what you have accomplished. In fact, you succeeded beyond what I was expecting, and for that you are to be commended. Even I did not realize that Belldandy's angel was in such a state. Many gods just do not fully understand the relationship between them and their other selves. By finally drawing out Holy Bell, the focused help that Belldandy needs can now be provided." Tyr stood, and Peorth could only sit and watch. He placed his hand upon her head and smiled. "You have provided a great service to my family, and for that, you have my gratitude. As a reward to ease your suffering, I shall now give you a glimpse of what may now come to pass because of your actions."

Peorth blinked, then saw. Unlike before, where the visions were strong and vivid, these were but fleeting images.

She saw Belldandy and Keiichi sitting together on what appeared to be one of the mortals' flying craft. They were holding hands.

She saw Belldandy holding a distraught Keiichi. What brought him to that state, she could not tell. But Belldandy was there, providing him the comfort he needed.

She saw Belldandy and Keiichi lost in each other's eyes as they made love.

As Tyr's hand left Peorth's head, the rose goddess felt as if a great weight had been lifted from her. She smiled, overjoyed by what she had seen. But there was still an undercurrent of sadness, though. The Daitenkaicho was quick to pick up on it. "Something troubles you?"

Peorth shook her head, but not in denial. "It is private, and certainly not appropriate to speak of it here in your presence."

"Yet speak of it you shall. Let there be no secrets between us today."

She took a deep cleansing breath. "I am most grateful that my actions have been instrumental in helping Belldandy..." Peorth trailed off.

Tyr motioned for her to continue. "But…" he supplied to her as a prompt.

"Urd has feelings for Keiichi," Peorth continued. "I have seen it, and what you showed me is proof of what could have come had I not interfered." She bit her lip, wondering if it was her place to question the Daitenkaicho, and Urd's father none the less, on matters pertaining to the elder Norn. She braved it anyways. "What of her?"

The Daitenkaicho had been understanding of her this far, and despite her... _issues_ with Urd, the rose goddess recognized how deep those feeling ran for Keiichi. Like oceans. Like the deep abyss of _Tehome_ itself. That was the depth of love she'd seen in Urd's eyes whenever the Norn looked towards the strange mortal who had so infatuated her sister. And to deny that love... that piece of her...

Tyr was silent for a long time. Peorth began to worry she'd asked too much.

The man sighed. "Urd has her own path she must walk, and it will not be an easy one for her." He looked up to the painting of his wife and children, and his expression was sad. Mournful, even. "Her path is not as clear to me as Belldandy's, and because of that, I will not speak more on the subject." He looked back to Peorth. "Instead take solace in that you have restored Belldandy and Keiichi to a path that will bring them happiness. There are still many trials to come, that much is certain. But now they can face them in a way that will assure their success."

Peorth nodded and finished Tyr's thought for him. "Together."


	38. Chapter 38 - Dates, Songs, and Sweaters

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Dates, Songs, and Sweaters

 _"It's funny how close the past is, sometimes. Sometimes it seems as if you could almost reach out and touch it. Only who really wants to?"_  
 _-Stephen King, From a Buick 8_

-38-

In the days that passed since the manifestation of Holy Bell, one day, for no particular reason she could discern, Lind awoke with a strange and terrible desire.

It came without thought.

It came without reason.

It came without warning.

"I want to knit a sweater."

All this an hour before her curiosity overwhelmed her enough to call the number Urd had passed her.

"What the fuck, Pepper."

XXX

His phone was ringing.

Christ on a cracker, his phone was ringing.

It was too early to be telemarketers, which meant it had to have been one of the guys in his Team. Fuck, don't let it be Mac. Don't let it be Mac. Please don't let it be a fucking recall at fucking four in the goddamned fucking morning.

He grabbed the phone and squinted at it, but the number didn't appear as his OIC or anyone else in Team 12. The hell? His mind foggy but more alert now after his initial scare, it focused on what at that time to him seemed like the only logical option: that someone on the Team had gotten a new number after losing their phone or, worse yet, someone from out of state was calling in regards to his family back home.

Another uncomfortable thought. His brother Clyde had gotten his ass arrested several times in regards to car theft, and he knew the dumb shit was looking to get in on a gang...

Fuck.

Motherfucker on the other end better not be some goddamned paramedic or police officer reporting that fuck-up's dead body.

"Brian Jackson speaking," he rumbled as he sat up in bed, rubbing his eyes as he listened for the voice on the other end.

For a moment there was silence, and Jackson scowled in irritation as he waited for the caller to speak. "Hello?" he demanded. "Who is this?"

There was silence for a moment longer, and his irritation growing, the SEAL was just about to remove the phone from his ear when a small, tentative voice spoke up on the other end. "Jackson?"

It made the man pause. The voice was female, and sounded somewhat surprised that it'd been him to answer the phone. He pursed his lips, probing his mind for a face that might belong to the person on the other end. But phones distorted voices and this was not a person who'd ever called him before, so the man was left at a loss as to the identity of the woman on the other end. Had he been more awake, the answer would have been obvious. In fact, it would have smacked him over the head with a two-by-four and called him a bitch for not realizing it sooner, and when later he had time to reflect on that phone call he'd moan and groan at his own self-perceived idiocy. Yet that was still some-odd hours away, and so instead Jackson pursed his lips and scrunched his brow, before finally asking, "Who is this?"

"Lind."

His heart skipped a beat. His chest constricted. Butterflies of the type he hadn't felt since high school filled his stomach, and a high, almost inaudible squee filled the air. He tore the phone from his ear and looked at the phone number with wide eyes-an absurd sequence of numbers that might as well have been a one-eight hundred number being called with a phone card. He grabbed a sticky note from where he kept one in his nightstand in case of emergency calls and scribbled it all down, every last number, and reached fifty before he lost count, finished, and pulled the phone back to his ear again. The line was still counting the seconds away. She hadn't hung up on him. "Lind?" God, he sounded like a pre-pubescent boy, cracked voice and all. "Lind?!" Oh god, he'd fucking kiss Sheila when he saw her again for this one. Best fucking wingman in the fucking world. An absolute fucking _goddess_ , that one.

"Yes...?"

A smile so large it hurt spread across his face, and with his heart racing a mile a minute in his chest, the man began to speak, and the woman on the other end began to listen before speaking in turn.

Their conversation ran long into the morning.

Jackson came to work late that day to McGuinness's scowling face, a smile on his face so large it was disturbing and without a care in the world.

It was a smile that freaked everyone in Team 12 out.

"The fuck are you so happy about?" Morisato grunted.

"I got a date," Jackson said.

Braxton paused and looked at him. "No shit," he said in disbelief. "Who's the unfortunate sugah-momma you wooed this time?"

"Lind." Jackson preened, and began to laugh as Morisato's face went slack with shock.

XXX

"Wake up."

"Don' wanna." Belldandy thrust her head under her pillows to block the light which shone like twin suns above her bed, and proceeded to ignore the grouchy voice above her head. When the person began to shake her shoulder, she responded by raising a hand from her pillow and extending her middle finger by way of a greeting. The shaking stopped, yet had succeeded in its mission of fully rousing the goddess, and beneath her pillow Belldandy sighed and let her hand drop. "Getting sick of your crap, Urd," she growled, and thrust her head up to glare at her sister.

Urd, already dressed for their morning trek through the woods, stood staring down at her with her arms crossed. "Up," she snapped. "You already know we're going to do it, so stop making this difficult for yourself."

"It's four in the morning," Belldandy whined as she squinted at the twice accursed light. It did not help that her head was pounding as well.

"It is," Urd agreed. "Because it takes me half-an-hour just to pry your ass out of bed and drag you outside before the sun rises. Now get up before I pull you out and onto the floor, Bell."

"You're a nag, Urd."

"And you're a mule," Urd retorted. "It doesn't change the fact that you're going outside with me at the black asscrack before dawn. Now move before I drag you outside in nothing but your nightgown."

"I dare you," Belldandy grumbled.

"Oh please, don't tempt me." Urd made her way to the door. "Ten minutes, max. If you're not dressed and downstairs by then, I'm sending Elegance after you and Holy Bell."

"That's low, Urd. Using the angels to guilt-trip me into waking up."

"This whole thing is for the angels, Bell. See if I _don't_ use them to guilt-trip you."

Belldandy groaned.

Two weeks had passed since Skuld and the others had ascended back home. Following the various divine departures, Aiko had returned to North Carolina and Keiichi had returned to work. The house was once more empty of guests, and with it, the occupants began to once more settle into a daily routine they were all comfortable with. Or at least a routine Keiichi was comfortable with. Go to work, do work, come home, relax. Wash, rinse, repeat. Super simple stuff with no huge change that affected him in any sort of way. If things were still a little tense between him and Belldandy, then things were still a little tense. There were a few more walls to break down after Keiichi had died, but Rome wasn't built in a day, so the two of them took their time.

In that time, Urd had started following the instructions provided by Nebo before his departure. She took to her new duties with the solemnness of a woman holding the life of another in her hands, which in some aspects was not far from the truth. Nebo's instructions had been clear and straight to the point, and as soon as he'd departed that day Urd had set upon her tasks, the first of which had been, to the displeasure of the Norns involved, singing.

 _Sing with the setting sun._ Nebo had written _, Sing with the rising sun. Sing with your soul, that Manni and Sol might hear you and take heart as they run from wolves. Sing so that we in Asgard can hear your tune and join you. Sing with all you have so that nature around you is strengthened by your voice, and thrives beneath your melody._

A glorious task, truly. One fitting for the gods.

And an utter trial for the two sisters assigned to undertake it.

Urd hated singing in front of other people. A peculiar trait, to be certain, for the woman had a magnificent singing voice. Indeed, Belldandy would go so far as to even say Urd had the potential to outshine her if she was so inclined to it. Yet for whatever reason Urd was shy when it came to her voice. She would sing in private and she would sing while tasked with a chore when she thought no one was around, but always alone and never where anyone, even her sisters, might hear her. Belldandy never understood why. When confronted over her unwillingness to sing Urd would provide Belldandy with a multitude of different reasons every time: Urd claimed her voice was poor, or she thought she'd be scolded for it by Ansuz, or she thought she'd be teased for it by other deities who might hear her. It was hard to test the validity of the statements, yet the fact remained that Urd was uncomfortable singing in front of other people, and time had done little to change that aspect of herself.

There were a few exceptions: the Norn might be convinced to sing with a large enough group, and Belldandy had been somewhat surprised when Urd had sung with herself and Skuld during Aiko's initial visit, yet even then...Urd's voice had always been quieter, softer, always following and hiding behind those of her sisters.

Never leading.

Never rising.

Not like what Nebo requested of her.

This late in her life, the same could almost be said of Belldandy as well. Aoshima had been a cruel man, and the Norn had learned early on that any joys she'd held would be exploited and destroyed. It was what had led to her withdrawn personality upon her rescue, as she'd guarded her voice and her love of song with the same stubborn will that had guarded and protected Holy Bell from her 'husband'.

That wasn't to say she'd stopped singing altogether, of course; the children she'd first discovered beneath Aoshima's hands would not be comforted by the voice of a mortal. They'd been soothed by her songs though, and her melodies had stirred pieces of even those youths who'd lost the light of life in their eyes. Those had been healing songs, and as soon as she'd realized what she'd been doing Belldandy had made it a mission to free them from the hell she'd fallen into. A goddess could handle the abuse of decades by a mortal. Mortals were destructive creatures, and their lives were finite in comparison to a goddess such as her. She was as old as the tides of the ocean and would continue to thrive when a mortal like Aoshima was little more than dust in a grave.

Yet those children could not. They _should_ not. It mattered little if they were of the same mortality as Man himself or of a divine or demonic nature. They were young. They were impressionable. They developed to their surroundings and could be destroyed easily by the actions of others. And so she'd sung and healed and given pieces of herself to them and watched as more and more of their personalities began to re-emerge, and then, with the help of some of the more sympathetic guards and outside parties, had done what was necessary to get them away from Aoshima.

Painful memories. Painful times. And though she'd sung for the children around her, the fact remained that Belldandy's songs had been a private and well-guarded secret for the past ten years. And now, to suddenly sing loudly and freely as she'd once done before Aoshima became a task easier said than done.

And when paired with an annoying, bitchy, self-conscious elder sister who could barely start a song in the open?

Flying pigs were a more plausible concept. Or Lind going out on a date.

That first night had been a disaster. Urd could not rouse herself to lead and Belldandy did not know where to begin, and in the end they never even got around to summoning their angels for the sunset song. It took a week for Urd to get over her initial hesitation, and from there things went a bit smoother... but Belldandy was quick to tire of Urd's excessive early-morning romps: be woken at four, be out the door at four-thirty, and begin the morning song at five as the sun began to rise. It didn't help that Urd wasn't a morning person. Less that the goddess allowed for no change in their schedule-rain or shine or weekend, it mattered not. Nebo's request to Urd had stirred something in her sister; an unfathomable drive that would not be stopped, and she took to her newfound duties like an artist to her easel. And so at four in the morning Belldandy could expect Urd to come calling, and come hell or high water, they were going out, they were going to sing, and heaven help the poor fool who got in Urd's way.

It was of little wonder why Belldandy began to dread Urd's early morning wake-up calls.

Dreadful though they were, they did help. Though Belldandy and Urd bickered and argued all through their jaunt through the woods, their Other Selves revealed a different side. In the depths of the forest, deep enough where a field of wildflowers sat atop a hill, the angels emerged for the morning song. Here, in this secret grotto surrounded by evergreens, they manifested in joy. Neither Holy Bell nor World of Elegance exhibited the irritation so prevalent in their hosts. Holy Bell appeared with a flourish, ecstatic in the dark morning and brimming with a joy that lit up the whole of her face. This morning, like all the ones before it, was greeted with the enthusiasm of one who'd been denied it, and her elation was infectious to the Norns who watched her. World of Elegance, calmer than her counterpart, emerged no less enthused by the younger angel's happiness, and as had become customary over the two-week period the entities greeted each other with a warm embrace.

Those moments were, in Belldandy's mind, the best time of the day. Something in the sheer solace the angels found in one another was heartwarming. Though her link with Holy Bell was still weak, the Norn had reached the point where she could feel the angel's warmth towards her sibling, and in those minutes where they awaited the sun's rise, Belldandy would find herself basking in its glow. That was when the irritation faded, where the resentment dissolved, and where nothing but a soothing, gentle calm washed over her. It was a feeling that had eluded her all through that past decade-even now, free as she was with her sister and Keiichi, what she felt in that moment was something no one else had quite evoked in her.

In those early morning moments, with a healing angel and her elder sister, Belldandy felt at peace.

A look at Urd showed a similar story. The goddess wore an expression of rare serenity that illuminated her face much as it did with World of Elegance and Holy Bell, and her smile was large and pure on her face. It was a look that highlighted her relation to their father, Tyr, who was also capable of such a smile when the mood hit him, though Belldandy had only ever seen it directed towards his family. Another rarity for Urd, and perhaps a tragic one at that.

Belldandy could recall a childhood where Urd looked a bit more like their father-her hair had not been so stark-white, her eyes not-so-violet, edging a little closer to a dark hazel-green, and her lineage to her mother not quite so obvious as it was in adulthood. Lost now, except for her father's smile. But then, Belldandy could say little of herself in that regard; deities had claimed she looked like Ansuz throughout her childhood. She had their father's height, she had their father's eyes, and she shared her father's morals, but little else. Everything else was pure Ansuz, from her voice to her face to her love of song. Skuld was the only one of the three who resembled their father. From her face to her hair to her quick and at times explosive temper. Perhaps that was why she'd been assigned the precarious position of the ever-changing, ever-constant future. Skuld was the image of the Daitenkaicho, and so, perhaps in the eyes of some, destined for greatness.

Bah. Such silly thoughts that filled her head so early in the morning.

The goddess rubbed her eyes, then refocused her attention on the angels. World of Elegance had shifted into what Belldandy had come to dub as 'Tic Mode', trading her exuberance for scrutiny as she crouched by Holy Bell's wings. The black-winged angel examined first Holy Bell's left wing, than her right, massaging the limb from the wing tip down, running gentle fingers along the length of sinew and tissue that connected to bone, and feeling around the bone and to the re-developing muscle gathering around it. She worked her way down the back before moving on to the other wing.

Throughout the observation, Belldandy grew aware of bits and snippets of Holy Bell's voice, most of which reflected the faces her angel made as World of Elegance performed her analysis. _"Ow...tick... gah... top... tchy... Ele...!"_ The faces Holy Bell made were hilarious to watch, and had Holy Bell not been her own angel, Belldandy wasn't sure she'd be able to contain her laughter. As it was, instead the goddess felt a series of phantom irritations come to rest on areas of her back she couldn't quite reach: limbs that didn't exist in her body itching like mad. A pinch that was a little too sharp. A spot that was surprisingly ticklish. The uncomfortable sensation of her own muscles being moved by an invisible force.

And right when she felt it would become too unbearable, World of Elegance would finish her examination, and both Holy Bell and Belldandy would breathe a sigh of relief.

"Holy Bell is putting on weight," Urd announced. "Her ribs aren't so visible anymore. Her complexion is clearing up as well. There aren't any further signs of the crystal contamination that caused her skin to scale and threatened to lock up her joints." The woman paused, as if listening to World of Elegance's diagnosis, then continued, "Muscle's starting to build up again as well now that she's out and active. Back and chest muscles are still weak, but it's improved from what it was a week ago. Still needs to build up her leg muscles, and the muscles along her wings as well. That'll take a bit longer yet, but it'll come with more endurance and stamina, which is what Holy Bell will need in the long run."

"Still no signs of feathers, though..." Belldandy murmured, discouraged. Though she wouldn't admit it out loud, Holy Bell's lack of feathers bothered her. Of all the obvious maladies the angel exhibited, her naked wings were by far the worst; a constant reminder of how Holy Bell had suffered from Belldandy's own failures as a host. They disturbed her. The fleshy stumps looked unnatural on Holy Bell, like a strange and horrific mutation her angel had undergone that reflected some ugly piece of Belldandy's soul. The Norn had come to inspect her angel for any signs of emerging feathers on a daily basis, and each time was left in bitter disappointment with the lack of visible progress.

Urd wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "Feathers will be the last thing to appear," she reminded the middle Norn. "All her energy is going straight to healing herself. Once Holy Bell's body has reached a state where it's no longer in 'survival mode', it'll spread more of that energy out. That's when the feathers will start to grow in." She rubbed Belldandy's arm reassuringly, and the elder Norn smiled. It was thin and felt forced on her face.

"I know..." Belldandy mumbled, disheartened and frustrated. To her it was the same excuse Urd always used to reassure her of Holy Bell's progress. 'Be patient.' 'They will come in their own time.' 'Don't rush it.' Well, it'd been two weeks already, and thus far there hadn't even been a hint of down on her angel's wings. Just... chicken wings. Plucked and naked chicken wings, ready for the batter and the deep fryer. " _Come get the latest and greatest from Popeyes! Holy Bell Chicken Wings! Start off bland but boy do they take your breath away!_ " She cringed internally at the associated imagery, her mind dancing with images of Holy Bell in an apron and holding a plate filled with wings out to a cameraman.

She shoved the thoughts away before they could dominate her mind. "I suppose I am just rushing the inevitable." She sighed, her eyes following Holy Bell's wings as they stretched and fluttered at her back, moving first in small, tight clockwise circles and then counterclockwise as World of Elegance looked on. At a signal from the more senior angel, the small circles expanded into larger ones. For a brief moment Belldandy imagined those naked wings covered in white, and then frowned as she recalled just how large she remembered Holy Bell's wings had once been. They were of a size comparable to Elegance's, though unlike the Black Winged angel, Holy Bell's wings weren't so large as to drag on the ground when folded at her back. Not quite the same type of wings so designed for soaring, but close. 'Owl wings', Ansuz had said once. Large, quiet owl wings, whose approach went unheard while in flight.

Ansuz had wings like that. "It's what gave me an edge back in my Valkyrie days." Or so she'd claim. "I was a Spook. Demons called us _Suharruru'ei_ , Quiet Death, for how we would take them out in silence. Even their senses, good as they were, could not hear the approach of an owl, and like the rats they were they were taken out before even realizing they were under attack. It's how I earned the call sign _Alal_. A title gifted to me by Niflheim itself. It's their word for 'Destroyer'."

Those stories had always enchanted Belldandy as a child. Back when her understanding of gods and demons and the relationship between the two was not so strong, and she'd been ignorant of her own sister's heritage. In those childhood years 'demon' was nothing but a word assigned to all the monsters of the world, and the knowledge that her angel had wings like her mother had left her with thoughts and daydreams of slaying those monsters as a 'demon spooker' herself. It had always left her entertaining the idea of following in her mother's footsteps and obtaining a Valkyrie license herself. She'd even served as an acolyte for a time under a veteran officer who'd served with her mother-not Ansuz herself, as kin could not mentor kin.

She'd gone through great lengths to learn as much as possible back then, and though the training was hard-brutal even-Belldandy had found it rewarding overall. Yet that had been before the obligation for Norn of the Present had fallen on her head, and indeed, even before she understood Urd's own position in Niflheim's hierarchy. She'd been angry back then. Angry and hurt-first for herself, and then for Urd, who'd shown such an affinity as a Tic, and even more so for Skuld, who at that time was still too young to even consider the prospect of choosing a mentor. That had infuriated her, and she'd ranted and raged for well over a year with a temper so strong that in the aftermath, when sanity had once again reclaimed her and she'd calmed enough to view the extent of damage, she'd been horrified by what she'd done.

"Bell?"

Belldandy jumped, and the daydream of Holy Bell's white wings vanished. She looked over at Urd, who offered her a smile. "It's about that time. You ready?"

The sky was beginning to lighten with the first hints of dawn. The sound of birdsong was growing more prevalent as sparrows and finches began to stir. "Yes... I suppose I am."

XXX

 _Of all the things that could have happened to them._

 _A slave ship._

 _A dumbfuck, motherfucking, piece of shit Viking slave ship._

 _He gritted his teeth as Team 12 heaved and hoed at the row they were stuck to, a scowl on his face as his body strained with the pull of the long oar that spread across all of Team 12's lap._

 _Tank was grinning, stupidass motherfucker he was. "See?" he asked between strokes. "Yanno what I totally don't regret in the grand scheme of things?" He was dressed in Celt war armor, his face painted and his hair and beard long like some wild war druid._

" _Shut up, Tank." Piper sat next to him on other side of the oar, a Persian helmet on his head that complemented his own disguise. "Ain't no one want to hear a fucking word outta yo' mouth."_

" _Screw you, Jackson." Bravo muttered, his garb like that of the Britons that had also been victimized by Viking raids. "You're the one that thought it was a good idea to tour sixteenth century Europe."_

" _Fuck you Bravo." Jackson growled._

" _Well I, for one, am certainly grateful I ate all that garlic bread," Tank continued, a stupid smile on his face that Keiichi wanted to slap. The large man looked over at him, and his smile was mad. "See? Bet yah wish you had all that garlic bread now. Carbs t' burn and carbs t' spare, an' you jus' nothin' but skin and meaty bones!"_

 _He grunted from his own disguise, which was the unfortunate wardrobe of a Mongolian warlord which was somehow ill-fitting for a Viking slave ship. For fuck's sake, he was Japanese! Couldn't he have been a fucking samurai at least? Why a goddamn Mongol? "I regret thinking your language capabilities with Ancient Norse were any better than your poor grasp of English," he said with a British accent._

" _Fuck you too, Jank," Tank rumbled. "No need to be jealous-don't forget, yer th' one who gave me all yer bread."_

" _At least they got good taste in women," Croaker grumbled. Like Piper, he was dressed in a Persian outfit. The row of people in front of them consisted entirely of women, all dressed in the same dirty white uniform that might have held some kind of significance with whatever culture they were from. Keiichi kind of doubted it-the uniforms were familiar, but he couldn't place where he'd seen them before. One of them, an albino woman with short, plaited hair, glanced back behind her to glare at Croaker. She spat something out in a language that Keiichi couldn't place, but all of Team 12 recognized an insult when they heard it._

 _The woman next to her, an even taller, slim Indian with dark brown skin, scolded her. It sounded like she called her 'Rotor', but it was hard to tell over the ambient noise of drums, waves, and a groaning ship. The two of them began to bicker, and then the overseer, a black haired Viking, Skuld, cracked her whip above their heads. The woman sitting in front of Piper, the shortest of the women with hair that almost looked blue in the poor lighting of the row deck, snarled at the overseer with a noise that reminded Keiichi of a bear._

" _See, that's the kinda woman I like," Piper commented as the overseer left. "The kind that don't back down to no one and who is an utter bear."_

" _I am a bear." The woman turned to look at Piper. It was Lind, of course. Lind and her gang that she never brought down to Midgard. "We're going to America, you know. To the Great White North. I have family up there that will spring us."_

" _Are they bears?" Jackson asked._

" _Polar bears and Grizzly Bears," Lind replied. "And one or two horses and seals to boot."_

" _What about you?" Keiichi asked._

" _You know already." Of course he did. She was a polar bear like her dad. They almost ate her youngest sister once, who was a seal, not a bear, and had been guised as one when they'd been hunting one day._

" _You better get ready, if you don't want to stay a thrall." The tall Indian woman was saying. "You're marines of time and space, yes? And you're on leave?"_

" _Yep," Keiichi said, and knew that was wrong but didn't care. "We thought it'd be fun to go treasure hunting but McGuinness can't speak worth a damn, so we got stuck on a slave ship after a mistranslation."_

" _What'd he say?" Another Valkyrie, this one a Samoan, looked at Tank._

" _He was trying to ask for a ship from a merchant." Braxton said. "Instead he asked the man out on a date."_

" _It was an honest mistake," Tank said. "Could'a happen to anyone."_

" _At least the slavers are pretty," Keiichi said. "Two of them, Belldandy and Urd, seem to favor me. Who knows? Maybe they'll keep me for themselves."_

" _You have fun with that," Bravo said. "I'll take my chances with the bears."_

 _And on his word the deck was invaded by bears. Polar bears and grizzly bears, black bears and brown bears. Panda bears and koala bears and even the oh-so-rare sun bears. Then Lind became a bear and roared._

 _Skuld leapt at her, "Skyrim belongs to the NORNS!" Before changing into a large, black wolf, and the two mauled each other before the other bears ate the wolf. Jackson lept onto Lind-bear's back and raced out of the boat. "Imma wife her!" he screamed, and the rest of Team 12 sat and stared amidst the dueling animals._

" _Think we'll ever see him again?" Bravo asked._

" _Depends on if the other bears eat him or not," Croaker grumbled. "At least he ain't with Urd. She's la Quetzlcoatl, and her blood's poison. She in the house a' the serpent and the spider. Gotta watch out for her."_

" _What about Belldandy?" Keiichi asked._

" _Oh, she's—"_

BREE BREE BREE

BREE BREE BREE

Keiichi groaned and fumbled for the alarm, slapping it with the palm of his hand. "Fukken hell…" he muttered into his pillow. "No more watching Bell play games before bed." Rolling onto his back, he rubbed his eyes and sat up, blinking owlishly into the darkness of his room.

His eyes widened. "Shit, I'm going to miss it!" The man stumbled out of bed in nothing but his boxers, pausing only long enough to grab a shirt from his dresser before racing out of the bedroom. He almost killed himself racing down the stairs while simultaneously trying to put on the shirt, and slipped into a pair of flip flops at the front door before darting outside. The air held just a hint of cool to it now; the cool of morning dew, but he'd taken to putting a plastic sheet over his lone patio chair for just such occasions. He yanked it off and pushed it to one side and sat down, listening as the morning birds went about their songs.

His heart racing, he closed his eyes.

And listened.

In the distance a voice began to rise, deep and somber and beautiful.

" _Ehfer ahli mela_

 _Etsteh uuni unda_

 _Rane stanfilu_

 _Howarhn flue beflordigna"_

It was Urd's voice, echoing through the trees and off the mountains, a ghostly song that would have been missed through the ambient noise as more and more of the local wildlife began to stir. The next stanza began, and this time another voice had joined her, this one a higher pitch that seemed to rise over Urd's, not so much drowning it out as it did filling the pieces Urd's voice missed. Belldandy.

" _Ehfer uhni mela_

 _Wuwi leitsin denbor_

 _Beli heilfurhei_

 _Ailheildets e loitsig noi_

 _Eh falaneih troifa letnafa"_

A smile crept across Keiichi's face as Belldandy's voice joined in, and the solo became a duet, equal parts high and low in the roles each sister played. The words were unfamiliar; unlike any language Keiichi had ever heard before, yet bordered so close to something recognizable that the name of the language danced at the tip of his tongue. It stirred feelings in his mind, wiped off ancient memories lost to dust and time and which played shadow games on the edges of his perception.

" _Lemen mwen orha mnemnaloideha_

 _Le mwan ohen wonden lolheilben_

 _halenhei uhrah inda ferdelan hefeh"_

He'd discovered their singing by chance several days ago. Belldandy and Urd had been arguing loud enough to wake him, and his own curiosity had gotten the better of him that day. He knew about the evening songs that took them out into the woods at sunset every day, and Urd had informed him of their morning romps as well. Urd had requested he didn't follow them in those evenings, as what they were doing was for their angels- Holy Bell in particular- and he'd done what he could to respect the two sisters' wishes. The man had never had much of an interest in what the Norns did or where they went, but for whatever reason the desire to investigate had possessed him that early morning. It was a half-assed investigation, admittedly, given he didn't want to widen the rift he and Belldandy were already attempting to mend, but he'd watched them depart the house that morning.

If he'd been asked, Keiichi wouldn't have been able to explain why he'd chosen to go out to the porch that day. Nor why he'd decided to sit and wait or why that particular desire to wait was so strong that day. Yet something had guided him. Perhaps even possessed him, as he had that same sense of 'magic' going on around him that he'd always come to associate with 'Weird Norn Shit'. Regardless, magic or just sleepy, he sat and waited and perhaps even dozed before he was rewarded for his efforts. Urd had mentioned nothing of them singing.

Urd had said nothing of the sheer magic that was in their songs.

And though he said nothing to either of the Norns, Keiichi had made it a point to go out every morning and every evening and listen to that magic flow.

They were singing together now, rising and falling together like a pair of falcons traveling across a desert. And that's what the song brought to mind: Ancient and forgotten shrines and ruins of old that had been destroyed and abandoned through time. Places Team 12 had traveled through and past, architecture they'd taken shelter behind, which had defended them from sandstorms and gunfire and whose gods had long since abandoned the premises. Of children raised under new gods amidst the architecture of the old, who were told stories of Djinn and the demons that rested in the shadows.

It reminded him of Fida.

The normal serenity that filled him whenever he listened to the Norns' songs abandoned him, and all at once Keiichi was left with a pit of sadness in his belly. A face flashed in his mind's eye, one of youth and exuberance, who smiled up at him from a tan face framed by wind-mussed hair. _"Keichi."_

He opened his eyes and sucked in a deep breath, banishing the image from sight. His throat tightened, and grimacing, the man rolled out of his chair and put the plastic tarp back over it. The song still played its somber melody, yet for this morning, he ignored it.

It was time to get ready for work.

He had no time for memories of dust.

XXX

"Did you hear?"

"Hear what?"

"Lind's gotta date."

"Are you for real? Lind? Stone-cold 'sprint two-hundred miles 'cause I said so' Lind?"

"The exact one."

"Who the hell'd be crazy enough to date her?"

"Well, you didn't hear this from me, but...My coworker's friend's boss's sister that works over in maintenance said she saw Lind call a Midgard number."

"A mortal? Are you serious? Aren't they like, diseased or something?"

"Yeah, they're born with a permanent madness called 'Perception'. Apparently it's incurable."

"Ew... is it contagious?"

"Fuck if I know."

"Does Command know?"

"From what my friend's coworker's boss's squadron coworker says, yes. And it gets worse. They're encouraging it."

"What? How so?"

"Apparently they're giving her dating advice. Can you believe that?"

"Dating advice? For Lind? She's got all the personality of a brick though!"

"Yeah, and I hear that's why they're giving her the advice. I heard a group of girls from her unit arguing on what kind of advice they should give her for a date gift. Someone said a plant, to show she's interested. Another person said it should be a cactus, since they're low maintenance."

"You're joking."

"Girl, I couldn't make this shit up if I tried."

"Lind's unit is trying to convince her to gift a cactus to a mortal on their first date because they think it'll show she's interested and that it's low maintenance."

"What?"

"That is... such a fucking Valkyrie thing to do."

"Yes."

"You know, this is why most people tend not to date Valkyries."

"Yep. Even if this guy is mortal and mad, I kind of feel sorry for him anyways. Who the fuck wants a cactus on a first date?"

"If she was sane, she'd seek outside advice. I hear she's been hanging around with the Norns a lot more recently."

"The Norns? Damn, girl's moving up in the world! How'd she get in good with them?"

"Weeell... This is just between you and me, but I overheard someone from Medical talking to one of their friends in Security about how their friend over in Fighting Wings was talking about how Lind was on a special duty assignment to keep an eye on one of them."

"Oooh...you mean the demon?"

"Not so loud!"

"Sorry."

"But yeah, totally the demon. But, like, apparently they're friends now or something? Right after the demon got kicked outta Asgard for going _Tendee_ on Midgard? I don't know the whole story, it's weird."

"Ugh."

"Mmmhmm."

XXX

Keiichi was always gone by the time the Norns returned home. From there came potions. Topical potions for Holy Bell's wings that were applied by World of Elegance and ingestible potions Urd gave Belldandy to help strengthen both the link with her angel as well as to help Holy Bell recover her strength in general. The link potion was never that bad. It tasted like lemon and ginger and had the added benefit of waking Belldandy up in those early mornings. The second potion designed for Holy Bell were another story. If the first potion woke Belldandy up, than the second one may as well have knocked her out. The aftertaste with it was so bad that even Holy Bell gagged, and in the first few days Belldandy frequently went to war with keeping the contents of her stomach down. It was followed with breakfast, where Belldandy then enacted a small bit of passive-aggressive revenge by cooking eggs for the both of them and bacon for herself.

Urd pretended not to care.

Belldandy pretended not to notice.

A few hours later Urd had her chance to pay Belldandy back in the form of sparring, though admittedly it was something Belldandy found perverse enjoyment in. Ten years of abuse while her power was withheld by a wish had been frustrating at the best of times, downright destructive at its worst, and finally having the chance to work through that anger was purifying. Urd was experienced, and Belldandy didn't need to rein in her temper with her older sister as she did with Keiichi. If anything, Urd allowed her to work out her frustrations and anxieties without shame. Her elder sister, Belldandy discovered, had her own issues to work through, whatever they might be, and held back only to the extent Belldandy herself pulled her punches.

And Belldandy never pulled her punches.

There was something immensely satisfying about drilling her sister with a left hook while simultaneously taking an uppercut to the chin from Urd. Being dragged to the floor in a pin and then slipping past Urd's guard in retaliation awoke memories of the past; sweet memories of younger, more innocent years, where she'd drilled and fought and blocked in preparation for a Valkyrie's license that was never received. It reminded her that she'd come from a family of war deities, as the Aesir had always been a conquering people, and bloodshed was as much a part of their nature as sailing. Even on their off days the two of them came away winded and bloodied, smiling like a pair of reckless idiots as they swallowed large gulps of breath.

What's more, Urd had introduced her to a concept Belldandy had never considered ten years ago: granting Holy Bell independence.

While Belldandy and Urd attempted to tear each other to shreds like a pair of wildcats in the garage, Holy Bell and World of Elegance were allowed free reign of the house. Keiichi wasn't home and door-to-door salesmen rarely came calling. With only their host deities around, there was nothing problematic enough to force the angels to return, and both of the angels appeared to enjoy their freedom immensely. In a manner Belldandy hadn't predicted, the independence and time away from her angel actually seemed to strengthen the link between the two, forcing both parties to exercise the link like a muscle suddenly being put to use.

Here, usually after a shower that was as much about wiping the blood and sweat from her brow from sparring with Urd as it was re-purifying her link to Yggdrasil, Belldandy could hear Holy Bell's voice best. With her body aching and mind relaxed, Holy Bell's thoughts came across the link easily, and oftentimes Belldandy could make out full thoughts from her angel. Usually the angel was with World of Elegance on the roof, dozing or making origami stars as she and the other angel sunbathed. Other times World of Elegance, perhaps with some feedback from Urd during their sparring sessions, would instruct Holy Bell on a series of muscle exercises geared towards the legs, back, and chest. They were intended to build up the supporting muscles used for flight, to in include the legs, which were used in takeoff and landing. The end result would oftentimes leave Belldandy exhausted in mind, body, and soul, but it was a good exhaustion. A healthy exhaustion. The type of exhaustion that came after a long day of training and left the body sore, but not necessarily in pain.

And for the goddess and angel involved, it was a feeling most welcome.

"I can't move my arms," Belldandy said after just such a grueling session that day. She laughed. It hurt to laugh. Probably from the heavy amount of abuse Urd had put her through an hour earlier. "I can't move, Urd."

"You better get up and get walking then if you don't want to stiffen up later on," Urd advised. "I told you there's a reason we stretch after sparring, but no, you just had to grab all the hot water first," she teased.

Belldandy laughed. She could laugh at Urd's teasing, now. "At least I had some hot water this time," she retorted, smirking when Urd rolled her eyes.

"Love you too, Bell."

"I'm sure." Belldandy raised her arms in front of her and stretched, finding pleasure in the way the muscles protested the act. She fell silent, working the weighted feeling of her arms out of her shoulders as best she could. "Holy Bell's showing World of Elegance how to make origami cranes," she announced, and looked back up at her sister with a smile. "She thinks World of Elegance prefers them to the simpler stars."

"Yep." Urd nodded, returning Belldandy's smile with a large one of her own. "Good job, Bell. Elegance is impressed with Holy Bell's dexterity with paper. And she wanted me to pass on that the cranes remind her of thunderbirds. They also have those long necks."

"I see," Belldandy murmured, and fell silent, listening to the stray thoughts that at times passed incomplete through the link. It was amazing just how strong the link had grown over the span of a couple of weeks. She'd gone from almost destroying her link with Holy Bell to almost hearing sentences from the angel in less than a month. She wondered how much that improvement had to do with potions and how much of it had to do with songs or allowing Holy Bell the freedom to roam. "Urd?" The goddess let her arms drop into her lap, shifting to observer her elder sister more fully.

"Yeah?"

"How did you learn about the advantages that came with giving your angel independence?"

Urd stared at her in surprise, and then her gaze grew thoughtful. She looked off, and after a moment of silence said, "My mentor told me."

"Your mentor?" It was Belldandy's turn to look surprised. "Not Nebo?" She'd been almost certain it'd been advice passed on by the elder Tic. To hear that the knowledge had been passed by Urd's own mentor... "But she never had an angel, did she?"

"Nope," Urd agreed. "Angels were still too new to her." She shrugged. "Though she's probably a century or ten younger than Nebo, she's still pretty old, and I think the whole concept of another creature born from her soul creeped her out a bit."

"Then how did she..."

Urd pursed her lips. "Well, she was the one who got me to summon World of Elegance again after I pulled the dumbass move of sealing her, remember?" she said. "Part of it was a piece of advice she told me one day. When I was struggling to call World of Elegance back after I'd finally, well, freed her again."

"What was it?" Belldandy asked in interest.

"Her words were, 'You cannot spoil your own soul. You can only nurture it, for it is a seed that only you can grow. Plant it in the good earth, nourish it with sweet water, feed it the sun and give it room to grow so that it may thrive.'" To Belldandy's surprise a hint of blush worked across Urd's cheeks. "I don't know why, but the words just kind of... stuck with me. After I got Elegance back, I could always recall how difficult it was to call her back inside of me-like she was afraid to go back, terrified that I was going to lock her up again." She paused and looked back at Belldandy. "Remember, this was when I was still pretty young. I... wasn't exactly raging in the 'self-confidence' department way back when."

"Right," Belldandy agreed. "So... you decided one day to allow World of Elegance a bit more freedom?" She asked, "Am I understanding that right?"

"Yeah," Urd agreed. "I tried to take what Nana said to heart-I mean, she was maybe the one person aside from you whose words I actually took stock in, and so maybe I took the words a bit too literal and just decided to let Elegance do fuck all one day. 'Give your soul some space.' Well, all right. Here, Elegance: a whole day to yourself to do what you want. You come to me when you're ready to go back inside." She rubbed the back of her head, looking uncomfortable. "Aaaaand it worked, I guess?" She said. "It was weird-Nana treated her no differently from me, and so if Elegance got too close to a cauldron would get shooed away or put to work like I would be. Before lunch time she'd had enough of Nana's nagging and was almost running back inside of me." She smiled. "But it was the first time Elegance ever returned to me without leaving me with a feeling of dread, and her manifestations began to come easier for me as more time passed and I continued to give her freedom."

"I see," Belldandy murmured. "So you stopped seeing World of Elegance as an extension of yourself and more as her own separate person."

"Yeah, I guess." Urd rubbed the back of her neck. "Either that or Nana just never made the distinction between the two of us. World of Elegance never made her nervous like she did the other Tics and their acolytes. To Nana, World of Elegance was just another pair of hands she could put to use. I think Elegance liked that. Nana never saw the wing."

Belldandy held her silence. Urd's childhood had always been difficult. She'd come to Asgard the equivalent of a mortal ten year old, with a poor grasp of Highkin and a pattern of behavior that, while acceptable and perhaps expected in Niflheim, had been viewed as violent and wild by those of the Asgard elite. Tyr and Ansuz had reportedly been the only ones she'd ever listened to-one because Urd recognized him as kin and the other out of fear of Niflheim's infamous 'Destroyer'. A language barrier and culture clash had prevented Belldandy from initially befriending her; Urd saw Belldandy as weak and beneath her, and Belldandy saw Urd as an arrogant bully who refused to adapt to change. Other family members- these all on their father's side- had been quick to label Urd as a troublemaker and a black sheep: another 'Loki' set to ruin the family name through chaos and mayhem.

It'd been years before Belldandy had discovered the true nature of her estranged sister. Years of picking and prying and snooping to discover the person hiding behind that scowling, arrogant mask, and what she found was this: a scared and lonely girl who'd been ripped from her home and her family and flung into a land of enemies and strangers. A desperate and depressed child who feared learning another language lest she forget her native tongue, who feared the inevitable deterioration of the memory of her mother's face and her mother's voice, and found no solace in a father whom she rarely saw and a step-mother, who from Urd's perspective at least, beheld Urd with nothing but contempt.

In a way, Urd's discovery of her mentor had been a blessing. The more deities spoke badly of her nature, the harder Urd clung to the aspects that left her shunned, with no desire to change. No one in her immediate family expected anything good of her, and in light of that, in some ways doomed by the expectations of those around her she'd set herself down a path to self-destruction. Belldandy could actually thank a Trickster deity, Raven disguised as Huginn or Muninn, for Urd's inevitable meeting. The deity, an animal spirit with the same chaotic nature as Loki, Anansi, Veles, and Coyote, had tricked Urd into stealing a specific potion from an old woman in a desert, far to the south of Asgard where the barriers between dimensional planes grew weak. He'd then flown ahead of Urd and had warned the old woman of Urd's impending arrival, and the old woman- Nana, as Urd only ever called her later in life- had caught the past child red-handed. The old woman had demanded servitude in payment for the attempted theft of the potion, and from Belldandy's understanding Urd had then stayed on as an acolyte later when she'd shown an aptitude in her Nana's potions.

Belldandy was grateful to the old woman. She'd helped tear down the barriers that Urd had erected around herself, bridging the gap that had emerged between Urd and the rest of her family and opening the lines for communication on both sides. She and Urd had grown close with the elder's help, though Belldandy herself had only met the old woman once or twice in the time since Urd had known her. Skuld's birth had only strengthened that budding relationship between the two sisters, and had even eased some of the hostility between Ansuz and Urd after it grew apparent that her step-daughter was infatuated with the newborn.

For a brief moment, Belldandy observed Urd in a new light, comparing the child she'd grown up with to the woman before her now. In hindsight, the changes were remarkable. Urd had been setting herself up to be one of the Forgotten in her younger days- those deities who held no true class and were shunned by others in Asgard. Those men and women who'd never been assigned a mentor and held no position or representation in the Heavens, or held the roles that were assigned to those of a less-reputable source; gods of death, gods of pestilence, gods of chaos or gods mistaken for demons. To see Urd as she was now, albeit with some new restrictions on her title she'd earned through the misdeeds performed to save Belldandy... Urd had changed. And they were good changes. She'd become a good person.

Belldandy bit her lip, drawing her attention to her own recent past and looking at the woman she'd become. She'd changed too, and not necessarily in a good way. She'd been forced to change, if only for her own survival or, in retrospect, for the survival of those she'd discovered under Aoshima's thumb. A grand network of human trafficking, most of them children who'd been taken off the streets or kidnapped, with some older teens who'd been lured into Aoshima's business under the guise of fame, fortune, or travel. They weren't all girls, either. There'd been just as many young boys, those favored by a particularly nasty breed of evil, and it'd taken all of Belldandy's strength to shield all of them from Aoshima's cruelty. There were always one or two who were beyond even her saving, though. Those older boys and girls who'd been in the ring since early childhood, so broken that they did not even react to the divine grace who'd been thrust amongst them, or if they did, cursed her with vindictiveness.

" _You are no god. You are a false saint sent to mock us."_

" _If you are so great, why allow this to happen to us?"_

" _Liar."_

" _I have always asked myself what I would say to God where I to meet Him. Or Her, should He appear as you are now. And after careful thought and consideration, my answer is this: Get fucked."_

" _Is that what they have you say in front of the camera?"_

" _You've finally answered my prayers for death?"_

" _May you suffer as I have."_

" _There is no God."_

She flinched as voices of the past whispered sweet cruelties in her ear, and banished them to the dark cage where she'd come to store all such wretchedness inflicted by Aoshima. It didn't stop the way her stomach twisted and churned at the memories, though. She'd tried to give them peace. Tried to give them all peace, even if it was the final peace all mortals were destined for. Yet for those broken souls, it had not been enough.

Belldandy doubted it'd ever be enough for such dire creatures. Souls like that belonged to demons, not gods.

 _And indeed, hadn't they all passed into the hands of a demon already?_ a small, cruel voice spoke up. _They were damned before you ever came along... perhaps damned_ because _you came along, and your efforts only delayed the inevitable._

She closed her eyes against that voice. It wasn't as strong as it was two months ago, but its words still carried with it the weight of her guilt. It grew easier to bear with the passing of days, yet its weight was still heavy, and as had become common for her since Holy Bell's manifestation, Belldandy hushed that weighted voice and placed it with the other despairing voices of Aoshima's mansion, then walked out of the darkness and back into the light. She grabbed a sheet of newspaper lying on the kitchen table and tore off a strip, and began forming a paper star.

"You okay, Bell?"

She paused and looked up at her sister, who watched her in concern.

"Just working though some unwanted feelings," the middle Norn confessed, and when she smiled, Urd smiled too. The Elder Norn approached her chair and embraced her from behind, and for a few minutes silence reigned through the household. She felt Urd rest her chin on her forehead, and took comfort in her sister's closeness. "I've just been lost in thought, is all," Belldandy continued, her hands working dexterously to craft the tiny star before her. "It's strange, I suppose. I can remember all throughout our childhood how you'd come to me for help or advice on something presented to you through Asgard. You came to me when you were hurt or anxious or uncertain, and I would always provide the best advice I could, though my experience was perhaps just as limited as your own." She snorted. "And for whatever Yggdrasil-blessed reason, you actually took my words to heart. I could have told you to jump off a cliff for it would make you more liked by those of the Heaven's Elite, and you would have taken that advice to heart and done it without question, because you trusted me and took faith in what I had to say."

She crimped the edges of the star and observed it in its completion. "And now, in a strange twist of fate, I find myself coming to you for aid instead, Urd. I've gone through a difficult decade that's left me in the dark, and without thought or fear of consequence, you came running to my aid, picked me up and brushed me off and patched up all the cuts and scratches. It's been a long two months, Urd. And you've been with me through the thick of it, displaying a patience with me I dare say I've lost in the years since that thrice-cursed wish."

The Norn grabbed her sister's hand and put the little paper star in Urd's palm, gently folding the fingers around it. "I've never thanked you for what you've put yourself through, Urd." She tilted her head up, finding Urd staring down at her in silence. "Nor what I've put you through since coming here." She pursed her lips. "Not properly."

"Thank you Urd. For everything."

Urd smiled crookedly, then embraced her with more force, still holding the little star Belldandy had placed in her hands. "You're family, Bell. You and Skuld mean the world to me. I'm not about to leave you hanging when you need me most."

"I know," Belldandy said, and the smile that came to her face was honest and kind; a hint of the old Belldandy that had been buried within her as the years progressed. "I know, and I thank you anyway, Urd. I'm not out of the woods yet-far from it, I feel-but I feel like I can see the light between the trees now, and it means a lot, knowing that it's because of you and Skuld and Keiichi helping me on that path."

Urd kissed her brow. "Stop," she announced. "You're getting sappy on me, and I think Skuld cleared out the last bit of ice-cream in the house." She released her. "When did you learn origami, anyhow? I don't remember you doing that until recently."

"I-" Belldandy paused and blinked, then furrowed her brows together. "I'm... I'm not sure, actually," she said, then stared down at the newspaper in front of her. She'd started leaving at least one newspaper on the tabletop for whenever the urge to make the tiny stars overcame her, but now that she thought about it... "I don't-nobody taught me how to make origami stars." She looked back at Urd.

Urd stared at her. "Holy Bell?" She offered. "She's trying to show World of Elegance how to make cranes right now."

"Yes, I remember you telling me that." Belldandy nodded and pursed her lips. "But then... who taught Holy Bell how to do origami?"

The answer struck them both at the same time.

"Aiko." The sisters said together. They stared at each other with matching flat expressions, and then together burst into laughter. "Little shit." They said, and erupted into further laughter.

 _!... Lind... ere!_

Holy Bell's voice caught Belldandy off guard, and the goddess sat stock straight, her eyes wide. "Lind?"

Urd tilted her head as if listening for something, then nodded. "Looks like it," she murmured. "Strange... it's the middle of the week."

Belldandy looked to her sister in confusion. "What could she be doing here?"

"Got me." Urd headed to the front door, and right on cue the doorbell rang, signaling Lind's arrival. "If you want, go and grab Holy Bell. World of Elegance is pretty comfortable around Lind and her angels, so I'll leave her be, but I don't want Holy Bell getting worked up over Lind in case she sees her on accident."

"Right." Belldandy rose to her feet to do just that and then paused mid-step. She needed to close her eyes to properly focus on the link to her angel, and when she zeroed in on it, Belldandy found Holy Bell peering down at Lind from the rooftop. She and World of Elegance both seemed calm and unconcerned with the Valkyrie below. They were both laid out on a pair of towels World of Elegance had stolen from a closet, lying on the far side of the roof as they peeked over the ridge down to the woman below.

 _Holy Bell?_

She sensed her angel focus on her end of the link as well, feeling the connection strengthen a bit with the angel's additional concentration. The Norn felt a wordless question on the other end of the link, and asked, _Do you want to return to me with Lind visiting?_

There was a small burst of surprise through the link, a hint of confusion, and then denial, followed with the weak request, _Ca...I...tay?_

Belldandy hesitated for a moment, surprised by the request. She'd expected Holy Bell to simply return without input. Yet she'd never presented the option of allowing Holy Bell to stay outside herself for longer than Belldandy needed, and so perhaps with that Holy Bell had never found the reason to bring up the request. For a moment the link weakened as Belldandy's concentration was disturbed by Urd's voice, and her mind recalled what Urd had said earlier that day.

" _You cannot spoil your own soul. You can only nurture it."_

And why not? Was Urd herself not simply allowing World of Elegance her freedom and independence? Why not go the way of her sister and allow Holy Bell that same freedom?

 _When in Rome..._ She concentrated once more on the link and felt Holy Bell's nervous anticipation leak through from the other side. _Yes_. She told her angel. _Be as you are. I'll retrieve you when you're ready._

The Norn never knew how much of her words reached Holy Bell. The link's deterioration worked both ways, and if Belldandy struggled to hear Holy Bell than it was a safe assumption that the same was true for the angel. Regardless, she seemed to catch the gist of it, and Belldandy was rewarded with a flood of joy and warmth from her other half. The goddess felt a large smile spread across her face and didn't fight it, beaming as she opened her eyes and moved to join her sister in greeting Lind.

"What's up, Lind?" Urd was asking her, stepping to one side and inviting the Valkyrie inside. "It's not often you come calling in the middle of the week."

"It's not," Lind agreed. She looked vaguely uncomfortable, but didn't say over what. "Can I speak with you in the dining room? I think I'm in over my head."

Belldandy and Urd shared a look. "Do you want us to talk in private?" Urd asked Lind.

Lind shook her head. "At this point, I'll take all the outside advice I can get." She hesitated, then looked at Belldandy. "Besides, there's something I need to give you."

The Middle Norn stared at the Valkyrie in confusion. "Me?" She pointed to herself. "What in Midgard would you need to give me of all people?"

Lind grimaced. "Dining room," she ordered, then followed it up with, "Please?" It was almost pitiful coming from the Valkyrie.

Again, Belldandy and Urd shared a look. This time in concern. "Sure," Urd announced, closing the door behind Lind. "Let's see what we can do for you, Lind."

As one, they moved down the hallway and into the dining room, where Lind plopped defeated into one of the dining room chairs. Urd and Belldandy pulled up a chair on either side of her, and with a moan the Valkyrie propped her elbows on the table and buried her face in her hands.

The two sisters shared a look over the table.

"Okay Lind, we're here for you. What's going on?" Belldandy was a little surprised to hear the amount of worry in Urd's voice. She was hiding it well, but the Norn recognized it as the sort of worry Urd normally reserved for those closest to her, namely Skuld or Belldandy herself and now, perhaps, Keiichi as well.

Lind sucked in a deep breath, trying to regain her composure. "One thing at a time," she said, her voice holding the calm that was so absent from the rest of her person. "First off, for you, Belldandy." She pushed back her chair to arm's length and held out her hands, palms up. Something manifested atop her hands, and the Valkyrie offered it to the Norn.

The goddess took it in curiosity. "Is this a... sweater?" She held it out to better inspect it, finding that the object in question was in fact a sweater. A bright blue, hand-knitted sweater. A line of moose trailed across the center of it and around to the back in a long train of white. There were two holes knitted into the back. "Umm..." Belldandy stared at it, baffled, then looked back to Lind, who was slowly starting to turn the shade of a beet. "Thank... you...?"

The Norn could almost see the steam coming off Lind's face, she looked so embarrassed. "It's for Holy Bell," she said. "To help keep her warm until her feathers return." The flush on her face darkened. "The thread's a special weave Nebo recommended. It'll help regulate her internal temperature until she gets her feathers back."

Her own curiosity getting the better of her, Urd rose and walked around the table, touching a sleeve in curiosity. She whistled. "There's some pretty impressive magic running through this," she said. "This is some high-quality material here, Lind. And handwoven too..." She glanced back at the Valkyrie. "Did you make this yourself?"

Lind looked down at the table. The blush began to seep down her neckline, disappearing beneath the collar of her uniform. Her silence said it all.

"And this is for Holy Bell?" Belldandy asked once more.

"This is fucking adorable, Lind." Urd smirked.

"This is really for Holy Bell?" Belldandy said again. "My angel? Not for me but my angel?"

"You bone-headed sweetheart. I never would have thought you were the type to go out and make sweaters for angels in need," Urd said.

"And you're- this is a gift. This is a gift for Holy Bell." Belldandy still looked shocked. "I-I don't know what to say Lind."

"Then don't say anything and give it to your angel already!" Lind snapped, and at this point even her hands were turning pink. "Can we please just-"

Urd laughed and hugged the Valkyrie from behind. Lind released a pitiful wail. "I can't believe you made a sweater for my little sister's angel, Lind! You're an absolute doll, you know that?!"

"Help me," Lind begged.

Alas, Belldandy was far too distracted with the gift to her angel to notice Lind's distress. Or perhaps she took amusement in the Valkyrie's nervousness as she sought to fend off Urd's affections. "I need to give this to Holy Bell right now." Urd laughed louder. Lind cursed beneath her breath. Belldandy rose and almost raced out the back door to call her angel out.

"Urd, I swear to Yggdrasil, if you don't get off me I'm going to hog-tie you and throw you to the sharks as a sacrifice to _Aga_ Sedna!" Lind cried.

Urd's laughter didn't fade. "But you're so cute! I can't recall a time I've seen you so flustered before! And over an act of charity for an angel not your own!" Finally, the woman released the Valkyrie, who sent a deathly glare towards her companion. Urd's smile didn't fade in the slightest. "Seriously though, Lind, thank you. That's an incredibly thoughtful gift."

"Stoooop," Lind moaned, and this time her head collided with the surface of the wooden table in an audible thump. "I can't stand it... it was nothing, Urd."

"It was more than nothing and you know it, Lind." Urd crossed her arms over her chest, taking over Belldandy's open seat. "You know Bell's gonna feel indebted to you for this, right?"

Another groan was Lind's reply. "If she wants to repay me than she can hear out what my real problem is."

"We both will," Urd replied.

Belldandy returned a minute later with a large, ear-splitting smile on her face, her arms empty of Lind's sweater. "It fits her perfectly," she said. "Holy Bell loves it. Thank you again, Lind. How can I ever repay you for this?"

Lind looked at Urd, then shifted her gaze to Belldandy. "Well..." she started.

"I need your help," Lind announced. "I've tried... just about everything, and I don't know what to do. This is... really out of my league, and everyone I've spoken with has been pretty unhelpful, all things considered."

Some of the joy faded from both of the Norns as they saw how somber Lind was, and recognizing the matter as concerning, grew serious. "We'll help any way we can, Lind," Urd replied. "You've already done a lot for us, so if there's anything we can do, you can bet your ass we'll jump on board."

Belldandy nodded in agreement.

Lind's smile was strained. "Thank you," she said. "I appreciate it."

"So what's the issue you're going through, Lind?" Urd pressed, recognizing that the Valkyrie, in her own way, was trying to avoid the subject of discussion.

"Well..." Lind sucked in a deep breath, then held her hands out on top of the table. A new object began to manifest in a cool, blue glow between her outstretched hands, and both Urd and Belldandy leaned forward in interest, matching frowns on their faces.

When the object came into existence and the blue glow of Lind's magic began to fade, neither sister said a word for a long time. As one they stared at it in concentration, both of them trying to make heads or tails of the item before them and wondering if their eyes were deceiving them. A trick of the light, perhaps? An object under heavy illusion, maybe? Or was it simply...

It was Urd who finally spoke. "That's a cactus, Lind."

"Yes," Lind affirmed. "Yes it is. A cactus. Yes."

"It has googly eyes," Belldandy whispered.

"Yes."

"Lind... why does the cactus have googly eyes?" Belldandy slowly shifted her gaze back to Lind, her expression like that of when the Valkyrie had presented the sweater to her: one of complete and utter bafflement.

"I don't know," Lind confessed. "It seemed like a good idea at the time?"'

"Lind," Urd began. "Why do you have a cactus with googly eyes?"

Lind bit her lip and scrunched down in her chair. She looked like a child playing Valkyrie in her mother's uniform with a googly-eyed cactus that was her demonic opponent. "I-I have a date," she announced. It came out as a squeak. "I, um, have a date with-with Brian, er- Jackson! And, um, I-I don't know what to do!"

And together the Goddess of the Past and the Goddess of the Present stared down at the Valkyrie from Chugach and said one word: "What?!"

* * *

 **A/N: And we're back. Our goal is to get back to the weekly releases, but it may slip to 2 weeks for some. Summer months are very busy with RL stuff.**

 **For anyone so inclined, we have an ongoing thread at the "Goddess Relief Office", an AMG fansite that is still going. The url is Goddess-project dot net. I invite anyone who wants to discuss the story to stop by and say hi. We also have a TVPropes page. Just do a search for Scarred Survivors and you will find it.**

* * *

 _Comments of a Madwoman: This interlude will cover a bit more on the characters' backstories and help perhaps fill in the occasional question that people might be wondering about regarding Bell's time with Aoshima and certain other details. Inspiration for this chapter is credited to Manly Guys Doing Manly Things and Lackadaisy Cats-two webcomics credited to Keiichi's dream and Lind's...cactus._


	39. Chapter 39 - Dates, Songs, and Sweaters

l

-39-

"So you're actually going through with it?" Keiichi asked. "You really have a date with Lind this Saturday?"

Team 12 was drilling with combat knives that day. Keiichi was paired with Jackson while Sanchez worked with Braxton on his form. The four were armed with rubber knives, their blouses off and folded near their boots and personal belongings off the blue foam mats they trained on. The room was stuffy and humid despite the heavy industrial fans pumping air into the building and the open windows and doors. Norfolk had turned off the heat to the base the past week and was in the transition period of moving to air conditioning, and as such everyone on base was suffering the aftereffects. The gym sparring room that Team 12, along with other Navy Seal Teams stationed in Norfolk and additional specialized units used for training, smelled rank with sweat, mildew, and Virginia's humidity.

Moisture beaded on Jackson's brow. Like Keiichi, the man's shirt was dark with sweat. Yet whereas Keiichi was close to panting with exertion just trying to keep up with the taller man in the stuffy room, Jackson looked none the worse for wear. If anything, he appeared to be enjoying himself, though it was difficult to tell if that was because Keiichi was at a disadvantage with his shorter stature or if he was daydreaming about his upcoming date.

Given the dreamy look on the man's face, Keiichi was betting on the latter.

"Damn straight, Son!" he crowed, and his smile on was large and brilliant against his dark face. He fended off a combination of strikes from Keiichi before reversing into the counter that followed. "You know how long I been waiting for this?"

"Since you met her that one time at my place?" Keiichi grunted as rubber hit skin. "Seriously, I never would have thought _Lind_ of all people? You met her _once_ , Piper."

"Once is enough!" Jackson chirped. "Hey man, don't be judging me on my taste in women. You ain't got no room to talk. I seen how you get all dreamy-eyed whenever Bell pops up in a conversation." He backed up as Keiichi stepped forward, and they moved into another combination of strikes and counters. "How she doing by the way? And Sheila? I ain't seen hide or hair a' her since the barbeque, man!"

"They're doing good," Keiichi replied. "Had a few hiccups a couple weeks ago, but it looks like things are starting to look up again."

"You finally get her to a doc?" Jackson asked. "I know that was bothering you for a while."

"Yeah," Keiichi replied. "We can actually thank Lind for that, I guess." He sent a sly smile towards Jackson, only for it to develop into a grimace as the man struck his wrist hard with his rubber knife. "She ended up calling in a contact of her own to help out. Guy's a bit of an ass in my humble opinion, but he's legit with Bell, and you can tell he's one of those docs that cares about his patients."

If possible, Jackson's smile grew larger. "Fuck'n-A, man. That's good to hear. I knew something was bothering you for a while, was that it?"

"Something like that," Keiichi said vaguely. "She had a bad flashback."

"Bad as in..." Jackson trailed off, an implied request for him to continue. Yet Keiichi shook his head.

"Bad," he said, and catching the hint, Jackson let the matter drop. "But on the plus side, she's doing a lot better. I don't know what that motherfucker did that helped her so much- I ain't a doctor and you know how medical terms confuse me- but I ain't denying the fact they helped."

"Not gonna lie, Jank. That's a fucking relief to hear. Tank was getting edgy," Jackson admitted. "That fucking sixth-sense a' his was working into overdrive, Man." Among his other abilities, such as marksmanship with just about any kind of rifle, both American and not, having a Master's degree in International Relations, a regular volunteer in non-profit events such as Habitat for Humanity, and still maintaining a perfect passing PT score despite his age, McGuinness had an almost eerie sixth sense to him. It was something more myth than reality, but it was something all of Team 12 had taken stock in long ago. That same sixth-sense had saved them from three different ambushes on their past deployments together and in some ways was to be thanked for Keiichi still walking amongst the living now. For reasons Tank couldn't explain, he'd decided to go and personally check up on Keiichi on a Saturday when the officer was heading out to meet with some friends. Keiichi himself was still shady on the details, but he remembered Mac's fingers down his throat sometime after he'd intentionally swallowed an entire bottle of pills from the medicine cabinet. Mac had gotten him to a hospital as soon as he'd finished upchucking everything in his stomach, and hadn't left his side until someone else from Team 12 could come over to relieve him.

It had not been Keiichi's greatest moment. He was grateful to McGuinness none the less, though. Nothing quite woke a man up and made him fight for his life than when that life was about to be winked out, and it hadn't been until the world had gained that strange, fuzzy edge to it that Keiichi had realized he'd completely fucked up and that he did in fact want to live.

Now Keiichi grunted, wiping the sweat from his brow as the two combatants paused for water. "Don't I fucking know it," Keiichi grumbled, shifting over to the defensive counters as Jackson switched roles with him. "I respect the man, but god damn if he ain't the last person I need to come prying into _that_ affair. It'd be like a goddamned bull in a China shop, I swear to god."

"True that. Thank god he's so high on the food chain he gets called away half the day now," Jackson grumbled, "How about Sheila though? Any word from her?"

Here Keiichi was a bit more cautious with his words. Bell was easy to talk about. Bell was closer to the _truth_. Bell was a comfortable set of shoes he could slip in and out of at any point because Keiichi could be honest in most of his interactions with Bell, as Urd had created a role for her that was easy to slip into. Urd on the other hand... Urd was anything but; an enigma of lies who had inserted herself into Keiichi's life. "She's fine," he said. "From what I can tell, anyway..." He paused as they took another quick water break before moving on to some light sparring without the fake cutlery. "I think she's getting stressed, you know? From... Bell. And the... situation she's in. She doesn't let it show much, but..." They slipped into a series of grapples and take downs, and between falls to the floor Keiichi continued. "I think the reality of her situation is getting to her."

"She ain't getting the help she needs from her organization?" Jackson grunted and slapped the mat as Keiichi brought him down in a quick takedown.

"Something like that." Jackson rolled back to his feet, and Keiichi allowed the man to come at him once more. "She's getting help from Skuld when she can, and Lind is still making regular visits to check in, but..." Again Keiichi trailed off. It was easier to let Jackson fill in the blanks for him.

"Bureaucracy?" The man guessed.

"Yeah." Keiichi nodded. "I guess they aren't really doing her any favors." No shit. Banishing her from her own homeland given everything she'd done to rescue Belldandy...

"I heard a little bit about that. Man, fuck bureaucracy." The roles switched once more, and it was Keiichi's turn to be tossed to the ground. "Tank mentions it every now and then. She likes to vent to him, from what I know of it."

Keiichi looked up at his friend in surprise. "No shit?" he said. "She never said anything to me." The man was surprised to find the revelation stung more than just a little. Why wouldn't Urd come to _him_ for that stuff? "Why go to Mac?"

Jackson pulled him to his feet and shrugged. "Sometimes you just need an outside party to vent to," he said. "We talk about it every now and then when we go out drinking- when you coming back out again, by the way?" He continued without waiting for an answer. "Anyway, Sheila calls Tank up every now and then usually just to vent, but occasionally she asks him for advice, too."

"From _McGuinness_?" Keiichi asked in disbelief. Jackson nodded. "That just seems so... unlike her."

Jackson shrugged. "Gotta admit, she's kinda hard to read," he said. "I mean, we known her what? Five years? And ain't 'till a few months ago we even knew she was part a' some three-letter organization? You gotta admit, Jank, you can't get to know a person like that. Folks in three-letter organizations keep secrets, you know? They don't show their true character to you 'cause unless you one a' them- not _a_ three letter agency but _their_ three letter agency- they don't trust you. You ain't one a' _them_."

"Maybe." If anything, Jackson's words hurt even more. Something in his statement had an air of painful truth to it. When that three-letter agency was 'G-O-D' then perhaps there was more truth in Jackson's words than even Piper would realize, and it was a reminder to Keiichi of the vast divide that lay between himself, a mortal, and the Norns, goddesses. Still... Mac? Big Mac the Tank himself? Why go to a mortal who had all the divine expertise of a Catholic School at his back for advice? "Did Tank ever say what she talks about?"

"Not really," Jackson said. "You know he keeps that kind a' stuff to himself, even when his head's in the bottle. Mostly he says she just looking for direction. Maybe an outside opinion, hell, I don't know, Man. Your guess is as good as mine."

"Right, I hear you." It was time to switch gears. If he wanted any more information on that, he'd have to speak with Urd or McGuinness directly, and the chances of either of them saying anything outside of 'fuck off' were slim pickings, from Keiichi's perspective. "So what'cha got planned for your date?"

That large, lovesick smile spread across Jackson's face again. "I owe her a steak," he said. "An' I aim to deliver." Keiichi could almost see the daydream fogging up Jackson's mind, and taking advantage of it, he brought the man down in a quick grapple. Jackson slapped the mat on the way down.

"Steak on a first date?" Keiichi asked. "And you actually cooking for her, on top of that?" He raised an eyebrow. "This ain't just some fling for you, is it?"

"Naw, Man." Jackson rolled back to his feet. "I'm serious 'bout this shit. Lind's different. She's..." The man sighed wistfully. "She's... I can't explain it, Jank. I mean, I ain't ever come across a girl who makes me..." He scowled. "I mean... you ever get that 'butterflies in your stomach' feeling when you look at a girl? Like when you were with Deb or when you looking at Bell? Fuck, I don't know, maybe even Urd?"

"With Deb, no," Keiichi said. "We'd known each other for too long for that real 'lovey-dovey' shit. It was more like I decided to marry my best friend," he admitted. But Belldandy? At once, his mind thought back to that first memory of seeing her, presented to him in a single picture by Urd in a 'squid' bar on a Friday night. Oh, he remembered those butterflies, all right. Only they weren't in his stomach- they'd been his heart, sending it fluttering like a caged bird at the mere sight of Bell's smiling face. He'd thought he could die for her back then if it meant seeing her in person. Walk through Hell itself if it allowed him to touch her hair. He'd fought demons for a chance to speak with her and hell, he _had_ died for her, though the circumstances had been different at that time. While it had sobered him and cooled the flames, he couldn't deny those first lovesick feelings for her. Those feelings that even now, persisted enough to still give the goddess a chance with him, to give him a chance with _her_ , though they were taking things a hell of a lot slower now. "But yeah, I think I know where you're coming from. Gotta be careful, man. You might get burned."

"Why you say that?" Jackson eyed him carefully. "You know something 'bout her I need to?"

 _You mean aside from the fact that she's some kind of war-goddess who could kill you without effort?_ "Nah," Keiichi said. "Just don't go breaking her heart, Man. She's a good friend of Sheila's, and I think between the two of 'em you'd be digging your own grave."

"Fuck you," Jackson retorted. "But I need to hit up Sheila anyways. Gotta figure out what I can get Lind for a gift."

"Wow, steak _and_ presents?" Keiichi pinned Jackson's arm behind his back. "Shit, why not go full-out and get her roses and chocolate, man?"

Jackson grunted and tapped his chest with his free hand. Keiichi released him. "Don't think she's that kinda woman," he admitted. "Something 'bout her screams 'no' to flowers and chocolate, and I want to get her something little that she can keep and look at and reminds her a' me."

"Like what?"

"I dunno, Man. Like a stuffed animal or something? A teddy bear? But I'm afraid a' getting her something too stereotypical."

"Get her a stuffed polar bear."

"A what?" Jackson stared at him through narrowed eyes. "A _polar bear_?"

"Yeah," Keiichi said.

"Lind likes polar bears?"

"No idea," Keiichi replied. "But I had a dream she did. Real fucking weird. Something about Viking ships and Valkyries. I think there were spiders in it too, but fuck those things."

"Man, fuck you!" Jackson exclaimed. "You want me to get her a stuffed polar bear over a fucking dream?! I need something _solid_ here, Jank. Some hard. Fucking. Evidence. You hear me? I ain't going off a' no god damned dream!"

"Just a suggestion." Keiichi shrugged. "If you want though, I'll go interrogate Urd for you."

"Nah, it's fine." Jackson sounded less enthused. "I'll figure something else out. Now enough chit-chat. It's time to get down to business and _really_ kick your ass."

XXX

"Okay..." Urd licked her lips. "Okay... we can fix this. We've got time. We can _fix_ this," she said. Beside her, Belldandy said nothing, continuing to stare down at the miserable woman sitting before the Norns in mute shock. Lind moaned grievously, and Urd ran both her hands through her hair, releasing a large puff of air as her eyes darted from the Valkyrie to the cactus. It was a tiny _saguaro_ cactus, one with a single arm and whose top had the budding crown of a flower on top. The googly eyes had been pinned in a haphazard, lop-sided arrangement towards the top of the trunk with its spines, giving the desert flora the illusion of a face. It stared up at Urd in wonder as though questioning her about the meaning of its existence with its plastic eyes. A date.

Of all the fucked-up flying fuckery in this fucking world- a _date? Lind_? And with _Piper_ of all people?

Not that Jackson was a bad guy or anything, or Lind for that matter, but... were they serious? Jackson was a good man, but he was a restless soul. The type of man who never wanted to settle down and preferred to tour the world. A fun guy. A party guy. The kind of man who cringed at the thought of marriage and shied away from a steady relationship. Good for a fun date, a fun night, but nothing too serious.

And Lind... well, Urd was responsible for giving the Valkyrie his number, but she'd never expected the goddess to act on it. An innocent prank, perhaps, to get a start out of both of them or perhaps to give Lind the opportunity to go out and have some fun of her own. She hadn't expected Lind to actually take any of it seriously. Perhaps shy away from it as well, perhaps show a lack of interest or even tell Jackson off, but...

A date was unexpected on both sides.

 _I would have expected Lind to go for another type of man._ What type, Urd honestly couldn't say- Lind and she had only just made the jump from acquaintances to friends, and for all Urd knew, the Valkyrie might be more attracted to women than men. It was hard to say. Lind didn't share her likes and dislikes with people. Given how the Valkyrie acted at times, Urd wasn't sure if Lind even _knew_ her likes and dislikes. "Is it serious? Or just a fling?" Urd asked.

"What?!" Lind recoiled from the woman. "I don't fucking know!"

Urd and Belldandy shared a look. _Oh this poor girl._ "Lind... when's the last time you went on a date?" Belldandy asked.

Lind's face went from its vibrant pink to a rosy red. "Th-there was a boy near the border tribes once..." she stuttered. "Um, we, ah... there was... I mean..." Her face became a deeper red. "It's been a while, all right?!" the warrior snapped. "It's not like Valkyries have any time for shit like this!"

"My mother managed to maintain both a steady relationship and a successful pregnancy with me while she was still a Valkyrie," Belldandy retorted. "I can remember her departing in her uniform when I was four years old and still learning that rocks were inedible."

Urd burst into laughter. "Watch out, everybody! Here comes Belldandy, calling you all out on your bullshit!"

Lind's head collided with the table. Next to her, the cactus trembled in its little brown porcelain pot. "Cut the crap, are you guys going to help me or not?!" she demanded.

"Yes, yes, we'll help you." Urd's laughter faded. "It's only Wednesday, so we've got plenty of time to make this work."

"Oh thank Yggdrasil." Lind sighed.

"First off ditch the cactus," Urd said.

"And do what with it?" Lind asked, "Give it to you?"

Urd flinched. "The fuck am _I_ going to do with a googly-eyed cactus?" she demanded.

"Place it on your dresser and let it watch you sleep," Belldandy replied with a hint of a smile. "Or, Lind, you can keep it for yourself and save it for another time. Who knows? Perhaps Brian likes cacti."

"I have my doubts," Urd muttered. "Anyways, there's other things to worry about now. Have the two of you made any plans for what you'll be doing?"

"I'll be going over to his house for dinner," Lind explained. "Um..."

"Piper... lives on base though," Urd continued. "Are you going to meet him somewhere? It'd be suspicious if you just popped up on his front doorstep."

"I... didn't think about that," Lind said quietly. "I'm so used to having access to the bases back home that-"

"It's fine," Belldandy reassured. "We've identified the problem now, which means you can bring it up to him and work out a solution between the two of you."

"Meet him at a park," Urd advised. "Preferably right around sunset. It'll be romantic. He can pick you up from there and drive you onto base that way, then drop you back off at the same place. You can use the excuse that we're renting a vehicle and that I'm your ride back to the motel." She pursed her lips. "You'll also need to fabricate an ID to get past the front gate..."

"He could ask about the motel," Belldandy pointed out.

"And we could use the excuse that the motel's location can't be shared because of confidentiality." Urd shrugged her shoulders. "In some ways it's true- you can't really share how your home is on another plane of existence, Lind."

"I don't know..." Lind trailed off.

"Think it over," Urd recommended. "Like I said, there's still time. The biggest thing right now is supplying Piper- I guess I should call him Brian, huh?- with a location you can meet him at. Everything after that can come as necessary."

"Right," Lind said.

They continued their conversation for a good two hours after that, going over the finer details of Lind's upcoming date. Both Urd and Belldandy provided advice on standard American clothing. "Do not, I repeat, do _not_ show up in your fucking uniform," Urd said. "I will beat your ass straight to the Daimakaicho's front door if you do."

"What should I wear then?" Lind demanded. "All my civvies are designed for the Arctic Tundra back home! You want me to show up in a fucking goose down parka?"

"Come in a summer dress," Belldandy suggested. "A light blue one, with perhaps some white in it." She looked Lind up and down appraisingly. "It would complement your features quite well, you know."

"No," was Lind's immediate reply. Belldandy looked disappointed.

"Jackson wouldn't go for that anyway," Urd said, taking Lind's side. "Rough and tough SEAL he is, I don't think he's much for the super formal or dressing up bits. You'll want something relatively casual but still nice for a first date. Something to test the waters," she murmured. "Something to show that you're interested but not desperate."

"I'm not desperate, Urd." Lind sent her an annoyed look.

"You're coming to us for advice," Urd retorted, observing the Valkyrie carefully. "Let me think... what kind of clothing are you comfortable in, Lind?"

"What kind of a question is that?!" Lind demanded.

"An honest one," Urd replied. "Believe it or not, Lind, you're a woman, and capable of pulling off just about anything so long as you're comfortable with it. This is the first date you've had in ages, by the sound of it, which means you're already going to be out of your element, so we don't want to suggest anything that will make you more uncomfortable than you already are." The Norn shrugged her shoulders. "Something I learned early on is that there's a difference between something quick and something lasting, and if this is something you want to pursue as an actual relationship, than you're going to want to dress in what you're comfortable in. Dress as _yourself_ , not who you think Piper is looking for."

"This whole conversation is uncomfortable," Lind grumbled, her blush having never left her face.

"It is, but you'll be grateful once it's over," Belldandy agreed. "Urd has a point. As of right now, it appears that you are searching for something a bit more long-term in this date than a simple night out, is that right?"

"I don't know," Lind mumbled. "Maybe? I just- I don't _know_."

"Then for the moment let us assume that you are," said the almond haired goddess. "If you decide later on that Brian is not the man for you, then so be it, no harm, no foul. Until then, it is okay for you to show some bits and pieces of yourself and your personality to him, and part of that is dressing to your own level of comfort. So, on a date with Brian, how do you see yourself dressed?"

"It better not be your uniform," Urd added.

"Fuck you Urd." Lind's flush grew crimson. "I don't know... jeans? A long sleeved shirt?"

"Would you be comfortable with a blouse?" Belldandy asked.

"No," Lind responded.

"How about a blouse with a lightweight jacket on top?" Urd asked. "Something that still covers your arms and is still stylish, but something you can take off if you get too hot?"

Lind was silent, and seemed to take Urd's words into consideration. "What kind of jacket?" She asked.

"What kind would you like?" Belldandy asked. "This is _your_ date, Lind. You're the one who's going to decide what you want to wear."

Again, Lind was silent, and seeing her struggling, Urd pulled out her phone and pulled up a search browser. Typing a line of text into the search bar, she selected 'images' and hit enter. "Here." She passed the phone over to Lind. "Find something you like."

Lind took the phone with some hesitation, then began to scroll down the long list of images. After a moment she paused on one. "This." She touched the image and placed the phone on the table for the Norns to see.

The two sisters stared at it, then looked up at each other. "That's a leather bomber jacket, Lind."

"That's what it says." Lind nodded in agreement. "I... like it."

"It's summer, Lind," Belldandy replied. "You'll cook." The jacket in question was a heavy, black, sheepskin leather jacket, one whose insides and collar were lined with brown fleece.

"It's looks soft," Lind muttered. "And... warm. I like soft and warm things."

Urd stared, startled at the admission. It was probably one of the few times Lind had ever showed a preference towards anything before. It made her smile. "You sure?" she asked. "It's already going to be pretty warm in Virginia as is."

"I'll manage," Lind said. "If I have this... then... a tank top to go with it. Just a simple white, no, black tank top with the jacket and some... boots. Yes. That'll be fine."

"So long as you are happy with it." Belldandy inclined her head. "Will you show us?"

Lind looked at the goddess, startled by the request, then inclined her head. "I... don't see why not," she said, and glanced at Urd, who nodded encouragement. The Valkyrie took a deep breath, and a soft, gentle glow enveloped her uniform. It was a simple magic, a basic spell that even those weak in such abilities could perform with little practice. A simple rematerialization spell that allowed for a quick change in appearance, and here proved no different. The uniform faded with the glow, and in its place were a simple pair of blue jeans and a pair of black boots. A black leather bomber jacket and a black tank top underneath. The Valkyrie looked at the two Norns warily. "Well?"

Both Urd and Belldandy smiled. "You look good, Lind," Urd announced. "Now, how 'bout some makeup?"

"Don't push your luck," Lind scowled.

It was around that time that Holy Bell and World of Elegance appeared to return to their respective hosts and Urd and Lind got the opportunity to view Holy Bell dressed in her new sweater. The angel beamed at them both, and almost tackled Lind to the ground in her appreciation. Lind, for her part, displayed a legendary amount of tolerance, permitting Holy Bell to embrace her as the blush that had begun to fade returned in full force. "It was nothing," she protested. "Really, you don't have to- please, it's fine, I'm glad you like it, really."

Belldandy tilted her head and closed one eye, as though trying to listen to something in the far off distance. "She says 'thank-you', in case that was not obvious." the goddess said. "I think... I think she's also asking if you'd allow her the chance to speak with your angels, Lind." She looked to Holy Bell for affirmation, who smiled and nodded with enthusiasm.

For a moment Lind tensed at the request, her eyes widening as she grew stiff and edgy, and Urd realized in that instant that Lind had never introduced Belldandy to her angels. The Valkyrie had always kept her angels' interactions minimal and controlled during Nebo's overwatch of Holy Bell, and while Belldandy might have glimpsed one or both of them on occasion, there had never been a formal introduction. Actually... when Urd thought about it, the only people Lind had been comfortable showing her angels to had been Nebo and Urd herself. From what she knew, Belldandy, Skuld, and Peorth had never been introduced; only their angels had ever seen the one-winged twins, and why not? The twins' lone wings were reason enough to be cautious, their nature as twin angels an adjunct. There were other reasons too, Urd was certain. Belldandy's care of Holy Bell over the past decade might have been a big one, especially given World of Elegance's reaction to Belldandy following the revelation of Holy Bell's state of being. The stress displayed by all the angels during that time was enough to make anyone cautious, and while Elegance was aware of both of the angels' handicap, having them on display near _Belldandy_ might be enough to rekindle that stress from before.

As if sharing Urd's line of thought, Lind's eyes darted to World of Elegance, who watched her and Lind placidly. Urd herself could sense no signs of worry or stress from her angel, and instead felt a warm glow of affection through the link. It was a reassuring sensation, coming from the angel, but it worked only so far as to cast aside any anxieties about World of Elegance's reactions to Lind summoning her angels. It would do nothing for the Valkyrie's own insecurities.

Which perhaps was why it came as a surprise to Urd when Lind sucked in a deep breath, released it through her teeth, and inclined her head in acceptance. "I suppose I can allow that," she muttered. "For Holy Bell." Smiling, Holy Bell stepped back to World of Elegance's position, and Lind took a deep, meditative breath. First the left wing, than the right wing began to emerge, and with them the angels who owned them. Spear Mint peered at Belldandy with a stoic face, watching the goddess with eyes the same glacier-blue as Lind's. Her twin, Cool Mint, seemed to be the exact opposite, smiling widely before she darted past Spear Mint and over to World of Elegance and Holy Bell. The angel surprised the Norns, embracing first World of Elegance in a tight hug that was returned with equal enthusiasm, then hugging Holy Bell. Holy Bell laughed as she returned the hug, then released her and held up her arms, hopping as she gleefully put the light blue sweater she was wearing on display.

As Cool Mint moved to inspect the sweater, ensuring it was a proper fit, Spear Mint slowly worked her way around Lind and to World of Elegance's side. Her movement was peculiar; an odd, sidling shuffle that kept her facing the Norns, whom she watched like a hawk. She only relaxed marginally when World of Elegance met her half-way, grasping the black-winged angel by the forearm by manner of a greeting. _Like a feral cat and an excited puppy._ Urd thought, and smiled. _It's amazing how different the twins' personalities are from each other._ Stranger still to see how skittish Spear Mint was out in the open near Belldandy. She'd grown used to the calm the older twin brought to help temper Cool Mint's exuberance. To Urd, at least, the angel's behavior was strange.

"They only have..." Belldandy trailed off, and Urd looked at her. Her younger sister bit her lip, her expression one of shock. Lind watched her with critical eyes, and Belldandy flinched. "Ah, forgive me. I had not realized- I... never noticed they..."

Lind eyed her with a frown, then shifted her gaze to the small choir of angels. One without feathers. One with the Black Wing mutation. And two with only one wing each. The ill, the alien, and the wounded. "Fuck, all we need's a devil masquerading as an angel, and we can start a fucking band," she said, and stretched her arms over her head. "We can call ourselves _'Terminal Freaks'_ and go around screaming death metal with painted faces."

"A what?!" Belldandy stared at the Valkyrie, her jaw hanging open as she stared at the woman.

"And once again, Lind's legendary attempt at humor that falls short strikes again." Urd chuckled, and Lind slapped her shoulder.

"Spear Mint is the one who looks like an insulted cat," Lind continued. "She was my original angel, once upon a time. I ended up..." She pursed her lips, contemplating the right verbiage, then rephrased her statement. "I was wounded in action. It left Spear Mint down one wing. Nebo was recommended to me when I was going through rehabilitation- to try and grow the wing back, right? Like a fucking tail on a lizard- and Cool Mint, little miss 'cuddles' over there," she chucked a thumb off towards the angel in question, "popped out instead." The angel in question smiled gleefully, and living up to Lind's claim floated over to embrace her host from behind, resting her chin on Lind's head as she gazed at the Norns with a large smile.

"She has a rather... contradictory personality to your other angel," Belldandy observed. Spear Mint was still watching the Norn like a hawk; an unnerving stare that never seemed to waver and never seemed to blink. A cat indeed.

"Yep." Lind attempted to shoo her angel away and succeeded only in having Cool Mint change position with the laugh of one deliberately annoying her victim. "The original intent was to replace what I lost in combat, with the information gained through research contributing to the recovery of other Valkyries and _Aesir_ suffering from similar wounds." She sighed, but it was a good-natured sigh. "Now I'm stuck with two idiot angels who like to fight and argue and leave my head spinning because they can't agree on anything. It's enough to make me want to shoot myself."

"Replace what you lost..." Belldandy pursed her lips, and again her gaze traveled to Holy Bell. Her wings were covered in a pair of blue sleeves now, similar to her arms, which did a fine job of masking the extent of their debilitation from curious eyes. "And this procedure of Nebo's... what became of it? Was it deemed successful?"

Urd said nothing.

"It was given approval for further research after seeing how much Cool Mint's manifestation aided in my own recovery," Lind said, and directed her full attention to Belldandy, her face pensive. "Be patient, Belldandy," she advised. "It took decades for Cool Mint to manifest, and then only under great stress while in combat." She never once hinted at whom that combat had been centered around. "You've lost feathers, not a limb. Your tail will grow back. Mine never will."

Belldandy's face flushed with either embarrassment or shame, Urd couldn't tell. "That's not what I- forgive me. It was not my intent to insult."

"Then you'd best drop whatever line of thought is running through your head," Lind warned. "There are other Valkyries who have a greater need for that procedure and may yet never have the opportunity-or luck-that I had."

Scolded, Belldandy looked away, her expression one of guilt, and Urd looked between the two with a raised eyebrow. It was probably the first time Urd could recall Lind getting upset with Belldandy during a conversation. To the elder Norn, it was a sign of a sensitive subject. Lind didn't get angry with other people. With Urd, yes, all the time, but only because Urd had the tendency and habit of getting under people's skins. Belldandy didn't have that habit, and oftentimes went out of her way to ensure she did not insult without cause. For Lind to suddenly grow aggressive over something like an experimental procedure was peculiar, contradictory to the image of Lind that Urd had acquired over the past couple of months.

It made her wonder whom Lind knew who had been so grievously injured.

It made Urd wonder who'd been lost.

Yet that was a question for another time, in another place, perhaps when both of them were good and drunk enough to cry on each other's shoulders without fear of judgment or ridicule and away from the eyes of those who knew them best. Some location where they'd be able to drain the internal wounds, the hidden wounds, of the poison of guilt and their failed duty that would allow their hearts to heal and lighten once more.

But not now.

Now came time for a change of subject before the current situation grew any more tense.

"Okay Lind, let's chill for a moment," Urd announced, bringing the attention away from Belldandy and back towards herself. "I know you're stressed about your date and all, but you don't need to take it out on Bell."

Lind went rigid, and for a moment it looked as though the Valkyrie might argue with the Norn. And then she sucked in a deep breath and released it slowly, massaging her temples as she propped her elbows up on the table. "Right," she grunted. "Sorry. Shouldn't have snapped," she muttered. "You're right. I've never-" She paused and looked down at the cactus. She rubbed her face. "The fuck am I doing with my life?" She whispered.

"Trying to improve it, from what I'm seeing," Urd replied. "Now come on. Let's see what else we can do for you before Keiichi gets home. And who knows? Maybe he might have some advice as well."

"Indeed," Belldandy muttered, but she looked distracted. Her attention was elsewhere, towards the angels, her eyes following the trail of Holy Bell's clothed wings. "Perhaps he will."

XXX

Keiichi, in fact, did have advice, though it was advice that made little sense to the three goddesses. "Comic books," he said. "Piper's a huge fan of Captain America. He loves Marvel, though he's not much for DC unless it's got something to do with the Green Lanterns."

"I understood one in four words of what you just said," Lind replied.

"Then bring him something from your place he can't get here." Keiichi shrugged. "That is, if stuff like that is allowed with you guys..."

"What, like a seal skin?" Lind asked, and stared in confusion as two Norns groaned and one mortal stared at her blankly.

"You mean like an _actual_ seal skin?" Keiichi asked.

"What other kind of seal skin would I mean?" Lind eyed him as though he was soft in the head.

"So... let me get this straight... you want to give a seal skin to a Navy SEAL?" he asked.

"A what?" Lind's confusion seemed to grow. "Morisato, you're using words in a sentence that doesn't make sense. What are you saying?"

"You mean you don't-" Keiichi gaped at her. "You've been coming down here all this time and you never-"

"Lind," Belldandy's voice was the soft, gentle tone of a woman breaking bad news to her companion. "Keiichi is part of a Naval military unit whose acronym is SEAL.

"You're joking."

"Sea, air, and land," Keiichi said. "The best the US Navy has to offer. Piper's part of it, too."

"And now you're thinking of giving him a literal seal skin," Urd teased. "What are you trying to do, turn him into a _selkie?"_

"Um-"

"Nah, that can't be right," Keiichi reasoned. "Lind's supposed to be a polar bear. She'd just eat him!"

"What-"

"So what you're saying is that Lind should give Piper a polar bear skin instead?" Urd asked, taking Keiichi's strange line of thought and running with it.

"But-"

"It would keep her away from the cactus, at least…" Belldandy reasoned. "Though my own opinion is that an animal hide is a bit too personal a gift for a first date- especially if it's to provide the ability of metamorphosis for the individual in question.

"It's not!" Lind cried. "All of you, stop! I'm not giving Brian an animal hide, all right? He's not a skinwalker!" She pointed to Keiichi. "And _you_! Who told you about that?! No one outside my family knows about that!"

Keiichi paused and stared at Lind queerly. "You mean there was some truth to that dream?" he asked.

"What dream?" Belldandy asked.

"The dream with the spiders in it," Keiichi replied, then paused and furrowed his brow. "Except there weren't any spiders in it... why do I keep thinking there were spiders in it?" He trailed off, then looked back at Lind. "Wait, then that means you _are_ a polar bear?!"

"No!" Lind snapped. "That's my _qila_! And I would appreciate it if you'd stop calling me by it!"

"Then what are you?" Keiichi asked, his curiosity getting the better of him. "And what's a _qila_?

"None of your thrice-cursed business, _Tiggak,_ " Lind exclaimed. "Now can we kindly drop this conversation before it expands? I don't know how much more of this I can take."

"You better watch out, Jank." Urd sent Keiichi a sideways glance, her smile teasing. "Things get bad when a god starts throwing insults at you in their native tongue. You better hope Lind didn't just curse you into a thousand incarnations as a seal. They tend not to last long around orcas, polar bears, and great white sharks."

Lind sucked in a deep breath before burying her face in her hands. "Forget it," she moaned. "I'll just give him the fucking cactus." She lifted her head and pointed to Keiichi. "And _you_ ," she said. "Should be wary of Dreamweavers." the Valkyrie proclaimed. "They're as liable to trap you in their web as an evening meal as they are to reveal to you secrets, and if you stumbled into one's lair I'd advise you to find the nearest exit and back the fuck out."

"They're not _that_ bad." Urd scowled.

"That's because you've had intimate positive experience with one." Belldandy's voice fell flat. "Keiichi may need a potion to help chase this one off. If he gets lost in a dream spun by a Weaver, he may not wake back up."

"Wow, wait a second, what are you saying?" Keiichi demanded, suddenly alert and concerned. "I could go _comatose_?!"

"If it is indeed a Dreamweaver that has ensnared you." Belldandy glanced over to Urd. "Have you-"

Yet Urd was already shaking her head. "Nope," she said. "Haven't heard hide or hair of _her_ since before you disappeared, Bell." She sighed and stretched her arms over her head. "Relax Jank, I'll make a potion that ought to scare away any Dreamweavers- if that's indeed the case here- so that you'll wake up in the morning. Pay attention to your dreams for me for the next couple of weeks though. I'm gonna need a journal documenting what you experience to make sure the Weaver takes the hint and packs her web for other nests."

"What, so this thing is just going to go find someone else then?" Keiichi demanded. "You're just going to let someone else be victimized?"

For a long moment there was silence between the three deities around him. "Jank..." Urd began. "How can I explain this... there are certain things we can't get involved in. Dreamweavers serve a very distinct purpose. They're attracted to mortals with a high sensitivity to people such as ourselves, and..." She trailed off, looking to Belldandy and Lind for aid.

Belldandy picked up the slack. "They are a method of... control, you could say," she said. "Mortals are unique in that they can increase their sensitivity to entities such as us through time and experience, and that can be dangerous." She bit her lip, her eyes darting to first Urd, and then Lind before continuing. "Do you remember my nightmares?" she asked. "And what you saw that evening?"

"On some level..." Keiichi narrowed his eyes. "I remember freaking out, but-"

"You lost your shit, Jank," Urd clarified. "If I hadn't made that potion, you'd have ended up a drooling vegetable in a mental ward."

Keiichi stared at her, his face quickly losing its color. "It was that bad?" Even Lind looked perturbed, staring keenly at Keiichi as though seeing him for the first time.

"It was," Belldandy agreed. "Dreamweavers are designed to recognize when an entity of a lesser plane is growing too sensitive to our presence. Their purpose is to prevent mortals from seeking out such entities as ourselves and risking the attention of our Niflheimian counterparts- demons- who would use them for their own purposes."

"They bait people with a high sensitivity in dreams," Urd continued. "Give them snippets of what they could have to draw them further into their trap- like a spider baiting a fly onto a web- and when the person is in too deep, they strike, spinning the fly up in a web and preventing their consciousness from resurfacing again, ending the possible threat before it has the opportunity to warrant more drastic attention."

"But they usually make an exception for people who receive wishes from deities," Lind muttered. "Or so I was told..."

"No, you're correct," Belldandy agreed. "But..."

"I gave my wish to Belldandy," Keiichi mumbled.

"And so to whoever this Weaver is, you probably appear like a big, juicy fly she somehow missed." Urd shrugged. "Like I said, I'll make a potion that will chase her off- something to let her know that there are other deities in the area and that we're all aware of what she's doing and that you're off-limits. No harm, no foul."

"At least not until this thing goes after another person," Keiichi muttered. He looked around, observing the faces of the three women around him with a deep frown. "How can you all be so calm about this?" he demanded. "You act like this is nothing serious, like this thing _doesn't_ have the capability to fucking kill me or some other innocent person who just went to sleep one day expecting to wake up the next morning. I mean, how can you be so, so _casual_ about this fucking thing?"

The faces that met his gaze were somber and silent; an audience that was well-versed with the entity they spoke of and saw no fault in the nature of the creature at hand. These were not a people he'd find sympathy from, and the knowledge that they would not act to stop this Dreamweaver chilled his heart in a manner he couldn't describe. Urd was quiet. Lind was quiet. Even Belldandy, who he'd have expected at least some level of sympathy from, appeared lacking in compassion for those who might next fall victim to this creature.

And for Keiichi Morisato, it was a reminder. A reminder of his own mortality when viewed from the perspective of the divine. A painful reminder, and one he found he didn't want or need when not even a month had passed to distance himself from the memories of his own death. The SEAL's gaze locked with Urd's violet eyes, his eyes pleading. If anyone was likely to see the situation from his perspective, it was Urd. Urd had known him for five years and had stolen him from death's hands herself. Urd had walked amongst mortals and had seen things in both the good light and the bad in a manner that Belldandy had not, and could vouch for the value of a mortal's life.

Yet he was left in bitter disappointment. "It's a kinder alternative to what would await them had the Weaver not found them." Urd's voice was quiet. The quiet of a woman forced to explain a hard and painful truth to a child with no concept of death. "People who become too close to gods- or demons- are doomed to a life of madness. And I've seen it, Jank... it's a vicious madness. The kind that devours a man from the inside out and causes them to commit atrocious acts on the innocents around them. They are the ones who believe they've found god in kool-aid laced with cyanide and convince children that the bomb strapped to their waist will only harm the bad people they were sent to fight against." Keiichi flinched. "Trust me when I say this is the sweeter end."

XXX

One in the morning was too early to be up and lost in thought. Far too early. Yet Belldandy had been up for an hour already, and the buzz she was nursing from her root beer was only just starting to manifest. It had become a sort of nightly ritual for her. One that had started soon after Nebo's departure when she'd found herself tossing and turning without sleep for hours at a time. Guilt, she decided, was what had initially kept her up. Guilt over Holy Bell's appearance, guilt over her own weakness, and guilt over how she'd handled her conversation with Keiichi regarding his decision to let her stay. The buzz provided by the soft drink had allowed her a few hours' relief, slim though it was before Urd came calling, and her numbed mind had been a welcome change to the near-endless hum of thoughts, anger, and depression that had come to so overwhelm her in the late evening.

She'd paid for it in the morning, of course, where she thought Urd might recognize that initial hangover and be a bit sympathetic towards her plight. Yet if Urd ever recognized the symptoms, she'd never spoken about them, instead forcing Belldandy up in those painful morning hours with a throbbing skull and a body screaming for sleep. She'd told herself that it had been a stupid idea, that she'd never do it again, and that a sleepless night was better than the deep pain that circulated within her skull the following morning.

She used to tell herself that while living with Aoshima, too.

Her rescue at the hands of Keiichi and her sisters had snapped her out of it. And it had been Keiichi's death at her hands that had pulled her back in.

And without fail, just as then, so too in the late evening would she find herself meandering downstairs, pulling a root beer from the fridge and sitting down at the dining room table, her only light the one provided by the kitchen as she drank her thoughts to sleep. It was an easy habit to return to. Almost too easy, like a slope whose walls were made of glass in which there were no grips to climb out of. That first night had been reluctance. That second night had been desire. And the nights proceeding it, when the guilt began to fade with the shock of initial memory, became Habit, where Belldandy awoke on the dime at midnight to the siren's call of a can of soda.

In hindsight, perhaps Urd did recognize the symptoms, and thus one of the reasons she forced Belldandy up so early. Early to hydrate, early to fend off the inevitable migraine, early to clean herself up and put herself together before facing morning's dawn with everything it had to offer. There'd been multiple occasions where Urd had been the one to prepare tea, and that tea had always been strong, flavored with honey and ginseng and something Belldandy could never quite place but might have been a potion. For on those days the photosensitivity and pain of a migraine seemed to vanish before the time came to sing, and she'd always been more eager to greet the dawn following that cup of tea. Perhaps she should be grateful for her sister's silent aid. Perhaps she should be upset Urd never thought to address it.

Perhaps it was easier not to dwell on it.

She sloshed the contents of the can in a gentle arc, feeling the liquid within swirl with momentum from one side of the can to the other. The can was half-empty now, and the buzz was getting a bit stronger. It was harder to draw up thought now, easier to simply relax and let the weight and motion of the can do the thinking for her. One night she'd found herself trying to create the little origami stars that Holy Bell loved so much. The Norn had forced herself to stop that habit in that same night for two reasons. One being that the drink made her fingers thick and clumsy, the stars flat and lopsided and displeasing to work with and look at. The other being that some part of herself deep within her-that little bit of Bell that was purely 'Holy Bell'-did not want to associate origami with soft drinks. Origami was helping her heal. Root beer, and this she recognized on a level she refused to acknowledge, would only destroy her. For the origami to act as an accomplice to the drunken state that root beer provided her could only hurt her in the long run, and she didn't want to start craving a soft drink when she calmed herself down with the tiny stars.

She knew that most of the issues now were over Holy Bell's wings. Over the lack of feathers, and how the looming threat of her angel forever disfigured by a lack of feathers weighed so heavily on her conscience. Perhaps it was karma, in a sense. Karma that Belldandy never be granted the wings of freedom for allowing her angel to be imprisoned within herself for so long. Punishment for Holy Bell wasting away inside her breast to the point where there was almost no turning back. Perhaps even retribution for almost severing the link to her angel in her own moment of stupidity in the forest, where it was only the actions of a puma that saved her from losing that special connection to her Other Self entirely.

Perhaps that was the guilt talking again.

She took another sip, then grimaced at the carbonation that chased its way across her tongue and down her throat. The goddess likened the sensation to spikes. Liquid spikes stabbing into the flesh of her tongue and down the lining of her esophagus. She'd have preferred the burn of alcohol, personally. But alcohol was like water to her people, and its effects were near non-existent for her. Had it been mead from Asgard, it might have more of a bite, and would certainly go down smoother due to the sugar of the honey. Her tolerance to sugar was minimal in comparison to alcohol, after all, for surely of all the dangerous recreational drugs in use, sugar was by far the most addictive. And it was a subtle addiction, as well. One no one ever thought about and one no one ever took seriously, but an addiction none the less, easily disguised by sweet drinks and sweeter foods and accepted by any and all who came across it. _There's always room for dessert._

Fuck addiction.

And fuck her thoughts and feelings that fed her reliance on that addiction.

 _I want feathers._ She thought wistfully. _I want to hear my angel's voice without straining. I want Holy Bell happy and healthy._ She didn't want her angel to wear a sweater to help insulate her in place of her wings. She didn't want wing-sleeves that hid weak and withered wing muscles from the view of observers. She didn't want her angel reliant on a thrice-cursed sweater made on the charity of a Valkyrie who beheld the Norn with such pity that a sweater was deemed necessary, when she herself had only one wing per angel.

 _I never asked for Lind's pity._ She thought to herself, and took another sip, angry at her own thoughts. Lind was trying to help, just like Urd was. They were deities whose angels had appearances others would deem as substandard and understood the hardship that came with a 'different' angel. It was a rare display of empathy from Lind, and one that Holy Bell, at least, took great heart in. All the angels appeared to absolutely adore the sweater, Holy Bell most of all, whose behavior immediately took a change for the better. The sweater, silly as it was, had brought some level of confidence to Holy Bell that Belldandy hadn't initially perceived, as it not only masked the deformity of her missing feathers but also hid her anorexic appearance and the scars left behind by crystal growth infections.

So why did the gift upset her? Why did a simple sweater fill her with such utter loathing in these early hours of the morning, where she was forced to chase them away with a can and a buzz? Was it because she saw it as a symbol of her own ineptitude? A representation of her own inability to care for her own angel? Was it that she saw Lind, a Valkyrie with not one but _two_ debilitated angels of her own, as more capable of attending to Holy Bell's needs than herself?

 _That's stupid._ She scolded herself. _Stop that. It was a simple gift, that's all. Lind was implying nothing by it and you know it. The can is bringing out the worst in you; the only person at fault here is you yourself, and that is for falling into the habits of weakness and escape that come with a simple carbonated beverage. It has nothing to do with Lind or Urd. Stop with the pity party, dump the rest of this shit down the drain, and go back to bed. Holy Bell will thank you for it in the morning._

Instead she took another drink.

"Hey."

Urd's voice made her choke. The goddess fell into a coughing fit, where dry coughs quickly grew into heavy, throaty whooping coughs that left her throat burning and made it hard to breathe. Urd moved to her aid, pounding on her back until the fit began to subside, and Belldandy shot her older sister a glare. "What are you doing up?" She rasped. Her throat felt raw.

Urd stared down at her with a raised eyebrow. "At close to one thirty in the morning?" She asked, "I could ask you the same thing." Her eyes drifted to the can in front of Belldandy. "although I get the feeling I already know the answer."

Belldandy held her silence.

Urd frowned but didn't pursue the matter, something that left Belldandy both relieved and upset at the same confusing time. "I've been working on the Dreamweaver," she revealed instead. "The potion I gave Keiichi after dinner was designed to make him unappealing to her. Thing is, she was still stuck in his dreams, since that's where she spun her web, and without any nearby prey, she was kind of stuck here on Midgard. I've been up all night drawing her out of Keiichi's dreamscape and into the physical world so that she can go about her business."

"You have?" Belldandy asked, raising an eyebrow in disbelief.

Urd nodded. "Not her fault Weavers prey on mortals within their dreams," she muttered. "It's just their nature. It's not fair to doom a Dreamweaver to starvation just because she mistook Keiichi for dinner."

"So then you succeeded in bringing her into Midgard?" Belldandy asked.

"Yeah." With great care Urd moved the line of hair on the right side of her face, revealing a dark silhouette that rested against her neck. Urd had to angle her head to look at it. "Come on Sweetie. Introduce yourself to Belldandy-she's the one initially responsible for the mortal's wish before he gave it to her."

Belldandy squinted at the creature, trying to make sense of what she was looking at before the Dreamweaver rose and crawled forward, its gait the long and slow amble of a creature secure in its surroundings. Urd slowly sat down at the table with Belldandy, then held her right arm out for the Weaver to crawl down. It revealed itself to be a spider, one of the largest ones Belldandy had ever seen. Its form was that of a pink-toed tarantula, one that had to be close to twenty inches in size; a goliath even amongst the largest of its species. Its body was covered in short, fine hairs, its carapace a dark blue-green that highlighted the bright pink tips of its legs that gave the species its name. It paused and rested in the palm of Urd's hand, scrunching its body up as tight as it could in order to rest atop the Norn's splayed fingertips. One of its forelegs rose and waved, as though greeting the Norn from where is sat safe and secure on top of Urd.

"Hello," Belldandy said. "My, aren't you beautiful? You're the one stumbling around Keiichi's dreams?"

One of the smaller limbs, the left palp near its jaws, twitched as if in consideration, and the foreleg tucked itself back against its thorax. _Verdita._ A voice, young and high and feminine, rose in her mind, causing Belldandy to start. _Say sorry..._ the voice continued, ... _didn...he was...goddess..._ The words rose and fell in her mind in chunks, much as Holy Bell's voice did. It came as little surprise to Belldandy. Her affinity was more towards the birds and larger mammals of the Northern Plains, not those creatures filled with venom. Those were more Urd's familiars, given their alchemical properties.

"Verdita's new to the trade," Urd explained. "She deeply regrets targeting Keiichi and wanted to ensure there were no grievances on either side of the fence. She's working hard as a Dreamweaver right now, and says that if she's able to survive this year then she'll pass into adulthood and be able to choose a name outside of the one her mother granted to her and her hundred siblings." As she spoke the tarantula worked up the courage to leave Urd's hand, crawling across the table and towards Belldandy. The middle Norn held a finger out to the creature, and a single foreleg came to touch it. With it came an image: A young woman not yet out of her teens, her skin a deep tan and her palms a bright pink, with eyes like black water and hair a deep blue-green like that of the spider's carapace. The hair on the left side of her head was braided in cornrows, the other side left to flow freely down to her earlobe. Tattoos that held the likeness of eyes rested below her eyes, and the sigils on her forehead were two small clusters of dots that might have appeared as eyes from a far enough distance. Her smile was shy, lined with a long pair of fangs that looked somehow hollow in her mind's eye and dressed in a forest green blouse and a deep red skirt.

" _Sorry again,_ Señora _."_ Verdita apologized. _"I'm still new to sensing other divinities in the area. It's my fault-I mistook your presence for a demon's because I didn't think any actual divinity that wasn't an animal spirit would be down here."_ She spoke with the hint of a Spanish accent to her-one that was a little stronger than Sanchez's accent, but not by much. " _I rushed in without thinking. It won't happen again-_ Señora _Urd was kind enough to correct me without killing me."_

The image vanished as the tarantula removed its leg from Belldandy's finger, and with it Urd scoffed. "My mentor is a Dreamweaver," she told Verdita, who was quick to scuttle back to her hand and up to her shoulder. "Part of the requirements for becoming her acolyte was a pledge not to harm her kin." The tarantula stretched itself out on the length of her shoulder, becoming dormant once more. "Aid thy kin and be aided in turn," she said. "Good ol' fashion 'you scratch my back, I scratch yours'."

"What will you do with her?" Belldandy asked in curiosity.

"I'll take her out to the forest," Urd replied. "There's an old male copperhead living in the swamp that guards a rift between dimensions. We're on good terms with each other, and he's subject to me since serpents are of my mother's bloodline, so I'll have him send her back home."

"I see..." Belldandy murmured. "You know, I met a similar creature in Japan, once upon a time." The goddess propped her elbow on the table, resting her chin in the palm of her hand. "It was...goodness, eight years ago? A meeting of chance in the summertime."

"No kidding?" Urd looked at her in open curiosity, and perhaps even the large spider on her shoulder twitched in interest. It was hard to say; Belldandy was unfamiliar with spider body language and it was difficult to guess with the buzz in her head. "Care to share?"

"I see no reason why not," Belldandy mumbled. "She was an old spider. An orb weaver who'd been around since the _J_ _ōmon_ Period. Very ancient, very powerful." The Norn smiled at the memory. While her interactions with the orb weaver had been few, they'd always been enjoyable. "Her name was _Kashikobuchi-hime,_ the Princess of the Clever Abyss."

"A _Jorōgumo?"_ Urd asked, and Belldandy nodded.

"Indeed," she agreed. "A spider woman." The Norn leaned forward, "Do you know what a _Jorōgumo_ is, Verdita?"

 _No._ came Verdita's voice.

Belldandy smiled. "I believe they are only found in the east, whereas here in North America it is more common to find the Grandmother Spider, isn't that correct?"

"Yeah, sounds about right," Urd answered for the Dreamweaver. "Different continents have spirits, demons, and deities from different territories living in them, which is one reason why there are so many variations across Midgard."

"Yes, that's right." Belldandy nodded. "I suppose you could say that the _Jorōgumo_ was Japan's version of Grandmother Spider here. An ancient spider that lived to be four hundred years old and gained great magical abilities in its age. _Kashikobuchi-hime_ was one such spider, though she was far older then a meager four hundred years. She recognized me while posing as a mistress for one of Aoshima's business partners."

"We recognized each other right away," Belldandy continued. "Her an ancient spirit that had achieved the level of a minor deity, preying on a man with sick tastes who'd been wound under her spell. And me, a goddess ensnared to a man much in the way her late meal was ensnared to her." She shook her head ruefully. "She held off on devouring him after seeing me. She was curious about me. About how I'd fallen into such a situation and why I did nothing to free myself nor call for aid." She paused there and thought for a moment. "You know...it never occurred to me, but... she'd hinted that there was possible demonic influence amongst Aoshima's businesses. I believe it was from her that I got the first thoughts that an opposing force might be involved, though I believe that at the time, I was too depressed to comprehend what she was trying to tell me."

"We worked together for a time. Shared stories, learned of each other..." Belldandy traced the rim of the root beer can with a finger from her free hand. "I dare say we even aided each other. If we were to keep meeting, her current prey needed to live, and so she needed an alternate source of food. And I..." She snorted, "Well, there were some people whom I saw as even more wretched than Aoshima. Those people who took the youngest and newest victims to Aoshima's human trafficking ring and... broke them in, you could say. It worked well. We developed a good working relationship together."

"Except, well..." The goddess sighed. "It didn't last. Given what I know now of the demon involved with Aoshima, it _couldn't_ have lasted long. I remember her coming to me one day. 'You need to leave this place', she told me. 'I can help you.' Do you know what she offered me back then?" The Norn paused to look up at Urd and the Dreamweaver, and was met with a wall of silence on both accounts.

"She offered to devour Aoshima for me. To set me free by ensuring his death," she revealed, and stared back down at her can of soda. "But...it came at a price. She needed an avenue to get close to him. A persona to guise herself as to draw him towards her and away from what she only referred to as 'prying eyes'." The Norn scoffed. "I'd thought she'd meant cameras. She meant demons. Yggdrasil, what a fool I was... She needed to impersonate one of the girls in order to get close to him. One of _my_ girls." Belldandy continued. "She needed a sacrifice; a skin to wear that would allow her to look and act like one of Aoshima's favored maidens; that way she could get him away from the cameras-the demons-and get him to lower his guard to where he could not summon Hagall for aid."

She sighed wistfully. "I oftentimes wonder what would have happened if I'd taken her offer seriously. Had I recognized her warnings for what they were and acted accordingly. Had I been... _willing_ to dispose of one the girls-and it could have been any of the girls as well! One brand new, one who was an old favorite, even one of the broken girls with nothing left in them but holes to fuck. Any one of them would have served Kashi-chan's purpose. Any at all..." She rubbed her eyes, finding them burning and feeling moisture on her fingertips. "Just one sacrifice... and I could have put an end to it. Could have put an end to the girls and boys brought in and sold off and filmed for the sick fucks who enjoyed such things...an end to the years that would have followed, making a deal with a devil like Aoshima-my body for the lives of all the children he brought in and then suffering at his hands for years on end with no hope of rescue..." She snorted, and what she felt in her breast was the bitter resentment that had driven her to drinking initially, that sick loathing that twisted in her stomach like rotgut and tasted of poisoned bile and sweet hate.

"Yet I couldn't do it. My own soft, kind heart refused to allow me to sacrifice any of them to Kashi-chan... Yggdrassil, I'll never forget the look on her face when I refused. Like a betrayed lover, that one... The look of shock and pain on her face..." She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, and for a minute saw the spider woman as she'd last seen her: a beautiful Japanese woman in her early thirties, with skin like snow and hair like silk in a kimono whose color and patterns hinted at her true form. She'd been a quiet woman with a strong personality; the type of person who led from behind the scenes, allowing others to lead in public while she provided direction in private. Their friendship had been strong, though Belldandy was to this day uncertain if that had been out of the Norn's own desperation for a comrade or if Kashi-chan had merely playing her to a tune the goddess was deaf to.

She found she didn't care, regardless.

"She vanished after that." The goddess continued. "I had thought originally that I had scorned her too harshly and that in doing so she had abandoned me. But now, knowing that a demon like Hagall was involved... I cannot help but wonder if fouler play was involved."

"You think..." Urd trailed off.

Belldandy shrugged. "I would not put it past a creature like Hagall," she said. "Kashi-chan was a _youkai_ , not a goddess or a demon bound by the Doublet System. If she was not chased away, then it would not be so large a leap to suspect she'd been murdered." Her eyes drifted to Verdita, still resting on Urd's shoulder. The tarantula appeared to be quivering; a strange sight to see. "I hope not." The goddess said quietly. "With all my heart, I hope not." Her gaze grew distant in reflection, and she was unaware of her sister's movement until Urd was already embracing her in a gentle hug. It startled her, and she grabbed her sister's arm as the slow trickle of tears began to fall in earnest, seeping from a well of grief whose depth she had underestimated since the disappearance of her friend.

She didn't fight the tears; for once, it felt good to cry, felt _right_ to cry, though Belldandy was uncertain if it was her drunken state that made it right or if it was her honest feelings speaking to her, and found it didn't matter either way. There'd never been a good time to mourn the _Jorōgumo_ while with Aoshima, and the reality of what could have happened to her friend had never quite sunk in until Verdita's appearance had brought the spider up. And oh, what a painful reality it was, for it came with the knowledge that had she acted sooner, had she made a different choice on that summer day so long ago, than perhaps she would have saved countless other children for the sacrifice of one. Perhaps it had been a critical mistake on her part. Perhaps she was being too hard on herself. I didn't matter. She wept and let Urd hold her in silence, and when the tears finally stopped falling, only then did she loosen her grip on Urd's arm.

"Thanks." She mumbled, rubbing at her eyes with one arm. "I don't think I ever had the opportunity to mourn her." Her chest felt somehow lighter after telling her story, though Kashi-chan's memory still made her heart ache.

 _...orry fo... ur...los..._ Verdita's broken sentence somehow managed to make it to Belldandy's mental ears, and the earnest sincerity in the little Dreamweaver's voice made Belldandy smile.

"Thank you, Verdita," she said. "I apologize. You didn't need to see that."

If Verdita gave any sort of response, Belldandy didn't hear it and Urd didn't speak it. Instead, Urd said, "I think it's time we headed out to the forest so Verdita can get home. Want to join us?" There was a second, unspoken question in the invitation. One that Belldandy recognized even with the buzz that thickened her thoughts but loosened her tongue: " _Will you ditch the drink and sober up?"_

Coming from a woman who loved her drink like Urd it was almost amusing, or perhaps the proper word was depressing. Moreso, it was sobering in its own right, and Belldandy was uncertain how she felt with the buzz losing the foothold it had on her mind. The goddess stared at her sister, and then pushed her chair back. "Yes... I think that would be a marvelous idea," Belldandy muttered. "Maybe some fresh air will do me some good."

Urd smiled, and Belldandy was unsurprised to see the subtle relief in the elder woman's face. "Good," she said. "Let's get going then."

* * *

 **A/N: Will Belldandy ever mention any of this to Keiichi down the road? Not sure yet. I know what they say about keeping secrets and all, but at the same time this is more 'need to know' in Bell's mind. Will he ever need to know? That's to be determined.**

* * *

 _Comments of a Madwoman: A lot of introspective details regarding the characters involved. Finally getting the chance to look a bit more into Belldandy's backstory. Next chapter will be the wrap-up of the interlude, and should end on a lighter note than previous installments._


	40. Chapter 40 - Fida's Story

l

-40-

Fida's Story

 _Memories are thoughts that arise. They're not realities. Only when you believe that they are real, then they have the power over you. But when you realize it's just another thought arising about the past, then you can have a spacious relationship with that thought. The thought no longer has you in its grip._

 _-Eckhart Tolle_

XXX

For perhaps the first time since Urd had started their morning ritual, Belldandy woke up before her sister came calling. Her head still throbbed and her mouth felt dry as it always did after her nightly can of soda, but the pulsing was not as terrible, her mouth not quite so desert-like, and while she was still tired it was not the painful exhaustion she had come to expect with Urd's arrival. She blinked, then slowly sat up, rubbing her eyes as bits and snippets of the night before came to mind.

"Kashi-chan," she muttered.

She looked behind her and to the wall where the bed's headboard rested against it. A dreamcatcher, its threads so thin and so fine that they appeared to be made of silk, rested six inches above the headboard. It was tiny, the circle no bigger than the size of her palm, and yet densely packed; plant seeds carried by the wind lay interwoven on its strings, while a white feather with a black tip from a snowy owl dangled from a thread of leather. It was perhaps the largest item on the little dreamcatcher, and it was flanked on either side by leather threads that held the vicious, curved claw of some kind of large cat and the tooth of an equally large predator. The Norn stared at them both, trying to remember what Verdita had said they'd come from, but ended up drawing a blank. The soda had stolen that information from her, and while Belldandy remembered what the owl represented- they were _her_ wings, after all- she could not recall what beast the claw or fang originated from.

It had been a parting gift from Verdita. An object that was not of her specialty but one she'd learned in her travels north from her home territory somewhere in South America. Verdita couldn't recall exactly where. She'd been born in a time before Man had made imaginary borders and called them 'countries', but had seemed unconcerned by that fact, only that her homeland had been a deep and tropical forest where she and all her siblings had been named either Verdita or Verdito because one hundred offspring were a hell of a lot to name and their mother didn't have time for that. If they lived into adulthood without getting eaten by larger predators then they could make a new name for themselves, but until then Verdita had been labeled with the quite unfortunate title of Verdita Sixty-Nine.

She'd learned how to make dreamcatchers from a docile desert tarantula after she'd made the journey into North America. That one had been a male, perhaps half her size fully grown whereas she'd still been an adolescent, who'd been attacked by a monstrous wasp he'd later called a 'tarantula hawk'. Between the two of them, they'd somehow managed to hold it off long enough to seek shelter, and in thanks he'd passed on his knowledge of dreamcatchers to Verdita.

"That's how I learned about Dreamweavers," Verdita had told them. They'd been traveling through the forest in the black of night. Urd had led the way, her eyes better suited to night vision than Belldandy's, and Verdita, sweet child she was, had hopped on to Belldandy's shoulder to help the goddess navigate flora that was not initially visible. "I decided that was the path I wanted to follow."

The old copperhead Urd had led them to was located deep in Virginia's woods, where the swamps and marshes gathered in thick clusters and the air smelled rank and rotten. It was a distinctly displeasing smell, and the further they'd gone the more signs they'd seen of a more supernatural presence: foxfire that cast their shadows on fallen trees. Large opossums that hissed at them in passing- Bell had wondered if one of them had been the one Peorth and she had stumbled upon- whose eyes glowed a bright yellow-green in the darkness. An alligator that walked upright like a man. Rats the size of capybaras, one of which Belldandy distinctly remembered seeing ambushed by a cottonmouth the size of an anaconda. Catfish that looked too large in the swamp waters, covered in mud and watching the passing Norns with eyes as big as Verdita. Raccoons the size of small children who nestled in dead trees or trees whose trunks bore a likeness to the face of a man.

The copperhead was an ill-tempered old bastard, from Belldandy's perspective. He appeared to them in his natural body, which would be deemed quite rude while on Midgard, but allowed to pass because they were in the gray 'Veil' of a rift between dimensions. He'd come to try and scare the Norns before recognizing Urd, and had done little aside from traumatize Verdita, whose immediate response had been to seek shelter in the depths of Belldandy's hair. _That_ had been an uncomfortable experience, and it had taken all of Belldandy's self-control _not_ to start tearing at her hair in order to dig the scared tarantula out.

"You're going to need to wash your hair real good when we get back home, Bell," Urd had told her, yet at Belldandy's probing had refused to tell her why.

Urd did indeed know the copperhead, much to Belldandy's bafflement, and after he'd realized who'd come to visit him, the serpent had changed his form to be like them. He became a hairless old man with dark copper skin, dressed in nothing aside from a pair of snakeskin shoes and leather pants crafted from a copperhead's hide. He'd greeted Urd like an old friend, embraced her and kissed her cheeks, and the two had talked for a while. He'd offered to share a smoke with them, which Urd had declined, and instead had explained Verdita's situation to him. He'd agreed to help them, for a price. Urd apparently was expecting this, and had his payment ready; dried tobacco leaves, the leaves still whole and with a unique fragrance that Belldandy could not quite place.

It seemed there was a reason Urd was familiar with this spirit.

Belldandy could distinctly recall questioning the old man on the legality of his actions.

"Three can keep a secret, if one of them is dead," the old copperhead- he didn't have a name and that seemed to suit him just fine- had said after strongly hinting that the legality was questionable at best.

"I see," Belldandy had replied. "And what eulogy would you prefer at your wake?" His attitude had reminded her of some of the Yakuza crime lords who'd come to visit Aoshima on occasion. Then, as now, she'd made it very apparent that threats and coercion would get him nowhere.

Then, as now with the old copperhead, proved much the same. Urd had needed to get involved before a fight broke out, and with some diplomacy and a few extra leaves of tobacco, the old snake had relented and agreed to Urd's terms.

It was as the serpent was preparing for Verdita's departure that the pink-toed tarantula had presented Belldandy with the dreamcatcher. The Veil made the world around them malleable, and when the threat the old copperhead presented had passed, Verdita had taken upon herself the form of a person, that being the barely-out-of-teens young woman Belldandy had seen in her mind.

"You're haunted by many shadows," she'd said. "I had initially planned on creating this for _Señora_ Urd, however, after the story you shared, I feel you need it more than she does. _Señora_ Urd has accepted the shadows of her past. You are still learning from them. It is my hope that this will ease that journey for you."

Veils, those rifts between the many dimensional planes and all the worlds cradled within, were strange places. Here the world was soft, like clay, and those that entered the Veil became like the world, soft and malleable; _changeable_ , if the hand was willing or the spirit weak. Belldandy had heard tales of such places time and time again, where visitors came to shape and mold their bodies and their spirits into forms otherwise incapable of existing. Where couples entwined their bodies and their spirits in the forbidden arts of fusion and birthed strange and wondrous creatures never before seen, and where many a black market deal could be made when the price could be taken on the spot and in that instant.

Ansuz had warned Belldandy away from such places in her childhood. "It's a dark place," she'd claimed. "Nothing good can be bought from it, and the price is always too steep for what is obtained." Given the ill reputation it held, perhaps it was no surprise that Urd knew the creature who seemed to be the guardian of this lone rift. Perhaps, in her own time of darkness, it came as no surprise that Belldandy found herself in such a place as well.

At least, that was what she chose to tell herself.

What Verdita had done in that Veil had been strange and enlightening to Belldandy; a reminder that nothing was truly ever black or white, but more subtle shades of gray that could only be seen after viewing it from both sides of the fence. The old copperhead had rolled a stick of tobacco and had puffed it in silence with Urd in good company, and his presence had scared away even the large cottonmouth and the alligator that had walked upright like a man. Belldandy had sat on a log in front of young Verdita, and the little spider- she was an inch shorter than Lind when guised in a human body- had pulled bits and pieces of Belldandy's essence into the open. Tiny, wayward fragments that glittered like cut diamonds or like dew on a spider's web, all of which Verdita cupped, sometimes with two hands, sometimes with four, or six, or on one rare occasion- the feather- where Verdita had to roll on her back and cup the essence with eight hands. Each bit of essence condensed into a physical item: a claw, a fang, a feather. Bits of different types of seeds carried and dispersed by the wind. Colors concentrated into thin lines of fine silk. Tiny branches of an ash still green and foldable with life.

There'd been a strange energy in the air that spoke of the Veil's presence, and it had left Belldandy's body tingling in a manner she'd felt only one other time in her life, and that was when she'd been very young and very sick, and Tyr had summoned a _Dis_ to combat whatever had so afflicted her. It had been on that occasion that Urd had stolen Tyr's mount, Sleipnir, in a venture to seek a cure for Belldandy's sickness, and had instead been taken hostage by the bastard of a mule and taken on a mad joyride through all the Nine Realms.

Every bit of the dreamcatcher had been made of a material crafted from Belldandy's own essence, and with a deftness Belldandy would have been hard-pressed to imitate. Verdita created the item with a speed that was fascinating to watch.

"This will devour the nightmares," Verdita said, and had offered the tiny dreamcatcher to Belldandy. "It is tiny because it is so dense. You'll need a strong web to keep the nightmares from escaping."

"I already have something to keep the nightmares away though," Belldandy said, thinking of Keiichi's pillow.

"Does it devour the monsters or merely chase them away?" Verdita had asked, and for that Belldandy had no answer. "I have seen them dancing in your eyes. They are the ones not bound by sleep. This will curb their appetite on your soul, though it's up to you to care for it and ensure the web stays strong."

"What do I do?"

"Keep it in a place where the sunlight will touch it," Verdita explained. "It will burn away what is not devoured by the soul in the center, and keep the colors strong and taut. If you see any black specks in its web, leave them be. The sun will dispose of them."

Now, turning on the light near her bedside, she observed the little dreamcatcher in its hand-made glory. Were there tiny black specks the size of mites along its strings? Or were her eyes deceiving her in the early pre-dawn morning? Belldandy couldn't tell. But while she couldn't remember her dreams, she did know that they had been overall peaceful in the meager hour of sleep she'd gotten since returning home with Urd, though Keiichi's pillow could have been just as likely a reason for that as the dreamcatcher. The Norn didn't know, and at the moment, she had no desire to test the theory.

A knock came from her door.

"I'm awake," Belldandy said, and Urd entered, looking more worn than Belldandy herself.

"You get any more sleep?" she asked.

"Yes," Belldandy said. "Though not much, given we returned around three. What of you?"

"Didn't bother." Urd shrugged. "We sing, we come home, and I don't know about _you_ , but I'm going straight back to sleep."

"That sounds like a marvelous idea," Belldandy muttered. "I'm awake now, but I'm sure by the time we return, I'll be ready to go to sleep once more."

"True that," Urd grumbled, and yawned mightily. Belldandy yawned a moment later. "I made some tea if you'd like some. Strongest brew I could muster."

"You're a blessing at times, Urd."

"Enjoy it while you can," Urd joked. "I won't always be there to coddle you."

XXX

Keiichi returned home to a quiet, peaceful house that night. It was nice. Enjoyable, even. A reminder of what he was striving to regain in the relationship between Belldandy and himself. Both of the Norns were in the living room when he came inside, and what he saw made him smile. Belldandy and Urd were piled up against each other on the Ugly Beast, their shared breath the slow and easy rhythm of sleep. He slipped past them, trying to be silent, and succeeded with a stealth not often granted to him in his own house.

A quick change, and the man opened his laptop on the personal computer table Urd had ragged him into buying on yet another furniture shopping trip. He logged in and checked his profile; a private social media profile that helped him keep connected with the family back home. Aiko had recently posted a picture, and with it Keiichi groaned.

It was his sister posing with an uncomfortable looking Nebo. Aiko had photoshopped a cartoonish joint into the picture and had placed it against the deity's lips under the catchphrase: _"Smoke weed erry day."_ Off in the background, near Aiko's car, was an animated gif of a grooving Snoop Dog.

"For fucks' sake, Aiko." The man groaned, and then groaned louder when he saw who had commented on the picture. His family, for one, who recognized his house. Debra, for another, and fuck wasn't that the last thing he wanted to see. _All of Team 12_ for the big finale, to include a comment from Mac in big, bold capitals: 'IS THAT JANKS HOUSE?'

"I swear to god, Aiko, if you weren't my sister I'd strangle you," he grumbled, then looked at the timestamp for when his boss had posted the comment. Five minutes ago. Well la-de-fucking-da, he was going to be pushing up daisies tomorrow.

The man took a deep breath. Well, fuck it. May as well be hung for a sheep as for a lamb, as his father-in-law used to say. He'd already get his ass grilled by Mac for Aiko's photo, so he might as well get a few laughs in on his own account. A crooked smile on his face, the man typed in his own response to the image: _Stop dragging your druggie dealing boy toy to my house, Bengal. This is an opium-only household!_

He got an immediate response not even a full minute later from Aiko: _Fuck you and your fancy drugs! Ain't nobody got time for that!_

This was quickly followed by three misspelled versions of the word ' _WHAT?!'_ by his OIC, Takano, and Keima.

Sanchez popped up a few minutes later as Keiichi pulled up a new tab and opened a cheap airfare ticket agency. " _Ah sheet, hide yo' kids, hide yo' wives, hide yo' husbands too!"_

Morrison, the lone now-retired member of Team 12 who'd had his toes blown off during one of the deployments Keiichi had missed, popped up with his own two cents. _"Quick Angel! Back into the closet with me!"_

" _But your wife! Your kids!"_ Sanchez replied.

" _You're the only one that matters to me, sweet Angel! You're my waifu!"_ Morrison responded, and as the strange drama began to play across Keiichi's feed so too did a series of interlaced, though incredibly polite 'fuck you's' appear from the various Morisato members online at that time.

Snorting to himself, the man tuned them out, noting that Aiko's humor had an edge to it of late. He couldn't blame her. Humor was her coping mechanism, and if it helped her focus and not to dwell on the upcoming trip back home, Keiichi was more than happy to be victimized by it. This time of year always made Aiko antsy. It made him antsy too, and Megumi, and Keima and Takano, because it was getting close to the time to go back home for a visit. And he was bringing Belldandy. Urd too, now that he thought about it, and how the hell was he going to explain _that_ to the family? " _Hey guys, surprise! I'm Mormon now. Here's my new address in Utah. Hope you can visit me and the waifus!"_

The thought made him both laugh and cringe at the same time. No. No way in hell. Fuck no. _"Oh, her?" he said, chucking a thumb at Urd. "She's my parole officer! Surprise!"_ No. _"She's my girlfriend's parole officer, surprise!"_ No, because that'd be the one time Deb would show up out of fucking nowhere and call him on his bullshit. _"She's Belldandy's sister and totally not-a-goddess, surprise!"_ Yeah, and then would come a _wack_ from Keima ridiculing him for dogmatic principles.

Sighing to himself, the man leaned back into his chair, stretching his arms behind his head. Maybe they could send the family for a real loop. Maybe have Urd show up as a kid and claim that Belldandy was her mama. Let fireworks fly from there and watch as Keigo started making googly-eyes at 'Urd-chan'.

Keiichi visibly shuddered at the idea. Hell no. Hell to all the no's in the world. That was just plain creepy.

 _Too bad it's Urd you're stuck with and not Skuld._ Some little piece of him whispered. _You could always have Skuld come with you as the poodle she is._ Oh god.

A gentle knock came from his door. "Come in," He looked over and saw Belldandy poke her head in. "Hey."

"Welcome home," Belldandy greeted him.

"Thanks." He paused, and then asked, "Hey, I need your advice on something. The upcoming trip home... how do I explain Urd?" It was an odd question to ask. It _felt_ odd even as it left his mouth, and for the life of him he couldn't figure out why. Maybe it was the fact that she wasn't there to add her own two cents to the conversation. Perhaps it was closer along the lines that he couldn't explain her. She didn't _fit_ in the story he was trying to weave to the rest of his family. Hell, it had been difficult enough trying to explain away Belldandy when Keiichi had submitted his leave request to Jackson earlier today.

"Belldandy gonna watch the house while you away?" he'd asked, and fuck his luck it had been right as McGuinness had been passing too. Tank had stopped in his tracks to listen to _that_ explanation, and it had left Keiichi feeling like a teen trying to sneak his girlfriend out of the house while his gay parents were in the living room and she was hiding behind the couch.

It had left him stuck for a moment, as Keiichi hadn't come up with a proper defense to the inquiry at that point. Saying that Bell was staying behind would have led to further inquiries from Jackson and Mac. Piper would want to check on her and make sure Belldandy was set while Keiichi was gone and Tank would want to sit him down and explain why leaving a woman he'd only known for a couple of months alone in his house was a bad idea. Explaining that Belldandy was coming with him opened up a whole new can of worms though, and while Jackson would probably pass it off and let Keiichi do his own thing- he was a grown man, after all- McGuinness would still have words for him, and his damned disapproval about the entire situation Keiichi was in regarding the Norns would have led to another talk.

In the end he'd found it safer to lean more towards the truth than dig a deeper lie with which to bury himself. Jackson, as predicted, had shrugged it off. "If you're sure, man. Good luck explaining that to your family, though, when your folks start pumping for details on how you two met."

Mac had pulled him aside for a talk, also as Keiichi had predicted. "Are you absolutely certain this is a good idea?" McGuinness had asked, and the concern in his OIC's voice had left Keiichi feeling guilty. "You've said she has issues that need to be addressed. Has she received proper care in that time?"

"Yes Sir."

"Is she in a safe enough mental state where she is capable of skipping appointments with that physician at this time?" Oooh, that had been a painful jab. An unintentional jab back to his own days in mental health, where Keiichi had attended three times a week for close to six months after returning from the deployment that had killed Fida. Again, it hadn't been intentional on Mac's part. He was worried for his troop and was expressing his concern based off past experiences with troops who'd needed to visit mental health. He'd recognized that Belldandy was an individual who more than likely needed or had a psychologist she was visiting for her own reasons, and wanted to make sure that her care wasn't interrupted when Keiichi made it clear she was going to meet the parents. That it was _safe_ for her to go and meet the parents.

But it still hurt. Fida had been on his mind a lot recently, and McGuinness's comment, innocent as it was, had twisted that old knife a little in Keiichi's heart.

"Yes Sir," he'd told the large man, and had thought of Urd's potions. "She's been receiving regular care and has a prescription that's helping with the flashbacks. She should be fine, Sir."

"'Should' is a large step from 'will', Morisato," Tank had rumbled. "What of Miss Hildborne?" Tank had stopped referring to Urd by her nickname when Belldandy's name came up in conversation. It always left Keiichi with a sour taste in his mouth, like Tank was trying to differentiate between the woman who'd gone out drinking with him over the past five years and the woman who'd introduced herself as Interpol. Like he had two very distinct and separate images of the person 'Urd' was supposed to be, and that McGuinness didn't want to combine the two of them into one person: Urd.

"She's aware, Sir." Keiichi said, and hoped McGuinness didn't pry.

Unfortunately, McGuinness was his OIC, and while that didn't necessarily mean he needed to know the time of day Keiichi took a shit, the large man still wanted details on any kind of outside events that could affect Keiichi negatively.

The joys of the military life.

"And she approves of this?" McGuinness had asked, and then rephrased the question. "Is she _allowed_ to let Belldandy accompany you?" Now _that_ had been a weird question, and one that must have registered on Keiichi's face. "She is responsible for Miss Tyrsdottor's presence in the country, yes? While she works through the paperwork that will give her a new identity here?" Oh. Oh, fuck. He'd forgotten about that. "Does Miss Tyrsdotter have proper identification on her?" Keiichi had taken too long in answering that question, and Mac had drilled him with another. "Does she have the proper paperwork stating that she is allowed to be in country? Is it something Miss Hildborne can supply to her during her travels? Or is it still a 'work in progress'?"

Keiichi didn't know. Fuck, he hadn't even know what to _say_ in that instant.

"Speak with her before I do," Mac had advised. "I want an update by tomorrow."

Fuck he hated lying to McGuinness.

"I believe you should tell them the truth," Belldandy announced, rousing Keiichi from his thoughts.

"What?" he asked.

"Your family," Belldandy clarified. "I believe that you should tell them the truth."

"That the two of you are a pair of gods hanging out at my place?"

"No," Belldandy said. "That Urd is my sister and that she is accompanying us after I went through a rough patch in my life."

"It's more complicated than that." Keiichi groused.

" _Lying_ is more complicated than that," Belldandy retorted. "Lying requires effort. Lying requires thought. Lying requires backtracking and documentation and ensuring all your grounds are covered, where in actuality the truth is much simpler." She sighed and shook her head. "That was one thing I never understood about Urd when she decided to introduce us to Mr. McGuinness," she lamented. "Why not simply introduce us for what we are? Family? Why go through all the effort of weaving a tale of Interpol and false identities and requesting your aid under your team's nose when it could have all been avoided with a simple, 'my sister needed help and Keiichi assisted me'?" She shook her head. "It never needed to be this complicated."

"They still would have pried," Keiichi reasoned.

"And it would have been none of their business," Belldandy snapped, then flinched at her own tone. "Forgive me, I find Urd's habits of lying quarrelsome at times."

"I can tell..." Keiichi eyed her. "You don't like lying, do you?"

"No," Belldandy admitted, sighing loudly. "I do not. It is... complicated. Useless. And for a goddess holding a first class license such as myself, it is..." She pursed her lips. "We... take vows. As gods. And those vows... they are not simple words. They are what define us. They speak to our position and the abilities we are entitled. They are..." Again she paused, her hands working, grasping for the words that seemed so outside her reach. "When you take a vow, they are words," she began. "Words that hold weight to you as a person and weight to those who hear these words and choose to judge your character by those words. But they don't- they are just that. _Words."_

"Yet when a deity takes a vow, it is something they _must_ abide by, as it in turn becomes a piece of their person," Belldandy continued, her words coming slow and thoughtful. "It is a literal representation of their character: Tics do not eat meat because of their vows to heal, Dreamweavers cannot sleep for they must always traverse the dreamscape, tricksters must always fall to misfortune to bring wisdom and joy to those in need of guidance, and Wishgranters must stay true to their words, for who would dare trust a creature that promises Man the world?"

Belldandy bit her lip. "Except... when there are times that Wishgranter... when _I_ am forced to go against those vows in favor of the wish I am doomed to provide." She looked down at the floor. "Aoshima's wish was very clear to me: 'A goddess to do with as he pleases'. You need to understand, Keiichi, that is a very broad requirement for a goddess to fulfill. And Aoshima knew that. He used that. He used _me._ For his videos, to lie about my true age. To lie about my likes and dislikes. To lie and say I enjoyed it. To lie and call them by names they got off to. To lie and show myself as a child for their perverse pleasures."

She shook her head. "Any other time. _Any_ other time, it would have been impossible. But as a Wishgranter, my duty was to my client, and I was required more than _anything else_ to ensure that wish was granted for that client. The _System Force_ required me to ensure that wish was followed, and so..." She rubbed her arm, at once looking vulnerable and scared and reminding Keiichi that Aoshima was not an old wound. He was a fresh one, one that was still infected and one that still pussed and ached and bled, and one that still hurt to think about even now.

The man rose to his feet, moving over to the goddess and wrapping his arms around her in a gentle hug. Belldandy moved into it, pressing her face into his collarbone and gripping hold of his shirt tightly. A choked sob escaped her. "It hurt, Keiichi. It hurt so _much_." The Norn sucked in a deep breath, and her grip grew tighter. "It was like... my nerves were alight with fire. Like my bones grew spurs that tore into tendon and muscle. Like the blood in my veins became acidic all in one instant and there was nothing I could do, nothing I could stop, and I had to stand there and smile and laugh and keep lying while by body kept-kept _destroying_ itself as I went against my vows and-"

Whatever she was going to say next was lost in that moment, and Keiichi, in a moment of empathy, drew her close and held her tight, stroking her hair as he used to do with Aiko when her own stress got the better of her. Had it really been that bad? Over simply _lying_? The thought made him cold, and as his mind returned to the past he saw the video he'd first witnessed in a new light. She had endured _that_ and claimed it was nothing in comparison. The same thing that had destroyed Aiko in one night, and ten years of _that_ was nothing compared to a simple lie.

The knowledge sat in his stomach like a tumor, twisting in his gut like a snake covered in quills, and when Belldandy finally pulled away he stared at the goddess with a new kind of respect. "You're a strong woman, Bell." He rubbed her shoulders; not in a romantic way, but only to soothe, before hugging her tight again. "Much stronger than I think I ever realized." He drew back and Belldandy wiped her eyes, looking embarrassed and ashamed that she'd broken down in front of him. "I'll tell my family the truth," he decided. "That Urd's your sister and that she's helping you get through a rough spot, like you said." He stared up at Belldandy in earnest. "And I won't-" He scowled. "I will do whatever I can to make sure you aren't put in a spot where lying is the only option, okay?"

Belldandy nodded. She looked relieved to have said it, and Keiichi couldn't blame her. While he was aware of Belldandy's conversations with Aiko regarding her past, something told him that this particular experience, the sheer raw, open pain of it all- had never been something she'd worked up the courage to speak about. Not with how it all came flooding out at once. Not with the potent pain that even now lay splayed across the goddess's face like a new wound.

"Thank you for listening." The goddess diverted her gaze, and it made Keiichi sad. She shouldn't need to feel ashamed of opening up to him like that.

He smiled. "You know, you can always come to me if you want to talk, right?" he asked. "I mean, I'm not Aiko or Urd, but... I'm here for you, all the same. Even if it's just to vent."

"I know, I-" For a moment she looked as though ready to say more. Yet at the last moment Belldandy balked. "I'll keep it in mind." Belldandy nodded her thanks. "I will, thank you."

XXX

Still no feathers.

No signs of any budding papilla, no change in the status of wings, nothing to so much as _hint_ at the slightest bit of progress. Argh, why was this so frustrating?! Was it too much to ask for a single quill to show there was a hint or possibility that Holy Bell's wings might recover? That she had not unintentionally crippled her angel in her carelessness and foolishness? Why couldn't she see at least some signs of progress?

She hadn't gotten any sleep that night. Instead her thoughts had left her locked in the past, where she'd stared up at the little dreamcatcher Verdita had given her with a deep frown. The little item couldn't work its magic while she was awake, which she knew, but damned if she could soothe her mind long enough to actually drift off for a few hours of rest. The Norn sighed and sat up, then rolled out of bed and left the room for the kitchen. She was making progress! Wasn't she? Holy Bell grew stronger and healthier by the day, and she now had another gift to help ease her own personal recovery in the form of the dreamcatcher. Hell, she'd even opened up to first Urd, then Keiichi! A first since coming into his household!

And yet still. _Still_ there was nothing.

She trudged into the kitchen and grabbed a root beer from the fridge before sitting down in her usual spot at the table.

She didn't want to drink. She opened the can anyway and listened to the carbonation hiss out. She didn't want a buzz. She tapped her finger on the outside of the can, listening to the hollow _pink_ that came with it. She just wanted a sign of _progress_.

She heard the floorboards groan as someone made their way downstairs. _It'll be Urd again_ , she thought. _Come to scold me and tell me to be patient and that healing cannot be rushed_. _It's always Urd._

Except this time it wasn't. This time the person who moved to sit down next to her wasn't Urd but Keiichi, dressed in a pair of PT shorts and a tan t-shirt, his go-to clothing when he needed to roll out of bed fast. "I heard you tossing and turning next door," he said, and his voice was low and soft, as though the silence of the night required him to whisper so as not to wake the spirits in the house. "Been noticing it for a while now," he admitted. "Figured I'd come down to check on you."

"Did Urd put you up to this?" Belldandy sent him a sideways glance, then decided she _did_ want to drink, and took a sip of the root beer in front of her.

"No," Keiichi said. "Urd never told me anything. We just have thin walls."

"I see."

"Anything you want to talk about?" Keiichi asked. "Is it the nightmares? Are they starting to come back?"

"I-no. No, it's not the nightmares." Belldandy shook her head for effect. "It is definitely not the nightmares."

The man sighed. "That's a relief."

The conversation stalled after that. Keiichi fell into silence and offered nothing else in regards to restarting it. Belldandy contributed nothing, and felt herself grow antsy near him. She took a sip of the root beer to try and ease her nerves. She knew it would do nothing but loosen her lips once her inhibitions left her, but, well, maybe in that time Keiichi would leave her to her little drink and she could be as she was.

"Is that a beer?" Keiichi asked.

"It may as well be," Belldandy said before she could stop herself. "It's root beer," she clarified.

"Root beer... you know what, that sounds like a good idea right now," Keiichi continued. "I think I'll have one as well." The man stood and went to retrieve the drink, and so missed the obvious grimace made by the goddess in turn. She'd succeeded in hiding it by the time he sat back down. He popped the top and took a long drink. "So, you like root beer?" he asked. "I've noticed our stock has been depleting pretty fast."

"No," Belldandy admitted. "I can't stand it. I dislike soda."

Keiichi snorted. "That makes two of us," he said, and Belldandy looked over at him in confusion. "I ain't much for pop either. Especially root beer. Tastes like cough syrup to me."

Belldandy narrowed her eyes. "You're lying," she accused, baffled and somewhat hurt that the SEAL would choose to be dishonest with her after she'd just told him how much she hated lies in their conversation earlier that evening. "Your fridge is filled with it! You're drinking one right now!"

"Yep," Keiichi said, and took another long gulp for effect. "Just like you are." The statement struck a nerve in the goddess, yet as Belldandy opened her mouth to protest, Keiichi continued. "Sometimes you do things you don't enjoy to escape the things you can't stand. So what's bugging you, Bell?"

The goddess went rigid, caught off guard by the question. Keiichi took another sip of his drink, unconcerned with her silence. The Norn looked down at the drink in front of her, then back at Keiichi. When she took another sip of her drink and found no pleasure or relief in it, she pushed it off to the side. "It's... Holy Bell," she said, and found the admission hurt. "She..." Belldandy sighed. "She's recovering."

Keiichi said nothing.

"And that's a good thing!" Belldandy quickly followed. "It's a wonderful thing! She's recovering, she's gaining her strength back, she's growing healthy and her link is getting stronger and I can hear her voice more and more every day! It's marvelous! But-" She bit her lip, afraid to continue.

"Go on," Keiichi urged.

"Her... her wings," she mumbled, and her voice was so soft it could barely be called a whisper. "She... there's no feathers. She's recovering in leaps and strides and bounds, yet... not a single follicle. No quill caps emerging, nothing from the papilla... nothing!" She threw her hands up in the air at her own frustration, then buried them in her hair with a moan. "It's so... aggravating!" she cried, and with it the dams opened and the words came pouring out in a rush. "And each time I bring it up, Urd tells me to be patient, that Holy Bell is recovering, that I cannot rush feathers! As if I needed further reminders of what I already know!" She growled, then rubbed her face with one hand, massaging her temples in slow, measured circles. "I just want a sign. A hint of feathers, to let me know that I did not leave my angel debilitated for the rest of our existence. It is not so large a request, is it? Just a sign of reassurance to know that Holy Bell will be okay?"

"Seems like a reasonable request." Keiichi nodded in support. Belldandy could have kissed him right then and there.

"Yes! Thank you!" the goddess exclaimed. "Yet I am continuously told to wait and wait and wait. Have patience, for it is a virtue befitting of a goddess first-class such as yourself. Exert self-control, as you cannot rush good progress. And I understand! By the three roots of Yggdrasil and the serpent that lies coiled around it, I understand! Now please, leave me be and stop harassing me of it! You guilt me!" Her hands formed into fists, and she kneaded her brow with her knuckles. "It's just so..." Another frustrated growl left her lips.

Keiichi observed her in silence for a moment, then took another sip of his drink. "You know, this reminds me of something I went through a while ago," he said softly.

Belldandy peered at him from between her hands. "It does?" Her voice was strained and taut with stress.

"Yeah." The man nodded. "It's kind of funny, actually, because it's been on my mind a lot recently. Things keep coming up that remind me about it. A song about the desert, a word dropped in conversation..." He snorted. "Hell, there are even days where the humidity is low but the sun is high and I fucking _smell_ the place and get thrown back to the past." He looked down at his root beer and took a long drink of it, chugging the remaining contents before slamming the can down with a gasp.

"Want me to tell you about it?" Keiichi asked.

Belldandy was silent, observing the man with suspicion. She did not mean to, but Urd had made her wary. Wary of people patronizing her and reassuring her and certain that Keiichi would do the same. "What is it about?"

"Fida," Keiichi said, then paused. "I... never told you about him, did I?"

The goddess was quiet. Keiichi nodded. "This happened a while ago. I told Urd a little bit about it from when the two of us only knew each other as drinking buddies." He pursed his lips and then looked back down at his can, as though suddenly regretting his rush to consume the root beer. "Fida was a little boy. A five year old little boy who I met in my last tour in Iraq, right before shit with ISIS in Iraq and Syria started becoming a thing." For a moment the man was quiet, and then he continued. "Fida Yazan Rahal. He loved the color green and the _bulani_ his mother made when guests came. He had a lucky baseball card a US marine had given him two years before I knew him, and he befriended a stray dog that died a week before he did."

Belldandy turned to more fully face Keiichi, watching him carefully as he leaned back in his chair. "He was the youngest son of one the elders in the village we'd stopped at. The village was pro-US, but there were elements of Al Qai'da inside it as well." The man sighed. "You need to understand, this was all during the US withdrawal from Iraq. We weren't as big a presence there anymore, and a lot of the organizations that were out there causing harm had started moving their attention away from us. But... there were still targets of opportunity, and the village we were stationed next to was also working pretty closely with a village ruled by an Al Qai'da shadow governor. Rumors said it was one of the elder's brothers, and so what we were trying to do was gain some intel on this dude to see if that really was the case or if he just didn't like the West. Happens more than I like to think. About half the time they're just anti-US and want us out of their land, other half it's some dude with a MANPADS taking potshots at our C-130s or C-17s."

"Fida's village was located about fifty miles from our FOB. It was the nearest village to our location, right along Highway One, good ol' Ring Road herself. Bunch a' goat herders. Nothing special or unique about them, they just wanted to be left alone and left to their lives. Of course, when you have sons and daughters misfortunate enough to step on IEDs meant for 'western devils' like yours truly, it kind of made things a little difficult. We helped out where we could, provided basic medical care for the ill and injured, offer a job or two for those few who'd been vetted and cleared as 'not bad-guys'-sorry, this was the Army I was working with, they ain't too bright even on their best days, and on occasion hand out rations and other minor stuff as a show of good relations."

"I met Fida on my team's third visit to the village. Tank was inside with an interpreter speaking to the village elder, and the rest of us sorry fucks were outside in the heat. This was while summer was in full swing, and, well, shit was nasty. We were tasked to set up a perimeter around the village and to watch for any signs of suspicious activity, because you never know which way the breeze is gonna blow, and it was... Okay, it was fucking hot."

"Fida was tasked with his older brother to provide us drinks. We were guests, and it was considered bad hospitality not to provide tea to those guests while we were sitting out in the hot-ass one hundred and fifteen degree weather. You know how hot that is?" Keiichi asked.

"How hot?" Belldandy asked, humoring him.

"Hot enough to cook an egg," Keiichi replied. "I watched a marine do that once. No clue how the fucknugget got an _egg_ of all things, but he said it had always been something he'd wanted to do, and sure as shit, he broke it open in the midday sun and all us bored motherfuckers sat around and literally watched it cook on the fucking tarmac." He paused. "Sanchez bet him fifty bucks he wouldn't eat it."

"No." Belldandy breathed, looking alarmed and disgusted at once.

"Yes." Keiichi nodded his head with a smirk. "He went home fifty dollars richer and then to the medic a couple hours later, from what I heard."

"That's..." Belldandy shook her head. "I have no words."

The SEAL shrugged. "I've seen worse," he said. "One time we found an MRE that expired in 1999," he said. "I bet Morrison, one of my retired bros who back then was still in our unit, ten dollars he couldn't eat the entire entrée." He laughed at that. "I honest-to-god thought he was going to die afterwards. Had the worst gas in the fucking world for three days straight after that. Bastard was so mad at me he didn't speak to me for a fucking week." Keiichi shook his head ruefully. "That was right before we met Urd, too, when I think about it..."

"Anyways, before I get too off topic... back to Fida," Keiichi continued. "He was the one who came out to serve us drinks back then. Bold little guy, too. You could tell he was used to soldiers because he didn't bolt or anything." The man snorted. "In fact, his first words to me were 'hello asshole', can you believe that? He didn't know what it meant. Someone, probably the same person who gave him his lucky baseball card, had taught him how to say it."

"He was a good kid. Curious. Eager to learn. One time while I was out there he snuck out of the house with an old picture book that looked like it was at least twenty years old. It was hard to tell. But he pulled it out and brought it right to me and would point to an animal, say its name in Farsi, and then have me say it in English. Kid was trying to teach himself English, can you believe that? Only five years old, all the villagers telling him not to come near us, and this little dude spends all day baking in the sun with me learning English. I even taught him some Japanese too, and holy shit Belldandy, the way his eyes lit up... the pure _happiness_ on his face, just to _learn_ , Bell. Turned out our interpreter was the father of one of Fida's friends, and Fida had wanted to grow up and act as a translator. He saw the kind of money our interpreter was making compared to some of the other people in his village. I'm telling you, Bell, Fida was sharp. Sharp as a razor. God I loved that kid..."

He trailed off, and a frown worked its way across his lips. "Mac instructed us to minimize our interactions with the villagers. Getting close to anyone in our line of work is dangerous. It paints a target on not just their heads, but our heads as well. The locals knew it too, and so the adults anyway never interacted with us unless they had to. The kids they mostly kept away as well, but Fida didn't care. He never cared. He wanted to learn from the strange Westerners who always came to his village, and he'd do whatever he could to get that. He was... he was a hard kid not to love, Bell. When you're surrounded by nothing but xenophobic people and this one little boy pops out of nowhere just to hang out and listen and learn, it's..." He shook his head, and his eyes were sad. "I wish he wasn't, looking back at it all. I wish he'd been just as xenophobic as everyone else and so stayed away from us. Maybe then he wouldn't have..."

The man closed his eyes and took a long, deep breath. He then continued. "At some point, Fida vanished. I later learned his parents had sent him to visit his uncle for a while. That same uncle we suspected was in with Al Qai'da." He heaved a sigh and rubbed his temples. "I know why they sent him. They were afraid for Fida's well-being with his interest in us, and so they wanted to send him away where he couldn't sneak out and speak with us." He gritted his teeth, and what he spoke next sounded almost like a mantra to Belldandy; a phrase spoken over and over again in the hopes of evading anger and not directing focus and blame at those responsible for sending Fida away. "I know this," he began, "I _understand_ this. And I know that I'm not responsible for what happened."

"But..." His voice dropped into a whisper. "Sometimes it's hard to tell yourself that."

"I never saw Fida in that village again. I found a burnt corner of his baseball card though, so I know someone had gone about destroying anything connected to the US. It should have been a warning to me. The wind can change at any time, after all, and sometimes even our best efforts just aren't enough at times."

He fell silent for a long moment, his gaze dark and distant in the lone light from the kitchen. A part of Belldandy wanted to speak, to urge him to continue his tale, yet found herself rendered mute instead. It seemed almost as though there was a pressure in the room, one that pushed down on her with a weight that silenced her voice, and it took her a moment to realize that Keiichi was steeling himself to continue.

His silence lasted a good five minutes, and when the man spoke once more there was a raw pitch in his voice. "Our FOB was attacked at nine in the morning. Mac directed us to provide cover fire for the ECPs at the gate, and it was already a clusterfuck by the time we arrived." The man leaned forward, scratching at the wooden grain of the kitchen table with a fingernail. He appeared restless now, uneasy, almost anxious. "Firefights are strange. Some things you remember crystal-clear, from the face of a screaming woman straight down to the nametag of a soldier flipping someone off. Other things are just... absent. Gone. Missing. I remember being at the ECP, but not how I got there. I remember Jackson and Mac but not running into them. I remember..." He paused and took a deep breath.

"I remember seeing Fida. He looked scared and dirty, and I remember how red his eyes were from how much he'd been crying. He was still crying, in fact. Still crying and wearing the same red t-shirt from when I'd last seen him. I don't know, I think it might have been the shirt that gave him away... you know how sometimes you just get that hair-raise on the back of your neck? When you feel like something's wrong but don't know what? That was Fida that day. That was Fida's _shirt_. And I remember thinking to myself, crystal-clear, 'He's not supposed to be here', because none of the village locals brought their children to the FOB."

"He was scared, but not as scared as all the other civilians that day. I think that was another clue to me back then. He'd flinch at the gunfire and the explosions, but... _something_. It wasn't ignorance, Bell. I know that for a fact. His village had all sorts of experience with IEDs and gunfire, and everyone straight down to kids younger than Fida knew to run the opposite direction of gunfire. But there were times he'd just... stand there. Like he was confused. Like he was searching for someone."

"I remember our eyes meeting, and him running towards me, and... my hackles rose, Bell. Over a five year old little boy. My line of thought was 'don't run to me, don't run to me, don't run to me, Fida, because something's off with you, and I don't want to fire on you.' But he _did_. He ran right towards me, with me hiding behind a concrete bunker right next to the ECP." His jaw worked for a long moment as he fell silent once more. Without thought, Belldandy reached over and grabbed his hand, squeezing it gently. He squeezed it back, and the grip was tight; the pained grasp of a man burdened by the shadows of his past.

"I pulled the trigger, and he just... exploded."

Belldandy gasped and covered her mouth in shock with her free hand. The breath Keiichi sucked in was harsh and desperate. "It destroyed me, Bell. They'd- his _'uncle'_ …" he spat the word out as if it were a wad of phlegm, "had just wrapped him up in five pounds of explosives and—poof. Just like that, he was gone"

He swallowed and cleared his throat, and with a final hard squeeze his grip on Belldandy's hand lightened. She didn't let go, though. "I don't know how I held it together for the rest of the deployment. The nightmares started immediately after that, but I didn't tell anyone. I thought they'd go away, and, well, at the time there were more important issues to address. It wasn't until I came home that things started to get real bad."

"Deb was a trooper, poor woman." Keiichi began stroking Belldandy's hand with one finger absentmindedly. "I sent her through hell, and she stuck with me for as long as she could until it became unsafe for her- until _I_ became unsafe for her. She tried everything she could think of to help, and me, being the thick-headed idiot I was, never recognized her efforts until she was already gone. I won't bore you with the details—you don't need to hear stories about my ex-wife—but she did what she could."

"I started to get anxious around the house. I was tense. As though I was still in Iraq and waiting for another attack. Things that never bothered me before began to annoy me. Little things that any normal, sane person wouldn't have even noticed. And from there it just started mounting. I'd get angry without any warning. I'd explode on people who'd done nothing wrong. It got me in trouble at work a couple of times, and which led to more anger with the wonderful side dish of depression to go with it." He looked at Belldandy for a long moment. "I fell into a hole. And it was an easy hole to fall into. One with slick walls whose depths were so great you couldn't see the light above your head. I began to drink. The hole got deeper. I became violent. The hole got deeper. I hurt Deb and she left me, and an investigation was called on me as I was removed from duty. That hole got deeper still until I gave up trying to find a way out of it. All this in the span of mere months, Bell. Just a dwindling spiral of depression and anger and sadness. It became too much, and, well, I tried to take my own life."

The man shook his head sadly. "I don't know how that contract thing of yours works, Bell," he said. "I mean, you said that somehow, after all these years I was still deemed worthy of a wish... let me tell you, had you seen me back then, you'd have turned tail and run. Maybe it was placed on hold. I dunno. What I _do_ know was that I was a wreck. I was not a person worthy of a wish."

"McGuinness saved my life," Keiichi said. "He stormed into my house like the goddamned tank that's his callsign. He brought me back from the brink of death and got me to a hospital. Had to get my stomach pumped, and that was a rude awakening, let me tell ya. But it left me alive, and Mac didn't leave my side the entire time. It was a wakeup call for me. I was placed on suicide watch, after that. Threw out the alcohol and anything in my medicine cabinet and kept my guns at Mac's house. I surrendered them willingly. I started taking regular trips to mental health and attended an AA class. I was taken off the active rosters and placed in a sort of unofficial special duty working with some survival dudes in the Air Force. It helped a lot. Mac picked me up and put me back on my feet, and then provided me all these different avenues to help me recover, to help me move on from what I went through."

"It wasn't easy." Keiichi continued. "There were times where I was still frustrated and still angry at myself for allowing me to fall so low. It took me hitting rock bottom to start seeking a way out, and, well, if I'm honest with myself, I'd say I'm still on that road to recovery, Bell. It took me over three years to get to the point where I could just talk about it with someone else without breaking down. It's why my fridge is stocked with root beer instead of beer, because I find it's the nastiest shit in the world and it kills any craving I get when I'm in a bad mood and craving a drink. But it took _time_ , Bell. Time and patience, so much patience... patience with the people around me who were trying to help and moreover patience with _myself_ because of how slow my progress was."

The man looked over and met Belldandy's eyes. "I gotta request for you, as someone's who's also gone through a rough patch in their life."

"What is it?" Belldandy asked.

"Will you be patient with us?" he asked. "Me and Urd and the others? I know it's hard. I know it's frustrating even at the best of times, but will you try? Because I know that it's hard but... it only gets better from here, Bell. I promise it does, as a man and a mortal."

Belldandy stared at him, taken aback by his strange request. Somehow, through methods that eluded her, this man had read her like an open book. Did he know her frustrations? Was she so easy to read in regards to her sister and Lind? Or was it merely his own experience that provided such insight into her current perspective? "I... yes," she said. "I-I can try."

"Thank you." Keiichi smiled at her, and it was that same kind and warm smile that she'd first fallen in love with. It made her feel warm on the inside. Warm and fuzzy in ways she couldn't quite explain and didn't care to try, and a smile, small though it was, wormed its way onto Belldandy's face as well.

"I got another request for you, then," Keiichi said. "This is the last one, I promise.

"And this one is?"

"Be patient with yourself, Bell," the man advised. "Healing takes time, and it will undeniably be the most aggravating part of the entire process. It's all about baby steps. Baby steps and small victories. It's not about having no more nightmares ever. It's about the length of time between nightmares. It's not about never drinking again so much as it is no longer immediately reaching for a beer at the first sign of things going wrong. And so maybe it isn't so much about feathers on a wing so much as it is about an angel's health and well-being." He shrugged. "Of course, I wouldn't know anything about that, but... look for the progress. _Focus_ on the progress."

Belldandy stared at the mortal in silence, then tore her eyes away from his. For a long moment she stared down at the can of root beer before, without a word, pushing her chair back and rising to her feet. She grabbed the soda can and moved to the kitchen sink, dumping what was left and disposing of the can. She returned to the table, where Keiichi watched her in silence. The goddess took a deep breath. "Thank you," she said. "For sharing your story with me. It has... given me some new perspective to work with." She pushed in her chair, and after a moment's hesitation leaned down and kissed Keiichi on the cheek. The Norn straightened. "I will take your words into consideration," she declared. "And I will try to be patient... with both those around me and with myself."

Keiichi looked up at her and smiled. "That's all I ask," he said, and then he too rose to his feet. "Want a hug?"

It was a strange request. Silly almost, after the kiss she'd given him, but a welcome request nonetheless. "Yes," she decided. "I think I would like that very much."

Keiichi held his arms out, and as Belldandy stepped into his embrace, he wrapped his arms around her waist. The goddess sighed, and in that moment the stress and irritation that had been mounting through the day-Holy Bell's wings at the forefront-seemed to melt into distant worries and passable troubles. Here, in Keiichi's arms, it seemed as though nothing could harm her, nothing could hurt her, and that so long as he was there, she could face anything the world threw at her. It gave her confidence. It gave her hope.

They stayed in each other's arms for a small eternity that might have spanned five minutes, might have spanned until the end of time, and Keiichi did not release her until Belldandy pulled away first. "Ready to go back to bed?" he asked.

And Belldandy smiled. The same warm and kind glowing smile that _he_ had first fallen in love with in a picture once in another life. "Yes," Belldandy agreed, "Let's go back to sleep." She hesitated, and then in a burst of spontaneity kissed him on the lips; a light peck that spoke more on her feelings than anything else. "I love you Keiichi."

The man's eyes widened in surprise, and perhaps even a small bit of alarm before the SEAL's expression softened back into a smile. "I love you too, Belldandy."

Together, they left the table and headed back upstairs. And though they did not share a room that night, it was of little consequence, for a road had been crossed in that evening conversation. A wall had collapsed, a bridge had been built, and when Belldandy went to sleep that night it was to dreams of orb weaving spiders with gold and black bodies and Keiichi at her side. A good dream, with good memories, and, perhaps, even a sign of a new beginning.

XXX

Saturday had come at last, and with it, two silent figures moved to greet the dawn in a field of green. Belldandy inhaled, smelling sweet fresh grass and the gentle fragrance of wildflowers. Her head felt clear. She was awake. And she felt calm. For the first time in weeks the morning she spent with Urd was one of peace, absent of the usual bickering that had become so commonplace between the two sisters upon awakening. There was no pounding, there were no nightmares, and there was no constriction in her chest that came with the usual anticipation of summoning Holy Bell.

They came to a stop in the field, and Urd turned east towards the rising sun, where her face was illuminated by the emerging light. The goddess took a deep breath and sighed before looking over to Belldandy. "You ready?"

"Yes," Belldandy nodded, and together the duo summoned their angels.

World of Elegance emerged in a burst of black and white feathers, a calm smile on her face as she stretched her wings out behind her.

Holy Bell appeared as well, and a moment later Lind's sweater materialized on her form; as it was a foreign object not made of her angel's essence, it could not follow Holy Bell into her soul, and so Belldandy held onto it until Holy Bell could manifest and slip it onto her person. They'd made it out a bit later that morning, and so World of Elegance's usual pre-morning inspection was placed on hold until after the morning song. Belldandy didn't mind. Holy Bell looked happy and energetic in the early dawn light, and there was a gentle ambience to her that Belldandy could not recall seeing a few days earlier. The goddess decided it was a good thing. A sign of strength, of recovery, of an angel stronger than the one of yesterday, who stood proud and quiet at World of Elegance's side despite her deformity.

For the first time in a long decade, something akin to pride awakened in Belldandy's breast at the sight, and the goddess smiled. Baby steps. She'd been so focused on Holy Bell's wings she'd missed the true steps to recovery her angel had undertaken, and by Yggdrasil what a long way she'd come in such a short frame of time.

They sang long and loud and proud; a song filled with hope and energy and renewal, and in the long grass and in the forest canopy animals came to watch: Songbirds and raptors, deer and coyote, raccoon and lynx. Deep in the shadows a large and ancient form that might have been reptilian in nature raised its head to listen, and towards the edge of the field a cougar came to lie in the grass and toy with a foxtail. A copperhead and a cottonmouth of considerable size curled up away from each other on opposite ends of the clearing- neither could be bothered by the other- and opossum curled up in their den and were lulled to sleep by the enchanting voices of two goddesses.

The Norns in question, they saw none of it, so absorbed were they in song. Their voices rose to the heavens and dove to the depths of the earth, where those enchanting creatures of higher planes lifted their heads to listen and those simpler beasts wailed a tune of their own, and it was good, it was right, it was _sound_ , and for the length of that song, all seemed right with the world.

All but the puma had departed by the time their song was finished, and even that great beast did little but move into the bushes, out of sight and out of mind and never seen by the Norns who smiled and laughed and embraced in a moment of camaraderie. Then even the cougar departed, and in its wake was the love and peace of a pair of sisters who'd overcome all manner of strife together.

And at last, when the time came for potions and exercises and examination, indeed, the Norns involved were greeted with a treat like none other, for it was as World of Elegance was testing the muscle of Holy Bell's wings, naked only for the angel's examination, that World of Elegance paused and looked at Urd. Urd froze in turn, and her eyes widened before releasing a whoop of such might it sent birds into flight. "You did it!" She launched herself at Belldandy with little warning, knocking her little sister to the ground and leaving the Norn struggling beneath her. "You did it Bell! Her wings!" The goddess laughed in gleeful delight, the rolled to her feet and hauled Belldandy up as well. "Come on, you need to feel!"

She dragged Belldandy to her angel, who held an exuberance to her contained only by a small blanket of self-control, and she stretched her wings out as far as possible for Belldandy's examination. The Norn ran her hands up and down the length of her angel's wings, not daring to hope, and at the wing tips found something hard and spiny poking her from the papillae _._ Quills. The first hint of developing feathers.

The goddess ran her fingers lengthwise across the wing, going with the flow of the quills and feeling small pinpricks at her fingertips. Holy Bell twisted to look at her, beaming in joy, and as the awe began to fade a wave of giddiness overcame Belldandy. She screamed, and it was a sound of pure, unadulterated emotion; a victorious crow no words could ever decipher, for such pure emotion could not be described-it could only be felt. She engulfed Holy Bell in hug of massive strength, and Holy Bell, her angel, fought it not in the slightest but instead leaned into it, her mouth parted in the same sweet elation that so engulfed Belldandy.

Urd moved to stand beside her angel to watch them, smiling for their own happiness.

It was a sign of change.

XXX

Lind rocked on the heels of her boots, trying to expel some of the nervous anticipation that filled her chest and wondering why she'd agreed to a date with Jackson. It had been a spur of the moment decision when she'd spoken to him over the phone: he had asked and she'd said yes, and when they'd hung up she'd kicked herself for it, but hadn't called back to cancel. Her own pride wouldn't let her. And... well, maybe it was time she took it upon herself to go out and... _live._ She'd done nothing but train and fight and drill since she had awakened a lifetime ago, and since then, maybe all she'd _known_ how to do was train and fight and drill. Maybe it was time to stop. Maybe it was time to step back and realize that she was no longer in Hell, that she wasn't going _back_ to Hell, and that Cabatu and his angel eaters were all dust in the wind.

She couldn't let his actions define her anymore.

The sun was starting to set, and Lind watched it with some relief. Virginia was hot, and humid to boot, and so maybe some of the Norns' warnings over her leather jacket had been valid. Or, and this Lind considered the more likely candidate, perhaps most of the heat she felt was originating from her own nerves. The leather jacket was open, the sleeves rolled up to expel the excess heat, but the Valkyrie stubbornly refused to take it off. The inner shearling was soft against her skin, and she took a small bit of comfort from the weight of the jacket.

"Lind!"

The Valkyrie jerked towards the voice, which she took a moment to recognize as Brian's. Her heart kicked into overdrive at the sight of him, dressed casually in a violet dress shirt and a pair of blue jeans, and despite herself a small smile pulled her lips back. The man trotted over to her, and Lind grabbed her bag before trotting over to meet him near his truck. The man wore a broad, toothy smile on his face that was hard not to emulate, and Lind felt her own smile grow in size as well. She was excited. _Excited_. Over a _date_! By the _Yakone_ , when was the last time she'd gotten excited over anything so innocent?

"Hello Brian," she greeted, and was startled when the large man met her with a hug, one that she returned with only a marginal amount of hesitation after some of her surprise faded.

"Hey," Brian said. "Long time no see! Glad you were able to make it. Still rocking the blue hair, I see?"

"It's not blue, it's translucent," Lind confessed, and felt a small flush glide across her cheeks. "It only looks blue due to how the light reflects off it. It's a mutagen I inherited from my father's side of the family."

"No kidding?" Brian looked down at her in surprise, and Lind nodded, suddenly altogether self-conscious about her image. Then the man smiled. "That's fucking awesome," he said, and Lind felt her cheeks grow further hot. "It complements you real well, you know that?"

"I didn't," Lind confessed, and Brian laughed.

"Come on, we can chat some more in the truck." The SEAL said. "You ready to go?"

And despite her own embarrassment, Lind's smile did not fade in the slightest. "Yes," she said, "Let's go."

It was time for a fresh start.

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 **A/N: I found the quote at the beginning of this one chapter arc very fitting. It also reminded me of a PM I received from a reader that found Bell's struggles in CH38 very relatable. Hopefully they remember the quote the next time their own bad memories arise. Stay strong, my friend.**

* * *

 _Comments of a Madwoman: This concludes the interlude. A bit of world building and character development, and off we go into the next part of our story, the official Part 2 of Scarred Survivors._


	41. Chapter 41 - Contra Timorous

-41-

Contra Timorous

" _We are products of our past, but we don't have to be prisoners of it."_

 _-Rick Warren_

XXX

San Quentin State Prison was located along the coast of California, just north of San Francisco. It was one of the largest prisons in the state, with well over four thousand inmates, including seven hundred people and counting on death row. The prison had been built back in 1852, and held the record as the oldest prison in California. Since then, it had expanded; the death row block had multiplied into three separate blocks in the one hundred and sixty plus years of use, ranging from the Northern Segregation with those inmates who didn't cause trouble and could get along, East Block, with its crumbling utilities for those that caused trouble, and straight down into the Adjustment Center, where the worst of the worst-cop killers, baby rapers, and mass murderers-lived their lives on guard and always looking over their shoulders.

It was home to California's only male euthanizing room, which had been a gas chamber up until '96, when a double jointed inmate had escaped his bindings while being gassed and had run screaming and begging for mercy before the life went out of him in a corner of the chamber like a nightmare reminiscent of the holocaust. At that point, gassing was deemed too cruel and the gas was replaced with lethal injection.

They still carried out the executions in the ol' chamber though.

Away from the inmates on death row, those serving a sentence not quite as harsh lived their lives in dormitories. Level I Dormitories were saved for those people shown to behave and able to conduct themselves in a civil manner, without the armed guards or heavy walls that encompassed the Level II Dormitories.

"You'll see all kinds a' shit there," the Senior Corrections Officer said. "I been here twenty-seven years, and the shit you see in that cell block will hurt ya. Watch your back in there and never go anywhere without a buddy. Especially when escorting a prisoner. And stay alert. You'll know when something bad's about to go down. You'll feel it. Everything could look like another day in the pen, so you'll let down your guard, and _bam_ something will happen. You ever feel like that you get on the radio and let the rest of the guards know, you hear? Don't matter if nothing happens, any a' us who's seasoned know what you're talking about, and eight outta ten times it turns into something."

"Right." Martinez nodded as they walked past the long rows of cells. It was orientation day for him, a chance to get out and get his feet wet, learn the lay of the land before he was partnered up with a more seasoned correctional facility officer at the start of next week for on-the-job training. "Anyone I should look out for?" He'd never been a correctional facility officer before, but the requirements had been few: a high school degree or GED equivalent (he'd just graduated with his BA), go to a training academy for a couple of months, then get stationed out in whatever prison or jail was in need of manning. The pay wasn't half-bad either, especially with Cali's ludicrous cost of living and his own college debt to pay off.

"Everyone," the Senior said-he'd forgotten the man's name. Instead the man looked back at him, his face lined with age and his hair leaning more on the edge of silver over brown. The man wasn't even in his fifties yet, aged by a time of hard service that he found no joy in. "Don't trust any of 'em. The gangs'll try and buy you, and then blackmail you to keep you loyal once you're in their pocket. Half of 'em will convince you they've turned over a new leaf; found God or Christ or Allah or hell, I don't know, the Dali Lama. Half a' _them_ will be telling the truth. The other half'll be digging for sympathy and a sucker-don't be that guy. Let 'em preach and let 'em talk, but stick to the laws laid out by the faculty. Don't trust _any_ of 'em. Druggies, thieves, gang leaders, rapists, murderers... just don't."

"Okay..." Martinez mumbled.

"Keep in mind though, that these folks are still human beings," the man continued. "Just 'cause you can't trust 'em don't mean you gotta treat 'em like animals. Be fair with them, and believe it or not, most of 'em'll be fair to you. I tell you right now, Kid, in all my twenty-seven years a' time, the guards who get shivved are the ones who treat the inmates like crap. Last time we had a prison riot, this a few months ago, the inmates went from stabbing each other to stabbing the guards with some shivs they'd made outta paper. Pretty ingenious too. Nothing but rolled up sticks of paper ground against the floor into a point. You get enough of it, it gets to be dense enough to put a hole in you, and don't you forget that when one of 'em starts asking for a bunch a' paper.

"Anywho, so like I was saying. The ones the inmates went for were three of our own who we all knew liked to mess with the prisoners. Three of 'em, and let me tell you, one of 'em was a real ass and everyone knew it. He'd gotten death threats from three different gang sects in his time here before that last riot. Got stabbed fifteen times, three of which were lucky blows that punctured a lung, blew out an eardrum, and almost left him with a hole in his throat. I was down there at the time with 'em. Me and a couple other guards who all kept their noses clean and knew something was about to go down. Remember what I said about watching your back? Yeah, this was one a' those times. So as I was saying, riot breaks out, shivs come out, and we're fighting to keep the prisoners from ganging up on us. Couple inmates helped get some of the others and me out of there before we got overwhelmed. Earned a couple of 'em a few months off their sentence."

Martinez looked at the man queerly. "Only a couple?" he asked. "Not all of them?"

The older man nodded. "Some but not all," he admitted, "Kind of feel bad about it too. One of 'em, Stewie, who you'll see on this row, didn't get a knock back. The family he screwed around with fight it at every turn. He's been here a while. Over a decade. Been working hard at the reform and rehabilitation programs. Star inmate, if there ever was one in Level II."

His comments earned him another queer look from Martinez. "If he's such a 'star inmate', why's he in Level II and not Level I with all the other model prisoners?"

"He's a child rapist. In for one count of sexual assault on a minor. Little girl, not even ten." The man shook his head. "Moving him to Level I would start a riot over there. There's honor among thieves, and hierarchy among prisoners, and the people at the bottom of _that_ totem pole are cop killers, corrupted cops, and people who fuck with children: murderers, molesters, and rapists. Guys like Stewie? They bring out the worst of the prisoners in Level I, so he stays in Level II, safely behind big walls and lots a' armed guards where there are cameras everywhere."

"But isn't he in more danger in Level II?" Martinez asked, curiosity getting the better of him despite the con's crime.

"You'd think that," the Senior nodded thoughtfully. "Inmates got their own sense a justice. You see some pretty messed up stuff while you're here, especially towards those guys at the bottom a' the totem pole. I remember a few of 'em. One of them, a man in on one account of sexual assault and murder of a minor- she was four- well... when word got out over what he'd done, the cons cornered him during a riot. Ended up beating him within an inch a' his life, then held him down while one of 'em carved out the victim's name across his forehead. 'Jenny's Justice', if I remember right. Was with a rusty nail one a' the inmates had gotten ahold of. The wound ended up getting infected while he was recovering and he ended up dying from it. Infection spread right up into his brain, from what I gather. Nasty way to go." He shook his head. "Another one of 'em went faster. This a guy in on four accounts a sexual assault on minors, with all a' them being young boys not even ten yet. We found him dead in the shower when he'd gone missing a couple hours earlier. Head was cracked open and his brains were splattered all over the wall. He didn't have a face anymore, just a giant slab a' gore from where one, maybe two of the inmates smashed him into the wall."

"That's fucked up," Martinez winced.

"That's San Quentin." The older man shrugged. "You'll see it eventually. Might as well prepare yourself for when that time comes."

"Wait, so if all this stuff is happening to all these other child rapists, how come this other guy hasn't been hurt yet? He in with one of the gangs?"

"No, Stewie isn't in with any of the gangs. None of 'em. Not even the white supremacists, and he's as white as my pasty ass." The man shook his head. "That guy is... weird."

"Weird?" Martinez enquired.

"Yes," the corrections officer replied. "You'll see. The gangs avoid him. He's got weird rumors surrounding him, and none of the convicts want anything to do with him. He's... well, the rumors say everything from him being jinxed to being a Satanist to being haunted by some ghost, which is funny because there are a lotta self-proclaimed 'Satanists' here at San Quentin and even they want nothing to do with him. Weird stuff happens when he's around. Even I seen it."

"Like what?"

"Accidents, mainly," the older man explained. "Things just seem to... break, when he's around. Or people will get careless and get their hand run through a machine, or a guy will somehow fall onto an assembly line and get crushed by one a' those megaton steel presses used for license plates."

"That doesn't sound like an accident." Martinez eyed his companion critically.

"But it _is,"_ the man said. "It _always_ is. You'll have four witnesses, two of em guards, one of 'em the victim's buddy and one of 'em unaffiliated, and three cameras pointing from different angles to watch the incident, and each time, without fail, _it's the victim's own fault_." He shook his head in disgust. "There been an increase in the accidents, too, starting up a couple of months ago. What's stranger still is the fact that the victims are all inmates new and looking to make a name for themselves in the prison by using Stewie as a target. Shit happens to him all the time and he gets hurt more often then not, and we all see it, but..."

He shrugged. "That license plate accident a while back? Stewie ain't never stepped foot in that room. He doesn't have friends, and the equipment is inspected regularly as well. He also ain't never served in the cafeteria, so it ain't nothing to do with passing folks bad or contaminated food, which ain't much of a stretch given it's prison gruel. Stewie's a loner who works in the textile facility, making uniforms for the private sector. Not even the inmates' uniforms. He's never around when anything happens to one of the guys who mess with him. Stewie always has an alibi, the people who saw what happened usually admit he wasn't there, and even the cameras show him doing his own thing all the way on the other side of the prison. It's weird and no one can explain it. Just a bunch of really weird, unexplainable accidents."

"That can't be right though." Martinez said. "If there's a trend of all these people getting hurt, it's gotta link back to this guy somehow, right?"

"You would think that," the officer agreed, "But... I've sat there with some of the other guards. I've reviewed hours upon hours of footage trying to find something that might hint that Stewie was involved or that he's got some kind of internal gang no one knows about or if he really _was_ there messing with equipment. Nothing. No one stooping over to mess with something, no folks giving other cons the 'shifty eyes', no Stewie messing with something he ain't supposed to touch. _Nothing_. Just a bunch a cons in the wrong place at the wrong time." The man visibly shuddered. "This prison is old and the ghosts still walk the halls. Who knows, maybe he's got a friend on the 'other side' looking out for him."

"A guardian angel?" Martinez's voice was laden with sarcasm.

"Either that or Casper the Friendly Poltergeist. Who can say?"

XXX

For the past several years, the Morisato clan has made a pilgrimage back home. Not to Japan, but to their adopted home in San Francisco. Unfortunately, unlike most family gatherings, this was not a happy time, although they did what they could to make the best of it. For all those involved, it was a somber and trying affair. This being the fifth year, it was starting to become routine; live your life, but put things on hold and come back home and confront the man who had become a stain on their whole existence, especially for Aiko.

It was time for Stuart's parole hearing.

They had all made a pact that, if possible, they would come to confront him personally to ensure that he stays in prison for the length of his sentence. So far, it had worked as their testimony, Aiko's in particular, moved the board to deny his parole each time. They all had every intention of being there for all of the future ones. In fact, they all hoped that, with the current climate, they could get him incarcerated indefinitely under "Chelsea's Law", which was passed several years after Stewart raped Aiko and provided for continued detention of offenders where evaluation and assessment deem such to be necessary.

The long flight across the country from Norfolk to San Francisco was relatively pleasant for Keiichi. It sure beat some of the Space-A flights he had taken in previous years, and it certainly beat the hell out of the cargo area of a C-130. It was especially nice when his girlfriend was sitting right next to him the entire way holding his hand and resting her head on his shoulder. He and Belldandy were still recovering after she had nearly killed him a few weeks before. Their discussion a few days ago about her being patient with her recovery had seemed to get things back on track. It had helped him as well, as he had barely ever even discussed Fida with anyone aside from his therapist. It felt good to get it off his chest.

As they walked together from the gate where their plane was debarking its passenger load, Keiichi led the way as they headed towards the baggage claim. His group, which consisted of himself, Belldandy, Aiko, and Urd, were heading to meet his sister Megumi, who was supposed to arrive earlier from god only knew where due to how much she traveled with her job. The second oldest Morisato worked for Bikers Against Child Abuse, traveling around the country to promote the charity and raise money on her old BMW RS motorcycle that she inherited from Keiichi when he left for boot camp. Just like her brother, Megumi felt that some of the blame for what happened was hers and this was her way of repaying that debt, even if there was none to begin with.

"So Piper and Lind actually went out on a date together?" Aiko stared at the two Norns in shock.

"Yep," Urd said. "It was successful, from what I gathered. Even though Lind gave him that damnable cactus-"

"She still went through with that?!" Belldandy exclaimed, interrupting her sister.

"She gave him a _cactus_?!" Aiko cried at nearly the same time.

"Yes on both accounts," Urd replied. "And from what Lind told me, Jackson got a kick out of it. Thought it was a total riot." She pulled out her phone and unlocked it, then scrolled to her photo gallery, selecting one picture in particular. "This is what she sent me." The other two women leaned in close, and then Aiko burst out laughing. The photo showed Piper and a somewhat uncomfortable Lind taking a selfie together with the cactus. Someone, in the time between Urd and Belldandy's pep talk with Lind and the time of the photo, had drawn a crude mouth on the cactus. The entire cast: Uncomfortable Lind, Laughing Piper, and Grimace the Cactus, looked utterly ridiculous together. "Piper named it Bob."

"Bob the cactus?" Aiko asked.

"Bob the cactus," Urd confirmed. "Whom Piper almost immediately dropped in his exuberance and grabbed reflexively. You know. A cactus. Without gloves." The goddess shook her head and tittered. "Apparently they spent the whole night picking spines out of Piper's hand after that. Lind said his entire hand swelled up like a balloon."

Belldandy and Aiko winced. "Well, there goes _that_ couple of the century," Aiko mumbled. "Poor bastard."

Urd nodded. "Yep. Piper's persistent though. Apparently, because of how 'Bob' ruined Saturday night, he wanted to try and make it up to Lind on Sunday, even though the swelling hadn't subsided and he could only use one hand." The goddess paused in her explanation, her face a mask of pity. "I think Lind agreed because she wanted to make sure he didn't further injure himself."

"Oh god," Aiko muttered.

"Was Sunday any better?" Belldandy asked.

Urd's smile was pained. "Maybe?" she said, sounding unsure of herself. "It's... difficult to say. Piper wanted to cook-"

"Piper always wants to cook," Keiichi threw in, having been eavesdropping on the conversation. "It's his hobby. Dude absolutely loves it."

"Yep." Urd nodded in agreement. "Lind wouldn't let him with his injured hand."

"Keep a man from his grill..." Keiichi trailed off, distracting himself as he searched for the signs pointing him to baggage claim.

"It ended up being a 'hit or miss' scenario," Urd finished. "Lind ended up helping him prep food all day. She sent me a message around, I don't know... four or so? She was ranting about Baked...Alaska?" She looked over at Aiko. "Isn't that a state?"

"It's a dessert," Aiko corrected. "A very, very hard dessert to bake."

"Really?" Belldandy perked up in interest. "What does it entail?"

"Um...baking...ice cream?" Aiko said tentatively. "Into a cake?"

"Like... in an oven?" Belldandy stared at her in something akin to shock and wonder, "How...?"

Aiko shook her head. "I dunno," she admitted. "I've never had it before. Like I said, it's super hard to make."

Belldandy stared at her. "I will find a recipe for it, then," she decided. "And I will make it myself." There was a small hint of excitement in her voice, as though the goddess had stumbled upon a previously unknown challenge that tickled her fancy.

"Just don't burn down the house, Bell," Urd requested.

Belldandy shot her a glare. "That's _your_ job, not mine."

When they reached the claim area, Keiichi led the way through the throng of people who were massing at the conveyer looking for their luggage. Fortunately, he did not have to join in since all he needed was in his carry-on bag, and the goddesses had stashed theirs and Aiko's luggage who knows where. They had offered to do the same for his, but he declined. He was sure that it was safer than allowing the airline to handle it, but he still did not want to risk the chance of it ending up on Pluto or somewhere even more 'exotic'.

He paused when he heard someone yelling.

"Kei!"

Looking around, he caught sight of his sister. She was standing on the edge of one of the conveyors that was not in use at the time, waving at him. He saw her hop down as he started to make his way to her. "Hey Megs!" he yelled over the din created by the rest of the passengers as they conversed and moved about. Megumi crashed into him with a laugh and gave him a tight hug that he returned in kind. Aiko rushed in and joined them, leaving Belldandy and Urd to observe the reunion. "How have you been?" Keiichi asked after finally breaking the three way hug.

"I've been good," replied Megumi with a smile. "Job keeps me moving, but I still love it! The only thing I miss about it is Mark since he is office bound right now."

"That's right," replied Keiichi at the mention of Megumi's fiancé. "He got promoted didn't he?"

"Yeah," replied Megumi. "Money's good, but I don't get to ride out with him as much as we used to."

"It will work out, Megs," said Aiko with a smile. "Hey, so, I didn't tell Kei about this, but I have a surprise for you two later."

Keiichi looked at his short haired sister in confusion. "Surprise? You didn't mention anything about a surprise."

"Surprise!" quipped Aiko with a sheepish grin.

"Well," said Megumi. "Since we are talking about surprises, I have two of them, the first one being over there." She turned and waved at someone. Keiichi squinted to see who it might be, but couldn't quite make them out. Whoever it was disappeared into the mass of people who were milling about as they waited on their luggage before he could recognize them.

All at once, a feeling of dread came over the SEAL. He pensively looked in the direction the mystery person was approaching from, then back to his sister. "What did you do?" he demanded.

A smile formed on Megumi's face and she winked. "You'll see!"

He narrowed his eyes. Unfortunately for him, there was probably only one person it could be. Megumi had remained friends with this person even after Keiichi had cut ties. A sense of impending doom overcame him as the crowd seemed to part and he saw her.

"Hi Keiichi," she said with a tentative wave.

The blood flowing through the oldest Morisato's body ran cold. Debra Morisato, she kept her last name in spite of their divorce, stood there watching him pensively. Keiichi noted that she had let her hair grow out since the last time he had seen her. In fact, he had to say that it was nearly as long as Belldandy's now. However, unlike his girlfriend, Debra's hair was done up in a tight ponytail, no doubt she needed to because of her job as a detective.

Keiichi stared at her in open mouthed horror for a moment before coming to his senses. "Hey! You're here!" he exclaimed, then turned to the Norns and Aiko. "Look, everyone, she's here! Debra's here!" There was a pregnant pause as he stared at his ex. "Why are you here?"

Debra smiled nervously, and took a step forward. "I wanted to be here for Aiko at the parole hearing," she said earnestly. "And… I wanted to see you."

Beside Keiichi, Aiko watched as Debra came closer, anxiety welling up in her chest. She knew that Belldandy was probably watching, lord only knew what was going through her mind right now. They started talking, or rather Debra started talking and Keiichi just nodded dumbly. Aiko looked over to her older sister and saw a triumphant smile on her lips. "Welp! Let's get going to the hotel!" announced Keiichi as he started heading to the exit. It was obvious he was trying to put some distance between himself and the newcomer, but without being invited, Debra fell in next to him, taking hold of his arm as she did. Keiichi was too polite to ask her to let go.

"Oh, that's so sweet," said Megumi from beside her.

Aiko gave her sister a withering glance, then looked to Urd and Belldandy. The almond haired goddess was stiffly walking as she hurried to catch up with Keiichi and Debra. Aiko could tell from where she was standing that there was a war going on in the woman's psyche. Urd was practically sprinting ahead of the middle Norn, all the while looking around nervously, probably for an escape route in case things got out of hand.

She felt a slight breeze inside the building, a clear warning sign. Aiko shivered involuntarily, both from the cold and from what it could mean.

Megumi did the same. "They sure do have the A/C cranked in here, don't they?"

XXX

Keiichi was in a daze. He looked over at the blonde woman who had attached herself to his arm. She was walking beside him with her hand in the crux of his elbow, in much the same way they would have walked in years gone by. _What the hell are you doing, Morisato!_ he screamed in his mind as the doors opened so that they could exit the baggage claim. It had been over a year now since he had even seen Debra, and the surprise that she as here was overwhelming him.

While they had parted on mostly amicable terms, what they had at the end was anything but a loving relationship. In fact, it was downright dangerous for Debra to even be around him. In one particularly bad incident, which was probably the straw that broke the camel's back, so to speak, Keiichi had damn near killed her. A lightning storm was approaching, and there was a strike right outside their house. One moment, he was sitting and watching TV, and the next he was back in Iraq in the middle of a particularly bad mortar attack.

He honestly did not remember anything after that, other than moving and then taking cover. He only found out later when he was sitting in a holding cell at the sheriff's station that he had bolted out of the house. Debra followed, but quickly lost track of him. In spite of that, she stayed out and looked for him. After about half an hour without any luck, she was about to go back in and call McGuinness when he ambushed her. He finally came back to his senses as she was pleading for her life. It pained him to even think about it, but he was just a split second away from breaking her neck.

Now, she was hanging on to his arm as if the hell that he had put her through had never happened. There was still a respectable distance between them physically, but he was still so distracted that he almost ran into Urd as she quickly swung around in front of them.

"Keiichi, I need to talk to you," she demanded.

The dark haired man had several months now to get used to some of the nuances of both of the Norn's voices. He certainly caught the warning in Urd's. Debra did not.

"Can I help you?"

The silver haired goddess affixed the blonde with a glare. "No Debra, you can't. I just need to speak with your _EX-_ husband for a moment." The emphasis on ex-husband was unmistakable, and it caused Debra to flinch slightly. Urd returned her gaze to Keiichi, then bobbed her head indicating he should follow.

Out of fear of losing his nerve, Keiichi did not look at Debra as he disengaged her from his arm and moved to follow. He heard an annoyed huff come from his ex-wife, but no other protest, for which he was thankful. When they were a safe enough distance away, Urd whirled around and faced him, planting her hands on her hips to show just how pissed she was. "What the hell are you doing, Jank!"

Urd's amethyst eyes bore into him, and Keiichi could not bare to look in to them. "I have no fucking clue," he said, his voice low and contrite. "I just-"

"Just what?" Urd demanded. "Just decided to throw your relationship with Bell out the window as soon as Debra decided to get off her ass and realize what a mistake she made?"

Keiichi's anger flared and he finally met Urd's gaze. "God damn it, Urd! It's not like that!" When the goddess did not reply, Keiichi took it as his signal to continue, but what the hell was he going to say? For all intents and purposes, that was what is sure looked like, and he knew it. How would he be able to explain it to Belldandy, let alone Urd, when he sure as hell was having issues explaining it to himself? It was as if something had switched him to autopilot, causing muscle memories long since forgotten to start acting of their own volition. "Look, I will make this right, I promise. Just give me a moment to figure out how."

"You may not have a moment." Urd gestured to somewhere behind him. He turned and saw what she was indicating.

"Oh shit."

XXX

As Belldandy watched and followed Keiichi and the woman she assumed was his ex-wife Debra based on some pictures she had seen, her mind was in turmoil. Things had been going so well the past couple of days. After their talk, it seemed that Keiichi was finally starting to put what happened behind them. When he held her hand throughout the flight here, a great deal of anxiety had been lifted. Finally they were going to be able to start moving forward again for real instead of being just housemates.

But now... now That Woman had returned. That Woman who had abandoned Keiichi in what was probably his greatest time of need. _Be gone, witch. For I am Belldandy, Goddess First Class and one of the three Norns of Fate!_ Her anger rising, she clenched her fists in anticipation as she was determined to scare That Woman away. And if she would not scare, then it would be time to beat some sense into her. A breeze swirled around her and began to pick up steam as she took a step forward.

 _Stop!_

The command was as sudden as it was startling. For the goddess, it was almost as if someone had dumped a bucket of cold water on her head. The wind that she was unconsciously gathering to her suddenly stopped and dissipated. It took her a moment to realize that it was Holy Bell who had said it. Even with all the progress she had made with Urd and Nebo, it was still a little disconcerting to hear that part of herself again. Much to her own regret, she had nearly forgotten even what her angel's voice sounded like in her ten years of servitude. In fact, it was only within the day or so where her link to the other being who shared her soul had become strong enough that Belldandy could manage to hear entire sentences rather than the broken fragments that she was getting before.

 _You need to calm down and think about this._

And in that moment, the goddess nearly wept as a moment of epiphany came to her. All those other times where she had lost herself to her anger and jealousy, _this_ was the part that had been missing! Holy Bell had always been her anchor. Ever since she had come into her life, the angel had been a calming influence, even more so than maybe anyone realized. There had been a time when the middle Norn had been just as inclined to punch her way out of an issue as she was to talk through it. That had all changed once she swallowed that egg. In fact, most of that perfect image that everyone attributed to her could be traced directly to Holy Bell.

Silently, she agreed with her angel. If there was any time when she needed to be calm and control her temper, it was here in public. Only the Almighty knew what kind of damage control would be needed if she lost it in here. _Thank you_ , she replied back then wavered a bit as she thought more on what she had to do. _Right, I will just go up to her and talk to her, get to know her. Sounds easy enough._

She closed the gap between her and Debra, then tentatively tapped the woman on the shoulder to get her attention. "Hello, my name is Belldandy."

Debra glanced, then simply waved the goddess off and returned her attention to Keiichi and Urd, who were arguing several paces away and out of earshot. "That's nice, I don't want to buy anything."

Belldandy stared at Debra in shock for a moment before realizing the woman had probably not seen her get off the plane with Keiichi. She moved so that she was within the blonde woman's line of sight and smiled. "No no, you misunderstand," she said as pleasantly as she could. "I am introducing myself because I accompanied Keiichi here."

 _That_ got Debra's attention. She turned fully to the Norn. "You did? And who are you to him, exactly?"

The goddess noted that the other woman's hands had come up and were planted firmly on her hips. There was also a touch of animosity in her tone, yet she paid it no mind. "I am his girlfriend."

The blonde raised an eyebrow. "Oh really? Since for how long, might I ask?"

"Keiichi and I met in March," replied the goddess with a smile.

Debra snorted in amusement. "Well, I think I know a little more about what's best for him since I've known him since we were both five years old," retorted the woman with another dismissive wave as she returned her attention where Keiichi had gone off to, only to be surprised by him approaching. "Oh, hi! So you got whatever that other woman wanted taken care of?"

"Yeah," replied Keiichi. "So I was going to introduce you to Belldandy here, but I see that you have already met?" There was an unmistakable nervous quality to his voice.

"Yes!" replied Debra as she cast a glance towards the brunette goddess. "We were just discussing you, actually!"

Keiichi groaned and scratched at the back of his head. "Nothing too embarrassing, I hope!"

Belldandy cast a sidelong glance at Debra, then returned her gaze to Keiichi. "No, nothing of the sort. Debra was just introducing herself to me and explained how long she has known you." She sent a sneer towards Debra but did not voice her internal thoughts. _I think she should say something about how she left you in your greatest hour of need._

"That's… good?" said Keiichi who seemed to be relieved.

Belldandy brushed past Debra and latched on to Keiichi's arm in the spot the blonde had occupied earlier. It was an obvious attempt, at least in her eyes, to mark him as 'hers'. "I think it's time that we head to the hotel, don't you think?" she said in hopes of ditching Debra.

"Right! Yeah, let's do that," said Keiichi as he seemed to brighten a little at the prospect. He then turned to Debra. "Where are you staying?"

The blonde woman smiled, and to Belldandy, it was a smug little smile that Holy Bell helped suppress the urge to slap off. "I am staying at the Courtyard by the Airport, same as you!" If she had gotten the earlier hint, Debra did not let on as she slipped past Belldandy and latched on to Keiichi's other arm. She glared daggers at the Goddess, who was only too happy to return it.

"Greaaaat," said Keiichi as the two women started to walk him towards the waiting area for the hotel shuttles. Behind them, their companions watched in a mixture of amusement, confusion, and embarrassment.

XXX

The ride to the hotel was uneventful, but tense. As soon as he could, Keiichi disengaged from his escorts and jumped into the front passenger seat of the van, leaving Belldandy and Debra to decide where to sit on their own. They both decided to sit in the row closest to the front, with the rest taking up the remainder of the seats in the back. The dark haired man never once looked back.

When they arrived, they all piled out, and Keiichi nearly bolted into the lobby to check in. He had reserved a block of four rooms; one for him, one each for his sisters, and one for the Norns. Debra managed to get a room on the same floor, but further down the hall from where the main group was.

Instead of going to her own room, Aiko followed Megumi into hers. She shut the door and went straight for her sister. "What the hell, Megumi! Why did she have to come?"

The older woman backpedaled as the other approached. "Whoa! Hold your horses there! I thought that if she came, maybe Keiichi and her could… you know!"

Aiko stared at her sister incredulously. "This isn't like in High School when you were trying to hook him up with any eligible bachelorette like on the Dating Game! Did you even think it might be a good idea to ask him?"

Megumi just shrugged and turned to her bag, which she had tossed on the bed she was claiming, and began to empty it into the dresser drawer with practiced ease. "You know he would have said no, so I figured I would surprise him."

"Well, you accomplished that and more, I think."

As the older Morisato woman put her last item in the drawer and closed it, she turned to her sister. "Look, those two are _perfect_ for each other! The fact that they aren't together since he got help is a travesty as far as I am concerned, and I am going to do what I can to make sure they get back together."

"Even at the expense of someone else?"

Megumi furrowed her brows in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"He's got a girlfriend!" exclaimed Aiko, shaking her hands in emphasis. "He brought her with him to meet Keima and Takano!"

The older woman only seemed to become more confused. "You mean that woman with the white hair and big boobs?"

Aiko paused for just a moment to ensure that she heard that right. "No no no, and hell no," she said while shaking her head. "It's the other one."

"The dishwater blonde?"

"Yeah, that one," replied the blue haired woman.

"Oh," said Megumi before a scared look came on her face. "OH!"

"Yeah," confirmed Aiko. "And to be honest, she's more damaged than he is in some ways. They are so perfect for each other it's almost scary. Scratch that, it _IS_ scary."

"Oh well shit, I fucked up, then, didn't I?" When Aiko nodded Megumi continued. "But I don't think there is anything we can do about it right now." She sighed and sat down on the couch. "You know how Debra is when she puts her mind to something."

Aiko sat down next to her sister and let out her own sigh. "Yeah, that's what I am afraid of."

XXX

Aiko spent the next couple of minutes explaining things to Megumi before she excused herself and stepped out to claim her luggage. Fortunately, the other reason she wanted to get out of there, Belldandy, was in the same place. She knocked on the door to the Norns' room and waited. After a moment, it opened to reveal Urd. She said nothing, just opened the door and stepped aside to allow her entry while gesturing in Belldandy's direction with her head. The blue haired woman stepped in and headed over to the middle Norn who was sitting at a desk tearing a piece of paper out of the room service menu. Several origami stars already littered the top. The room was dark aside from some light that filtered in through the window through the curtains, which had been left half open by the cleaning crews.

Aiko stepped over and grabbed the curtains and opened them all the way, bathing the room in sunlight. "Man! Would you look at that San Francisco sky! Talk about blue!"

"Riveting."

Satisfied that she had at least lightened the room, if not the attitudes, Aiko walked over and sat on the bed close to the desk and leaned in towards Belldandy. She reached out and placed a hand on her back.

"So… Are you ok?"

"I'm fine," replied Belldandy, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "I'm just peachy other than the fact that my boyfriend's ex-wife showed up unexpectedly and unannounced and is obviously trying to reinsert herself into his life." She tore another long strip of paper from the menu, and Aiko idly wondered if the hotel would charge them for it. "She had her chance and she blew it by leaving him instead of supporting him in a time he probably needed her most."

Aiko flinched at that. In spite of the obvious truth in Belldandy's words, Debra was still a close friend. Her presence here was quite unexpected because Aiko had just spoken to her not two weeks ago, and there was no indication from the other woman that she was even considering making the trip back. In the past, when she was still married to Keiichi, Debra had always joined them on their trips back home, however since then she had stayed away. The yearly trips back home to combat the parole hearings against Stuart frayed everyone's nerves, especially Aiko's, and Deb had made it clear from the get-go that she did not want to incite further strife by attending any of the trips when Keiichi was visiting as well. However California was home for Deb too; her father still lived a block away from Keima and Takano, her mother was buried in San Francisco's National Cemetery, and she had two aunts who lived in San Jose and Santa Barbra respectfully. Deb had just as much a right to be here as Aiko did. Still, a little heads-up would have been nice. A little _forewarning_ would have been nice.

 _It was Megs._ Aiko reminded herself. _She's been trying to push Deb into speaking to Kei ever since he pulled himself back together._ She knew that wasn't fair. Debra and Megumi had been best friends for longer than Aiko had been alive. She'd supported Kei and Deb's decision to marry and had been the maid of honor at their wedding. She'd opened her doors to Deb after things had started to fall apart between the two of them, and had been the level head of the whole family when people began to pick and choose sides on who was to blame for what happened following Kei's breakdown and had done her best to help Deb move on after the divorce, though in private Megumi had confided to Aiko that 'it wasn't right'. She'd always wanted to see the two of them get back together, and realistically, Deb had too, despite the reasons that had caused her to leave in the first place.

And, well...

Megumi and Debra hadn't known about the new lady in Keiichi's life.

Christ, as if things weren't enough of a clusterfuck already. This on top of— "Fuck, that's right," Aiko mumbled.

"What's right?" Urd asked.

"I wanted to grab you guys so..." She trailed off, looking suddenly uncomfortable. Shy almost. "Uh... there's sort of a surprise for everyone down in the lobby," she said. "Do you... want to go and see it? I mean, them? I was coming here to see if you wanted my..." The woman fell silent, the words dying on her lips when even Belldandy paused from her stars to look over at her.

"Aiko, are you all right?" Urd asked. "You're acting... weird. Weirder than normal, which from you says a lot."

"Indeed." Belldandy frowned. "What is wrong?"

"Nothing!" Aiko exclaimed. "Absolutely nothing! Nothing at all! Life is just peachy-keen! I just-" She bit off the words before they could leave her mouth, and tried to smile. It came out a grimace. "Just... stressed, is all. Coming home is... difficult for me." She bit her lip, disliking the shared look between Belldandy and Urd. It was one of concern. "C'mon, let's go and grab Kei and the others," she said. "This is a huge surprise, so..."

"I don't believe I like surprises," Belldandy muttered, a dour scowl on her face. "I certainly did not enjoy this _last_ surprise."

Aiko laughed nervously. "It's... not that," she said. "Um... no, definitely not another girl from Kei's past."

"I would hope not."

The woman winced. "Uh... just... um, keep an open mind, okay?" she requested. "It's... different. That's all. I know you gods are supposed to be all conservative and stuff, so-"

"Whoever told you that has never met a real god," Urd interrupted. "You tend to look at the world with different eyes when you have cousins who are literal snakes, horses, wolves, and half-dead walking corpses."

"And that's enough family history for one day Urd," Belldandy said tightly. "Aiko, if you would be a dear, go collect your siblings while I have a chat with my lovely sister born of a dragon's brood." She glared at Urd, who looked at her sharply.

Sensing a quick change in the mood of the two siblings, Aiko wisely took Belldandy's words to heart and ducked out. She made a face, both grateful that the Norns had agreed to join her and relieved to be away from what looked like a brewing argument. "Yeesh. 'Dragon's brood'. Wonder what that's all about," she muttered, and paused when she saw Debra in the hallway. Her ex-sister-in-law waved at her, but didn't approach further. Instead she stopped in front of a door a couple of rooms down and knocked. It made Aiko pause. That was Kei's room. Not Meg's, who was down past the shared room with the Norns, or even Aiko's, whose room was located directly across from the Norns.

 _Oh shit._ Aiko thought, and proceeded to turn and walk the other way, almost running into a sharply-dressed man in a black suit with a green shirt and tie. "Sorry." She mumbled, and proceeded towards Megumi's room instead, deciding she would be the easier person to speak with while Deb spoke to Kei. _I don't know what's going on in there and I'm pretty sure I don't want to know,_ she thought.

The woman headed down the hallway, passing a family of three before pausing at her older sister's door. She knocked, and found Megumi answering it right away, pocketing her cellphone in the process. "Hey Sis, what's up?" Megumi asked. "Good timing. I just got off the phone with Mark."

"How's he doing?" Aiko asked.

"He's doing good," Megumi replied. "He's going to a national convention up in Washington this week as part of a promotion of BACA. He's really excited about it, since the Chapter has been having some difficulties getting a good foothold up there, as the locals tend to fall back into the old stereotype that all biker gangs are bad."

"Oooh, that makes me jealous," Aiko said. "Washington's supposed to be beautiful. And in the summertime? With everything in bloom?" She shook her head. "Man, it almost makes me want to go down the traditional Morisato path and get me a bike of my own, just to go touring."

"Well, if you want to come and visit Mark, you could skip the flight back to Virginia and ride up North with me once our trip here is over," Megumi offered. "I'm planning on riding up to visit him after this before returning to the home office in Denver. Go for a nice ride along the coast from San Francisco all the way through Oregon and into Washington."

"Really?" Aiko asked in surprise.

Megumi shrugged. "Why not? It's been a while since we took a trip together. Might get you out of North Carolina a bit to show you what some of the other states have to offer. Portland and Seattle are always looking for good IT peeps, so it's not like you'll be hurting for a job after you graduate."

"I'll have to think it over..." Aiko murmured. "I kind of already made plans after this, but the offer is really, really tempting."

"Think it over some," Megumi advised. "There's no pressure or rush. It's a bit spur of the moment, but I was thinking it might be a fun way to help get this place out of your head once we finish our 'family reunion'."

"Definitely." Aiko nodded. "I'll let you know later on. Until then... remember that surprise I mentioned?"

Megumi raised an eyebrow. "What, you gonna suddenly come out and say you're a man?" she asked, and Aiko laughed.

"No, no, nothing that crazy," she said. "But I'm gathering Keiichi and the others. Want to join in?"

"Sure, I don't have anything else to do," Megumi agreed. "And I... kinda want to keep an eye on Deb and Kei's new chick.

"I don't blame you," Aiko grumbled. She stepped back to allow Megumi into the hallway, where the older woman shut the door behind her. "I've gotten to know Bell pretty well over the past couple of months, and the way she looks at Deb is that same murderous look your stupid cat gives me when I come to visit you."

"Yeah..." Megumi made a face. "I still don't know what you did to piss that poor thing off so badly."

"I didn't do anything," Aiko grumbled. "It's just a five pound ball of hate and piss. All _I_ ever did was offer it a hand to sniff." Together, the two siblings began walking back up the hallway towards Keiichi's room. The door to the Norns' room opened, and Belldandy and Urd stepped out into the hallway as the Morisato sisters drew near. Belldandy looked at them with a wan smile, and Urd paused to shut the door behind her, a scowl on her face that hinted at the tenor of the conversation that took place behind closed doors.

"You guys ready?" Aiko asked.

"Yes..." Belldandy trailed off. "Are we going to grab Keiichi as well?" She turned to look further up the hallway, and missed the grimace that flashed across Aiko's face. Deb was still in Keiichi's room, as far as Aiko knew, and in all actuality Aiko would very much like to avoid anything that tipped the goddess off to that lone little fact.

Unfortunately, Fate was a bit of a bitch, as any of the Norns would say, and it was as Belldandy was looking towards Keiichi's room that said door opened and Debra stepped out with Keiichi a moment later. Aiko's eyes widened, and Keiichi, perhaps sensing the growing number of stares in the hallway, paused to look up. He froze, his expression like that of a deer in headlights as his gaze met Belldandy's.

"Oh shit," Aiko breathed, and not daring to move- much like her brother in that moment- her gaze zipped to Belldandy in time to see the woman's hands curl up into fists. _Oh please no,_ Aiko thought to herself, _Oh lord, please no._ Even Urd looked ready to spring on her, yet at the last moment Belldandy took a long breath and unclenched her hands, giving breath to the tension that had settled within the hallway.

Megumi edged closer to Aiko. "Jeez-us," she said, her voice low.

"Yeah," Aiko agreed.

"Are we going to have to put a wall between these two?" Megumi whispered.

"I sure hope not," Aiko grumbled. A wall wouldn't stop Belldandy from unleashing hell in the hotel. Shit, it wouldn't even slow her down.

"No wonder her sister came," Megumi muttered. "Fuck, talk about her sister's keeper..."

Aiko winced. _Time to take control of the situation_. She decided, and loped over to Keiichi and Debra. She didn't like the way her ex-sister-in-law was eyeing the Norns. Deb was a detective, once from Norfolk when she'd still been married to Keiichi, now of Maryland after she transferred to another department. She specialized in violent crimes and gang-related activities, and the way she was staring at the two goddesses now reminded Aiko of the look Deb occasionally got on her face when discussing her work. _Eagle Eyes,_ Keiichi used to tease, a term he'd picked up from the Chair Force's 'OPSEC' program designed to identify suspicious or criminal activity happening around Norfolk. It was an ample description, and those 'eagle eyes' of Deb's were focused on Belldandy now. Scrutinizing. Analyzing. _Watching._

"So!" Aiko announced, and smiled with as much glee as her face could muster when those eyes zoomed in on her. "Who's ready for a surprise?"

"Please?" Megumi's voice was strained.

"Yes!" Urd announced, taking her cues from Aiko. "Come on, everyone, let's go and see what Aiko's big surprise is! I love surprises! Lead the way Aiko!" The smile that graced Urd's face was so strained Aiko almost mistook it for a snarl, and she couldn't shake the silly, odd impression that she was staring at a smiling serpent.

"Right!" Aiko exclaimed, resuming her pace down the hallway and seeing her older sister fall in behind her. She sent a look to Keiichi when she passed him, and found her brother didn't have the courage to meet her eyes. _Oh you raging asshole,_ she thought to herself. _You choose_ now _of all times to pussy out on me? For fuck's sake!_

The man fell in behind her, next to Belldandy, and Debra quickly moved to flank him on the other side, dismissing Aiko's prying gaze with a shrug. The younger of the two Norns cast a glare at Keiichi's ex-wife, who returned it full force, but otherwise did nothing, much to the relief of half of the group. "So, where are we going, Aiko?" Keiichi's voice cracked in the tension of the group.

As the gang passed a woman in a pressed black suit and green tie, Aiko responded. "Not far!" She sounded even more panicked now, though had she been asked the blue-haired woman would have been unable to say if it was due to her own nerves or the tension produced by Bell and Deb. "We're just going to the lobby to meet someone."

"What, so the surprise is a person?" Megumi asked. "Who is it, your boyfriend?" she joked, and Aiko laughed with her, though it was tense.

"Nah, given Aiko's track record, it'll be her girlfriend." Keiichi's attempted to join in, but he sounded even more tense then Aiko with the two women on either side of him. His joke fell flat in the wake of two women casting dark looks at each other, and Aiko did not rise to the intended bait.

The lobby was thick with humanity, an ocean of guests, vacationers, travelers and businessmen all attempting to check-in, check-out, or meander through the hotel in wait of others. There was already a long line of people standing in wait at the front desk, and the lobby was filled with the dull roar of talking adults and laughing, screaming children. "Christ, I forgot how crowded California was." Debra muttered.

"It's summertime," Keiichi pointed out. "College kids are out of school."

Megumi grunted but said nothing, observing a large group of businessmen in black suits and green ties gather in one corner of the lobby in close proximity to what appeared to be a massive gathering of teenagers. Several of the teens were wearing matching light blue shirts with the phrase _Cesar Chavez Highschool Otters_ written on the back. A long-haired girl dressed in all black with a shock of blue-green hair occupied a couch in the lobby, and several children, none of whom were older than ten, chased each other while screaming through the entirety of the floor. A tired woman yelled at them from the line at the front desk.

Aiko paused near the threshold of the hallway, scanning the many bodies for the person in question. Her eyes lit up when they landed on the individual. "Morgan!" she exclaimed, and rushed off into the lobby.

"Guess it _is_ her boyfriend, then," Deb muttered.

Together, the large group of people watched as Aiko raced off to greet her suspected significant other. A girl with long, dyed hair looked up at Aiko's shout, and lips painted black peeled back in a smile. "Aiko!" The young woman leapt to her feet and raced to greet the approaching college student, where the two first embraced and then kissed.

The crowd of teens, their attention drawn to the two shouts of the women, released a series of adoring coos.

"I stand corrected," Deb said. "Her _girlfriend._ "

"I guess Aiko really does have a thing for blue hair," Belldandy said, a smile growing on her face.

Debra scoffed. "Are you color-blind? It's obviously teal. They do match, though."

Urd snorted, the smile on her face long and large. "They're adorable together."

Keiichi and Megumi Morisato, elder siblings to one Aiko Morisato- _who was currently kissing a girl_ \- said nothing. Keiichi stared with large, shocked eyes. His sister gaped openly.

"I guess that's one way to come out of the closet," Deb mumbled.

Aiko approached them, her arm wrapped around the teal-haired emo-goth too-much-eyeliner all-black-you-must-be-baking girl's shoulders. Her face was a bright red. "So... surprise?" The smile on her face looked more like a nervous grimace, and her eyes darted between her older siblings, gaging their reactions. "This is Morgan Roux," she introduced. "We've been together for about two years now."

* * *

 **A/N: Next couple of releases may be somewhat sporadic, depending on progress. I have a couple of R/L events coming up that will take quite a bit of my time. It is looking like the next chapter will be on the longer side, though, so that's good news!**

* * *

 _Comments of a Madwoman: While it was intentional since her initial concept that Aiko would be gayer than a double rainbow sprouting from a fruitcake, it was sheer coincidence that her coming out to her family happened during gay pride month._


	42. Chapter 42 - Contra Timorous

-42-

"You've been... you've been _what_?" That was Megumi, Keiichi knew, and the level of stress in her voice was the same rise and pitch as it got whenever their parents became the object of conversation.

Oh, this was going to go bad.

"We've been, um, dating for about... two years?" Aiko's voice was wavering as well, like she'd broken down and admitted to drinking drugs and smoking alcohol in front of Keima and Takano, which was stupid because you don't drink drugs or smoke alcohol and-

And Aiko slept with Belldandy.

 _Aiko slept with Belldandy._

Aiko, his baby sister, who'd just come out of the closet, had _slept with Belldandy._

Before _he'd_ slept with Belldandy.

Oh Christ on a goddamned Saltine cracker, she'd even slept with _Urd!_

"Oh... my... GOD!" Keiichi pulled at the roots of his hair. "Are you _serious!?"_ His sister had slept with his girlfriend before he had. Oh for fuck's sake-

"Yes...?" Aiko flinched at his tone, and even the Norns and Deb started at his voice, turning to stare at Keiichi as if he'd grown another head.

"Oh fuck, oh _Jesus,"_ Megumi raved. "Are you- do Takano and Keima know?"

"No!" Aiko exclaimed. "I was hoping for some _moral support_ before I broke down to our ultra-traditional parents!"

"I fucking knew it," Morgan, the Teal-Haired Wonder herself, grumbled dispassionately.

"Well, I for one think you two are adorable together." Belldandy's calm, rational voice broke through the growing debacle in the lobby. "And I would hope that your siblings feel the same after the... initial _shock_ has passed." She sent a pointed look to Keiichi, and oh fuck him it was the exact same expression on Urd's face, on Deb's face, and shit, Aiko looked like she was ready to burst into tears she looked so scared, he needed to pull his head out of his ass before he said the wrong thing.

 _Take a breath._ Some part of him spoke, _Panic in private._ _Aiko needs your support._ That was the SEAL in him, that steady voice of reason and strong will that had kept his cool in one firefight after another. _No different now,_ that part continued. _Different type of battle. Aiko needs you._

Right. No time for panic because Aiko didn't need panic right now. Aiko needed stability. Support. Approval. What did it matter who she dated? It wasn't any of his business, and in the end, it was still _Aiko_. His baby sister who looked ready to break down right in front of him and-

 _Okay,_ he told the SEAL. _I got this now._ "Sorry," he said aloud, and scratched the back of his head for effect. "You just- caught me off guard with this, is all," he admitted. "I mean, with how tense visits home are already..." He trailed off, then took a deep breath. "I'm Keiichi, Aiko's older brother." He held his hand out to Morgan, whose face brightened in surprise. "Sorry for freaking out on you. Nice to meet you, Morgan."

For a long moment Morgan stared at the offered hand, and it was with the torn look of a woman whose expectations had been dashed, who'd been preparing for war and instead been offered an olive branch, and was now desperately sweeping the WMD's beneath the rug. Her lips pulled back in something too aggressive to be considered a smile, and grabbed his hand tightly. He squeezed back by reflex. "Nice to meet you, Keiichi." It sounded like Morgan was trying very, very hard to be polite. Given the confrontational body language at present, Keiichi appreciated her efforts. "It's... nice to meet you to. Aiko has... spoken. Of you."

"Kei, what the hell?" Megumi's voice rose next to him. "You're okay with this?"

"Sure!" Keiichi cried, and then looked back at Aiko and Morgan. "So, what gift you want for the wedding?"

"Kei!" Both Megumi and Aiko screamed.

"Whaaaat?" Keiichi lamented. "It's an honest question!"

"I can't believe you- this doesn't bother you?" Megumi demanded. "You're in the military!"

"Yeah, so?" Keiichi said with a shrug. "Just because I'm in the military doesn't automatically mean that I would be against this."

"Well, that's one way to look at it," Debra muttered.

Urd, looking more and more frustrated as the conversation spiraled further downward, broke her silence. "It's your sister." She sent a pointed look to Megumi, her voice irritated. "So she doesn't fit the traditional mold, so what? What difference does it make if she loves a man or a woman?" The Norn missed Debra shaking her head in warning.

"Nobody asked you!" Megumi snapped. "Mind your own business. This isn't _your_ sister we're talking about!" The woman turned back to Aiko. "Who else knows?"

"Keigo..." Aiko trailed off, edging closer to Morgan, who appeared to be redirecting her rug-swept arsenal towards the older woman.

"What, so you told an eleven year old boy who doesn't even understand what 'lesbian' means but you don't tell us until we're in a hotel lobby?" Megumi's voice was starting to rise, and more and more people were turning to watch the drama unfold.

Aiko flinched, and Morgan hugged her protectively. "Yeah, well, _maybe_ she didn't say anything because she was afraid of you freaking out on her!" Morgan, it appeared, had no qualms with confrontation, glaring daggers at Megumi as she scowled. "I mean, it's not like you're being very receptive here. I mean, look around you!" She swept her hand towards Keiichi and the others. "You're the _only_ one here freaking out on us now! If you don't like it, why don't you fuck off? Aiko doesn't need your approval to be with me anymore than she needs her parents' approval! So why don't you take yourself and your bitch-ass attitude and take a hike!"

"What'd you say to me?" Megumi's voice fell into a quiet whisper, and she took a step towards Morgan.

"You need me to write it down?" Morgan taunted. "Or are you so conservative the only thing you know is the back of a kitchen?"

"You little-" Megumi's hand came up, and before Keiichi could react Debra stepped forward, her arm snaking around Megumi's raised one as the blonde stopped her friend from acting.

"Okay, I think it's time Megumi and I went for a walk," Debra announced. "Aiko, thank you for working up the courage to come out to us, that was very brave of you, and I support you one hundred percent-"

"Deb!" Megumi exclaimed.

" _One hundred percent,"_ Debra emphasized. "Miss Roux, it was good meeting you, and while it's nice to see you're so willing to defend Aiko in her choices, I would advise against instigating fights with her siblings in front of law enforcement in the future." Morgan started, and her face went white at Deb's words. "My only request is that you attempt to alleviate such situations in a more peaceful manner in the future."

"Deb, this isn't funny, let me go," Megumi growled.

"Megs and I are going to take a smoke break," Debra continued. "We'll catch up with you guys in a few."

"Debra!" Megumi's voice rose louder, but she did not resist when Debra began to pull her through the lobby and towards the automated glass doors leading outside.

The others watched her go. "Whew, I thought Megumi was going to kick your ass there." Aiko breathed a sigh of relief.

Morgan huffed. "I could take that old biddy," she grumbled, her gaze lingering on the two women before they vanished from sight. "She don't look so tough. All bark and no bite, I bet."

For a moment, Keiichi and Aiko shared a look, and then burst out laughing. Morgan bristled. "What?" She demanded. "What'd I say?!"

Keiichi wiped a tear from his eye. "Morgan, I'm a Navy SEAL, and even I don't want to tangle with her!"

"Oh come on!" Morgan exclaimed. "What, is she a black belt in karate?"

"Aikido, actually," Aiko replied. "Remember when I told you that our father taught us all martial arts? He started teaching us Aikido pretty much from the moment we could walk. Well, when Megumi was sixteen, she decided to go to the local dojo after some kids from there were bragging about how they could beat up anyone they wanted. She proceeded to beat the crap out of everyone there, then almost beat their instructor. He offered her a job on the spot. She's a level five _godan_ , now, and she'll be going for level six, _rokudan_ in a couple of months."

"She would literally toss you from one side of the room to the next." Keiichi added. "I mean, I've got an arsenal of martial arts under my belt, but there's a difference between a jack of all trades and an actual _master_."

"Oh." Morgan fell quiet for a brief minute, chewing over this new bit of information in silent contemplation. She looked over at Aiko. "So... should I be afraid of the rest of your family, too?" she asked.

"Just stay out of Keima's workshop, avoid Takano when she goes shopping, and don't bring up videogames to Keigo, and you'll be fine," Aiko assured. "Really, aside from Kei and Megs, my family is perfectly normal. I swear!"

Keiichi rolled his eyes.

Belldandy and Urd, who'd come to expect all manner of strange and unusual events with Aiko around, were quick to shoot her suspicious glances as well.

Keiichi looked back at his sister. "Let Deb speak with Megs and have her cool off a bit," he recommended. "I think she's still in a bit of shock."

"That's an understatement," Morgan grumbled.

Keiichi ignored the jab. "Come here, Bengal, let me give you a hug." He opened his arms, and was forced to take a step back to catch himself when Aiko all but threw herself into his frame. He caught the slightest bit of relief on her face, and held her tightly. "You crazy-ass brat," he said. "Pulling this shit on me _now_ rather than simply bringing your girlfriend over to come and visit back home."

"You've got guns." Aiko pointed out.

"So does every other red-blooded American." Keiichi retorted. "Bad excuse, try again."

Aiko flipped him off, and laughing, the two siblings released each other. The blue-haired girl then looked to Belldandy and Urd. "So... be honest. Are you guys really cool with this?" she asked, and while her question was directed to both of the Norns, her focus lay solely on Belldandy. "I mean..." She trailed off, and Morgan watched her closely before shooting a look to Belldandy as well. It almost looked... jealous.

"Are the two of you happy together?" Belldandy asked.

"Yes," Aiko admitted.

"Do you love each other?" Belldandy asked next.

"Yes." This time both Aiko and Morgan answered together, and Belldandy smiled. It was a kind, peaceful smile, one of those rare, subtle smiles that Belldandy reserved for only special occasions, and one that made Keiichi and Urd smile as well.

"Then I see no issue in your relationship," the goddess said. "Everyone deserves their happiness, and in no way should my opinion stand in the way of that happiness." She stepped forward, and reading her intent Aiko rushed to her as well, where the two embraced in the same tight hug that Aiko had shared with Keiichi.

"Thanks Carrie," Aiko mumbled, and Keiichi was surprised to see that there were tears on her cheeks. "That means a lot, coming from you. You and Urd both."

XXX

"Damn it Deb, will you let me go already?!" Megumi complained. It was hot outside, a good ninety degrees, and both Megumi and Debra had begun to sweat after not even five minutes. It didn't help that with the way Deb was 'escorting' her, it created the appearance that Megumi was under arrest. People were staring. Some folks were even reaching for their phones. "Seriously, this shit is going to end up on YouTube, and I don't need my face drawing negative attention to the BACA Chapter!"

"Are you going to rush back inside and attack your sister's girlfriend?" Debra asked.

"No!" Megumi replied. "And don't call her that! It's weird!"

"It's the truth Megs," Debra reasoned. "And you're the one being 'weird'."

"I am not!" Megumi snapped. "It's just-"

"Your little sister just came out of the closet to you, and you lose your shit in front of everyone?" Debra released her hold on Megumi, and true to her word her best friend didn't run back to the hotel. "I thought BACA exercised tolerance above everything else."

"It's not that, it's-"

"Listen, I know that you may not agree with it, but that's still your baby sister in there," Debra interrupted. "It's fine if you don't like it or agree with it, or even support it, but don't make a scene in front of everyone in the lobby. You're better than that, Megs. Aiko looked like she was about to break down in front of everyone with the way you were acting in there. Even Keiichi's new... flame was more supportive than you."

Megumi flinched. "It's not her sister," she muttered.

"I fail to see how that's in any way relevant," Debra replied. "Keiichi kept his cool, well, after he regained it anyways, and _he's_ the one I'd have expected to freak out on everyone."

"He's been going to therapy and taking anger management classes," Megumi grumbled, her expression sullen. "He's been working hard to improve himself after you left."

"I know," Debra replied. "You told me, remember? That's how you convinced me to come down here in the first place."

Megumi flinched.

Together, the friends wandered around the hotel's perimeter, moving towards the back where a black gate contained a smoke pit in a veranda. It was unoccupied save for one lone woman at present, and she wasn't even smoking, instead sitting at one of the two park benches beneath the veranda, nose deep in her phone. The woman glanced up at their approach, then dismissed them, probably going back to Angry Birds or something like that. Debra sat down at the empty bench, and Megumi sat down on the other side.

"Can you hold off on smoking until later?" Megumi asked, catching Debra off guard as she reached in her pocket for her box of Camels. "I... can't stomach cigarette smoke right now."

Debra stared at her and then shrugged. "Sure." She left them in her pocket, then laced her fingers in front of her. "So, what's wrong Megs?" she asked. "You aren't normally like this. I mean, we grew up in San Francisco, for crying out loud, the gay capital of the States!"

Megumi grimaced, rubbing her brow in aggravation.

"I mean, it's not like seeing one girl kiss another girl is anything we haven't seen before. Hell, we saw worse just navigating the trolleys and busses and monorails back home. Remember the BJ Boys on the bus?"

Megumi grimaced. "Yes..." she muttered. "You were fifteen and I was fourteen."

"How about those two girls that were making out in the trolley?"

"I'd just turned twelve." Megumi sucked in a slow, deep breath, still massaging her brows.

"Or the dude giving head-"

"Deb, please stop." Megumi's voice was tight. "You made your point."

Debra fell silent for a moment, and then took her own words into consideration. "You know, looking back on some of the shit we saw growing up, I kind of see now why you blew up in there."

"We had a very fucked up childhood, Deb."

"We did, didn't we?"

"And if you breathe a word of any of it to Aiko, I swear to god I will throw you through a damn wall."

Debra held her hands up in defense. "Hey, I'm trying to support her choices here, not discourage them."

Megumi heaved a sigh. "I guess I overreacted on that, didn't I?" she grumbled, and propped her elbows on the grated table. "It's not that I- fuck, with how I reacted though... I'm not homophobic or anything. I mean, after growing up in San Fran, you just kind of get jaded to what you see, but I just don't-" She sighed and shook her head. "I don't like it," she stated. "I guess... when it all comes down to it, I just don't approve of Aiko's decision." The woman moaned and buried her face in her hands. "I mean, it's like... I'm totally okay with it happening around me, but I never expected anyone in my family to come out as gay, you know?" She peeked up Debra from behind her hands. "It'd be like... your dad suddenly bringing home another man and saying, 'call him daddy from now on'. It's just..." She shuddered.

"Is it so strange to love another person?" Both Megumi and Debra started, and Debra twisted to look at the lone woman who was the other resident on the veranda. She'd lost interest in her cellphone and was now watching the two of them with steely brown eyes.

"No, there's nothing wrong with it-" Megumi began, and was interrupted by the stranger once more.

"So long as it does not affect you?" she inquired. "This person you speak of, she is of relation to you, yes?"

Megumi bit her lip, her expression a grimace Debra had always associated with her friend getting ready for an argument, usually one that ended with fists flying back in high school. Megumi could have a vicious bark to go along with a painful bite, something she'd gained after Aiko had been raped and rumors had started to fly at school regarding the Morisato family. She'd gotten a better rein on her temper since then, but that bark still got away from her at times, and after Aiko's announcement earlier, Megumi's temper was still a bit frayed.

In the end though, reason held out over emotion, and Megumi took a deep breath. "Yes..." she murmured. "She's my... sister."

"So, someone close to you then." The woman nodded. "And a sister... younger? Older?"

"Younger..." Megumi mumbled, looking confused, and Debra looked at her with a matching expression. Why was she sharing this information with a woman who'd inserted herself into their conversation? This strange and now somehow odd woman, who dressed herself in a black suit with a green dress shirt and seemed somehow ill-placed for the Hotel California?

The woman smiled, and it was a normal, regular smile. Except it wasn't at the same time. The smile seemed somehow too wide. Too long. The teeth too white, too straight, too _perfect_. _That's a mask._ Debra found herself thinking. It was a stray thought, a small fish swimming through a school of much larger, more worrisome thoughts, and it passed through the grasp of consideration before she could dwell fully on it.

"A younger sister?" the stranger continued. "Ah, now that is something to treasure... a younger sibling is a special person, you know... they look up to you. Admire you. Emulate you. And when push comes to shove and you find yourself drowning... it's that younger sibling that is always there to save you."

"You sound like you speak from experience," Debra said, and regretted it when the woman turned her gaze on her. _Mask,_ she thought again, _contacts_. Came next.

"Me?" The woman gestured to herself. (Suit too clean, no dust or sand or scuffs on her shoes, too clean, too perfect) "No, I have no siblings, regrettably," she said. "As I have said, I have _witnessed_ it, and ah, what a powerful bond that can be shared between a pair of sisters." She looked back to Megumi, and Debra had to stop herself from rubbing her arms. They'd broken out into goosebumps. "You should treat your younger sister better," she advised. "Love is a fickle, cruel beast. It cares not for whom it sinks its fangs into, and it has a lockjaw; it will not release its prey when the fangs have sampled blood. Instead it will worry itself deeper, drill into muscle and nerves and bone until its victim cannot fight it any longer," she tittered, shaking her head like a scolding parent. "Your young sister can no more fight whom she falls in love with than she can escape being human. Yet you are not held prisoner by that same beast of love that she is. _You_ can control how you hold yourself around her."

The stranger looked between both Debra and Megumi in that moment. "And it is in matters of such beasts that I _do_ have intimate experience... unfortunately," she said quietly. "Love your sister, Girl." The stranger moved to rise, glancing at her phone one final time before pocketing it with a sigh. "You never know when you may lose her." The woman wandered off, abandoning the veranda as she walked around the corner.

It wasn't until she'd vanished from sight that Megumi reacted. "Hey, wait!" She chased after the stranger, and out of reflex, Debra followed. They almost collided with a pair of obvious tourists dressed in shorts and tank tops, with red blotches on their ears and necks from where they'd forgotten to apply sunscreen. A quick word of rushed apologies, and the two friends brushed past the couple and around the corner.

The stranger was gone.

"She must have already gone around the next bend," Debra reasoned. "Come on."

Yet the next corner revealed the hotel's entrance in all its busy glory, bringing an end to the pursuit. "Okay..." Megumi began. "I'm not gonna lie, that was really, really fucking creepy," she said, and looked at Debra. "Who was that?"

"I don't know," Debra replied. "Should we head inside or circle the building for her?"

Megumi bit her lip. "No... no, let's head back into the lobby," she said. "Something tells me we aren't going to find her anytime soon." She looked to the mechanical glass doors. "Besides, I... need to apologize to Aiko for my behavior."

"Right..." Debra trailed off. "I'll... inform Keiichi about that lady. Have him keep an eye out." She scowled. "Something wasn't quite right with that woman, but damned if I know what."

"I hear you," Megumi muttered. "Come on, let's get out of this heat."

XXX

Megumi and Debra returned ten minutes later. The group hadn't left the lobby, instead having moved to one of the couch-and-table set-ups that was tucked into one of the far corners. The group was in good humor, their conversation light and innocent as Keiichi and the Norns became acquainted with Morgan. From the conversation, they'd learned that Morgan was a North Carolina native who was going for her Bachelors in Political Science with a minor in art, and that she and Aiko had met during a political rally on their college campus and then again by chance at one of the many bars located in the surrounding city later that evening.

It took some effort on the Norns' part. Morgan proved to be a very private person, and one with obvious reserves about sharing details of herself with people she'd just met. Aiko shared most of the details on how they met, while Morgan remained quiet, for the most part, on occasion providing a small smile or a light input to whatever Aiko was speaking on, but otherwise contributing little. Belldandy couldn't blame her. The woman looked out of her element, and though she hid it well, the Norn could tell Morgan was nervous around them. Nervous around her lover's older brother and two strangers who she'd probably only heard about through conversations with Aiko, with another older sister who'd already made her displeasure about Aiko's relationship known. Belldandy's heart went out to the poor girl, and she did her best to be accommodating to the woman. It was difficult to say how much her efforts were appreciated.

Aiko noticed Megumi and Debra's approach first, and when her contribution to the conversation- this about a drunken adventure that happened on Morgan's birthday at a gay bar close to a place called South of the Border, South Carolina- died in her throat, the rest of the conversation died down as well. Belldandy, sitting beside Keiichi, had to turn to look at who had caught Aiko's eye, and with it her gaze was immediately drawn to Debra. The blonde frowned when their eyes met, and Belldandy frowned in turn. The woman tore her eyes away from Belldandy for a brief moment, looking at someone next to Belldandy, and then back to Belldandy. After that, she fixed her face into a more neutral expression.

Belldandy caught the hint easily enough. There'd be time enough to continue their newly formed rivalry later. This was Aiko's time, and if Debra was mature enough not to escalate tensions between Belldandy and herself, then Belldandy could be as well. The blonde looked away, choosing to instead observe a group of the businessmen in green shirts departing the lobby, and Belldandy turned her focus to Megumi.

The woman stopped a couple of feet away from the small group. For a long moment, no one said anything, and an awkward, tense silence descended upon those gathered as they waited for Megumi to speak. The dark haired Morisato woman bit her lip, then planted her hands on her hips and blew the air out of her cheeks. "I'm sorry for the way I acted," she said. "This is a big change for me, and... if I'm honest, I'm not really ready to accept it." She crossed her arms, uncomfortable in front of the silent gathering before her. "But I care about you too much to let something like who you fall in love with destroy our relationship." Her lips twisted into something that could have been a smile under the right light, or a grimace if seen in the shadows. "I may not like it, but that doesn't mean I can't tolerate it, Aiko."

Morgan looked unimpressed with the speech. "Well gee thanks for-"

"And I think that's fine for now, _right Morgan?"_ Aiko interrupted, then stood up and walked around the couch to Megumi. "Thanks for trying, Sis," she said. "I know it's not the easiest thing to accept, so it means a lot knowing you'll still try." They embraced, and some of the initial tension broke. Beside Belldandy, Keiichi released a breath, and the goddess looked at him.

"Thank god," he muttered, his voice low enough that his sisters missed his words. "I don't know what I'd have done if Megumi wasn't cool with it." He rubbed his face. "We'll need everyone we can get on our side when we break the news to Keima and Takano."

The two Morisato sisters heard _that,_ and both went rigid.

"Fuck," said Megumi.

"I forgot about that," said Aiko.

The duo looked over at Keiichi, whose eyes grew wide when he caught wind of the sudden and desperate terror on their faces. "Kei?" Aiko asked. "When are Keima and Takano coming over again?"

Keiichi began to sweat. "They said they'd meet us here in the lobby around eight tonight," he said.

"We're doomed," Aiko and Megumi said at the same time.

Belldandy looked between the two sisters and Keiichi. "Come now," she scolded. "It can't be that bad, can it?"

"I don't know," Debra said, sending one more glance at a man in a black suit before approaching the two sisters. "Try introducing yourself and your sister to Keima and Takano in the midst of Aiko coming out of the closet two days before a stressful parole hearing." She looked back at Belldandy. "It'll probably go over about as well as a turd in a punchbowl, all things considered."

"Shit," Keiichi said.

"Exactly," said Debra.

XXX

They left the hotel for an awkward dinner around six that night, where all three Morisato siblings, comprised of a Navy Seal, a biker, and a regular college student accompanied two Norse deities, an ex-wife, and a lesbian lover to Red Lobster. Somehow, the lot of them managed to remain cordial throughout the entire meal, though it came as no surprise that the gathering of seven were quite relieved to be back at the hotel where they could rest for the night and maybe forget about all the surprises that had punctuated the day.

But it was not to be.

A loud bang caught everyone's attention as they were about to enter the hotel lobby. Keiichi, Megumi, and Aiko turned to see the source of the noise, and then bowed their heads as one. "Oh no," they said in unison.

Belldandy looked at them curiously. "What is it?"

Keiichi pointed in the direction of an old, beat up Toyota pickup that was in the process of squeezing in between a pair of Jaguars that had obviously been parked away from the crowds with the thought that they would be safe because no one would want to park so far away. Where there was not rust, there were dents. Interspersed with that was splotches of purple paint that one could only assume was the original color. "It's the 'Purple Turd'," he said, dread creeping into his voice.

The goddess watched as the vehicle in question finished. The doors opened and two people exited. One was a woman with nearly jet-black hair that flowed down past her shoulders. The other was a distinguished looking gentleman who bore a more than passing resemblance to Keiichi with silver-grey hair wearing a pair of John Lennon-style glasses.

"It's Keima and Takano," said Megumi dejectedly.

"Our parents," finished Aiko with an equal amount of sadness.

Belldandy smiled. Finally, a chance to meet Keiichi's parents. With Debra back in the picture, it was a perfect chance for her to make a good first impression. Having been in Japan for so long, she knew a thing or two about how to greet them that should do the trick. As they approached, she stepped forward and offered a deep bow. "It is an honor to finally meet Keiichi's mother and father. I hope that-"

The older gentleman quickly reached out and smacked Belldandy on the head with two fingers, causing the goddess to jerk back, startled. Beside her, all three of the siblings moaned in embarrassment. "Aiya! You liking to be kissing our ass? Do not be calling us mother and father!"

"Here we go," Megumi muttered, voice tight. Beside her Keiichi and Aiko could do little but nod and grimace.

"I-I apologize?!" Belldandy stumbled through her words, "I did not mean- forgive me, it was not my intent to insult, Morisato-san-"

"Oh!" Takano interrupted "Look! Is like Keigo's friends! What he call them? 'Weeaboo'?"

"What?" Belldandy stared, and closer to Keiichi Debra bit her lip and turned away. "What's a-"

"We are 'Takano' and 'Keima' to you!" Takano said, and then paused to look at her three children. "Who's she?"

"My girlfriend," Keiichi replied, rubbing his brow as though in pain.

"Shitting bull!" Keima exclaimed. The words were heavy with his accent, and 'bull' became 'buru' in his excitement. "Debra right beside you!"

Both Keiichi and Debra flinched. "Hi Keima." Debra brought her hand up in greeting.

"That is not way to greet family!" Takano exclaimed. "Where are my hugs? Well? I have not seen you all in a full year, you never come and visit Takano and Keima anymore, I need hugs!" She held her arms out, shooting an expectant look to the gathered younger Morisatos and with heavy sighs, first Aiko, then Megumi, and finally Keiichi moved to hug her. The petite woman shot a glare to Debra after finishing her hug with Keiichi. "Well?" She demanded, "You too!"

Debra cringed, "Takano, I'm not married to Keiichi anymore..."

She trailed off when the look on Takano's face did not change. "Oh, so now you will not give a hug to the woman who babysat you since your mother passed away?"

Debra winced. "Right." She too hugged Takano, and in some ways looked both relieved and happy to have done so. There was a prominent smile on her face when the two parted. "Better?"

"Better." Takano nodded in approval. "Who are they?" She pointed first to Belldandy, then to Urd and Morgan, who hung back near the sliding doors of the hotel entrance, observing the reunion in silence.

Keima finished hugging his daughters and eldest son, then proceeded to whack all three of them on the forehead with two fingers. It didn't hurt, but all three of them reflexively said 'ow' anyways, having grown accustomed to their parents' idiosyncrasies early on in life. "You have not been meditating!" he cried. "You three are out of balance! Your _ki_ is disrupted!" He pointed to Keiichi. " _Especially_ you!"

"Greaaat," Keiichi grumbled.

"You have been slacking! All of you!" Keima continued to rant. "This will not continue! You will join me for practice in the morning!" He paused, and then looked at Megumi with some concern, asking in a softer, quieter voice, "This has gym, yes?"

"Yes, Keima, it's got a gym." Megumi nodded, her voice strained. "A _small_ gym, but a gym none the less."

"Good!" Keima said with renewed enthusiasm. "Must have strong session. This place filled with a dark aura." He pointed to the hotel, and Urd started, pointed to herself, and then hopped out of the line of his finger. It left Morgan alone, and she raised an eyebrow, looking first at Urd and then at Keima, unimpressed. "Bad place you choose. Why you not come home during visit? We have big house! Room for everyone!"

"There are seven of us, Keima," Aiko dropped.

"Still room!" Keima cried. "You rest in futons like proper! Not in squishy and soft expensive American beds! Three to a room! Keigo is at his friend's house studying for finals. We fit everyone!"

"Keima, no." Keiichi groaned.

"Keima yes!" Keima retorted. "Now who is other three strangers."

"My girlfriend." Keiichi and Aiko said at the same time, then looked at each other, abashed.

"Wait," Takano piped up, "What does Aiko mean, 'girlfriend'?" She looked between her three children with new and fresh suspicion. She switched to Japanese. " _Yūjin no on'nanoko_? _Kanojo_?"

"Um..." As one the group turned to look at Aiko. Aiko smiled, looking nervous. " _Kanojo..."_

" _Kanojo," Takano_ repeated, staring at her in disbelief. _"Kanojo."_

" _Matte matte matte matte!"_ Keima trilled, holding his hands up. " _Kanojo?"_ Hestared at Aiko with growing concern, then to the surrounding audience that comprised the large group, perhaps noting for the first time the distinct lack of _male_ strangers. _"Wana kareshi?"_ He inquired. _"KANOJO?"_

" _Hai," Aiko_ replied, then switch back to English. "Um… Surprise?"

XXX

The gym inside the Courtyard Hotel was indeed small. It was perhaps only as large as one of the master suites that was oftentimes advertised by the hotel, and the equipment that comprised it primarily consisted of a treadmill and an elliptical. Both sat facing the north wall of the room, where a long window showcased a glorious view of the brick wall to the next motel over, and an old, twenty-four-inch plasma TV depicted the current news California had to offer. The hotel staff had yet to come in and change it to something more interesting.

A small weight rack lined the wall near the window, and curled up against it were a couple of blue yoga mats. Together, Keiichi and Keima dragged the mats, two per person, out from their resting spot and laid them out, arranging them as close together as possible on a black rubber floor that smelled like sour old sweat.

Megumi and Aiko stared at the layout dubiously. "Is this really going to work?" Aiko asked.

"Do we really have a choice?" Megumi shot back, looking less-than-thrilled with the coverage the four yoga mats provided. All of their edges were curled up, creating hills in their 'practice mat'.

"Please, all I ask is that you don't kill me," Aiko begged quietly. "Not in front of my girlfriend."

Morgan and Takano were the only other people who'd come to watch, Takano to observe as a safety monitor and Morgan, who looked dead on her feet, because her curiosity had overwhelmed her. For that Keiichi was grateful. The room was already crowded with Keima and the three Morisato children, and while Takano and Morgan managed to keep themselves out of the way, it would be problematic if Deb, Bell, and Urd came to join the entourage as well. Deb and Bell if for no other reason than the possibility of a fight breaking out.

He did kind of regret that Urd decided to skip out though. He liked sparring with Urd. Urd was passionate about sparring. She had a drive to learn and correct her mistakes and could take a wild elbow to the face and not get upset. Afghanistan and the demon in his watch had left their marks on the Norn, and since then she'd wanted nothing more than to improve her hand-to-hand combat skills. Keiichi respected that. It was too bad, she'd have had some fun learning a new move or two from the family.

 _Yeah, right up to the point where she brushes against Keima and he jumps out the fucking window._ An inner voice reminded him.

Right, as if he could forget _that_ bit of Keima. Deb had grown up next to Megumi, so Keima was comfortable around her. It had been easy to forget about his father's gynophobia when he was still married. The Norns and Morgan had already shown themselves to be problematic for Keima.

 _I take it back._ He decided. _Thank god there are no gods here right now._

It wasn't necessarily that Keima disliked other women, or even that he was shy in speaking with them. In a strange definition of the phrase 'fear of women', he could not stand to be touched by them, as though their touch alone was vile enough to make him seek medical attention or leave him running for the hills. Keiichi had never learned why. All attempts at broaching the subject were met with a wall, be it through Keima, Takano, or other family relations, though the SEAL had gathered it had something to do with his father's past. How Takano had managed to slip past the barrier Keima had erected around almost all women was a mystery to the Morisato children, and indeed perhaps even relatives, for as far as anyone could discern the repulsion so many other women induced in Keima was simply... absent when it came to Takano.

"Don't worry, I'll take it easy on you," Megumi said with a large yawn. It was close to four thirty in the morning. The biker stretched. "I wouldn't want to embarrass you in front of your girlfriend," she mumbled. "I'll save that for the wedding."

Aiko went scarlet. "Megumi!" she hissed. "Not in front of Keima and Takano!"

Megumi leveled an even stare at Aiko. "Make me," she taunted.

And so, the morning practice began.

Keima was dissatisfied with the state of everyone's Aikido, and he drilled them mercilessly. It was not long before the yoga mats, poor substitutes for a cushioned floor though they were, became drenched with sweat. Aiko was heaving, and she winced when she moved. Keiichi, in the best shape, was repeatedly caught in various holds and pins, his form thrown off as his mind and body clashed with Aikido's distant cousin, BJJ. Even Megumi, the most accustomed Morisato child to Keima's Aikido sessions, was drawing ragged breaths. At one point, she had to even call it quits, all but running out of the small gym and to the neighboring bathroom where it quickly became evident that she was losing the contents of her stomach.

Takano called a quick end to the session after that, and with Aiko in tow went to check on the woman, who came back ten minutes later looking shaky and pale.

"Megs, are you okay?" Keiichi asked, and Keima rose to meet her at the entrance, his face open with concern.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Megumi said. Her voice shook; she sounded anything but fine. "I guess I ate something that didn't sit well with my stomach last night." Her smile looked weak, almost fake in the light.

"Food poisoning?" Aiko asked. "But you and Morgan ate the same thing!" she exclaimed "And Morgan's fine!"

"I bet it's morning sickness," Morgan joked, and reassured by the comment the group looked ready to laugh it off.

Except when everyone looked back at her, the oldest Morisato daughter looked as if she had been caught with her hand in a cookie jar.

The silence that fell was so thick, it could be cut with a knife. It was Keiichi who finally broke it. "Well, is it?"

Megumi's eyes flitted from face to face before finally landing on her brother's. "Um... yes?"

For a long time, no one spoke. Morgan looked like Pandora realizing just what she'd released from a box. Aiko gaped in shock, her eyes bulging in their sockets. Takano was still, like a woman captured by a gorgon's stare and Keima stood frozen as well, the only motion from him being his jaw, which opened and closed like an old, broken nutcracker as the Morisato family attempted to process this latest and greatest bit of family surprises. Keiichi himself felt like he'd been punched in the gut, and found his brain had somehow short-circuited between the words 'morning sickness' and 'yes'.

"Uh..." Megumi looked at the ocean of shocked family members and lone horrified girlfriend in growing terror. "It- it was supposed to be a surprise!" she exclaimed. "Something for after we were finished with our business at San Quentin!"

"Con- congratulations...?!" Morgan, perhaps realizing the extent of what her casual jab had fostered, attempted to alleviate the situation into a lighter mood.

It was like someone throwing a grenade.

At close to five a.m. that morning, in a little Courtyard Hotel near the San Francisco International Airport, a tiny little gym was suddenly filled with the sounds of screams and mayhem, and indeed, for anyone passing, perhaps that was what the initial perception was as they quickly raced by: that someone, a good many someones in fact, were screaming and roaring and laughing and howling. Indiscernible shouts, some in English, more in Japanese, and even a few that combined the two languages into something indecipherable rose and echoed through the little room.

" _Watashi wa sobo ni naru tsumoridesu!"_ Takano was screaming and crying and laughing, clutching Megumi in a tight, almost suffocating hug as Aiko threw her arms around Keima, screaming _"Oji-chan!"_ Over and over, and for once, Keima didn't scold her on the term. He was too busy laughing, too busy howling with glee, and the two raced to gather around the new mother-to-be, joining a shell-shocked Keiichi who was repeating over and over again, "I'm going to be an uncle!" He picked Megumi up and spun her in the air with raucous laughter in some strange and terrible combination of Japanese and English. Megumi, looking overwhelmed by the sudden and massive amount of attention, smiled still and allowed herself to be hugged and kissed and fussed over. Morgan hung back, watching the display with a large, beaming smile on her face; the first since being introduced to the rest of her girlfriend's family, and in such a moment of exuberance and celebration, how could she not smile?

"That is why _ki_ is off!" Keima raved, half in Japanese, half in English. "You have a baby! A _baby!"_ He laughed and hugged Megumi tight and kissed her brow, then proceeded to whack her forehead with two fingers.

"Ow," Megumi said reflexively. It didn't hurt.

"Why you say nothing!?" the man exclaimed. "No more Aikido! You are pregnant!"

" _Hai!_ " Takano agreed. "No more activities! You must take it easy!"

"But I'm only like five or six weeks-" Megumi tried to protest, and got whacked again by Keima. "Ow."

"No more!" he declared. "Bad for baby! Bad for mother!" He paused when he said that, and a noise that almost sounded like a squeal rose in his throat. "Megumi is going to be a mother!" Again, that strange mix of Japanese and English, an announcement that only the Morisatos understood in its entirety but that Morgan assembled based off the broken English and emotional display. At once he hugged Megumi again. Megumi didn't resist. "Ah! My little girl is going to be a mother!"

While the rest of the group abandoned the gym for the lobby, Keiichi stayed behind to wipe down the yoga mats, roll them up, and place them back next to the weight rack. The window above showed a world growing pink and orange with the rising sun. Dawn had chased away the night in light of Megumi's announcement, and the smile on Keiichi's face pulled back on his jaw with such strength it hurt. He then joined them in the lobby, passing a group of three comprised of one blonde woman and two dark-haired men heading towards what he assumed was the gym he'd just left. The rest of the family was sitting down on the couch and loveseat display that Keiichi and Aiko had sat down at yesterday following Aiko's announcement. Aiko was teasing Megumi. "So _that's_ why you blew up on us yesterday!" she said. "It wasn't because you were being a bitch, it was _hormones!_ " She laughed, and Megumi, in too much good humor to be angry, laughed with her.

"You better watch what you say, Aiko," Megumi teased back. "Or I'm going to send a Juggalo to your Vegas wedding."

Aiko went red in the face, and even Morgan had to bite back a laugh as Keima and Takano leaned forward in fresh interest. "You getting married!?" Takano all but raved. "When? How come you did not tell me?! We need to make plans! Who is this man?"

Aiko's face went a darker shade of red. "Takano, I told you, I have a _girl_ friend. _Kanojo,_ not _kareshi."_

"But girls cannot marry girls," Keima said, for a moment looking confused, and then further baffled when first Aiko, then Megumi moaned and covered their faces in embarrassment.

Morgan looked just as confused. "Gay marriage became legal all across the country a year ago," she said.

Keima stared at her blankly. "What is meaning of...'gay'? Like happy?"

"Fuck," Aiko muttered under her breath.

"So!" Megumi announced. "Does this mean we get to call you _ojichan_ now, Keima?" It was a desperate attempt at subject change. Desperate if for no other reason that she was falling back on Keima's dislike of titles and labels when speaking of family relations. Both Keima and Takano hated being called mother, father, ma, pa, mom, dad, and any other term of address that was so common to most families with a passion, and so Megumi's attempt at riling up Keima was scraping the barrel of safe subjects to discuss amongst the current company.

That was until Keima's entire face lit up. " _HAI_!" He almost screamed. " _Ojichan! Watashi wa Ojichan!"_ The hotel staff looked up at his announcement, startled by the loud and exuberant display so early in the morning.

"Wow." Keiichi paused behind the loveseat where Aiko and Morgan sat. "Wait, are you serious?" he demanded. "You don't want to be called 'father' but 'grandpa' is a go?"

" _Hai!"_ Keima nodded again.

Beside him Takano bounced gleefully on the couch cushion. "Oooh! _Obachan!_ Call me _obachan_ from now on!" She exclaimed, clapping her hands and laughing in joy. "This is wonderful! So wonderful! I am a grandma! _Obachan!_ "

"Oh my god," Aiko whispered loudly. "Who are you and what have you done with Keima and Takano?"

Motion from his left caught Keiichi's eye, and the man glanced towards it, finding Urd approaching them with a small paper cup in hand. The hotel's name was printed across the cup's brown sleeve, and thick, white steam wafted from the cup's opening. "Hey," she said as she approached, looking half-asleep and closer to falling back asleep rather than waking up more. "What's all the commotion about?"

"You heard us from your bedroom?" Keiichi asked, surprised to see the Norn up so early before recalling the fact that she and Belldandy might have gone singing at their standard 'ass-crack of dawn' hour.

"No." Urd yawned largely. "Bell chased me from the bedroom. She started sleepwalking. Scared the fuck out of me. Woke up to her chanting something about 'monsters' coming out of people." She shuddered. "The lobby seemed safer."

"No singing this morning?" he asked.

Aiko interrupted before Urd could respond. "Megumi's pregnant!" she exclaimed. "I'm going to be an Aunt, Urd!" She jumped up from the couch and threw herself at Urd out of no other reason than the sheer joy of the announcement. "Can you believe it?! From now on you have to call me Auntie Aiko and Kei Uncle Jank, understand?"

Despite her exhaution, Urd still moved with all the fluidity of a cat, bringing the open cup of coffee up and away from Aiko as the younger woman collided with her body. "Pregnant?" She blinked sleepily than looked at Megumi, who smiled with a small bit of uncertainty at the woman whom she'd only met yesterday. The Norn smiled. Though tired, it was kind. "Congratulations," she said. "You have my blessings." She yawned into her arm, then gave Aiko a one-armed hug, blinking sleepy violet eyes. "You'll have a beautiful daughter," she said matter-of-factly. "She may be shy and demure, but she'll be heartbreaker all the same, with a mind just as sharp to match her beauty." Another yawn, and the goddess missed the startled looks on both Keiichi's and Aiko's faces.

Megumi laughed. "Well, that's a bold prediction," she said, dismissing the comment for what it was, a thoughtless account arising from a woman who appeared more asleep than awake. "Thanks anyways, though."

Keiichi laughed as well, and was grateful it didn't sound nervous. "Yeah, I think Urd needs some more coffee." He paused, and then looked at the others. "Actually, I think I could use some too. How about you, Aiko?" He looked over at his younger sister, and found her nodding in agreement.

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea, actually. I'll grab one for Morgan too," she said, then looked at Megumi. "You want us to grab you one too, 'Mom'?"

"Sure, that'd be-" Megumi began.

She was cut off by Takano. "No!" the Matriarch announced. "No coffee! Too much caffeine! Bad for the baby. Only green tea!"

"…or not," Megumi muttered dejectedly.

"Got it. We'll be right back." Keiichi said in a rush, and swinging an arm around Urd's shoulders (a difficult feat given Urd's height) he and Aiko steered the goddess towards the coffee machine on the other side of the lobby.

When they were out of earshot Keiichi whispered, "What was that?!"

Urd looked at him. "What was what?"

"That thing you said." Keiichi continued. "That thing about Megs' baby. What was that?"

"Meg's baby?" Urd stared at him in confusion, and Keiichi could tell already that he'd lost her.

"You said that my sister, whom we just learned was pregnant, was going to have a 'shy, demure heartbreaker girl'," Aiko added in. "What did you mean by that? Were you serious? Is- are we going to have a niece?"

" _I_ said that?" Urd's confusion was distressing to the two siblings as she looked between them both with bemused violet eyes. "When was this?" She seemed more awake now, Keiichi noted, awake and growing more and more alert with every sentence, until she was looking between Keiichi and Aiko with open alarm.

"Just now," Aiko supplied. "Right after you finished telling us about Belldandy scaring you out of the bedroom because of her sleepwalking." She looked over her shoulder and back towards the rest of the Morisato family, and then back to Urd. "Were you being serious back there? Is Megumi really going to have a little girl?"

Urd didn't respond at first, muttering under her breath as she looked first towards the staircase and elevator that led to the upper floors, then back towards Megumi and the others, as though trying to recount her steps. "Damn," she muttered. "I just... really? It decided to... I don't remember any of it, though..."

"Urd?" Keiichi inquired.

The goddess shook her head. "Sorry, sorry, still not... still not quite awake yet." She stared at her coffee, and then downed the whole thing at once. She gasped when the cup was empty, and for a moment her breath was visible, white and thick and hot like the steam that had been wafting from the cup. "Fuck, that's hot." The Norn released a deep breath, and to Keiichi it was like watching a dragon exhale as more white steam swirled from her mouth and nostrils. "Oookay. That's better. I think I'm awake now."

"Well?" Aiko demanded.

"Yes," Urd replied. "If I said what you said I said, then the answer is yes." She rubbed her brow. "Stupid weakass Sight chooses _now_ to fucking..." She trailed off.

"You can tell the future?" Aiko demanded.

"No," Urd replied.

"But you just said-" Keiichi began.

"It's The Sight," Urd interrupted. "It's a..." Her head bobbed back and forth as she decided on what word to use. "Everyone calls it a gift, I call it a curse, but, it's something I inherited from my father. Bell and Skuld have it too, though it's much, _much_ stronger in them than it ever was in me. It's because their mother has the Sight as well. It's absent on my own mother's side of the family, which means I didn't inherit it from both sides. When it does hit me though, it's usually out of nowhere and over some kind of weak little event."

Keiichi and Aiko looked uncomfortable. "I don't know," Aiko began. "Predicting the gender of a five-week old embryo seems like a pretty big event in my book."

"Not in the grand scheme of things," Urd replied. "If she wanted to, Belldandy could go so far as to predict what women in this entire hotel would become mothers, by comparison. Skuld? The Sight gets stronger in her with every passing day, though she isn't trained very well with it... If she was, though, she could go so far as to predict the families who would stay together long enough to have children, what their children's genders and lives would be, and then what their _children's_ children would be on top of that." She shook her head. "And when you expand that out to cover not only planets, but galaxies, universes, _dimension_ s _..."_ The Norn shrugged. "My sisters exert their will on The Sight. The Sight exerts its will on _me_. There's a reason _I'm_ the Norn of the Past and Skuld's the Norn of the Future."

"That's..." Keiichi trailed off, at a loss for words.

"Just more 'Weird Norn Shit' for that little black book of yours, Jank." Urd slapped a hand on his shoulder. "And don't think I don't know you have one on us. Now let's get more coffee, and afterwards, maybe it'd be a good idea for you all to head back to the rooms for a shower. I hate to break it to you guys, but you both smell like you've been wrestling in a locker room."

XXX

Belldandy and Debra came to join the large group later that morning, Belldandy around seven, as Keiichi was returning to the lobby after a shower, and Debra around seven thirty, joined by Aiko and Megumi as they were leaving their own rooms. By the time they reached the lobby for breakfast, word of Megumi's pregnancy had reached Debra, leaving the woman in such an ecstatic mood that she seemed to take no overt notice of Keiichi sharing a two-person table with Belldandy off in a one corner, a stack of pancakes and bacon in front of him while Belldandy ate a smaller portion of fried eggs on toast.

Perhaps, in her joy, she was too distracted to be bothered approaching the table. The morning was Megumi's time; time for celebration and time for joy and bliss. A time to indulge in silly name calling and future names and possible baby showers, though such things were far, far off in the months to come. There would be time enough to... get to know the strange woman who'd accompanied Keiichi throughout the day. It would be shallow to start throwing quips amidst Megumi's joy and Aiko's excitement, with Keima and Takano both possessed by such rare enthusiasm they both looked thirty years younger, untouched by the grief and hard times that had left them both so aged in their prime.

The delightful mood was even strong enough for Megumi to overlook her initial perspective of Aiko's relationship with Morgan in that moment, and in the cheerful mood she and Debra and Aiko sat with Urd and Morgan, who'd been sitting and conversing quietly over two cups of coffee at an empty booth. Aiko sat next to Morgan with a plate full of pancakes and bacon in an unconscious emulation of her brother, while Megumi slid in next to Urd, who looked much more awake than she had been earlier that morning. Deb squeezed in next to Aiko, and as the two fussed and joked with each other Megumi reached across the table and stole a strip of bacon to go with her scrambled eggs. And amidst the loud clamor the new group created, Urd smiled and laughed and joined in the banter.

In that moment Debra saw a small bit of what Aiko liked about one of the two strange women who'd accompanied her on that trip. Urd had an easy-going personality to her, though she was a bit private. 'Charismatic' would have been the word to describe her, if Debra had to choose, and by the end of the breakfast the group of five were chatting and laughing like long-time friends. Everything was fine, and everything was good, and Debra thought in that moment that perhaps everything was not all doom and gloom as originally forecasted, for how could it be in the midst of such merriment? The day was going to be a bright eighty degrees at its height without a cloud in the sky, and the Morisatos had the whole day for themselves to celebrate and reminisce and relax in preparation for what was next to come.

Tomorrow would be different, Debra knew.

Tomorrow would bring Stuart, and with it all the anger and sorrow and grief that was absent in this moment.

But tomorrow was for the uncertain future, yesterday was for the written past, and today was for the present, which was to be taken as it came.

Breakfast finished on a joyful note for everyone, the group gathered once more as they discussed their plans for the day. After a long discussion and no small amount of arguing, it was decided that the large gathering would divide into two groups. Aiko had a long day ahead of her tomorrow at San Quentin, where she was expected to conduct a rebuttal to Stuart's release, given she had been his one and only victim. It was an upcoming meeting that weighed heavily on her mind, and amidst the growing cacophony of people: Two siblings, her parents, two Norns, a girlfriend, and an ex-sister-in-law, she wanted a chance to have some time to relax and meditate on what was to come. By default, that meant Morgan would go wherever Aiko wished, and after some discussion with the others, Takano decided to accompany her as well, having always been a solid foundation for Aiko to lean against.

"Megumi, you come too!" Takano ordered during the discussion. "It will be a girl's day out! We will go shopping! Debra as well!"

Megumi smiled and raised her hands. "I'm... actually going to duck out on this occasion," she said, sending a meaningful look to Aiko. "Aiko needs to relax a bit, and Morgan and I... kind of got off on the wrong foot. I'll hang out with Kei and Keima instead."

"Same." Debra nodded. "Aiko, you enjoy your free time with Morgan and Takano." She lowered her voice, "I'll stick with Megumi and keep an eye on your two friends." She glanced at Belldandy and Urd. "I don't want them traumatizing Keima too badly. He looked like he'd met the Devil Himself when Urd tried to shake his hand last night."

Aiko winced. "Don't remind me," she muttered. Keima had almost run screaming back to the Purple Turd when Urd had approached him last night, and this after the Morisato siblings had just calmed him down after introducing Morgan to him. In fact, Keima had all but forgotten his shock of Aiko coming out to him when Urd had approached him. She'd never seen her father react so strongly to another woman before, and the resulting shock and hurt on Urd's face had been so deep that if taken out of context, Aiko's first thought would have been that she'd been shot.

It had left the entire family flustered and apologizing, and even Debra had stepped in to try and help de-escalate the situation, with Takano and Megumi guiding the older man away to calm down, ranting and raving about black auras, poison, and _jigoku no musume._ There'd been a lot of apologies following that. Since then, Urd had kept her distance from the Morisato elder, going so far as to keep several people situated between herself and Keima at any given time. It did little to stop the man from shooting the odd dark look her way.

"Hey Urd, want to come and join us?" Aiko offered, catching several people off-guard. Debra looked at her, puzzled, before recognizing it as an opportunity for the Norn to find some relief from Keima's scrutiny without having to worry about sharing a vehicle or a table with him. "You and Morgan seemed to hit it off really well this morning. What do you say?"

For a moment both Urd and Belldandy looked surprised, and even Keiichi looked caught off-guard by the invitation. Had it been aimed more towards Belldandy, perhaps it would have been a more reasonable request, given the close friendship the blue-haired girl and the goddess had built over the past couple of months. Yet Belldandy had eyes for Keiichi as well, and in the midst of Debra's presence would not be parted from his side unless she was certain Debra was away from Keiichi as well.

"Thanks for the offer, Aiko, but I think I'll pass," Urd announced. "I think I'll actually just chill here at the hotel today."

"Urd, are you certain?" Belldandy asked.

Urd nodded. "It's no biggie," she said with a shrug. "No offense Jank, but I think it might be safer for me to stay behind anyways. Unless you want me to give Keima a hug and give you an example of how you can expect the rest of your day to go."

"You touch me I break arm, _Jigoku no Musume_!" Keima growled.

"Keima!" Keiichi and Megumi protested.

Urd raised an eyebrow, unimpressed. "I think he's made my point," Urd explained.

"Urd, you don't have to seclude yourself to the hotel all day..." Aiko looked at her in concern. "Come out with us, at least! We'll have fun! Go shopping, get some drinks, bitch about California's ridiculous sales prices, get a burrito from a gut wagon, spend an hour on the toilet from the burrito, come on, it'll be great fun! But don't seclude yourself from everyone... I'll feel bad if we were all out enjoying ourselves and you couldn't come and enjoy it too."

Yet Urd remained resolute. "I'm fine, guys. Really. I didn't get a good night's rest anyways with Bell sleepwalking-"

"I do _not_ sleepwalk!" Belldandy insisted.

"Do you want me to start recording it?" Urd asked. Belldandy scowled. "That's what I thought." Urd nodded. "So yeah, all I'm going to be doing is catching up on some lost sleep. Catch some rays by the pool. Maybe call Lind and make sure she hasn't accidentally killed Jackson with that cactus of hers. I'll see if I can't catch up with you guys when you return later on."

"If you're sure..." Keiichi still looked unconvinced.

Urd sent a level gaze his way. "I am," she said. "Trust me, it's one less person to worry about and I don't want to crash Aiko's time out."

"I don't know... this still doesn't feel right..." Keiichi put up one final protest, and Urd continued to shake her head.

"Jank, relax," she said. "Go out and enjoy your time with your family. I insist. If it's that big a deal to you then you can go out and pick me up a bottle of some kind of California wine. Otherwise, don't give it a second thought."

"Only if you're absolutely certain," Belldandy said, and even she looked worried. "I don't enjoy the thought of leaving you behind, but if that's what you want..."

"It is," Urd said. "Now all of you, shoo. Any more and I'm liable to chase Keima out of the lobby and have you race after him."

There was a small amount of discussion on further plans for that day. Eventually it was decided that at the very least, the two groups would meet for lunch, before heading back to the hotel to grab Urd for dinner. Aiko, Takano, and Morgan left soon after that, heading out in the small blue Lexus Morgan had gotten after coming in on her own flight, their destination the Japanese Tea Garden located north of Golden Gate Park. Urd left for the hotel room, and after a small discussion on where to go and what to do, they eventually decided to head north as well, up past the Golden Gate Bridge and to Muir Beach. It was whale watching season, and if they were lucky, they might spot a pod or two of humpback whales or even killer whales crossing beneath the bridge. Following that, a quick lunch, followed by more excursions, dinner, and possibly a movie.

There were five of them, which created problems by way of commute. Keima would not be separated from his large Purple Turd, and the five of them would not be able to fit in the ugly pickup truck together. That brought into question the white Honda Civic that Keiichi had rented as a secondary means of travel and who would travel in what vehicle.

"I'll ride with Keima," Megumi said, recognizing the fact that given the current party she was the only one who _could_ ride with Keima. Keiichi was driving, Belldandy couldn't ride with Keima, and Debra wasn't about to leave Keiichi alone with his girlfriend.

"Shotgun!" Debra announced, causing Keiichi to start and Belldandy to stare.

"What does a shotgun have to do with anything?" Belldandy asked, and when both Megumi and Debra stopped to stare at her, Keiichi buried his face in his hand.

"Right," Debra said. "Anyways, I need to run to my rental real fast to grab my windbreaker if we're going to the coast. I'll be right back."

"We'll meet you by the car." Keiichi replied, and with a nod and a hand wave of acknowledgement, Debra departed the lobby for the parking lot. Unlike Keiichi's rental, which was parked on the west side parking lot adjacent to the entrance, Debra's vehicle was around the back. She made a loop around the building, taking note of where Keiichi had parked last night after they'd returned from dinner. The parking lot was near-empty at this point, with most of the guests having either already checked out or gone to tour San Francisco's attractions.

A man dressed in a black suit and green shirt passed her as she rounded the corner, and it made her pause and glance over her shoulder, her mind recalling the strange woman at the smoke pit. She followed him with her eyes as he vanished around the hotel's corner. There were a lot of businessmen in green shirts at the _Courtyard_ , now that she thought about it, though she hadn't taken much notice of them until she and Megumi had had that somewhat eerie conversation with the woman. Since then, the men had seemed to spring from the ground like maggots after a frost. Debra didn't like it, didn't like _them;_ regardless of their attire, their identical outfits and matching colors, straight down to the shade of green and texture of the shirt- silk. It reminded Debra too much of some kind of organized crime affiliate. She'd been observing them since the Strange Woman, and the more she saw of them, the more convinced she became. They kept to themselves. If some of them were meeting, they'd meet in one centralized place in the lobby. They spoke in hushed voices, and glared at anyone who came too close during a conversation or would stop speaking altogether.

And they watched too.

Twice the men had caught her staring, and on both occasions, it had been unsettling. One would take note of her observation and stop what he was doing to look at her, then another, and another still, until the entirety of the group would pause to stare at her, following her with their eyes until she'd left the lobby. It was suspicious activity, to be certain, though what caught her notice the most was the fact that no matter how many of the men she caught gathered, no matter what Suit passed her by, none of them were the Strange Woman from the smoke pit. Debra had even gone so far as to return to the smoke pit out of an investigator's curiosity earlier that morning, yet the only occupants at that time had been the standard smokers and a couple of teens who looked a couple years shy of eighteen.

And it wasn't just that either.

There was something... _wrong_ with the Suits. They didn't... fit. It wasn't just their outfits, it wasn't just their mannerisms, it wasn't just how they acted outside their hotel rooms. It was something else. Something Debra couldn't explain by way of words, only by feeling. They made the hair on the nape of her neck stand on end. They made her eyes water when she looked directly at them and not from the corner of her eyes. They made her head pound, her heart race, her mind scream that she needed to _leave_ and to _leave now_ for her own safety, and brought to mind childhood memories of ghosts and monsters in the walls of her big old house: _"It lives in the groans of the wood and the creaks of the hinges,"_ her childhood whispered. " _You can't catch it, but it can catch you."_

Who'd said that? Megumi? Keiichi? She couldn't remember, but the memory brought a chill to her despite the summer warmth, and she rubbed her arms, feeling goosebumps break out across her skin. A strange thought entered her head, _they're wearing masks,_ and the thought was so strange and alien to her that she shivered before pushing it out of her mind. Now was not the time for reflection and ghost tales about strange Suits who may or may not be part of some kind of California organized crime syndicate. She needed to go and grab her windbreaker and get back to Keiichi's car to make sure that weird 'girlfriend' of Kei's didn't-

It was the Strange Woman.

Her back was to Debra, but the detective knew it was her at once. The Strange Woman, the blonde from the smoke pit, dressed in the same black suit as all the other Suits she'd seen, Debra was certain. She stood far off near the brick wall that was erected to separate the Courtyard from the neighboring _Hampton Inn,_ four cars away from where Debra's own vehicle was parked, her posture stiff and attentive and her arms crossed behind her back. It stood out to Debra for no other reason than the fact that it reminded her of the stance Keiichi and his military coworkers and friends sometimes took when speaking to each other. The Strange Woman was conversing with someone, and as Debra moved closer, she found out who.

Urd.

Urd, her face grim, her arms crossed across her chest, her head bobbing at the odd interval as she listened to whatever the blonde was telling her. On occasion she spoke in turn, and as Debra got closer she heard bits and snippets of what was said, and it was in a language so strange and alien and incomprehensible that it made the detective's ears hurt. But she recognized the tone though. Oh, how she recognized the tone. Authoritative. Directive. Questioning. Like a chief receiving a report from one of her police officers. Like a general receiving intelligence from her soldier.

This was no casual conversation.

This wasn't even a pair of friends catching up by chance at a tiny hotel two miles outside the San Francisco International Airport.

This was a subordinate reporting to her leadership, and that leadership was _Urd._

In that moment Debra began to question the purpose of Belldandy and Urd's presence here at the hotel with Keiichi. Was it purely interest? Or was there something else going on? If not by Belldandy, then by Urd? Who were these strange Suits and why were they reporting to this strange, silver-haired woman whose lone introduction had been "Urd, Belldandy's sister"?

At once Debra realized her predicament. She was already within Urd's line of sight, though the woman had not yet noticed her. She wanted to turn back at that moment, because confrontation, she realized, here in an almost empty parking lot with only Urd and the Strange Woman and not a camera in sight would almost surely be hazardous to herself. She had only her standing with Keiichi's family to fall back on, if it came to that, and even then, Debra was uncertain of how close Urd truly was to Keiichi. Yet to turn back now would draw Urd's attention, she was certain, and there was no place outside of Debra's car that she could duck out of sight. Yet if she could reach the car... continue with her original intent of retrieving her windbreaker and pretend that she'd never so much as glanced at the two women... would it work? If she never paid any mind to the two women, if she never made eye contact with Urd and simply got in her vehicle, and then perhaps simply started the car and drove to the other side of the _Courtyard_ , would it work? Slip by as simply another guest going about her business?

Her heart was pounding and she realized she was sweating, not from the heat but from fear. She was _scared_ , and again, she couldn't explain why. It was two women in a parking lot, strange though they were, and Debra was certain that she'd been in more dire circumstances that better warranted the fear knotting within her chest at that exact moment. Her palms felt clammy as she dug in her pockets for the rental key, and her pace increased as she came closer to the car, the keys jingling a high din that made her heart leap into her throat.

Urd paused in her conversation to observe the noise, just as she'd feared, and as those strange, violet eyes settled on Debra, the detective froze. Her mind once more was filled with that horrible thought, _they're wearing masks_ , and within her mind's eye, a strange and horrible image came to her. For a moment Urd vanished, Urd and the Strange Woman both, and in their place was something that Debra could not describe. It appeared as a double image, a thing that was there and was not. Where Urd stood, a creature that brought to Debra's mind strange thoughts of carrion birds and giant serpents, of thunder and lighting, fire and smoke, venoms and toxins combined with feather and scale, claw and fang, all in a maelstrom of madness that made Debra's eyes burn in pain. The creature beside it, the Strange Woman, was just as bad, if not worse. This held elements of a cheetah and a jackal and a centipede all in one horrible combination, with an acrid, bitter wind that spoke of noxious fumes and burning fires that smelled of sulfur.

The sight was there and gone in an instant, leaving Debra breathless and trembling in its wake. The keys slipped from her hand, and in so much shock over the image that had possessed her mind, she did not react when they hit the sidewalk. It was then that the Strange Woman turned as well, drawn to the jingle of the keys hitting the asphalt, and all other thoughts ceased to be as the blonde came to observe her as well. It was then and only then that the voice of survival began to whisper in her ear, as Debra met eyes that were not so much brown as they were an unnatural hue of red, and that voice whispered to her, _they're wearing masks_ , kicking awake that old reptile brain that dwelt within all mortals. With its awakening came one thought and one thought alone.

 _Run._

Debra did exactly that. She abandoned her keys, abandoned her car, abandoned all thoughts of reason and logic and turned and fled back to the hotel, back to Keiichi and Megumi and Keima, where Reason and Logic still held a place in the world and where Men in Black Suits and all the mysteries they brought were the fabrication of Hollywood and conspiracy theorists.

And through the entire time, until she rounded the corner and vanished from sight, she felt the eyes of Urd and the Strange Woman on her back. Watching, but not pursuing.

Always watching.

* * *

 **A/N: I wonder what Urd and this mysterious blonde were talking about.**

* * *

 _Comments of a Madwoman: Things will be getting pretty busy in real life for me for the next two months or so, which means I won't have as much time to dedicate to this story as I would like. While we'll still try and push out usual schedule, updates may become a bit later and possibly a bit more spontaneously. Japanese brought to you by Google Translate._


	43. Chapter 43 - Contra Timorous

-43-

Urd observed the blonde woman in front of her, wondering why she was standing in such a formal fashion. The Norn wasn't part of the military, and regardless of the blonde's quasi-military background, there was no reason for her to stand at parade rest, which is what she thought Keiichi had called it when she observed the SEALs being addressed by McGuinness once. She wasn't part of any kind of military or police organization in Niflheim and didn't want to be treated as such. She just needed to know what the blonde knew.

"That's all we have right now," her companion finished.

Before Urd could inquire further, a noise drew their attention. Both turned to find a blonde mortal with long hair staring back at them from across the parking garage. The look on her face was more akin to one having been caught with their pants down rather than someone who had simply dropped their keys, which proved to be the source of the interrupting sound. The staring contest went on for a few moments.

"What's her problem?" Urd whispered in confusion, not taking her eyes off the mortal.

Her companion shrugged. "Beats me," she said, her voice rough and grating with an almost masculine pitch.

Before them, the mortal's face lost all traces of color. She took a step back, eyeing the two of them like they were a couple of wolves, then turned and bolted back the way she came.

Urd's companion cackled with laughter as the woman rounded the corner. "She looked like she saw a ghost!"

A small frown formed on the silver haired goddess's lips as she let out a sigh. "Mortals," she grumbled, as though that statement alone answered the behavior of Keiichi's ex-wife. "I'm sure there will be consequences for that, Mara. I know her."

"I do as well," Mara added.

Urd paused, then looked over at the blonde. "Wait, you do?"

"By chance," Mara nodded. "She came across me while I was receiving a SITREP from one of my men. She was speaking to her companion, who seemed to be going through some family issues. I don't _know_ her though. Who is she?"

"Debra Morisato," Urd replied. "I told you I was coming here with my sister and her boyfriend, right?"

"Yes."

"Debra is his ex-wife," Urd continued. "It's made for some... interesting times with Belldandy in tow."

The blonde scoffed. "Surprised the hotel's still standing," she muttered. "The boys been noticing her too. She's been snooping."

"She's a detective, from what I've learned," Urd replied, and watched as Mara's red eyes grew alight with interest. "And no offense, Mara, but you and your team kind of... draw the suspicious eye."

Mara raised her arms and looked down at her clothes. "What is wrong with this outfit?" she demanded. "This is standard business attire for Midgard, is it not?" She looked at Urd in confusion when the goddess snickered. "What?"

"You look like you're part of an organized crime syndicate, Mara," Urd corrected, and the snicker grew into honest laughter at the insulted look that traversed the blonde's face. "Either that, or the Matrix is leaking with Agent Smiths again. All you're missing are the black sunglasses and you'd hit the look perfectly."

"Are you saying we need sunglasses to better blend in?" Mara asked.

Urd snorted. "Sure. Especially if you want to scare half the hotel denizens," she said. "You can also roam around singing 'I Wear My Sunglasses at Night' as well if you think it'll help." She shook her head. "Anyways, ignore Debra for right now. I think 'snooping' is part of the job description for a detective on Midgard, and she's not going to find anything on you guys. She's a pretty harmless character, from what I've seen."

"Even with the way she just reacted to us?" Mara pried, and her face darkened with suspicion as she looked towards the corner the mortal woman had disappeared around. "Maybe I should-"

"Leave her alone? That's a marvelous idea, Mara," Urd said. "Seriously, I'll speak with her later and see what freaked her out, okay?" The goddess walked towards where Debra had dropped her keys and bent down to retrieve them. She straightened and held them up for Mara to see, jingling them in her hand. "I need to return these anyways, and you have things to occupy your time other than spying on a mortal who's trying to snoop on you."

Mara said nothing.

Urd let the topic drop. "So how are you doing, anyway? Your throat still giving you issues?" She looked up at her long-time friend, a slight frown tugging at the corner of her lips. "I still can't get used to how gravelly your voice is now."

"Mint and honey soothe the burn," Mara replied. "And alcohol lets me forget." There was a hint in there, if the silver haired goddess was not mistaken.

Urd laughed, though it was not as genuine as it could have been. "I can make potions," she reminded her old friend.

"Alcohol tastes better," Mara retorted. "Don't start, _Zamani_."

"All right, all right," Urd raised her hands, Debra's keys still held against her left palm. "I know when to take a hint. Want to go get drunk by the pool for old times' sake? Or are you too busy with the boys to have a drink with an old friend?"

"Fuck you," Mara rumbled, but a slow, long smile began to manifest on the blonde's face. Urd smiled as well. "We're working shifts and the boys off-duty right now are out having their own fun. Yes, I can join you at the pool."

Urd laughed, pocketing Debra's keys. "Then it's settled," she announced. "Time to reminisce with our old pal Jack Daniels. You still enjoy a good whiskey, right?"

"When don't I?" Mara replied.

XXX

They had a light lunch that day at a small Mexican restaurant. Given the long and exhausting morning between Belldandy and Debra, Keiichi had hoped it would give him a break.

He was wrong.

It wasn't that the morning was necessarily bad. Just... aggravating. Deb had shown up at the rental white as a ghost, yet when Keiichi had asked her what was wrong, she'd refused to speak on it. It was concerning, especially when Belldandy had claimed the front seat. Rather than argue about it as Keiichi had feared, Deb had taken to the back seat without a word, shooting shady glances at Belldandy all the while. To Keiichi it was almost as if Deb decided the back seat was safer, that she wanted to keep an eye on Bell, and given her job as a detective, the thought rubbed Keiichi the wrong way.

The trip across the city had been quiet to the point of nerve-wracking, and the radio had not helped. On several occasions, the SEAL had attempted to start up a conversation, and on each occurrence regretted it. Belldandy displayed an unusual amount of animosity towards Debra, and any chance at conversation was used to try to win one over on his ex-wife. Stranger still was Deb's reaction. Deb, along with the rest of the second-generation Morisatos, had grown up on the streets of San Francisco, where gang activity was rampant from the likes of the _Sureños,_ MS-13, and the _Neustra Familia,_ sohad learned early on in her life to defend herself. For the entire drive down to the coast though, Debra had held her silence, appearing distracted and ill at ease in the back seat. She said nothing in response to Bell's jibes, and several times Keiichi had to step in and have Belldandy tone it down, his concern mounting when Debra would do little but watch, listen, and then go to her phone, punching in some kind of text message to who Debra _claimed_ was Megs, but could have been anybody.

His distress mounted. With it came a horrible longing. He wished Aiko was there in the car with him. Aiko could lighten the situation and goof off and keep the two women in his car-his girlfriend and his ex-wife-from taking pot shots at each other and alienating one another. Aiko could keep the conversation light and humorous because Aiko's overall personality was peppy and fun, and she'd gone through too much grief in her life to put much stock in shit like anger or hate. And while he knew the reasons behind Aiko's decision to go off with Takano and her girlfriend... god _damn_ did he miss her right then.

Thankfully, a trip down to the beach seemed to help everyone. The cool salt air of the Pacific Ocean seemed to clear Debra's head. There were seals on the beach, which also brought an end to Belldandy's temporary assault on his ex-wife. With Megumi and Keima in tow, they even had the opportunity to see whales far off against the horizon, and Belldandy was speechless when Keima identified a pod of orcas out to the north. She'd never seen orcas before, and was curious at the origin behind their more common name of 'killer whales'. Megumi, a fan of marine life since a trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium in her youth, was all too happy to explain, and Belldandy had listened in rapt fascination as Megumi regaled her with tales of the 'wolves of the deep'.

"Kei and I got to swim with orcas one time," Megumi bragged with no small amount of glee. "We'd been out on the beach one time when we were, oh, I don't know, maybe nine and ten, respectively?" She looked over at Keiichi, who nodded in confirmation. "A whole pod of orcas snuck up on us when we were out swimming. It was awesome."

"They were going to eat you!" Keima accused. "I had to swim out and grab you both!"

"They're _whales_ , Keima, not sharks," Megumi retorted. "Wild orcas don't kill humans."

Both Keima and Keiichi had shared a look. "I dunno," Keiichi replied. "A giant six-ton whale smart enough to lure seals and birds with food and shit? I think the only reason humans aren't on the menu is because they haven't sampled us, yet."

Deb had laughed. It had been the first laugh he'd heard from her since the announcement of Megumi's pregnancy. "You mean you don't want to swim with the whales, Mister Navy SEAL?"

"And risk getting eaten like one?" Keiichi retorted. "No thanks, you guys have fun."

They stayed there for a good couple of hours, walking along the coast and telling stories and catching up on old times. Keima, despite his age, had a sharp pair of eyes that put Keiichi's to shame. On multiple occasions the older man pointed out everything from whale pods to seals to even where a tiny rattlesnake perched on a rock absorbing some sun. Keiichi, Megumi, and Debra gave it a wide berth, having been warned since childhood to avoid the vipers at all cost. Yet Belldandy walked right up to it without fear. She cooed at it, and before anyone had thought to stop her, she had picked the serpent up and placed it off the road, where it slithered into a large, long grove of ice plant and vanished from sight.

"Jesus, are you crazy?!" Debra exclaimed. "That was a Mojave rattlesnake! The most venomous snake in all of California!"

Yet Belldandy had remained unconcerned. "Serpents never bother me unless they are in ill-temper," she said. "I have experience handling snakes." And indeed, strange though the event was, not once had the rattler shown any tell-tale signs of aggression. No s-curved neck preparing for a strike, no rattle from the tail that gave the species its name, no wild or erratic movement... the snake had been calm and relaxed in Belldandy's hands, as docile as a corn snake as it slithered out of sight. "I can thank Urd for that."

Deb fell silent at that.

They took a different route back to the vehicles after another two miles of walking, and between Megumi's excitement over a herd of elephant seals lying on the beach and Keima explaining how to identify where a pod of whales was by the flock of seagulls gathered far off in the ocean, the strange event was forgotten. Debra had come to walk at Keiichi's right, with Belldandy on his left, catching up on how the rest of Keiichi's team was doing after Deb had fallen out of contact with them. She laughed over Jackson's attempts with the new lady in his life, asked about Sanchez's attempts at breeding a hotter ghost pepper, and asked for updates on McGuinness and the now-retired Morrison while listening in curiosity over the tales of the newer Braxton.

It was almost enough to make Keiichi forget about the budding rivalry between the two women on his arms. Right up to the point where they reached the rental again and a fight broke out over who claimed the front seat.

Debra won that round, but only after Keiichi had intervened and, in a manner that felt too similar to his childhood fights with Megumi, explained that the two women would switch seats at every stop. "Christ, it's like dealing with a pair of children," he grumbled to Keima as they reached their next stop for lunch.

Keima laughed and slapped a hand on his shoulder. "Then is good preparation for future," he said. "I want more grandbabies. You will need the practice."

Keiichi turned as white as a sheet.

The Mexican restaurant was a familiar one from Keiichi's childhood. It was a tiny, family-owned restaurant, still run by the same Martinez family that had become a constant in Keiichi's life for close to three decades. Jesús Martinez, the owner, was a close friend of Keima's, and he greeted the family loudly and warmly when Keima walked through the doors. At close to one thirty in the afternoon now, the lunch rush was over, and the remaining patrons ignored the large group as Maria, Jesús's wife, led them to a large, rounded, corner booth.

Keiichi, as he'd reluctantly come to expect, found himself imprisoned between his girlfriend and his ex-wife.

"Well I'll be a _burro_ 's ass, it's the Morisatos!" Jesús came out from the kitchen to greet them, his son, Diego, a close childhood friend of Keiichi's, following in his wake. "Long time no see, _Pendejo!"_ He embraced Keima, who'd yet to sit, in a quick hug. Jesús was a short, stocky man with arms like a pair of tree trunks. Keima had known him from as far back as Keiichi could remember, originally as one of Keima's first customers, then again as someone Keima used to repeatedly run into at the Spanish meat market that had since been torn down. Back then, it had been the only grocery store Keima and Takano had ever gone to- the only place where they could afford meat, where Spanish was spoken more than English and Japanese, and where Keiichi had learned how to roll his r's before he could count to ten in English.

Diego, his just-as-stocky son, had gone to the same schools as Keiichi growing up, and together the boys had attended various classes that taught English as a second language. A lineman by trade, Diego oftentimes vacationed back home to visit family and friends, and oftentimes got roped in to helping out at his parent's restaurant during the summertime when the influx of traffic was heavier due to people on vacation. He was a relaxed individual, always with a smile on his face and always slow to anger, and had been the best man at Keiichi's wedding.

"'Bout time you came back for a visit, Brah," Diego said, his smile the same large, toothy, relaxed smile that Keiichi remembered. "Ain't seen you in a couple years! I was starting to think you ain't ever gonna show up here again." His face lit up when they found Megumi, and his smile shown. "And Megs! _Babita!_ You come back to me!" he exclaimed. " _Dios mío! Mi corazón."_ He held his hands to his heart. "Does this mean you left Mark and come running back to my arms?" Diego and Megumi had dated throughout high school before breaking up to pursue their own careers. They parted on good terms, and it was common for the two to joke about their past relationship.

Megumi smiled in delight. "Not this time, _Pimientito," she_ said. "Can't come back to my side-boi anymore. I've got to worry about a real _babita_ now."

Diego started, his eyes widening in shock. "Nah, really?!" At Megumi's nod and growing smile, the man's jaw dropped. "Holy- congratulations Megs!" He laughed, then looked over at his father. " _Papá,_ you hear that? Ol' Man Keima gonna be an _abuelo!"_

" _Ojichan!"_ Keima nodded in agreement, his chest puffed up in pride. "You call me _ojichan_ now! Not pen-de-ho like you always do, _Shiri!_ "

This time it was Jesús's jaw that dropped. " _Tu,_ _abuelo_?" He shook his head. "Naah, you fucking with me, you old drunk."

" _Hai!"_ Keima continued to nod, the smile on his face ear splitting in its size. "Am _ojichan_ now!"

Martinez Senior shared a look with Martinez Junior. The two burst into loud, raucous laughter. " _Maravilloso!"_ Jesús slapped a large, meaty palm on Keima's lean shoulder. It pitched the man forward into the table, yet Keima didn't seem to care. "This calls for a celebration!" he said. "Drinks are on me!" Laughing still, the man turned and ran off into the kitchen, ignorant of the aggravated look his wife sent his way from where she was cleaning a table.

"No tequila!" Keima shouted after him. "Is cat piss!"

"No alcohol for me please," Megumi said quickly, sending a somewhat panicked glance Diego's way.

"No worries, _Babita_! Lunch is on the house for you!" Diego cut in. "Speaking of, lemme get your orders before Pops gets back."

"You already know what I want, Boss," Keiichi said.

Diego laughed. "Man, you never learn do you?" he asked. "You gonna go to the hospital with a hole in your stomach. Your buddy back in Virginia prep you for the fire that's gonna come outta yo' ass?"

"You mean Sanchez?" Keiichi asked. "Man, come on. I survived Sanchez's ghost pepper chili!"

"Isn't that what landed you in the hospital?" Debra sent him a sidelong glance.

"I got better!" Keiichi declared. "Come on. Hit me with your best shot. Give me _El Diablo."_

Diego glanced at Debra. The woman sighed. "I'll take him to the hospital," she promised. "...again."

Belldandy straightened, alarmed. "Wait, what?" she demanded, looking from Keiichi to Diego to Debra. "What do you mean?"

"Don't worry about it," Keiichi and Diego said together. It earned him several flat expressions from the women present.

"Worry about it," Megumi muttered. " _El Diablo_ is the burrito that made this place famous back in two thousand fourteen," she explained. "You need to sign a waiver before you eat it. It's got Carolina Reaper peppers in it."

Belldandy stared at her blankly, and on the other side of Keiichi, Debra grumbled. "Hottest goddamned pepper in the fucking world, and you're going to eat a burrito filled with them on the day right before Aiko has to speak in front of that asshole's parole officer."

"Yep," Keiichi's smile was large and reckless. "Come on, Deb, you know I can never pass up an opportunity like this!"

Both Debra and Megumi let out long, exasperated moans. "God... damn it, Keiichi," Megumi muttered.

"You won't be able to attend the hearing if you eat it," Debra warned. "You're going to be stuck on a toilet for two hours wishing you were dead."

"Hey," Keiichi looked over at her with a scowl. "Don't tell me how to live my bad decisions."

"No demon-burrito for you!" Keima was joining in now, as well. "You shit yourself in front of women like baby! Then they want nothing to do with you!" Belldandy stared at Keima, aghast, yet the man didn't seem to notice. "What you want me tell Aiko? You cannot join her because asshole is on fire? You want she call you 'Burning Asshole' from now on?"

Megumi covered her eyes with the palm of her hand. "Oh god," she muttered. "To think that I'm related to... this is what my child has in store for itself..."

Keiichi set his jaw. "I will not give in to peer pressure." He crossed his hands over his chest in a stubborn act of defiance, and Diego laughed.

"Keiichi, could you please order something else?" Belldandy asked.

"Please?" Debra joined in as well in a rare display of support. "You'll kill us in the car with your gas alone."

For a brief moment, Keiichi considered the wisdom of replying, _"That would mean you two wouldn't be able to argue any more, right?"_ He bit his tongue instead.

"Oooh, now look at what you've done," Megumi whispered loudly. "You've got them joining forces against you, Kei. Better do what they say or they might tie you to a pole and leave you hanging."

Keiichi glared at his sister, but relented none-the-less. "All right, fine," he grumbled, his face scrunched and pinched, like a child denied a toy. "Fine, we'll have it your way. I'll have your chicken fajitas instead."

"There _is_ a god," Debra breathed as Diego scribbled down Keiichi's order, and almost missed Belldandy scoff. She glanced at the woman, yet Diego stole her attention with her order request before she could comment on what Belldandy found so humorous. "I'll just have the usual," she said, distracted. "Fish tacos."

"That explains a lot," Belldandy muttered.

Debra stiffened, then leaned over the table to get a better look at Belldandy. "Is this coming from personal experience? You know they make creams for that now."

Belldandy's face went scarlet.

"Guys…" Keiichi's voice was tight with aggravation. "Could you fucking not?"

Scowling, Debra leaned back in her seat with a huff. Diego looked between the two of them with a raised eyebrow, but didn't comment. Keiichi silently thanked him for that. Instead he continued with his orders, getting Megumi's order next followed by Keima's, then circling back around to Belldandy. "So, what'll your friend have?" he asked.

Keiichi, fed up with the ongoing feud between Belldandy and Debra, didn't bother to correct him. Instead he looked at the menu. He took a breath in an effort to keep his temper, then spoke to Belldandy. "Pretty much everything is fair game, though you'll want to avoid anything with the pepper icon. I recommend the burritos myself, as they're Jesús's specialty."

Belldandy eyed him shrewdly, a scowl still on her face, and then nodded. "Fine," she said. "That is fine. A burrito then."

Keiichi eyed her, then glanced at Diego, making a very obvious attempt not to look at Debra. Diego shook his head ever-so-slightly, a little 'I'm not getting involved' shake that did little to ease Keiichi's nerves. The man looked back at Belldandy. "Do you... know which one you want?"

"I'll take whatever you recommend," Belldandy continued.

"So you'll have _El Diablo_ instead?" Debra shot out. "Do we need to have another discussion on why that's a bad idea?"

"Stop!" Keiichi exclaimed. "Fucking Christ, guys... fine, Bell, try the _carne asada_ burrito, okay?"

"I'll have that then," Belldandy said, taking her turn to lean over the table and cast a glare at Debra.

"Don't start," Keiichi warned. "Or I swear to god, you both will sit in the back of the car."

Diego busied himself scribbling down Belldandy's order, looking hard like he was trying not to laugh. "Sweet, I'll get started then. Pops will be back with your drinks in a bit." He fled the table like a man pursued by demons.

As he darted back into the kitchen, Keima called after him. "You make sure rice is good! No boiling!" His demand, like all the other times Keiichi had visited the restaurant with his father, would most likely be ignored.

Jesús returned a few minutes later with a platter of drinks in hand, one of which, as Keiichi suspected, was a bottle of tequila. He also had a pitcher of water, which he offered to Megumi, who took it with some relief. Keiichi declined the tequila as well under the excuse of being the driver. Things got a little better from there. Keima and Jesús were too busy arguing and heckling each other for Debra and Belldandy to get any shots of their own in at one another, and slowly, ever so slowly, Keiichi began to relax. The conversation remained light, though it was becoming apparent that the tequila was making Keima a little too bold in his speech.

"Ooi! I told you one thousand times you hole in the ass! Best rice is steamed rice! No boiling!"

"Bah!" yelled Jesús in reply. The fact it was coming from the kitchen was testament to how loud Keiichi's father was becoming. "Steaming it makes it stick together too much you _pendejo_ jerk-off! I want some nice, fluffy rice. Not a sticky mess!"

Keiichi shared a look with Megumi, who nodded. She'd take over driving the Purple Turd in Keima's stead.

After about fifteen minutes, Diego emerged from the kitchen once more with a platter of food on his arm. He passed out the respective meals to the group, and from there that atmosphere grew lighter still. Keiichi devoured his meal with the speed and ferocity of a trainee at the chow hall with a screaming drill sergeant over his head. In fact, in the silence that followed it seemed as though everyone was consuming their meals with gusto, a sign of the appetite built during the walk that morning. Even Belldandy ate faster than normal, and with both she and Debra preoccupied with their meals, neither had time to start another argument.

 _Maybe that's all it was,_ Keiichi dared to hope. _Maybe they were both just hungry, and in the wise words of Saint Snickers, 'You're not you when you're hungry'._ The thought made him smile as he scraped up the last small bit of pepper with his fork, and in the peace of the moment he imagined Bell as a cranky old woman and Deb as an angry sports coach. It was wishful thinking, he knew, but hopefully the amount of carbs that came with all their meals would be enough to put them both in comas during transit to whatever awaited them next. Jesús was good at inducing carb comas, and if the women were asleep, then they couldn't fight, which meant that Keiichi wouldn't be filled with the desire to run the rental off the Golden Gate Bridge and into the San Francisco Bay.

As the others were finishing their meals Keiichi browsed his phone for possible movies and times. After the long trek on the beach and the large lunch they'd just had, Keiichi doubted anyone in the group wanted to brave California's heat on foot for long. A movie would provide some welcome relief, and perhaps even keep his two problem children from bickering too much. Captain America: Civil War was playing at a nearby theater around three, and with it only being a quarter past two right now, there'd be ample time to catch it. It'd be a good movie to watch, too. Megs and Deb were both fans of the Marvel cinema universe, which meant that he and Keima didn't have to worry about watching a damn chick flick with the girls. It'd be a nice introduction for Belldandy too, since the man had never taken her to see a superhero movie before. The only thing he regretted was that Thor wasn't in the movie. He'd have loved to see the Norn's reaction to 'one of her own' popping up in the movie and getting his shit wrecked by a jolly mean, green giant. That'd have to be a movie for home then, one where Urd could join them as well and he could record both of their expressions when first Loki, then Thor, popped up.

After a quick discussion, the movie was agreed upon. Lunch was finished and paid for and good-byes were made, with a promise from Megumi to send the Martinez family an invitation to Megumi's baby shower. The car ride to the movie theater was blissfully peaceful, and as Keiichi had predicted Jesús's meal sent Belldandy at least off into dreamland. Debra was quiet as well, sitting in the back this time, and a glance back in the rearview mirror showed the woman on her phone, brows scrunched together and lips pulled down in a long frown as she examined her phone. Work stuff, Keiichi guessed. Even when they were still married Deb had been a bit of a workaholic. Even on vacations she'd been known to check in at the office, trying to get some small bit of work done during transits from one place to another. Keiichi had never been a big fan of that aspect of her, but he'd understood it nonetheless. It was too easy, in her line of work, for tasks to pile up into a mountain when she wasn't in office. People trying to contact her, people asking for permission, people requesting access to evidence lockers or needing her signature or for her to finish some piece of paperwork or some other nit-picky thing. Stuff that was easy to take care of while at work, but became a hindrance if allowed to sit and pile.

Of course, that wasn't to say they never had a good vacation together. As soon as it was time to go or as a soon as they reached their destination, Deb was all about the experience. When not on call, she'd oftentimes leave her phone in the car to make sure she wasn't bothered by people contacting her, and dinner together had always been peaceful and enjoyable. There'd been an unspoken rule in the house, way back when and another life time ago, where cellphones were off and no media was around, where the two of them could sit at the table and eat together and enjoy each other's company in the mornings or the evenings. It had been a rule he'd kept in the house following her departure, and one he'd maintained following Belldandy's arrival in his life.

The memory left a pang in his heart. He hadn't thought of those times in _years_. In fact, he'd gone to great lengths to keep those memories buried, locked away and hidden from view in some chest deep in the dark corners of his mind after Deb had walked out on him. The sudden resurgence brought with it heartache, so fresh and ripe with pain that it was almost as if Deb had left him yesterday rather than two years ago. He _missed_ those times together. Those quiet times in the morning where Deb would awaken with Keiichi to his alarm to start her own workout. To coming downstairs and sharing a protein shake with her-them both with their own brands-in a peaceful, companionable silence. Of their joking departures for their own exercises outside, of silly jokes when they saw each other an hour later, of racing each other laughing for who would get the upstairs bathroom first and who would be stuck with the downstairs bathroom to shower, and all the other silly little moments that were unique to the couple.

He missed it. He missed _her_ , and damn it he wasn't supposed to anymore. Not with Belldandy in the front seat right next to him.

It didn't change his feeling for Belldandy, of course, not by a long shot. But at the same time... he missed what he'd had with Debra. What he'd shared with her for close to seven years, and now, just seeing his ex-wife in the back seat working on her phone like she always did when they were still together... it hurt. It wasn't something he'd ever have back, he knew, and not even something he ever wanted to pursue again-but hot damn if memory wasn't a strong and painful thing sometimes.

XXX

They arrived at the movie theater around two-thirty with time to spare. The lines were small at this time of day, the theater itself close to empty. Captain America: Civil War had been out for several weeks now, and the group was going to one of the last theaters still showing it. With it came the privilege of having an entire row of seats for themselves, and once again Keiichi was pinned between his ex-wife and goddess girlfriend. Thankfully, the movie served its purpose to distract, and for the most part everyone in attendance were too absorbed with the movie to do or say much of anything else. Keima fell asleep about half-way through the movie, but his snores disrupted no one, and aside from that and Belldandy's initial confusion as to why no one bothered leaving with the ending credits, it was an enjoyable time for everybody.

Right up to the point where Belldandy and Debra started into each other again.

They returned to the hotel after the movie to rest, relax, and catch up with the others. Keiichi was relieved. While the day had grown a bit nicer towards the end with the movie, Bell and Deb had shown no qualms about restarting their quarrel in the car. The hotel meant he could lock himself away from the others, away from the two current women in his car in particular, and given their attitudes towards each other, he could not fucking _wait._

 _Just go back to the hotel and take a nice long shower and a nap until dinner,_ he thought to himself. God damn, that sounded fucking amazing right now. A long hot shower to wash away California, freshen up, and then collapse into the clean bed sheets with the A/C cranked up to max. Urd would be back at the hotel, and then he could pass the children off to her and Aiko if Aiko was back. Let the two 'Aunties' take care of the squabbling children. Papa was going to take a break.

 _I'm never having children,_ he thought to himself. A small smile overtook his lips. _Not if this is a taste of what's to come. Let Megs have the babies, I'll be the crazy uncle who spoils them and sends them home with a pound of chocolate in their stomachs._ As they pulled into the parking lot, Keiichi's imagination captured his mind's eye, and once more the two women who'd been harassing him all day vanished. This time what replaced them were children, Debra from how he'd always known her as a child: a tiny, freckled little thing with a small ponytail and a tomboyish attitude that complemented Megumi's. His earliest memory of her had been her bounding over to meet them on the playground at school first, and then later again when she worked up the courage to knock on the front door of their house. She'd always had an outgoing personality, even when they were little kids, which was one of the reasons why she and Megs had always gotten along so well. The picture of Belldandy that came to his mind however, was different. Not so much the quiet, strong-willed woman who'd come to grace his home but a kind, sweet little girl who still liked to wear dresses when everyone else thought it was too girly. A friendly little girl whose peaceful personality betrayed a vicious temper when the mood consumed her, but who otherwise went out of her way to attempt to befriend anyone and everyone, but had somehow hit a wall with Deb during their first introduction.

 _I bet they'd be friends if they could start over._ He found himself thinking, pulling into a parking space and turning off the engine. _Just a small re-introduction. "Hello Deb, this is my girlfriend Belldandy. Bell, this is my ex-wife Debra. There's no spark left between me and Deb, so let's all try and get along, okay?"_ It was a stupid thought, even to his mind's ear, and wistful still on top of that. The idea of his ex-wife getting along with her...replacement was preposterous, and Belldandy was still insecure with where she stood in their current relationship.

Even so...

 _If wishes were fishes then no one would starve and I'd have a gold-plated toilet seat._ Keiichi reminded himself as he and the women unbuckled their seat belts and exited the car. He stretched after slamming the door behind him. If felt good to stretch his legs, and the heat had yet to settle onto his skin after the A/C in the car. His spine popped as he stretched, and with a sigh, he relaxed. Megumi had parked a couple of spaces away from him, and she and Keima were already out and waiting for them. Keima had a small sway in his stance.

"You good Keima?" Megumi asked as Keiichi, Belldandy, and Debra approached. "You look a little unsteady there."

"I tell you _one more time,_ I am _ojichan_ now!" Keima's words came out a slur, and Keiichi cringed internally. The tequila, which had already taken hold of him at the Martinez restaurant, was still good and strong in his blood, regardless of how much he'd slept through the movie.

"Uh huh, right," Megumi nodded in agreement. "You need some help back to your room?"

" _Ojichan_ is fine!" Keima announced, perhaps a bit more loudly than he intended, having gained the attention of a pair of sharply-dressed businessmen heading for the hotel. "I did not ask for your help!"

Megumi sent Keiichi a long-suffering look, and catching the message the SEAL took over. "You guys go on ahead. I'll help Keima inside."

"Oi, I told you, is _Ojichan_ now, and I did not ask for help!" Keima continued to rant. "I am not some old man-" The older man took a step towards the hotel as if to prove his point, and went face first towards the hot tarmac. Keiichi rushed to catch him before he hit the ground and helped him back up.

"Is he...?" Belldandy began.

"He's fine," Megumi proclaimed. "Come on. Leave this to Keiichi. Let's head inside and get some water for them."

"But..." Belldandy continued.

"Go on ahead, Bell. See if Aiko and Takano are back yet for me, will ya?" Keiichi continued. "This ain't nothing I haven't done before."

"All...all right," Belldandy mumbled, and turned towards the hotel, casting an uncertain glance over her shoulder. Megumi followed after her, turning only to mouth a mute _'thank you'_ before turning away as well.

"Hey Kei, later tonight...can I talk to you? In private?" Deb, the last person of their little party, was the last to leave, and it was with a request that caught him off-guard. "It's... kind of important."

Keiichi looked at her, still supporting Keima, and took note of the grim lines in her face. Something about that and the set of her jaw spoke of a severity that went beyond a simple argument or some kind of flirtatious advance. The man frowned, considering the request, and then nodded. "Sure," he said. "Do you want to talk after we head inside?"

The woman hesitated, her mouth parting as if to say yes. She looked over to the departing couple in silence, then beyond them to the two businessmen at the glass doors of the hotel before shaking her head. "No…" She looked back to Keiichi. "No, I think it can wait until later tonight. Maybe... sometime after dinner? Just...before you go to sleep tonight. That's all."

"All right," Keiichi said, looking puzzled. "Let's aim for around eight then, if that's the case. Ought to allow us to get back home after dinner."

"Sounds good," Debra nodded, looking relieved. "Thanks Kei. I'll catch you back inside," With a parting wave, she turned and trotted after Megumi and Belldandy, leaving Keiichi with Keima.

Keiichi sighed. "Let's get after them before they tell Takano on us," he said. "God only knows how pissed she'll be that Jesús got a few drinks in you before dinner."

Keima grunted. "Keiichi, next time you take girls to movie by yourself. Popcorn stale! Sound too loud and story unrealistic!"

 _Here we go..._ Keiichi thought, bracing himself for the upcoming scolding. "Well Keima, it was a movie about comic book characters, so..."

Keima punched him in the arm, causing Keiichi to grunt. "One more thing!" He exclaimed, "You leave girl problems here. Don't bring them to dinner!"

"Okay Keima," Keiichi said, releasing the man when it became apparent that he was not as drunk as he'd led the girls to believe.

"One more thing!" Keima continued, turning to look Keiichi in the eyes. They stood eye-level with each other, so it was no great effort for him. "You find a way to fix Aiko! We expecting many grandbabies from her!"

Keiichi winced. _Yep, there it is. Motherfucker._ "Okay Keima. I'll do what I can but I don't-"

Keima interrupted him, "One _more_ thing!" He crowed, and this time his cawing gained the attention of a family of four unloading from an SUV. "If you decide to marry that Belldandy woman-"

"Yeah yeah, I know, you'll disown me," Keiichi said with some small annoyance. "I'll just go to Takano like I did Deb and-"

Keima smacked him on the head with two fingers. "You don't interrupt Keima!" He snapped.

"Ow," Keiichi said reflexively. It didn't hurt.

"As I was saying," Keima continued, "you and her like Yin and Yang. Like Keima and Takano. Good magic comes from both of you when you're together. Bad magic when you apart." He held Keiichi's eyes with a deep scowl. "Like you and Debra before you up-fucked it! You don't be fucking this up like Debra, or I swear on our ancestors I will string you from a pole!"

Keiichi scoffed. "You'll do _what_?"

It earned him another whack on the forehead from Keima. "Have you wax bees in ears? Rinse out head boy, I'm talking to you!" Keima snapped. "You stupid! You screw up a good thing once, you remember what happen? It hurt you _and_ Debra! Not again!" He glared at Keiichi, the lines in his face deep and upset. "You know how long it take Keima to find Takano? _Years_. You find a woman like that only _once_ in your life. For you, that Deb. Now you have found _another_." He rested a hand on Keiichi's shoulders, and it was a heavy weight that pulled down on Keiichi like a brick. The man leaned in close. "You _not_ fuck up, Keiichi," he rumbled. "You do, you not will get third chance. She will leave you broken. You understand?"

Keiichi was struck speechless. Keima didn't talk about relationships. They were as taboo a subject to him as women. To hear him speak so freely on the subject of not only that, but his own relationship with Takano was enough to shock Keiichi into silence, and he stared deeply into his father's face, taking note of the seriousness of his expression and the concern buried within the man's dark eyes. This was no drunk man. This was a man who'd played a fool's gambit to give himself and his son some privacy away from the women. For a moment, a wave of guilt consumed him; guilt over the loss of Debra and guilt over the strain his breakdown had caused on his family, which made itself evident in his father's face. He recognized, in that moment, that this conversation was more in concern of Keiichi himself instead of Belldandy, and was humbled. He frowned, his expression matching Keima's with such likeness that to any who passed and saw them, there would be little doubt as to the relation of the two. At length, Keiichi nodded. "I understand, Keima," he said. "I won't-" He stopped himself at the last moment. "I'll _try_ not to fuck this up."

"You either up-fuck or you don't," Keima said in all seriousness. "There is no try in that promise. Is same with your Belldandy-woman. You both must not up-fuck this, or you will both suffer. I have seen it with others. Our friends. Our family." He shook his head, and his expression morphed into one of sadness. "You both must look after each other, you understand? If not it will lead to tragedy. You have lived it with Debra. Do not re-live it with Belldandy, yes?"

"Yes," Keiichi replied. "Okay...okay, yes. I won't fuck it up this time Keima. I-I won't."

Keima nodded in approval and released his grip on Keiichi's shoulder. "Good," he said, and his tone lightened. "Now let's go. Keima needs break from women."

"Shit, you and me both, _Ojichan,"_ Keiichi retorted, and watched his father's face break into a smile.

"Ha!" He barked. "I knew we related! Indeed! Let us say hello to Takano and Aiko and then goodbye for freedom!"

XXX

Aiko, Takano, and Morgan were already in the hotel when Belldandy and Megumi entered. The trio sat off at one of the small gathering areas in the in the room next to the lobby. Megumi made a beeline for the area, and Belldandy, seeing no signs of her sister anywhere, followed as Debra fell in behind her. The other half of the group sat on a couch next to a television, paper and plastic bags labeled with designer brands at their feet and plastic coffee cups on the wooden coffee table next to them. All three of the women appeared to be in good humor, gossiping over something Belldandy was unfamiliar with but sounded like the plot of a story or television show.

Takano spotted them first, waving them over with a smile. Together, the new arrivals moved to join the other members of their party. Aiko greeted them with a warm smile. "Hey guys, how'd it go?" She asked, "You do anything fun?"

"We saw orca pods and seals down by the coast," Megumi said.

"And Belldandy showed off her snake handling skills," Debra said behind the Norn in question. Belldandy jumped. "I still don't know if it was the bravest or dumbest thing I've ever seen."

Belldandy scowled, looking over her shoulder at the woman, who watched her with a scowl of her own. "I told you-"

"It was a Mojave Rattlesnake," Debra continued without breaking eye contact.

"Good lord!" Aiko breathed, "Those are like, one of the most dangerous snakes in California! Are you guys okay? It didn't bite you or anything, did it?"

"We're fine!" Megumi cut in, catching sight of the concerned expressions on the others' faces. Even Morgan looked alarmed. "We're all fine. This badass over here spotted it and picked it up with her _bare hands_ and sent it off into some ice plants. It didn't so much as shake its tail at her. It was _awesome._ " She paused, noting that the concern was not fading but was in fact growing. "Then stopped by the Martinez's restaurant for lunch. Diego says hi. And... um... Keima might be drunk?"

At once Takano bristled. "He had tequila, didn't he?" She demanded. Megumi nodded with a wince, her smile a grimace as Takano gripped the armrest of the chair she was in, her expression dark, and then with a sigh relaxed. "I will speak with him later," she said. There was an edge in her voice that both Megumi and Aiko shied away from. "Keiichi is with him?"

"Yeah," Deb said. "Speaking of... I'll be right back. Keiichi asked for some water for Keima. They'll be inside in a few."

"I see..." Takano mumbled, and as Debra ducked out of the area at a speedy rush, Belldandy turned to follow. There was no way she was going to leave _that_ woman out of her sight, even if Keiichi was accompanied by his father. She didn't trust Debra for a minute.

"Belldandy- _san,_ come and sit with us!" Takano called out to her before the Norn could chase after the mortal. The goddess froze, not so much at Takano's call so much as the honorific attached to her name, as for a brief moment Japan and all its wretchedness came speeding back to her. The edges of her vision began to darken, and the goddess was engulfed in a wave of dizziness as visions from the past overtook the people around her. She felt hot all of a sudden. Hot and surrounded and suffocating, and in that instant all the Norn could think about was getting _out_ , getting _away,_ and come hell or high water that was what she was going to-

 _It's okay,_ a voice whispered in her mind, and for a moment Belldandy almost didn't recognize it as Holy Bell. _You're all right. You're okay. Take a deep breath. This isn't Japan._ The goddess took a long breath, becoming all too aware of the world around her: the sun glaring through the windows. The smell of air freshener covering the stale scent of humanity. The noise flowing from the lobby, the television, the people around her. The heat in her cheeks, the sweat sliding down her back, the overwhelming claustrophobia that enveloped her. _Come now, this is nothing,_ Holy Bell whispered, _an honorific. Do you remember what Keiichi taught you for these moments? For those times when the world grew too small to hold you?_

 _Yes..._

 _Then what is your name?_ Holy Bell asked.

 _Belldandy Tyrsdottor._

 _Where are you?_

 _Midgard, on the North America Continent, The United States of America, California, San Francisco. I'm in the_ Courtyard _Hotel._

 _Good,_ Holy Bell said. _Look at the television,_ she coached, _what's on the screen? Describe what's being shown._

 _It's a movie,_ Belldandy continued, feeling some of her initial panic subside. _There are yellow subtitles on screen. It's animated. A young lion is conversing with a large pig and...I don't know what that other thing is. Their surroundings are like a jungle and they're eating-_ Belldandy blinked, then recoiled. _Holy Bell, they're eating bugs._

 _The subtitles say it tastes like chicken,_ her angel said, and for a moment Belldandy felt an ethereal pair of arms settle on her shoulders, light and feather-like, where the skin of her shoulders tingled from the angel's touch. _You're okay now, see?_ Holy Bell continued. _Now go and sit with Miss Takano. Aiko looks concerned._

 _I will,_ Belldandy said, and tore her eyes from the television and back to where Aiko sat with her mother and girlfriend. The young woman did indeed look worried, and when their eyes met Belldandy sent her a reassuring smile. _I'm okay now,_ she wanted to tell her. _Holy Bell is with me, it's okay now._

Though the words were left unspoken and her thoughts left unheard, Aiko still must have read something in the Norn's face. She smiled too, and it was a relieved one that placed Belldandy's heart at ease. With no hesitation, the Norn approached Takano and Aiko, joining their company. They chatted for a while, with Megumi sitting on the armrest next to Aiko, and spoke a bit about each other, about their pasts, and about what they were doing now. Takano learned of how her son had come to help Belldandy during a 'challenging time in her life', and Takano shared stories of her own life coming to America and the adventures in raising first two, then three, then four children.

"Where is he by the way?" Belldandy asked, "Your youngest son, Keigo?"

Takano huffed. "He is with a friend studying." Behind her Aiko rolled her eyes in exasperation. Even Megumi didn't look convinced. "Keigo has finals coming up. He needs to get a good grade so he can progress to the next level."

Behind her Aiko shook her head, _"He's not studying,"_ she mouthed, then pressed a finger to her lips.

Belldandy wisely held her silence, and Takano continued speaking. "He is a good boy, a little peculiar at times, but a good boy still. He takes a lot after his father, and enjoys working with his hands," the woman's expression was rueful, "when he is not playing videogames, anyway. Very smart. Very quiet, and he prefers to keep to himself. Keima thinks Keigo will apprentice beneath him when Keigo gets older-he is only twelve right now-but I do not think so. Though he enjoys working with his hands, I have never seen him look twice at his father's glass blowing shop. He prefers wood, and more recently, stone." Takano shook her head, clicking her tongue. "It is a shame. A waste of talent here in America. There is no market for such a skill, and he will need to find another trade or career to support his hobbies when he is older. But enough of Keigo. Tell me more about yourself. I take it you and Keiichi are sleeping together?" She sent the woman a sidelong glance, and her two daughters' reactions should have been a warning to Belldandy. Aiko literally jumped a cushion away from her mother, a grimace on her face, and Megumi almost fell off the arm rest in her haste to distance herself from the Matriarch.

"I'm...gonna check on Kei and Keima," Megumi announced. "Later!" She almost ran out of the room.

Belldandy watched her go, then looked back at Takano. "Well... in a way?" She said. "There was one time we slept together on the couch back in March, however aside from that we still sleep in separate rooms."

Behind Takano, Aiko gaped at Belldandy, then proceeded to shake her head, mouthing ' _no'_ over and over again. Belldandy ignored her, wondering what the big deal was.

"You're taking it slow?" Takano turned to better face the Norn, crossing one leg over the other as she looked at Belldandy with keen interest. "I see. This is a good way to build your relationship."

Belldandy nodded in agreement. "Indeed. We've come to the conclusion that it is best not to rush our relationship, though I am unsure I understand the relevancy of what sleeping together has to do with the long-term relationship between myself and Keiichi." She shrugged. "It means nothing, really, just like when I slept with Aiko."

The room went quiet. Aiko's eyes bulged in their sockets as she stared at Belldandy. Morgan, sitting next to her, stared at Belldandy in shock. Takano as well appeared stunned, and for a long moment not a single member of the small group said a word.

Belldandy looked at them all in confusion. "What?"

It was Takano who finally spoke. "Belldandy _-san..."_ That damned honorific again. It made the hair on the Norn's neck stand on end. "Did... did you just say you slept with _Aiko_ as well?"

"Motherfucker..." Morgan breathed.

"Yes," Belldandy said, confused as to the reactions of everyone present. "Yes, I slept with Aiko. Twice, actually."

"Oh my god," Morgan rose from where she sat. "That's it, I'm done. I don't want to hear any more of this shit." She stormed out of the room.

"Morgan, wait!" Aiko chased after her, "Nothing happened! We were sharing a bed, that's it! Remember what I told you? Easter weekend?" Morgan ignored her, and Belldandy watched in confusion and a small bit of her own shock as the two raced past an approaching Debra, who took a wide berth around them. "I swear Morgan, nothing happened!"

"Belldandy _-san,"_ Belldandy turned back to Takano, finding the woman's expression perturbed. "...how many of my children are you planning to sleep with?"

"All of them at this rate," Debra said from behind Belldandy's seat, and the Norn jumped. "Takano, Keima wanted to speak with you about something."

"I see," Takano mumbled. Her eyes never left Belldandy, and Belldandy came to the growing conclusion that somewhere in their conversation, she'd royally, as the guards from Japan liked to say, 'screwed the pooch' somewhere. "Yes. Yes, I think we should put an end to our conversation for the moment, Belldandy- _san_. Let me see what Keima needs from me." She rose abruptly, and with due haste departed the room, leaving Belldandy and Debra alone with the shopping bags from Aiko's, Takano's, and Morgan's day out.

Debra stared at Belldandy.

Belldandy stared back.

Neither woman spoke, and beneath the din of the lobby, Belldandy could still hear Aiko's attempts to explain herself to Morgan.

Without a word exchanged Debra broke eye contact, retrieving the shopping bags from where they rested and gathering the plastic coffee cups still half-full. She tossed the cups in a nearby trashcan, and without so much as a glance over her shoulder departed the room, leaving Belldandy alone, outcast, and feeling more like a stranger in a strange land than during the entirety of her stay in Japan.

XXX

Urd joined them for dinner that night at a sushi house a couple of blocks away from the _Courtyard_. Despite her claims of staying at the hotel all day, the goddess was happy and exuberant that evening in ways Keiichi hadn't seen her in months. It was notable if not for the sheer fact that she seemed to be in the highest spirits of anyone that evening, and Keiichi found he welcomed the change in attitude with open arms. Her humor and wit provided some much needed relief after the stress of the day, not just for Keiichi but for Aiko and the others as well. At some point between Keiichi's departure and the return to the hotel, a rift had opened between Aiko and Morgan, the tension between the women so dense he'd have cut it with a knife if he'd had one on his person. It created a stifling atmosphere for Keiichi, who was already winded after stopping one fight after another between Belldandy and Debra, and it showed signs of wearing on his parents and Megumi as well.

Yet Urd was nothing if not a stubborn woman, and refused to be dragged down to their level. Keiichi could have kissed her for that, listening with half an ear as she regaled his family with one story after another of crazy hijinks and drunken debauchery. It distracted him from the two problem children on either side of him as they walked to the restaurant, and as they approached the parking lot Urd even managed to break the silence of the group by coaxing a laugh out of Megumi. To Keiichi, it was like an invisible wall had been knocked down, and with it came the slow and hesitant murmur of quiet conversation.

The sushi house was large, built to look like a traditional Japanese household from a distance, complete with its wooden walls and curved triangular thatched roofs. At least until someone came closer and realized the wood was plaster emulating wood grain. It looked gaudy to Keiichi; a tourist trap designed to lure in unsuspecting victims, and he suspected the sushi prices would validate those fears. A waitress led them all to a large table, and after taking their requested drinks vanished back into the kitchen. Keima, having never been known to be subtle, was muttering something rude to Takano about the waitress being Vietnamese. "Sushi will be shit," he grumbled, and Belldandy, who by pure chance ended up on the other side of him, leaned away from the man in favor of Keiichi. "What do they know about good sushi? Nothing!"

"Don't start Keima," There was iron in Takano's voice, though it sounded pleasant enough. "We are in public."

"Yes Dear," came Keima's immediate reply. Keiichi had only ever heard the pet name used when Keima was skating on thin ice. He didn't say another word.

The prices, as Keiichi feared, were just as inflated as he'd come to expect from California, and with some remorse he bid a silent farewell to the cash in his wallet. Neither of the Norns had any money on them, which meant he'd be paying for three on this go-around.

Keiichi glanced to Debra, who was sitting on the other side of him. She was busy talking to Aiko and Morgan, who sat across from her. In spite of the obvious spat that the pair were in the middle of, they still sat together. Keiichi took that as a good omen. It could have also had something to do with Urd, who was sitting next to Aiko and across from him. Earlier, as they were arriving, the silver haired goddess had somehow gotten onto the topic of Belldandy and her naiveté, much to his girlfriend's embarrassment. He noted as the story was finished how it seemed like a lightbulb had gone on over Morgan's head. A few hushed words in private and things had thawed considerably between the couple.

The Goddess Urd, solver of all problems Morisato.

Megumi sat across from Belldandy. She was busying herself with a conversation with Takano about the baby, he assumed. He could not quite make out what they were saying, though. As they spoke, Keiichi noted that they kept surreptitiously glancing across to Belldandy, which led Keiichi to believe there were more topics involved than what he initially thought.

It did not take long for the drinks to arrive, after which everyone ordered. Unsurprisingly, Belldandy did not need much help ordering this time, picking out several pieces for herself including _unagi_ and mackerel. She did have to ask what a "California roll" was, and turned her nose up to it when the waitress explained it to her. That seemed to impress Keima quite a bit, as he began to regale the goddess with stories of what real sushi was like, which was mildly humorous considering that aside from his parents, Belldandy probably had the most experience of anyone at the table with what real sushi was. The fact that his father had initiated the conversation had impressed the Navy SEAL even more. But that changed to surprise as the two continued on to different topics, even switching to Japanese after Belldandy had made mention of the fact that she had spent ten years in Japan.

When they started talking about Keima's glass shop, Keiichi tuned them out entirely as he turned to listen in on the conversation Urd was having with Aiko and Morgan. It sounded like Urd's dislike for meat didn't just extend to red meats, as the woman was discussing fishless-related options that left Keiichi feeling a bit guilty.

"You don't like fish?" Morgan asked.

Urd shook her head. "I'm... allergic," she said.

"To fish? Or shellfish?" Morgan inquired.

"Yes," Came Urd's response, as confusing and convoluted as any other lie that came from the woman's lips. "I'll stick to an avocado roll and _tomago_ and call it a day." Though she hid it well, Keiichi could tell she was uncomfortable speaking on the topic, or perhaps more likely was uncomfortable with the restaurant _itself_. On several instances he caught her eyes darting to the servers who passed with long plates of sushi and small wooden boats loaded with sashimi.

Keiichi jumped when his phone buzzed in his pocket. He had put it on vibrate so that it wouldn't disturb anyone during their meal. He pulled it out, half-expecting it to be Jackson telling him all about another date with Lind, then frowned when he saw who it was and what the message was.

" _She touched him!"_

The Navy SEAL looked up to the older of his two sisters and frowned. Wondering what all the secrecy was, he texted back. " _That sounds like a personal problem to me!"_ Smiling to himself at his witty response, he looked back up to Megumi. She looked up and glared at him after reading his response, then refocused on her phone.

" _Belldandy touched Keima!_ "

Keichi frowned at that. He was about to respond with " _So_?" when it hit him. Belldandy had touched Keima.

And Keima was not running for the hills.

Slowly, the Navy SEAL turned to look at his girlfriend. She let out a laugh at something Keima had said, then did something amazing. He did not know if it was an unconscious act or not, but Belldandy reached up and put her hand on Keima's arm as she leaned forward in her amusement.

And the Morisato patriarch did not so much as flinch.

If he could have, Keiichi would have shit a brick right then and there. Keima's gynophobia, so prevalent throughout his life, was completely absent in the presence of the deity sitting next to him. Having seen his reaction to Urd earlier in the day, Keiichi knew that it wasn't the fact that Belldandy was a goddess that was keeping the older man from reacting violently as he had done countless times in the past. _Do miracles never cease?_ he marveled.

He looked over to Megumi, who met his questioning eyes with baffled ones of her own, and then he looked to Takano. The women looked at him, looked at Keima, and then looked back at Keiichi. _Do you see this?_ Her eyes asked, and he gave a slight nod.

The waitress returned to collect the order slips they'd filled out, and as the large group waited on their food, they continued to converse amongst themselves. Keiichi, observing the amiable atmosphere between Keima and Belldandy, allowed himself to forget the tensions of the day as he conversed with Megumi over her fiancé's reaction to learning of her pregnancy, and teasing her about wedding dates and crashing in with all of Team 12.

Dinner arrived, which Keiichi enjoyed more than he'd originally thought. Perhaps it was the company he kept that made the food taste so good, chatting and laughing and delighting in the good atmosphere of a man surrounded by friends and family and at ease with the world around him. The meal was going so well, Keiichi almost forgot about all the strife that had been taking place during the day.

Almost.

At some point he excused himself for the restroom, and upon his return Keiichi found Belldandy and Debra butting heads again. He wasn't sure who started it. All he knew was that when he got back, all the progress that had been made since the start of the meal was gone. Both women we staring daggers at each other as he heard what was apparently one salvo from a battle that had been raging for a few minutes now.

"You know Debra, when I hear you say something like that, I have to wonder: is it true what they say about how women of your particular hair color are lacking upstairs in the brain department?" Belldandy asked, her elbow propped up on the wooden table as she smiled prettily at Debra. There was venom in her smile, though, and a steel in her gaze that left Keiichi wondering if somehow the woman he'd come to know had been replaced with someone else.

Debra stared at her in disbelief. "Oh dear lord, I cannot even believe you asked that in this day and age," she muttered. "I'll have you know that I have a degree in Criminal Justice,"

Belldandy hummed. "I don't know…" She said, "I question the intelligence of anyone who would leave such a fine man when he needs her the most."

Debra tensed. Hell, the whole _table_ grew tense. Keiichi and Debra's divorce was still a sensitive topic, and to bring it to the table _now,_ in front of not only Keiichi but his whole family, was a low blow. "There were... extenuating circumstances," she said, before following it quickly with a change of topic, anything to get off the subject of the divorce. "You seem to be into stereotypes, so, is it true? Does the carpet match the drapes?"

Belldandy looked befuddled by that question. "I'm sorry, I don't understand the reference," she replied after a few moments.

Debra scoffed and smiled. She glanced at Aiko, who Keiichi could tell was not amused at all by either of the women. Everyone else had very uncomfortable looks on their faces, all except Morgan, who seemed to be enjoying the argument. "And she accused me of being blonde..."

"What?" said Belldandy as she blinked in confusion.

"I think that answers my quest-" Debra's voice trailed off when she realized Keiichi was watching the two of them. To say that he was angry would be like saying water was wet or that the sun was shining at high noon on a cloudless day. A variety of emotions roiled in his chest; anger, frustration, and disappointment all vied for his attention and made themselves visible on his face. His expression morphed into something strange and horrible as anger took reign, however, and with his attention so fixated on the Norn and the Detective, Keiichi never noticed Morgan reach over and grab Aiko's hand in fear. Urd looked ready to jump to her feet at the drop of a hat, and Keima observed him with a strange, studious silence, observing his son's reaction with careful scrutiny.

It was Takano who broke the horrible silence, and it was with a single word. "Keiichi."

His mother's voice was enough to snap him out of his spell, and the man twitched. His heated gaze flew to his mother's composed face, and all at once Keiichi became aware of where he was. _Ground yourself,_ the SEAL in him spoke up. _Take a breather. Not in here. Not where the problem is._ It was good advice. The SEAL was the logical part of him, the one that always took over in times when emotion was liable to get him killed. He needed that right now, if not for his sake than for the sake of his family, who were all watching him like deer and who would remember how he reacted on this night like they remembered his breakdown years before.

And so it was that Keiichi Morisato turned his back on the Norn Belldandy and the woman who was once his wife, and walked away.

XXX

Everyone watched as Keiichi stormed out of the restaurant in a rush, and it took a moment before anyone could react. It was Aiko who broke the silence. "I'm going to go talk to Kei," she said, squeezing Morgan's hand before releasing it. Rising, she dug into her pockets and pulled out her wallet, throwing a couple of twenties on the table. "That should cover me and Kei. I gotta go." She cast a withering glare towards both Belldandy and Debra, then raced off after her brother in a hurried walk.

Urd watched her depart in silence, and when Aiko was gone she looked to her sister. "Bell, can I speak to you a moment?" Belldandy tore her eyes away from the hallway Keiichi had just stormed down and over to Urd. "In private?" The woman watched her with a heavy frown, her face leaving no room for argument. Belldandy recognized that look. It was the same look Ansuz used to direct towards Urd whenever she'd done something to incur their mother's ire, and seeing that same look directed toward her from _Urd_ made her uncomfortable. The middle Norn nodded, and together the two women slid out of the booth they were seated in and departed the table, leaving a silent audience in their wake. Urd led Belldandy towards the bathrooms, which were clean and white and covered in porcelain, before turning to Belldandy. "Okay," she started, "You know that I love you, so don't take it the wrong way when I say this, but you're being a bitch, Belldandy."

Belldandy's mouth fell open, and she stared at Urd in shock. A _what? Her_? "I-I am _not_!" She exclaimed. "How could you- I am not being a bitch!"

Urd folded her arms, sending the goddess a flat look. "You're deliberately provoking your boyfriend's ex-wife in front of his entire family," she stated. "And from how Keiichi just stormed out of here, I'd go out on a limb and say this isn't the first time, either."

"She-but she's-" Belldandy could feel her face flush. "Why are you on her side?!" She demanded.

"I'm not on anyone's side," Urd replied. "I'm speaking on what I see, and what I'm seeing right now is you embarrassing not only yourself, but _me_ as well. We're here on an outing with Keiichi and his family, and you feel so insecure, so _threatened_ by a lone mortal woman that you take pot shots at her like a demon in the shadows. Is this how you want Keiichi's family to see you? As Keiichi's girlfriend who is filled with nothing but contempt for someone they see as family?"

Belldandy flinched. "She's just as bad though!" It was a poor excuse when said aloud, a five-year old's game of 'he said, she started it', and by the look on Urd's face her sister was having none of it.

"She has conducted herself in a more professional manner than you have whenever we've been together," The Norn replied. "And even if she wasn't, how is that excusable? To behave like a child in public because you don't have the thick skin to ignore her taunts? Fuck Bell, even _Skuld_ would have handled it better than you!"

Belldandy winced, and Urd ran her hands through her hair, sucking in a deep breath. "Get your head out of your ass, Belldandy. You're a grown woman and Keiichi isn't a fucking doll for you to fight over. You realize that, right?"

"Of course I do!" Belldandy cried.

"Then _stop acting like he is,"_ Urd snapped. "You treat him like he's your favorite toy! And every time you do, every time you act like he's not there, listening to your comments, watching how you start arguments, every time you start a fight or an argument over him like he's a possession, you drive him away! Do you understand that?"

"I-"

"No," Urd interrupted. "Shut your mouth. Think. Are you even listening to me?" She demanded. "Stop trying to think up excuses and listen to me. The man you fell in love with, the love of your life, the person who went out and _rescued_ you just walked out on you. Now you tell me: Why the fuck did he walk out on you? Because it wasn't _just_ Debra, Belldandy. It takes two to tango and you've been dancing with her all day."

The goddess fell silent, at a loss for words as she stared into her sister's eyes. It took a moment to sink in that Urd was angry with her. _Angry._ At _her._ Not the little matchstick angers that came about with Skuld or throughout their childhood, but downright _angry._ She'd never had that anger directed towards her before, and it was enough to make the woman pause and reflect on the day. On how she'd allowed herself to be goaded into arguments and how she'd started fights in front of not only Keiichi, but Keima and Megumi as well. Throwing insults in the car, dropping snarky remarks at the restaurant in front of Keiichi's friend, her possessive behavior over Keiichi during the movie, even her conversation with Takano after returning to the hotel. And now this... had she really become so detestable? A wave of shame enveloped her, and the goddess looked away, unable to hold her sister's gaze. Urd was right. Why was she...?

Urd watched her in silence, arms crossed against her chest as she watched the Norn. When she was satisfied that her message had sunk into the woman, the goddess spoke again. "Get your shit together, Belldandy. We aren't here for your feud. We aren't here to prove you're the better choice for Keiichi. We're here to support _Aiko_ when she has to go up before a panel tomorrow and plead her case against the man who raped her. You don't have to like Debra. You don't have to get along wither her, or befriend her, or any of that shit, but you sure as fuck need to tolerate her while we're here. Do you understand?"

"I do," Belldandy said. The words came out a whisper. "I-I apologize, Urd. I hadn't-" She bit her lip, then looked back at Urd. "I've been acting a fool, haven't I?"

"Save it," Urd was curt. "Apologize to the Morisatos. Apologize to _Keiichi_ , because after the stunt you just pulled in there, you'll be lucky if he gives you a second, hell this might well be your _third_ chance."

Belldandy flinched. "I-yes. Yes. I'll... I'll go apologize to him. Him and his family as well."

"Good," Urd said. "Now put your game face on so we can get the hell out of this place. I feel like I'll go mad if I have to sit here watching you guys eat any more animals connotated with life. You all are attracting Death's gaze like a giant neon sign."

This time Belldandy's wince was for another reason. "Ah... I forgot about your superstitions, Urd."

"They aren't superstitions when a whole race sees fish as sacred," Urd muttered.

"You aren't a demon, Urd," Belldandy said, grateful for the topic change.

"No, but I still spent the most influential years of my life amongst them," she reminded. "Fish equate to life. You destroy life, you invite death. Now let's _go_."

XXX

"Kei! Kei, wait up!" Aiko cried, chasing down her brother as he left the parking lot. Keiichi ignored her, and undaunted, she continued, putting her track and field legs to use and loping after him in an easy gait. She caught up to him with little effort, yet the man still did not acknowledge her, even as she fell into step beside him. The man was fuming, his face stony and hard. There were lines on his face, lines Aiko had never really noticed before, and like a map they created a network of emotions and experiences that spoke of a trying life of war and battle. Aiko was reminded of a samurai, one who'd seen more than his fair share of combat, and had been placed out of combat and into a realm of soft and peaceful merchants. The lines on his face made him look old; older in some ways even then Keima, He of the White Hair and Ancient Face. And it made her feel small and young by comparison, knowing that until the day she died, she would never know the sights and experiences that had left their etchings in his flesh.

"Kei?" Her voice was gentle, and it did the trick of gaining his attention in ways her shouts had not.

The man heaved a heavy sigh. "She just..." He growled and didn't bother finishing his sentence, leaving Aiko to wonder at who 'she' was. Aiko had a good idea of who fit the bill, though.

"It could be worse, she could have blown up the airport or the hotel or something," Aiko said. "All things considered, it wasn't that bad, Kei."

The man beside her scoffed and shook his head. "Yeah, but what if this is what I have to deal with from now on?" he asked. "Aiko, I can't have this kind of drama in my life. I'm a SEAL. I go on deployments all the time. I see combat, I'm in hazardous situations that could leave me dead or worse on a quarterly basis that at any time, any _fucking_ time, could leave me traumatized." He took a long breath and moaned. "I need _stability_ , not a hyper aggressive, insecure woman."

 _Ouch._ Aiko thought. _I hope gods don't hear when people are talking shit about them behind their backs. "_ I don't think she's going to be normally like this, do, you?" she said instead. "I mean, this is the first time your relationship has been really challenged. At least with Peorth, you made it clear from the beginning that you wanted nothing to do with her. But with Debra, you seemed to have pussied out,"

"It's not like that at all!" Keiichi snapped.

Aiko raised an eyebrow. "Really?" she asked. "I haven't seen you push her away once since we got here. You haven't refused any of her advances, and it's sending the wrong message, not just to Debra, but to Belldandy as well. Have you spoken to her at _all_?"

"I tried! Okay?" The man stopped, and Aiko stopped with him. "God, I tried! She came to my room and we talked and…"

"And what?" Aiko pressed.

Keiichi paused. "She… she kissed me."

"And you stopped her. Right? _Right?!"_ Aiko felt her stomach turn itself into a knot as Keiichi didn't respond right away. "Kei, come on. You stopped. Tell me you fucking stopped.

Yet Keiichi shook his head. "God damn it," he bit out. "No, I didn't. I should have. I wanted to. But for a moment, it was like when we were first going out for real. Things happened so fast. One moment we were talking…."

"And the next you were playing tongue hockey?" Aiko stared at her brother in disbelief.

Keiichi grimaced. "Something like that."

Aiko ran her hands through her hair. "So that's why you've been acting the way you have today. Kei, you need to tell Belldandy the truth. Debra's your ex-wife. Not your ex-girlfriend, not some past lover, your _ex-wife_. You're in a new relationship, for fucks sake! With a _goddess!_ Are you out of your fucking mind?" Do you even know what this means? It means all the shit you've been bitching about today- all her bitching and taunting and shit? Because of her insecurities? You just _justified_ that behavior _,"_

The man moaned pathetically, his own anger lost in his guilt. "I know, it's just that…"

"Just what?" Aiko demanded. "You want to be with Belldandy, right?"

"Of course!" Keiichi cried.

"Then quit dicking around with Debra, man up, and tell her you're done!" Aiko exclaimed. "Then go apologize to Belldandy and spend the day with her tomorrow. I'm a big girl, I can face Stuart without you."

Keiichi stared at her for a long time in silence. At length, he bowed his head, his anger spent. "You're right," he grumbled, rubbing his face. "Fuck, I'm such an asshat sometimes."

Aiko huffed. "Of course I'm right! Believe it or not, Kei, I've got some pretty keen insight when it comes to relationships with women."

Keiichi looked at her, his face slack with shock. Then, without warning, he burst into unprecedented laughter.

XXX

It was close to nine in the evening before Belldandy worked up the courage to approach Keiichi's room. A full ninety minutes since they'd returned from the sushi bar, with Urd pulling out money Belldandy was unaware she had to pay not only for the Norns' meals, but for everyone else's meals as well. It was a generous gesture, and one everyone but Morgan refused. Keima refused to accept charity from _Jigoku no Musume_ nor would he allow anyone to pay for Takano's meal. Megumi refused out of principle, as did Debra, but Morgan was relieved, gathering the bills Aiko had thrown on the table and pocketing them with a simple explanation of "Fuck student loans."

It had been painful, to say the least, to apologize to everyone in attendance, but judging by the reactions of the others, it was not a wasted gesture. Debra in particular was caught off-guard, and watching her stumble and stutter through her words was something the Norn took a small amount of pleasure in, vindictive though it was.

Megumi received a text from Aiko as they were getting ready to leave, stating that Aiko and Keiichi were heading back to the hotel and that Aiko apologized for them walking out on the others. For Belldandy it was a reminder, and a sign of things to come. She still had two more apologies to make, the hardest being to Keiichi himself for chasing him away from his family. It left her in dreadful anticipation throughout the short walk back to the hotel, where they found Aiko waiting but not Keiichi, with a simple message for the Norn: "Kei needs to talk to you when you're free." When Belldandy pressed her for further information, however, Aiko clammed up, instead excusing herself and Morgan for the night and leaving Belldandy like a leaf twisting in the breeze.

The others departed for their own tasks as well: Megumi to speak with her fiancé, Debra to her room, and Keima and Takano for their own quarters. Even Urd abandoned her. "I'm getting shitfaced," she said. "Don't bother me unless demons are crawling out of the woodwork to chew your ass up."

Belldandy wisely gave her sister her space.

And in return, it had left her with no one to motivate her into pursuing Keiichi.

She knew she'd have to speak with him eventually. To ignore him now would only delay the inevitable, and the longer she avoided him the more painful the confrontation would become. She'd paced without end in the room she shared with Urd, her mind working up fantasies and nightmares of how her conversation with Keiichi would go. He'd be upset with her, for certain. Perhaps angry enough to lose his temper with her, his wrath ripe and his tongue sharp as he ridiculed her. Or perhaps he would respond in silence, listening to her apology with that stony expression she'd seen on his face before slamming the door without saying a word. Or maybe he would not even allow her the grace of explaining herself, slamming the door in her face as soon as he opened it, or even going so far as to ignore her completely.

Some part of her even toyed with the idea of him opening the door in nothing but his boxers, with Debra wrapped in a blanket behind him on the bed, watching her with a smug face.

The mental imagery was almost enough to stop her from venturing out at all.

But Holy Bell would not allow it.

Her angel, bless her heart, refused to allow Belldandy to abandon her cause. _You said you would apologize,_ the angel reminded, her tone gentle, but scolding. _Do not allow your imagination to defeat you. Debra is his ex-wife, you know this. He would not invite her back into his bed._

"But I've been so... vile today," Belldandy said.

 _And she has responded in turn,_ Holy Bell reminded her. _It is as Urd said. It takes two to tango, and you've been dancing with her all day. He is no whore, nor is he so desperate for the touch of a woman that he would turn to his ex-wife for help. He was angry with you both. Chances are, she needs to apologize as well. Best approach him first before Debra does._

"But what if she's already spoken with him?" Belldandy asked. "What if she's with him now, speaking over what a crude and unruly bitch I am?" The words felt strange and alien on her tongue, and the Norn grimaced, her stomach roiling with anxiety.

 _But what if she isn't?_ Holy Bell persevered. _You'll never know unless you leave, and even if she did apologize to him first, does it make you any less a woman?_

"...No..." Belldandy mumbled.

 _Then leave this room before it becomes your cell,_ Holy Bell advised. _Your imagination is running away with you, and the reality of the situation will not be anywhere near as bad as what you believe right now._

Belldandy paused in her pacing to tug at the long strands of hair that fell before her shoulders. "I wish Urd was here to spur me on as well," she muttered.

 _Urd does not live inside your soul,_ Holy Bell reminded. _Come. This is but a simple task. Let us be done with it so we can be free of this burden of guilt. It makes me feel ill._

It was motivation enough for Belldandy to step out into the hallway. Enough motivation for her to brave the unknown and walk the twenty feet to Keiichi's room. It was enough for her to turn and take a single step.

But it was not enough to make her move further.

Debra had beaten her to it.

The woman stood outside Keiichi's room, where she was already knocking at the door. Perhaps catching motion out of the corner of her eye or sensing Belldandy's gaze, the woman turned and met the Norn's eyes. The woman's expression was unreadable, but as Keiichi's door began to open, she left the Norn with one parting gift.

Debra winked at the Norn, and then with a large, open smile, turned and walked into Keiichi's room. The door shut behind her, and Belldandy was left motionless in the hallway.

Then, defeated, Belldandy turned and walked back into her room.

* * *

 **A/N: Wow, longest chapter yet. We wanted to get this part done so that we can get into more of the meat of why the Morisatos are in California. Hope you enjoy it.**

* * *

 _Comments of a Madwoman: There was a lot of activity in writing this chapter that caused a huge delay right until the very end. As such, this chapter's a bit longer than some of the previous ones to help make up for that fact._


	44. Chapter 44 - Contra Timorous

-44-

Debra didn't know why she winked at Belldandy before Keiichi opened his door for her and let her inside. It wasn't as though she had any kind of ulterior motives in mind. Yes, she wanted to talk to Keiichi, but it was over who Belldandy and her sister were—what the _real_ story behind them was—and to warn him about the Blonde Woman and The Suits whom she'd been seeing more and more of around the hotel. It wasn't as if she'd come to seduce her ex-husband, and if she was frank, Debra didn't want to. She loved Keiichi, yes, but he'd moved on, and while some piece of her hurt, the larger part of her was relieved. If he could move on, then Debra, after these hellish past two years without him, could move on as well.

But it was so _hard_ when he was right here in front of her, where all those past memories and feelings of love and affections came racing back, threatening to overwhelm her as they had yesterday. She _missed_ him, god damn it, and here he was, standing right in front of her like he'd never gone on that damnable deployment, like he'd never come back angry and snapping and depressed, like he'd never come home with nightmares or flashbacks or fights or-

She went to him, overwhelmed by the need to be held, to be near him, to feel his arms around her and smell his scent once more. It was foolish, she knew, running to the arms of a man she'd left behind years ago, and she'd regret it once she'd left his room. But the moment swept her away like nothing else, and as she embraced him, as her arms slid around his waist and she fell into the warmth of his chest, she allowed herself to forget the incident that had led to their original departure.

She felt his hands on her shoulders, and then his voice. "Debra..." It sounded strained, and with regret she released him, knowing she'd overstepped her boundary.

Keiichi stared at her, and saw that her actions hurt him. "Deb... I'm sorry, but... you know I'm with someone else now."

"Are you?" Debra asked, "I wonder at that..."

"What do you mean?"

Debra frowned, looking Keiichi up and down and ignoring the ache in her chest. She hadn't come here to speak about his new flame. Not like... not like _this_. "Belldandy," she stated. "Are you two really together?"

Keiichi stared at her in confusion. "What kind of a question is that?" he asked.

"A reasonable one," Debra replied. "Are you guys really together? Or is this some sham you're putting on for your family?"

Keiichi frowned. "Deb, of course we're together."

"Then why aren't you sleeping together?"

The question caught him off-guard, she could tell, and with one question out in the open more came with it. "If she's really your girlfriend, why aren't you sharing a room? Why am I here speaking to you and not her?"

"Deb, we're trying to take it slow."

"Then why didn't you tell me off in the airport?" Debra continued and with her melancholy came a fresh burn of anger. "You had the perfect opportunity to introduce me to that woman and her sister, to lay some kind of boundaries that I wouldn't have crossed, or even let Megumi know ahead of time that you'd be coming with your girlfriend. Something, anything, but no! You turned into a yellow-bellied dog and left that woman to attempt to introduce herself on her own. I thought she was trying to sell me something when she came up to me, do you know how embarrassing that was? For both of us?" She glowered at him, waiting for Keiichi to explain himself, yet the man said nothing in his defense, and that irritated her. For all the training he'd gone through to become a Navy SEAL, the man had a track record of making poor decisions when it came to women he was emotionally involved with. She'd been aware of it since they were both still in high school, watching him stumble over himself trying to speak to a girl and failing to pick up cues when someone was interested. It had been one of the few things that had always irked her about the man, both while growing up side-by-side with him and later while married to him. He was too agreeable. Too often, he just didn't know when to say 'no'.

"Kei, it took me ages to work up the courage to let Megumi pressure me into coming here." Debra rubbed her face, massaging her temples as the onset of a headache began to throb at the back of her skull. "Because I knew, the moment I saw you, I'd be working to try and re-insert myself into your life." She shook her head. "I've always wanted to come back to you, god damn it. You hurt me that night. Almost killed me. And like a beaten woman I still wanted to come back to you. To accept all those apologies you left on my voicemail, to come home to you, and kiss you and hold you and make love with you like we used to whenever we were recovering from a fight."

"You knew that things would have changed, Deb," Keiichi said quietly. "We filed for a divorce for a reason."

"And yet still you let me kiss you," Debra challenged. "Just now you let me hold you. What next? When I visit you again, are we going to fuck? While your professed-girlfriend is waiting outside, listening to our moans?"

Keiichi flinched. "We got caught up in the moment," he reasoned.

"And we got caught up in the moment here," Debra replied. "How many more times are we going to get 'caught up in the moment'?" When Keiichi didn't respond, she continued. "I don't like Belldandy."

"You've made that obvious."

"No." Debra's voice was firm. "I didn't. Not _why."_

Keiichi raised an eyebrow. "You mean other than the fact that she's going out with me?"

"If you call the past two days 'going out'," Debra muttered. "No, that's not it. I don't like her. There's just this... _thing_ about her that... pisses me off." She shook her head. "I can't explain it. It's like... she reminds me of one of those girls in high school who were always in the background. Always fawning over the guy she likes with big doe eyes, but lacking the initiative to approach him because he's already with someone. And then she waits, and waits, and waits until the guy she likes has a fight with his girlfriend, and then inserts herself into his life and tries to wedge the two apart." Debra shook her head. "I don't know why, but that's what she reminds me of. Is that weird? Because I can't- that's all I can think about whenever I see her. And then, whenever that guy and his now-ex-girlfriend are talking to each other, she makes it a point to remind the ex that he's hers out of spite, even if she and the ex have never so much as said two words to each other. I mean-" She threw her hands up in the air. "I don't- I'm not making any sense, am I."

"No," Keiichi said bluntly. "You're not." He sighed heavily, plopping down on the large queen-sized bed that was at the center of his room. "Damn it, Deb... we can't keep doing this. Belldandy is a good person, and I know you don't like her, but quite frankly, I don't give a damn." He looked up at her. "She's a part of my life now, and... well... you're not, Deb. Not any more."

The woman winced, wounded by the words, regardless of how true they were. Yet she saw the same pain reflected on Keiichi's face, and knew the words hurt to speak aloud as much for him as they did her. The two fell silent, lost in thought, until Keiichi spoke after a full minute had passed.

"Do you know how much I didn't want to let you go?" Keiichi asked. "After you left, do you really want to know? You were gone, but everywhere I looked you were there. Your root beer that I drank whenever I wanted a beer. Your Monty Python I always watched when I was depressed. Your bars of soap that you left behind and the blankets you'd forgotten were yours that even _now_ cover my bed. Do you know how long, how _hard_ I've tried to forget you, but couldn't?" the man demanded. "Seven years. Seven years, Debra. I gave you seven years of my life, and you gave me seven years of yours." He shook his head, as if in distancing himself from her he could cut the bridge that still hung between them, snap the rope that still held them together, cut the red string of fate that had been so interwoven on their pinkies since childhood. "After that long, you didn't just become a part of my life- you were a part of _me_. And I just- And you just-" He shook his head, at a loss for words. "We tore ourselves apart after what I did... and Deb, Deb, that wound is still scarring." He bit his lip, a painful look sliding across his face of such acute despair that Debra felt her heart break. "It was so hard, Deb. I've finally found someone to ease that pain, and now you just..."

"We can't be together anymore, can we?" Debra asked.

"Deb, we haven't been together for two years."

Debra shook her head. "No, no, not like that. That's not what I mean. We can't be around each other any more," she scoffed, then raised her hand, gesturing to the bedroom. "We can't see each other any more, or be around each other, or, or _any_ of that stuff. I mean look at us, Keiichi. Look at what the past two days has done to us. We've both been- Christ, we've both been trying so hard to move on with our lives and we just-" Her laughter was bittersweet and painful. "Kissing in your bedroom, holding each other like we're still lovers, I can't-" She covered her face with her hands and groaned. "It'll come back to this if we keep seeing each other. Neither of us will be able to- it has to end, Kei."

Keiichi was silent, watching her with a mournful, painful expression that left her wanting to run to him, to comfort him, to tell him everything was going to be fine and that they'd get through it like before.

Except they didn't get through it before.

She held back instead, and it hurt. Her throat tightened, and she looked down, unable to stand the look of his face any longer. "I love you, Keiichi," she said. "I've always loved you. Even after the fights, even after the pain, even after you almost killed me with your bare hands... I forgave it all. That was how strong my love for you was. That was how _weak_ my heart was for you, to allow me try and run back into the arms of the man who hurt me so much. And now, after all is said and done, do you know what Keiichi? There's still a large part of me- some stupid, lovesick fool of myself- that wants to be with you. I look at you and I remember all the good things about you. Not the anger. Not the nightmares. Not the flashbacks that left me hurt and almost dead. Just you in all your glory, and god damn you I fell in love with you all over again." She shook her head. "Well not any more. Not any more, Keiichi. And if you won't end it then I will."

The woman took a deep breath, and found that it trembled. "After tomorrow... After the verdict on Stuart's parole hearing... I'm done. No more. After tomorrow, we're through. I can't- I can't have you in my life anymore. Not if..." Her lip trembled, and she bit it, refusing to break down right here in front of him, right here with him staring at her with those same puppy-dog eyes that had first won her over. She grimaced and gritted her teeth, hands clenched into tight fists at her sides. "Not if I want to move on with my life."

"So, is this it then?" Keiichi finally found his voice, and it was all she could bear to look him in the eye. He looked sad. Lost even, and damn him it left her fighting the desire to take it back, take it all back just to wipe that pitiful look off his face. She couldn't stand to see him like this, desolate and forlorn before her like a child who'd just lost his mother. "You came here just to say goodbye?"

" _No,"_ she said, and was surprised by the ferocity in her voice. "I came here because of Belldandy. Because of that woman and her strange sister that you brought with you. I'm here because I need to know who the hell they are, and why Belldandy's sister is conferring with a creepy woman who'd look right at home in the _Men in Black_!" Debra took a step back, running both her hands through her hair. "Keiichi, what have you gotten yourself into?" she asked. "Who are these people, really? I've been working all my connections trying to find out who these women are, and you know what? I haven't found squat on them. Nothing. Zilch, Nada." She blew the breath from her lungs. "And Urd, oh, she's _good_ Keiichi. I don't know what her game is, but she even had _me_ fooled until I saw her in the parking lot."

"Wait," Keiichi interrupted. "What do you mean? What did you see?" The man was on his feet, his expression open and worried, and perhaps because of that Debra was a little more scared than she should have been.

"I don't know," she admitted, and Debra warred with the idea of speaking on the visions she saw in the parking lot. He'd think her mad, she knew; what she saw had been her mind playing tricks on her, a mirage or a hallucination in California's heat. Not ( _they're wearing masks)_ serpent-birds or burning cheetahs or red-eyed women. Just two people in the parking lot, speaking together in a manner that spoke of the military or law enforcement, and _that's_ what made her anxious, not ( _you can't see them but they can see you_ ) hallucinations of things that didn't, no, _couldn't_ exist.

She fought against her mad thoughts, allowing logic to take the wheel. "She was with someone. A woman. One of the Suits we keep seeing all over this place." She paused when Keiichi relaxed. As though he was relieved it was only a woman and not ( _monsters. They're monsters.)_ something else.

"So?" Keiichi asked. "What's the big deal?"

"Keiichi, the woman she was speaking to was at parade rest in front of her," Debra continued. "It wasn't a casual conversation. That woman was _reporting_ to her, and that woman belongs with all these people we've been seeing at the hotel dressed in suits. Something's off about them, something's off about that woman, and something's off about _Urd._ "

"I think you might be jumping to conclusions," Keiichi said, giving her a flat look. "I mean, have you tried, I don't know, _asking_ her who she was talking to?" He shrugged, and Debra came to the grim realization that the man she loved, the man she'd grown up side-by-side with and who had shared his joys and sorrows with her for over two decades, was siding with Urd. _Urd_. A stranger who hailed from nowhere in America and who allowed her charisma to win over hearts and minds while never revealing anything about herself. Urd, who no one else in the family knew aside from Aiko, and who was labeled with the strange and horrible nickname of _Jigoku no Musume,_ Daughter of Hell.

The man must have seen something on her face, as he continued. "Listen, Urd's a good person. She's a little rough around the edges, but there's nothing to get suspicious about. I mean, I've known her longer than I've known Belldandy, Deb, and one thing I can assure you is that she's not a bad person. I don't know anything about these guys you seem so spun up over, let alone a woman dressed in a suit." He frowned. "I mean, if it's such a concern to you, just go and ask her about it. I'm sure you just took it out of context. Hell, I fall into parade rest all the time when I'm speaking with someone new out of habit, so maybe it's something similar with this person. But to make the assumption you're making? Deb, even for you, that's a huge leap to make."

He didn't believe her. Not in the slightest, and the revelation was more painful than she cared to admit. She recognized the futility of her efforts; this was not a man who would be swayed in his beliefs, regardless of her warnings. A depressing thought. Let him love another woman. Let the two of them never speak again, but let him be _safe_ , god damn it. He was still Keiichi, and she still cared for him, hell Debra thought she'd always care for him, and she didn't want to see him hurt by staying with these strange women.

She pulled her lips up in a smile she didn't feel and hoped that it was reassuring. "Right..." she mumbled. "Maybe... I'll try and speak with her later."

"It can't hurt," Keiichi replied. "And I'll try and speak with Belldandy too, if it helps. See if I can get her to stop jumping down your throat at every opportunity."

Debra nodded. "Thanks, I would appreciate that." She didn't give a flying fuck about Belldandy at this point. Let Belldandy try and get a rise out of her, at this point she'd relinquished any claims to Keiichi in favor of investigating her sister, and were they really sisters? These two women who created such opposing reactions in a man who feared women? _More questions for later,_ she decided. "Anyways, it's getting late. I should get going." She feared she'd learned all she could from Keiichi at this moment, and further prodding would only raise Keiichi's defenses.

The man before her nodded, rose, and escorted her the ten feet to the room's door. "Listen, about-" He began.

"Stop, Keiichi." Debra cut him off. "Just... stop. I need to go."

She left him without a glance back, and Keiichi watched her go, following her retreating figure before heaving a heavy sigh and closing the door behind her.

And with her departure Debra Morisato—now free, truly free to be Debra Johanson once again—left several things in her retreat.

The first was a depression in Keiichi so deep that he never thought as to why Belldandy never came to speak with him after he passed word along to Aiko that he needed to speak with her. His thoughts were too pitted with the re-opened hole in his heart to even consider the thought of another woman, and the consequences of that negligence would be soon to follow.

The second was subtler, and perhaps, longer lasting. An observation had been made, and with it, a sliver of doubt, tiny and miniscule like a splinter of wood caught in the skin. Doubt of Urd, as Debra's words called to mind memories of Afghanistan, of demons and gods, where lightning sprang from hands and left no damage to the wielder and where a word and a hand wave could knock moral men out and leave them with false memories of an incident. Yet even a splinter could kill if left buried and infected, though now was too soon to tell whether or not such infection would occur.

And finally the third, which was something only Debra took note of as she entered her room. She emptied her pockets of her valuables, placing her wallet and cellphone and room key card on the small nightstand next to her bed. She looked at the items with a frown, then dug into her pockets once more, fishing for her keys.

Nothing.

"Fuck." Digging in her pockets a third time gave her no relief. Worried now, the woman went to her purse. She turned it upside down and emptied the small bag of all its contents, and while there was an assortment of loose change, some makeup, her badge, and several notepads filled with work notes, no keys were to be seen. Her worry mounted, and the woman moved to her travel bags, digging through all the pockets available and sorting through clothes both clean and dirty in an effort to find the keys. When that failed, she searched under the beds and tables and dressers and behind the drawers. Yet it was all for naught, as even when she used the black phone on her nightstand to call the front desk, there was no word of anyone turning in any keys.

The woman sucked in a deep breath, her anxiety high but not severe yet. She began retracing her steps throughout the evening and into the day, hoping, _praying_ that she had not somehow lost the keys down on the long strip of beach she and the others had walked down.

Recollection struck her like a brick through a window.

She'd dropped her keys in front of Urd and her red-eyed friend and left them there in her retreat. "Oh fuck," she breathed, her hands digging into her hair as her anxiety cranked up to eleven and turned into outright fear. "Oh _shit_."

XXX

Today was the day.

Today was the day Aiko Morisato stood before a Board and pled her case for the denial of parole for Stuart Holzkopf, the man responsible for raping her as a child.

And Aiko couldn't be more terrified.

Her dreams had been filled with nightmares and memories she'd long thought buried. On several occasions, she'd been roused by Morgan's concerned voice and a hand on her shoulder shaking her awake.

Stuart was the source of her poor sleep, and her rest had been filled with violent nightmares of the sort she'd not had since childhood. It left her nervous and cranky by the time she'd given up on sleep and allowed Morgan to coax her downstairs for coffee, which tasted like shit but helped soothe her nerves. Those had been the early morning hours, where the sun had yet to peek its head over the horizon and the breakfast bar wouldn't open for another hour and a half.

With shitty hotel coffee in hand, the two wandered into the adjacent room that had been playing _The Lion King_ yesterday afternoon. This early in the morning the large flat screen showed nothing but infomercials. They were surprised to find the room wasn't empty; two other people occupied it in the early morning, one of whom was Urd. The woman was lying spread out on a couch, her head propped up against a cushion as she stared at the other occupant of the room. The person in question was a blonde woman observing the screen of a laptop at a table a short distance in front of Urd.

Her own curiosity getting the better of her, Aiko squinted at the laptop's screen, and noted with some amusement the blonde was watching _Game of Thrones._ Thormund was onscreen, a piece of chicken in hand that he devoured while staring openly at the lady knight Brienne, who watched him with discomfort and perhaps some disgust. The scene brought to mind, of all absurdities, Jackson's attempts at wooing Lind, and for a brief moment Aiko was cheered with the mental imagery that accompanied it.

It didn't appear that the blonde was aware of the silver-haired woman watching her screen over her shoulder. With nowhere else to go, Aiko made her way towards the Norn on the couch, catching the attention of the blonde woman in the process. The hotel denizen glanced over at her and Morgan, and with a pensive frown shut her laptop, gathered her possessions, and departed the room.

It was only as she was leaving that Urd saw Aiko and Morgan. The goddess raised an eyebrow at their approach, but didn't move from her seat. She looked exhausted. Perhaps more so than Aiko herself. "Belldandy's sleepwalking force you out of the room again?" Aiko guessed, as she and Morgan sat down on the loveseat directly across from her.

"She punched me in the kidneys this time," Urd grumbled. "Screamed 'dodge' and boom, kidney punch. Been out here since twelve."

"Wow, wait, seriously?" Morgan asked. To prove her point, Urd lifted the hem of her blouse. Aiko and Morgan hissed in sympathy. The bruise was larger than Aiko's fist, the discoloring an ugly purple and yellow against Urd's skin. "Holy shit," Morgan whispered, "Have you gotten any ice for it?"

Urd dropped her shirt and sighed. "It's fine. Already put a tonic on it, be gone before nightfall."

"Tonic?" Morgan asked.

"Urd creates her own herbal remedies," Aiko cut in before Urd had a chance to respond. "They work really well."

"Really?" Morgan stared at Aiko with a flat expression, then looked at Urd. "So do you have something that can cure anxiety then?" she asked in a joking tone. "Because Aiko's kept _me_ awake since we went to bed together."

"Morgan!" Aiko felt her cheeks flush. "Don't tease me right now!"

The Norn stared at them both with a humorless expression, then sighed as though annoyed with her current company. "Hang on a sec," Urd grumbled, then dug around in her pockets of her jeans for a moment before coming up with a small, corked vial. The liquid within was transparent, and looked to Aiko like water. The Norn offered it to the blue-haired woman. "Plug your nose, pop the top, and drink it all at once."

"What is it?" Aiko asked wearily, and Morgan leaned in to examine the vial in curiosity. "I'm not taking any drugs before the hearing, Urd."

"'S'naught drugs," Urd replied with a yawn. "Just drink it."

"But what _is_ it," Morgan pressed.

"Fire water, now drink it," Urd replied, and sharing an uncertain look with Morgan, Aiko accepted the small vial.

"This better not be alcohol, Urd," Aiko grumbled, before doing as instructed and gulping down the contents of the vial. She almost choked as her throat began to burn, then fell into a violent coughing fit that left her eyes watering. Morgan pounded her back, but she looked more amused than upset.

After a long and painful couple of minutes, Aiko shot Urd a withering glare. "Th-that was _vodka_!" she rasped. "I felt like I was drinking pure alcohol! What was that, Everclear?"

"Do you always walk around passing out strange vials of 'fire water' to people, Urd?" Morgan asked.

"Only when the mood suits me," Urd replied, a slight smile on her face. "Go back to bed, guys. You're going to need the rest if you want to stay awake during the hearing."

"Hey," Aiko quipped. "Don't tell me how to live my bad decisions." There was a rosy tint to her cheeks.

Morgan looked at her, and then back at Urd. "...Good call," she said. "C'mon Aiko, let's go back to sleep."

"But I don' wanna..." Aiko argued. "I jus' had coffee..." She was beginning to slur her words, and when she followed Morgan to her feet the college student rocked unsteadily. Morgan slipped an arm around her waist to support her. "I got's ta go tell off Shtuu..." she mumbled, and Morgan guided her away, looking over her shoulder at Urd with uncertainty.

Urd gave her a thumbs up. "She'll be fine," the Norn called after the two women. "Be in fighting shape to go up against Stuart, trust me."

Morgan didn't respond though. Instead she turned and walked Aiko out of the room, leaving Urd alone on the couch.

"As if I would have a shot of alcohol in my pocket and give it to someone else," Urd muttered, making herself comfortable on the couch once more. "Of all the stupid-ass things to think..." With her company for the morning gone, the Norn rolled onto her unbruised side and closed her eyes. She was asleep in minutes.

XXX

The parole hearing was at two in the afternoon that day. With it came a solemn atmosphere of those who were to attend it. There was little conversation that morning, though it seemed as though Aiko at least managed to sleep in until nine, a feat that escaped Keiichi when he awoke at close to six that morning. He had little appetite, and when he saw Debra, the woman ignored him in favor of sitting with Megumi. Belldandy, in an odd twist of fate, ignored him too, and instead chose Urd's company, who in turn eyed the middle Norn with trepidation.

Sensing he'd somehow alienated the two women in his life but uncertain _how_ , Keiichi left them both to their tables and instead sat with his parents. Breakfast tasted like sandpaper that morning, and did little for his already-hampered appetite. He sat next to Keima, listening to the man grumble and growl of Stuart and the things he'd do if the convict managed to walk. Takano, ever Keima's opposite, tempered his emotion with logic, dropping hints that Keima would then become the convict and Stuart the victim if the elder Morisato followed through with any of his promises.

"I don't care," Keima growled. "Am old man. He young still. I at least take him out so no possible repeats."

Sensing there would be no further reasoning with the man, Keiichi and Takano left him to his ramblings to finish their meals in silence.

Aiko came down a couple of hours later looking like a nervous wreck, Morgan a silent but soothing shadow at her back. For the first time Keiichi saw just how strong the relationship was between Aiko and her lover; small little touches on the shoulder or the elbow that would still the nervous tapping of feet. A simple gesture or expression that spoke of private memories that made Aiko smile. A word or pet name that drew Aiko's attention in ways his parents, Megumi, or even Keiichi himself failed to do. All signs of a healthy and happy relationship that Keiichi only noticed after his painful conversation with Debra last night. A memory of what was and would never be again.

Through much effort and no small amount of poking and prodding, Morgan managed to get Aiko to consume half a waffle and three-fourths of a cup of orange juice, which was a far stretch from Aiko's normal appetite but better than nothing given the current circumstances.

With the parole hearing still several hours away, there was little to do around the hotel. No one held any desire to leave the hotel or find something with which to distract themselves, and it left the gathered individuals meandering about. On several occasions Keiichi attempted to use this to try and speak with Belldandy, yet he was turned down on every front. She ignored him in passing, excused herself from conversations with Aiko or Urd. He was even turned down by Urd herself when he came to the room they shared with each other.

"Sorry Jank..." Urd looked uncomfortable, staring down at him like a bouncer forced to turn away her best friend. "Bell was specific. She told me she doesn't want to speak to you." She glanced over her shoulder, and then whispered, "What did you do?"

"I don't know," Keiichi whispered back. "She didn't say anything?"

The Norn shook her head.

"Could you ask her?"

"I already did," Urd confessed. "The tension between you two is thick enough to cut with a knife. She didn't tell me anything."

He sighed dejectedly and took his leave. Hopefully things would cool down a little after the hearing and he could speak with her. It certainly wasn't like her to act like this, and it only added to the stress he was already feeling. He felt like the only one who was worse off than him was Aiko. She had grown antsier as the hours passed by. Earlier he had spotted her heading into the small gym area they'd used for Aikido yesterday. On a hunch, he decided to go ask her if she knew anything. He headed back down to the exercise room. Before he got there, Aiko emerged. The woman was drenched in sweat, still panting from what he guessed was a long run on the treadmill.

"How many miles you run?" Keiichi asked her, discarding the reason he had come in favor of concern.

"Ten," she rasped, sucking down half a bottle of water before speaking again. "I thought I could wear myself out," she lamented, "It didn't work. Now I'm just exhausted and scared." She gulped down what was left of the bottle, then gasped. "What if I can't do it, Kei? What if I can't convince them?" Her voice rose to a nervous pitch. "I mean, what if they look at me and just think, 'oh, look at her, she's some blue-haired, self-entitled millennial. I bet she lied to get him in prison. I bet she asked for it. I bet she deserved it.' What if they think that Stuart should go free?" She bit her lip, for a moment looking so lost and vulnerable that Keiichi pulled her into a hug.

Aiko didn't resist, and her embrace was fierce and desperate against him. "I don't know if I can do this, Kei," she whimpered. "They're going to release him on parole. I'm certain of it. They're going to turn him loose in the streets and nothing I say will stop them, and the first thing he's gonna do is go out and find another little girl to rape."

"You don't know that." Keiichi tried to comfort her, yet he could tell already that his words weren't reaching her. "You'll do fine. You'll go up there and present your case, and you'll have your whole family to back you up." He rocked on his feet like he used to do when Aiko was still a child, feeling her sway with his motions. "He'll present his case, and you know what? He's the one fighting an uphill battle, not you. The odds are against him because they have proof of what he did to you, and that proof will be presented as evidence to keep him behind bars. It'll be fine, Aiko." He kissed her forehead. "And remember, you've got something he doesn't."

"Yeah, what's that?" Aiko asked without raising her head, her voice muffled from where it was pressed against his chest.

Keiichi smiled. "The gods are literally looking out for you."

Aiko nodded, and this time Keiichi was pleased to see his words had reached her. "You're right," she looked up at him, and Keiichi was unsurprised to see tears sliding down her cheeks. "You're right." She sniffed and tried to smile, though it fell short. "You're right," she said a third time, as though by repeating the words over and over again she could make them her reality. "I mean, he's a man. A simple man... and what's a man to a woman who walks with gods?"

XXX

"Okay, who's riding with who?" Keiichi asked. The group stood in a large circle outside in the parking lot, away from the lobby and its heavy traffic. It was one fifteen in the afternoon, following a light lunch that no one was enthused to eat at a local restaurant within walking distance of the hotel. Now, after the trek back, Keiichi was wise enough to bring up the issue of carpooling.

"Takano is with me," Keima announced. "We drive there together. Room for two more in back seats."

Those gathered were quick to decline. The back seats of the Purple Turd were closer to half-seats used to store groceries and miscellaneous items. They'd been fine while the Morisato siblings had been children, given they'd been small enough to fit in the seats, but for a pair of full-sized adults, the act would be agonizing.

"I'm riding with Morgan," Aiko said, putting an arm around her girlfriend's shoulders.

"I'll ride with Debra." Megumi said.

"Got it." Keiichi nodded and looked to the Norns. "You guys can ride with me, then."

Urd nodded, but Belldandy appeared reluctant. "Actually... I would prefer to ride with Aiko and Morgan, if they allow it." She looked at the two women in question, and though they were taken off guard by the request, both nodded in acceptance. Belldandy smiled, relieved. "Thank you."

"That... might work in our favor then," Debra ventured, and Keiichi looked at her. "I, uh, lost my keys yesterday."

Megumi looked at her with a start. "Wait, you did?" she asked. "How come you didn't say anything sooner?"

"I only found out they were missing last night," Debra replied.

"You mean these?" Urd dug into her pockets and withdrew a set of keys, then tossed them to Debra when the woman looked her way. "You dropped them in the parking lot yesterday."

The detective almost dropped her keys again at Urd's words, her face drawn and pale. She didn't want to draw Urd's attention. Not after yesterday and the creatures she'd seen. But the woman would be lying if she said an opportunity had not presented itself in that moment, and she'd be a fool not to act on it. If Keiichi wouldn't listen to her, then perhaps he'd listen to Urd instead. "You mean when you were talking to that blonde woman in a suit yesterday?" she challenged. "Who was she, a friend of yours?"

Urd shrugged, unconcerned by Debra's questions. "Just some woman," she replied. "I ended up bumping into her here at the hotel when I was at the pool. I don't even know her name."

"Then why were you in the parking lot with her?" Debra interrogated. "What were you two conversing about?"

"Game of Thrones," a silver brow raised in question. "How about you?" Her voice remained casual, friendly, playful even, and Debra was filled with dread. That was the voice of confidence, at one at ease in her environment and in control of whatever this strange situation was with Deb. "You took one look at the two of us and ran off like we were a couple of monsters. Dropped your keys in the process. What was that all about?"

For a brief and terrifying moment, Debra considered confessing on what she saw. _You two_ were _monsters!_ She almost claimed. _A monster serpent-bird and a monster cheetah-dog, and you know it!_ She stopped herself at the last second, however, recognizing for herself just how insane those accusations sounded in her head. She couldn't say that. Not here, not now, not in front of Keiichi and the rest of the Morisatos. They'd think she'd lost her mind, and all Urd would have to do would be to frown and stare. The silver-haired woman wouldn't even need to _say_ anything with how deep a hole Deb would have dug for herself.

The others were watching them in silence, observing the drama unfold between herself and the strange woman ( _they're wearing masks)_ as they considered Urd's words. Keiichi looked embarrassed. Aiko looked perplexed. Even Belldandy looked between them both with a frown, an indication that Urd had not shared their brief encounter with her sister.

"Is because she know what you are, _Jigoku no Musume,"_ Keima growled, and as one the gathering turned to stare at him. "You not fool me. You not fool Deb. You fool everyone else, but we know." He narrowed his eyes at Urd. "We know."

Urd looked at Keima, her eyes wide, but said nothing. A heavy silence befell the group.

Keiichi broke it. "God damn it Keima, leave Urd alone, would you?" The man crossed his arms over his chest, peeved. "Jeez, you haven't laid off on her since she introduced herself, you ancient donkey." Keima scowled at Keiichi, and Keiichi returned it without flinching. The SEAL was also the one to look away. "Okay, so we're good on carpooling? He looked around his audience, and received small murmured agreement with some head nods. "Then let's head out. Last thing we need to be is late for the parole hearing." Under his breath he muttered, "It might give them incentive to let him go."

The group divided and headed to their respectable vehicles, with Megumi following Debra back around the parking lot to where Debra's car still sat untouched from yesterday. Megumi said nothing during the short walk, and for that Debra was grateful. She didn't want to hear her best friend's opinion on interrogating Urd.

Megumi paused when they reached the back of Debra's car, her gaze pulled off to the far side of the building. "Deb," she said, and Debra looked at her friend. "Over there." She jutted her chin in the direction she was looking, "isn't that...?"

Debra turned to see what had stolen her friend's attention and froze. A large group of people, nine or ten of them, were gathering around a white SUV. All of them were dressed in suits with green shirts and ties. All but one was male, the lone Blonde Woman who had first berated Megumi and had been seen again by Debra conversing with Urd. The woman was easy to identify with her long, curly blonde hair, and it appeared that she was briefing those gathered around her.

"Are you serious right now?" Debra murmured, her question directed towards the woman, who was well over fifty feet away from her. "Of all the goddamned-"

"Save it Deb," Megumi cut in. "I don't know about you, but that whole scene creeps me the fuck out. I don't know who they are or what they're doing, but I know I don't want anything to do with it." She walked towards the passenger side of the vehicle. "Come on. Let's get out of here before they call a hit on us or something." It was meant to be a joke, buy Debra found no humor in it.

With a final parting glance towards the woman and her men, Debra looked away and headed for the driver's seat of her rental.

She missed how one of the Suits receiving the briefing looked back at her from behind a pair of black sunglasses.

With everyone dispersed into four vehicles, the cars formed a small little convoy towards the courthouse where Stuart's parole hearing would be conducted. The Purple Turd led the way, followed by Morgan's rental, Keiichi's rental, and finally Debra's, which had been parked farthest from the others at the back of the hotel.

She missed the white SUV that pulled out after the car behind her.

The A/C in the car was a welcome relief after standing in the sun discussing carpooling and interrogating ( _masks)_ Urd. The San Francisco radio station Debra had on was playing some classic rock, where Sammy Hagar howled the lyrics to _I can't drive 55_ over the speakers. Megumi was on her phone, texting her fiancé on the other side of the country. Debra didn't mind. After the incident in the parking lot, the blonde wasn't in any mood for conversation, and she feared that even if she was, any topic introduced would devolve into the approaching parole hearing.

Instead she enjoyed the peace and the music of the car, as classic music she remembered from childhood rides with her father or Keima drifted through the back of her mind. She meditated on Urd, and Belldandy, and who they were and what they were doing with Keiichi. On Keiichi himself, and his stubborn desire to protect the two women by dodging Debra's questions. On what she saw from Urd and the Blonde Woman. And she meditated on Keima's parting words; _"You fool everyone else, but we know."_ Urd had been unnerved by that comment. _"We know."_ Why though, unless there was some truth to the name he'd sentenced her with? _They're wearing masks._ Why though, if what she saw yesterday _wasn't_ a trick of the mind?

Ahead of her Keiichi signaled into the right lane, and Debra followed, flipping up her signal and glancing first to her right and then to her rearview to ensure she was in the clear. What she saw in the rearview made her look twice, however, and delay the lane change. There was a white SUV behind her. The driver was wearing a black suit the detective was becoming increasingly familiar with, and the passenger...

The passenger was the Blonde Woman.

 _Shit._ Debra thought to herself. _Shit, this can't be right. They can't be tailing me, right? It's a coincidence, it's got to be._ Unnerved, she crossed into the next lane. A moment later, the SUV followed, staying directly behind her. _Are they serious?_ Debra wondered, and felt her unease grow to consume her. _Scare tactics? A bad tail? Or is it all just coincidence?_

The vehicle stayed behind her throughout the length of her travel. They headed north on Highway 101, which was quick to grow large and thick with local traffic heading away from the International Airport. Then west on Interstate 380 into the city. Debra followed Keiichi's car carefully, her grip on the steering wheel white-knuckled as she glanced back in the rearview mirror. A black truck was behind her now, but she could make out the top of the white SUV behind it. Whoever the Suits were, they weren't done with her yet.

The traffic dwindled as they left the highway for the city, and Debra dropped her speed down to fifty, then forty-five as monorails began to spring up. Large brick buildings began to emerge displaying the city's history, and a plethora of humanity dotted the sidewalks and filled the rail carts that she passed cruising at thirty miles per hour. Behind her, the truck had vanished in place of a Prius, but its small size gave away the SUV that trailed after them.

It wasn't until they were a little less than five miles away from the courthouse that the SUV changed lanes. Debra had been watching its progress with careful scrutiny, and her eyes followed the vehicle as it signaled right and came to the lane next to her. The next stop light had both vehicles sitting side-by-side, and Debra took the opportunity to look past Megumi and to the SUV.

 _We see you._

Those were the words that popped into Debra's mind as she gazed into the front seat of the SUV and found not only the driver, but the Blonde Woman staring back at her behind two pairs of black shades. Worse yet, eight faces peered out at her from the SUV's side windows, all wearing matching suits and sunglasses ( _masks)_ like something out of one of her father's old 'spook' movies. The message was clear: _You have our attention now_ , and it scared Debra like nothing she'd ever experienced before. Even the night in the woods, chasing after and then being chased by Keiichi was nothing compared to the sudden, inexplicable terror that filled her as those faces observed her.

Megumi sensed her gaze, and looked up from her phone. "Deb?"

A car blared its horn behind her, and with a gasp Debra stomped on the gas, causing the rental's tires to screech as they flew through the intersection after Keiichi, almost rear ending him and Urd.

"Fuck!" Megumi yelled. "Holy shit Deb, what the hell!?"

"Sorry!" Debra cried. "Sorry! Tense! Horn scared me!"

In the neighboring lane, the SUV turned right at the intersection, and vanished into traffic.

XXX

"Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, if you will take your seats please."

The room was cool to the point of cold, the a/c blowing at max throughout the large courtroom where the parole hearing was to be held. Keiichi, sitting in one of the front booths with the rest of his family, took the opportunity to reacquaint himself with Stuart Holzkopf as he sat down in the witness seat. The man was tall at five foot eleven, and thin to boot. That had always been something Keiichi remembered about Stuart; tall and thin, like a large sunflower amidst a field of corn. Prison had done little to change that aspect of him; he sat tall but slumped in the witness chair, looking like a stork that had been awakened and dragged to court. The man looked underfed and exhausted sitting there, his eyes sunken and skin blotchy from a poor diet and poorer living conditions. He was clean-shaven, his blond hair freshly cut, but it did little for the deep lines in his face or the shadows around his eyes. Prison had aged him. Like a man who'd seen and done too much and whose skeletons still screamed within their closet. He was nothing like the smiling, chipper man from his childhood who'd mentored him in English and helped his mother shop for groceries.

All in all, Stuart Holzkopf had become a stranger to Keiichi, and the man he remembered was not the man who sat in the witness booth.

The panel continued its introduction, stating the various crimes Stuart was guilty of and explaining to him the necessity of why they were discussing the more intricate details of the case. Stuart listened with a lackluster expression, his gaze distant and far off, but nodding on occasion to any questions of 'do you understand?' Or 'do you agree to these terms?'. He didn't speak unless prompted to, and when he did it was a mumble; words Keiichi couldn't hear thanks in part to his tinnitus and which even the judge at times had to lean forward in order to hear.

It was in some ways baffling to Keiichi. _This_ was the man who had raped his sister? This lowly man who looked like he'd been removed from the streets and placed in an orange prison suit? This man who looked ill and thin and barely looked able to hold the weight of his head? This was no boogie man. This was no monster. This was... pathetic. How could a man so weak and so ill be responsible for the atrocious incident that had nearly torn his family apart? That had left his sister screaming and crying in the night, terrified of her own shadow? How had this man, Stuart Holzkopf, built himself up to be the big blue meanie of Keiichi's psyche throughout his entire Naval career? That man he'd wanted to beat, had wanted to kill, and wanted to make suffer for his crimes against Aiko? This couldn't be the same man. He looked nothing like the man of Keiichi's memories, nor did he act like it. This was a shadow, a ghost, another man named Stuart who'd taken _his_ Stuart's place. This couldn't be right.

His eyes drifted to where Aiko sat, in the front booth with the other witnesses who would speak either for or against Stuart's parole. Her back was to him, shoulders stiff and back rigid, and he could not observe her reaction to the sight of her rapist in the witness chair. A lump formed in his throat, and when next he looked at Stuart it was with anger rekindled.

Yes, this was indeed the man who'd hurt his sister, and he'd be wise not to forget that fact. Appearances, he knew, spoke little of capability, and if, even now, after all his long years in prison this man could still hold sway to his baby sister's fears, then god damn it let him rot in hell, for all he cared.

The hearing continued.

"Mister Holzkopf, do you feel guilty for the crime you committed?"

Stuart stayed silent, his eyes drooping as though fighting sleep. The Board repeated the question, and this time Stuart jerked, as if startled by it. Keiichi watched him with a smoldering gaze as the man's brown eyes surveyed first the Board and then the witnesses, before finally staring into the audience. For an instant their eyes met, and to Keiichi it was like watching a man pulled out of one reality and into another. Disoriented, the prisoner looked back to the speaker and mumbled something too soft for Keiichi to hear.

"Mr. Holzkopf, could you speak up?" the speaker asked. "Do you feel guilty for the crime you committed, yes or no?" The man sounded irritated after repeating the question a third time, and with some pleasure Keiichi suspected that this question alone might be enough to keep him behind bars.

Stuart muttered something again, but this time added a small head nod to better express his feelings. Scowling, the speaker continued his questions. "Mr. Holzkopf, do you still feel the urges that led you to conduct such an act?"

This time Stuart was quicker to respond, and when he did it was loud enough for even Keiichi to hear. "I don't feel anything anymore."

A soft murmur ran through the board, and after a quick conference the board's speaker asked, "Could you elaborate on that, Mr. Holzkopf?"

Stuart squinted at the man, his brows furrowing together and presenting a wrinkly crown of flesh that made him look ancient. He shook his head with a shoulder shrug, and with it his lawyer stood up. "Sir, you'll have to forgive my client. Prison has done little to prepare him for his trial and he confessed to me before we started that he has had issues sleeping over the past several months."

"Being tired during a parole hearing is no excuse," the speaker announced.

"Yes Sir, however sleep deprivation does affect the mind, and I request you take that into consideration."

"Are you saying Mr. Holzkopf is not in the right mindset to sit through his parole hearing?" There was an edge of warning in the Speaker's voice. Keiichi approved.

"Not at all Sir!" the lawyer replied. "I just-"

"Then he can explain in depth his feelings on the questions presented to him," the Speaker finalized. He redirected his focus to Stuart. "Mr. Holzkopf?"

The man sighed, looking world-weary. He gave the man a long-suffering look. "I just want to be left in peace," he said. "That's all I want. Is that so much to ask for? A little peace? A little quiet? Some place away from all this noise?"

There was silence from the board, some of which looked baffled by the man's explanation. Several of them shared uncertain looks with each other, and more still looked uneasy at the prisoner's words. The board's representative spoke again, "Let's continue... Mr. Holzkopf, can you tell us what preventative programs you have attended to address the issues that led to your internment?"

"Everything," Stuart groaned. "I've done everything you asked... everything you wanted... why won't you leave me in peace? What more do you want from me?" he raved. "What else do I need to do to be free from you?!"

"That's enough Mr. Holzkopf!" The speaker exclaimed, and a soft, ripple of murmur rose from the audience pews.

"Sir, I apologize on behalf of my client, Mr. Holzkopf is-"

"I will have silence, Mr. Simmons!"

A dark-haired woman from the board stood. "I believe the board has heard all it needs from Mr. Holzkopf. Let's move on with the parole hearing to witness testimonies." Another dissatisfied murmur swept through the courtroom, yet nobody rose to challenge the woman's appeal. A guard came and escorted Stuart away from the witness chair, and after a quiet discussion amongst the board members, the dark-haired woman spoke anew, "Ms. Morisato, would you please take the chair?"

In front of him, Keiichi watched Aiko suck in a deep breath. "Here we go," she muttered to herself, before rising and walking to the front of the assembly. She took a seat in the witness chair, looking young and small and vulnerable, as Keiichi imagined Aiko had looked when she'd first testified against Stuart as a young child. A little older, a different courtroom, but the same story to be told.

The dark-haired woman, taking over for her male counterpart who'd questioned Stuart, explained the board's intent in having Aiko retell the events that led to Stuart's internment. Aiko listened carefully, though the information was more for the observers in the audience and other board members than herself, and nodded with a quick "Yes Ma'am."

There was a small bit of additional discussion, and Aiko's eyes roamed the room as she waited before stopping at Keiichi. He smiled at her and hoped it looked reassuring. _You got this,_ he thought. _You did it before, you can do it again, and you've got everyone here to support you. Stuart ain't got shit on you._ She frowned at him, but it was a determined frown, one of steel and resolve of the likes Keima was so renowned for. That ol' Morisato steel, filled with the resolve to fuck someone else over at their own expense.

"Ms. Morisato, if you are ready, we will begin."

"I'm ready." Her voice was steady, confident even, and for that Keiichi was filled with pride.

"I would like to begin this next part of the trial by re-familiarizing the board with the events that led to Mr. Holzkopf's incarceration. Could you please share with us the details leading up to his arrest?"

"Yes Ma'am," Aiko replied, projecting her voice in a strong and clear intonation that even those guards standing in the back could hear. "I was nine years old," the college student began. "Elementary School had released the students for the day and I was returning home. It was raining hard that day and..."

As Aiko recounted her rape, Keiichi listened with half an ear, his eyes glued to Aiko as he let his mind wander. He had no need or desire to hear the story of what had happened that day, as he'd grown long familiar with it since his days at Great Lakes. It brought back memories. Memories of the announcement during his days at basic, without a rank to his name and still viewed as the scum of the earth by the instructors who led him. With it came voices of the past, and as Aiko told the story she'd once told a wounded goddess, Keiichi allowed those voices to engulf him, sending him back years into the past as a young man barely even twenty.

XXX

Navy boot camp is all about the routine. Wake up in the morning and do PT, then head to breakfast. Classes and hands-on training dominate much of the day, learning things like ship nomenclature, first aid, how to escape a smoke-filled compartment, and even how to shoot. After dinner it's usually more PT time, or heading to the drill hall to practice marching as a formation. Free time was extremely limited.

Except on Sundays. On that day, the Recruit Division Commanders did not show until after lunch, allowing free time for the recruits to attend religious services or just hang out in the division barracks. Unfortunately, there was no sleeping in, and the RPOC and AROC were both vigilant about that as the Officer of the Deck checked on them once an hour. Still, it certainly beat sitting in a classroom trying to stay awake or getting cycled by one of the RDC's.

Nearly half of the company had gone to church that morning, as usual. That meant that it was pretty quiet in the barracks. There was an unwritten rule that those who wanted to socialize congregated around the front of the barracks, while those who wanted some quiet time to read or write letters would filter to the back. That was where Keiichi sat; on the floor leaning against his bunk. The trainees did not dare lay down in their racks, as being caught in the act or the mussed blankets would give the OOD plenty of cause to exact some sort of punishment on them all.

"Writing another letter to Debra?"

Keiichi blinked and looked up as a shadow fell upon him. His bunkmate, John, was standing over him with a shit eating grin on his face. They had been stuck together since boot camp started, not only sleeping on the same bunk (John on the upper and Keiichi on the lower), but also always marched in formation together. Keiichi, being one of the shortest in the company, was designated the 'guidon'. John, being the shortest of the six tallest recruits, was designated the 'Number One Stickman', meaning that he was always in front and always directly behind Keiichi wherever they marched. Both of them had the job of carrying flags for the company, Keiichi with the company flag with their number emblazoned on it, and John with the Athletic Achievement flag they had earned for everyone passing their first PT test.

"So what if I am?" The dark-haired man asked with a sly smile.

John snorted as he lowered himself onto the floor next to Keiichi. "As much as you write to her, you need to be going out with her."

Keiichi pondered that for a moment, then tossed it aside. They had practically grown up together, close enough that she might as well be his third sister. If he and Megumi, and later Aiko, were not at her house, she was at theirs. "Nah, we're just friends," replied Keiichi as he went back over what he had written to regain his train of thought.

"Ha, well, if that's the case, then I think I will write her a letter asking her out!" said John as he lightly punched Keiichi in the arm. This was an ongoing joke amongst a number of the circle of friends he had gathered inside the company. One of them, a heavy-set guy named Steve, had even followed through with the threat. They all had fun cajoling him when the definitive response came back.

"I think your fiancé might have something to say about that, I think," retorted Keiichi.

John shrugged. "Meh, you're probably right. Jenni is much hotter anyway."

Keiichi elbowed the bigger man in the side. "Now you're just talking crazy. Besides-"

"ATTENTION ON DECK!"

That came from the compartment watch, who was standing near the front door. Everyone sprung to their feet and stood ramrod straight. Keiichi surreptitiously glanced out of the corner of his eye down towards the front and saw their Recruit Division Commander, OS1 Brownlow, standing with two other men next to the recruit who was on watch. He was saluting, which meant that one of the pair with their RDC was an officer. OS1 was early, which was a break in the routine, and generally did not bode well either for the company, or some poor individual.

"MORISATO!"

 _Oh shit._ Getting called out like that usually spelled certain doom for the recruit in question. All of a sudden, it seemed like every butterfly in the world had taken up residence in his gut. Keiichi swallowed, then double timed it up front. He came to attention in front of the three men, and since there was an officer present, snapped up a salute. "Seaman Recruit Morisato reporting as ordered, Petty Officer!"

OS1 Brownlow was a short man, not much taller than Keiichi himself. In spite of that, he was an intimidating man, not only because he looked like he was strong enough to fold any one of the members of his company in half, but because he had a lazy eye that always unnerved the dark-haired man. It was hard to look him in the eyes as it was hard to determine which one they should focus on. Fortunately, it was not one of those things that he made any big deal about other than to just tell them not to look. That was because 'look'en leads to lik'en, like'en leads to love'in, and love'in leads to fuck'en." So Keiichi instead focused on the door behind the three men. "In my office," growled the RDC.

The dark-haired man paused to allow the others to enter, then stiffly followed. It was obvious that his impending doom was about to come upon him, and he racked his brain trying to think what it might have been. He had led a straight life, no issues with the law of anything even remotely unseemly in spite of the neighborhood they lived in. There had been no issues after signing up. His scores were well above the cut off line that would have sent him to another company that was a week behind the one he was in now. No, there was nothing he could think of that would warrant them coming down on him like this.

He stood at attention as Brownlow stepped to the other side of his desk and sat. The second man, who Keiichi recognized as Chief Gellor, the RDC for their sister company, sat in another chair that was off to the side. The third man, a lieutenant whom Keiichi had never seen before, pulled up a chair and set it next to another that was already positioned in front of the desk. "Sit down, son," said Brownlow in a tone he had literally never heard before. It almost had a touch of either sadness or pity, and it set warning bells off in his skull. Tentatively, Keiichi did as he was instructed.

His RDC leaned forward and clasped his hands in front of him. He turned his head in such a way that both of his eyes lined up, and in them Keiichi saw something else he had never seen since arriving at Great Lakes; compassion. "Keiichi," started Brownlow, he never used any of the recruits' first names. "Your father called the base last night."

Immediately Keiichi started to sweat. It was highly unusual for Keima to call anyone. Usually Takano did that. His thoughts went immediately to his mother, who was pregnant with a brother who would be born sometime after he graduated. _Did something happen? Did she lose the baby?_ Those questions swirled in his head when Brownlow continued. "Apparently, something happened to your sister."

"Which one?" Keiichi blurted out, half expecting to get yelled at for speaking out of turn. However, the two RDC's let it pass.

"The younger one, I think. Aiko was the name that was given."

This only caused Keiichi to sweat even more. His relationship with his youngest sister was even stronger than his and Megumi's, even though the elder of the two was much closer in age. "What happened?" His voice was desperate, pleading almost.

Brownlow sighed and put his hands down on the desk. "She was raped," he replied evenly, calmly.

It threw Keiichi off for a moment. It was hard to imagine that this was the same man who pretty much said everything at the top of his voice if he was not screaming. He recovered quickly and started rubbing his hands together as a multitude of emotions came over him. He tried to ask a question, but found that his throat had constricted to the point it was almost choking him. Anxiety, anger, and worst of all, guilt began to well up in him. "I-uh…" he stammered out before recomposing himself. "Is she ok?" he asked finally.

"Yes," replied Brownlow. "Apparently, they caught the guy, too."

That was not much of a relief to Keiichi. He abruptly stood up. "I- I need to go home to be with her."

Brownlow let out a sigh. "Sorry, that's not going to be allowed."

Keiichi whirled back around to face is RDC. "What do you mean I can't? This is a family emergency!"

"I spoke to command already," replied Brownlow. "They decided that this is not something that's on a level where we can grant you leave from your training."

"Not on the-WHAT THE FUCK?" screamed Keiichi, forgetting weeks of protocol that had been drilled into him by the man sitting in front of him. One of the habits he did not forget, something that had been amplified by the weeks of course language directed at him and from those around him, was how to cuss. "This is some god-damned fucking bullshit!"

Chief Gellor jumped out of his chair to confront Keiichi. "You better know your place, recruit!"

Before anyone could say any more, the lieutenant who had accompanied them rose and immediately defused the situation. "Chief Gellor, Petty Officer Brownlow, I will take it from here." He looked at Keiichi, whose attention he had successfully redirected to himself, and motioned to the door. Keiichi nodded and walked out, with the officer right behind him. They both took a left turn towards the central passageway, and down the stairs to the building's lobby, paying the recruit standing watch no mind as they headed outside.

It was shaping up to be a sunny, yet mild day. Not a cloud in the sky as Keiichi walked down the stairs and to the sidewalk, hanging a left and heading towards the front of the base. It was almost a mile to the front gate from the last barracks on the far south side, which was where Keiichi and his company were located, and he was determined to get there and get out. As he began walking, he took note of the lieutenant who was shadowing him, but thought nothing more about it.

That was because he hurt. Mind and body, it all hurt. He could not tell what was worse; the guilt, or the feeling of helplessness. Never once did he regret his decision to join the Navy. He didn't when his two friends who joined up at the same time were assigned to different companies. He didn't when the RDC was running the entire company through the cycle for some perceived slight that gave him an excuse to do it. And he didn't when he was made to take his gas mask off and recite his name and social security number all while being exposed to CS gas.

But this? This could be enough to break even stronger men then Keiichi Morisato. "I should have been there," he said to himself, and he meant it. He could have protected her and prevented this tragedy, he was sure of it.

"It wouldn't have made any difference," replied the lieutenant who was trailing him.

Keiichi had almost forgotten that the man was there. He stopped and whirled around, not caring who it was or what rank they were. "And just how the hell would you know anything about that or what I am going through?!"

The tirade about properly addressing a superior officer that Keiichi was expecting never came. Not that he would have cared. It would have actually helped his cause, which was to get out of this place and back home to Aiko. Instead, however, the man simply shook his head and gave Keiichi a grim look. "Because my nephew was molested while I was off sailing around the south Pacific on the Carl Vinson," came the unexpected reply.

The retort that the dark-haired Navy recruit had prepared died in his throat. The cynical part of him scoffed at the idea that they would send someone with a shared experience to talk to him. That just did not seem like the way that things operated around here. It was pretty much shut up and do as you're told, or else. He had pretty much given up on the idea that anyone cared at all after the Chief started yelling.

Yet, here was this man who professed to share a common experience with Keiichi, and he just stood there and gawked. "Who are you?" Keiichi finally asked.

The lieutenant shrugged. "Just a Navy chaplain who's been where you are right now," he said as he motioned to the steps leading up to one of the other barracks. Keiichi followed his lead and sat down. When the officer of the deck from that division stuck his head out to see what was going on, the chaplain simply waved the man off. He then sat down next to the distraught recruit. "I was really close to my nephew," started the officer without really being invited. "His dad was killed just before he was born, so I kind of took it upon myself to help out. I was just a stupid teenager at the time, but it sure helped me to grow up. He was about five when I was accepted to Annapolis."

The chaplain sighed as he seemed to struggle for a moment before regaining his composure. "While I was gone, my sister met this guy at a support group for widows and widowers. She kept telling me in her letters how great he was with Jacob, about what a great father he was becoming." He scoffed a little when he said those last words. "There was no way she ever saw it coming. She finally found out when she woke up in the middle of the night and found him gone. She figured he was in the bathroom, so she decided to go to one of the other ones in the house. Then she passed Jacob's door..." He shook his head as if to clear out any imagery that had come up from his recollection. "Needless to say, the scumbag is behind bars, which I am told is basically the same for whoever did this to your sister."

Keiichi nodded even though he knew that the chaplain had been there when OS1 Brownlow had told him.

"When they told me, it hurt. It hurt bad. I mean, that kid was my world. He would write me all the time, tell me about how school was going, how his little league was going, all that little kid stuff. When all my friends were taking leave to go to Hawaii or somewhere exotic, I was heading home to Humboldt, Nebraska to see my little buddy." The man turned and looked at Keiichi. "I can see that same kind of hurt in your eyes. I know that if I could have, I would have jumped off that aircraft carrier and swam all the way home. But they would not let me since he was basically not my kid."

He sighed and looked away. "The Navy means well, but sometimes they don't have their priorities straight," said the chaplain. "I did get permission to allow you to call home, but unfortunately, that's all."

Keiichi just shook his head. It was a start, but how was it going to be enough? "I don't know how I am going to be able to focus on the rest of my training after this," he said.

"It will be tough," the chaplain agreed. "But I think you can persevere. That reminds me of a story-"

"No, please, no stories about how any of the trials of Jesus or any of that," he said. He knew that the man was a Christian chaplain based on the cross on his collar that replaced one of his rank pins. "I get enough of that from the Baptists in my company."

The man laughed. "Well, it's a good thing then I was going to talk about Walter Johnson, who was a pitcher back in the nineteen twenties."

That got Keiichi's attention. Keima was an avid baseball fan, but not of any of the US teams. He religiously followed the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters. He had even purchased a satellite system that could pick up Japanese television just so that he could watch their games.

When Keiichi did not say anything, the chaplain continued. "So, one morning, on the eve of a rather important game against the Boston Red Sox that he was supposed to pitch, Walter woke up to find that his arm was painfully sore. When he got to the stadium, he reported the issue, and the manager, Clark Griffith, told him 'Try one inning, and if your arm gives you trouble, I will take you out.' After the first inning, Johnson's arm still pained him, but he said he would try another. The same thing happened after the second inning. This continued throughout the rest of the game and by the ninth inning, he was in agony. But, he had persevered and made it through."

He paused to observe Keiichi's reaction before he continued. "Just like Walter, I can tell you from experience that this is going to get worse before it gets better. But just like Walter, just like me, you will get through this. It will be tough, but you just gotta say that you will go out for that next inning. Before long, it will be over and you will be able to see her again."

The chaplain was right, Keiichi decided. There was no use in quitting. It would be doing himself _AND_ Aiko a disservice. It was better to finish what he had started. He only had a couple of more weeks to go. "Ok," he said finally.

"Good," said the chaplain. "Now come on, let's get to my office so you can make that phone call." He stood and extended a hand to Keiichi to help him up, which the recruit gladly accepted.

"So, what happened to him," queried Keiichi as they both started down the sidewalk again.

"To Jacob or Walter?" asked the chaplain.

"Both."

"Jacob got some therapy and is now waiting to see if he got accepted to the Naval Academy, or the Chair Force academy," replied the man with a chuckle.

Keiichi joined in at the little joke at the expense of the other branch of the US armed forces. "And Walter?"

"Oh, he only threw a no-hitter that day."

XXX

Belldandy paced in the lobby of the courthouse, outside the courtroom where Stuart's parole hearing was held. A security guard dressed in a light blue uniform observed her from a short distance away, his posture stiff and eyes trailing after her pacing. Belldandy ignored him, though she was all too aware of his gaze. Reaching one end of the hallway, the goddess pivoted on her feet and began her trek back. The hallway was thirty feet long, the carpet a dark navy blue with some kind of government department symbol that meant nothing to the goddess. Wooden chairs lined the strip of hallway outside the heavy oak doors that blocked the goddess from the courtroom inside. Several people occupied the line of chairs, one of whom was Urd, who sat with her arms crossed and her head resting back against the wall. Her eyes were closed, and Belldandy wondered how her sister could doze while Aiko had to testify before her rapist. Without them present. Without _Belldandy._

"I should be in there with them," she mumbled in passing. "Family only... of all the madness. I am a _goddess_. Not some mortal subject to the laws of man."

Urd opened one eye, not dozing as Belldandy had first assumed. "And yet here you are," she murmured, her voice soft so as not to draw the attention of the people around them. "Stuck out here, with me and all these other 'mortals.' As the saying goes down here, 'when in Rome,' Belldandy..."

Belldandy stopped her pacing in front of her sister, impatient, irritated, and anxious. "I should be in there with them," she hissed. "With _Aiko_. Let her see me and take strength from my presence. Let this man see me and cower before me."

Urd raised an eyebrow, and next to her a man in a black suit and white tie looked up at Belldandy with distaste. "Wow. Where did that come from Mama Bear?"

"Aiko is one of _my_ girls," Belldandy growled, and resumed her pacing. "That became fact as soon as she asked me to accompany her here to California. As if I would not be at her side when she needs the strength of another."

Morgan, sitting on the other side of Urd, watched Belldandy pace and leaned over to Urd. "Is she always like this?" she whispered.

"Only when she's stressed," Urd murmured. "Don't take any of it to heart. It's just the mutterings of a madwoman."

"Right..." Morgan eyed Belldandy warily, then glanced at the security guard who was observing the restless Norn as well. "I like security officers," she decided. "It's good to know I've got a sane man with a gun watching the crazy woman."

"I like the police too," Urd said, humoring the woman. "Bell, come sit down. You're scaring people."

Belldandy flipped her off.

"Love you too, Sis." Urd stretched her arms over her head with a mighty yawn. "You do realize that Aiko's got along fine without you until now, right?" Belldandy ignored her, and when she reached the other end of the hallway leading to the doors outside, she turned and made her way back up. "Remember, Aiko's a strong, independent woman who don't need no Norn. She'll be fine." Beside her, Morgan snickered, and Urd smiled.

"Urd, you aren't helping," Belldandy grumbled in passing. "I just want to ensure Aiko is-" The woman froze mid-step, and the irritation dropped from her face as her seventh sense, that special sense granted only to those born on a higher realm of existence, alerted her to an alien magical signature. It was almost as revolting as it was familiar, though where the Norn could have come across such a wretched aura was a mystery to her. _It's because it's demonic,_ Holy Bell whispered in her ear. _It's demonic, and powerful, to boot._

 _Where?_ she asked her angel, and the woman's eyes scanned the area, suddenly drawn and weary of the faces sitting in the hallway with Urd and herself. _Here? Who? Which one?_

 _Not here,_ Holy Bell whispered. _Somewhere else. Hiding, I think._ The Norn's eyes drifted to the heavy wooden doors Keiichi and Aiko sat behind. _There. It's coming from inside, I think. Bad presence. Very bad._ For a brief moment Belldandy imagined she saw a pair of wings, naked of feathers but bumpy with quills about to sprout, drift through her vision. _Scary... Belldandy, there's something very, very wrong with that presence._

 _Do we know the presence?_ Belldandy asked, and then realized what a foolish question it was. Belldandy and Holy Bell did not consort with demons. Even Hagall, whom Belldandy had thoroughly wrecked, had an aura the Norn never bothered to commit to memory. Whoever was behind that door was a stranger. _We need to track it down,_ Belldandy thought, and made a beeline for the doors. _We need to—_

A hand grabbed her by the arm before she reached the doors. "Don't do it, Bell," Urd murmured, and drew the goddess close. "Not here. Not in front of the locals."

"There's a demon nearby," Belldandy whispered. "It's in the same room as Keiichi and Aiko. We need to intervene!"

"We need to _leave_ ," Urd retorted. "There are people here. Whoever is in that room with Jank needs to follow the same rules we do on this plane. They can't lash out and draw attention to themselves with magic or strength, and I'm not hearing any screams on the other side of that door."

"Then they're using passive magic," Belldandy argued, refusing to back down. "Urd, we need to do something, we need to-" She froze as another wave of that horrid demonic presence sifted through the hallway, and this time she saw Urd stiffen as well. When it passed, Belldandy said, "Call Lind."

"What?" Urd looked at her in bafflement.

"You heard me." Only now did Belldandy move away from the door, guiding her sister into the hallway and further away from the mortals who were watching them with open curiosity. "Call Lind. She needs to know that there's a demon around here. She can do something about it."

"Bell, this isn't Purgatory," Urd reminded. "This is Midgard. Demons have just as much a right to come and go as we do. Unless they're targeting us, we can't do anything about them. _Lind_ can't do anything about them because whoever is behind that door has to be a civilian, and Lind, as a Valkyrie, isn't allowed to attack civilians unless it's in self-defense."

"Then we need to get into that room," Belldandy urged. "Urd, our options are limited. _My_ options are limited. Either call Lind down here or I am barging into that room myself, and to Nidhogg with the consequences." The woman beheld her sister with steely eyes. "I will not allow a demon to harm Keiichi or Aiko. Not when there's only a door separating me from them."

"Bell, calm down," Urd demanded. "We don't know anything about this guy. We could be jumping into something way over our heads and wind up sealed. Do you want that?"

"There are two of us and one of the demon," Belldandy countered. "We can take anything it throws at us. Three of us, if you would stop arguing with me and _call Lind_."

"And what if it's the Daimakaicho?" Urd argued. "Bell, there are plenty of demons that are much stronger than you or me—that aura is strong, and it's trying to hide itself. For all we know, that thing could be one of the Daimakaicho's inner council here to oversee the finalization of a contract. You know what would happen if that was so? You could wave 'bye-bye' to Keiichi, because your ass, and mine, are going into a fucking seal."

"We don't know that for sure," Belldandy argued.

"We don't know if it's not, though," Urd retorted.

"Then call Lind!" Belldandy's voice rose. "I don't understand, Urd. Why are you so reluctant to call Lind when there is a _demon_ in the building?"

Urd glowered at her but offered no explanation, something that both irritated Belldandy and confused her at the same time. Why _wouldn't_ Urd want to call Lind? The goddess was a Valkyrie. Yes, one assigned to watch Urd and police her movements, but a Valkyrie none the less. Surely the blue-haired woman would want to know about this, and even if she wasn't allowed to interfere, the knowledge would get passed up her chain to someone who could. The fact that Urd was so reluctant was... disturbing, to say the least. Especially with both Keiichi and Aiko in the same direction the demon's presence was emanating from.

"Is everything okay here, Ma'am?" The two sisters froze and looked towards the voice, finding that the security guard had coming to investigate. He watched them both with a small frown, his thumbs in his belt next to a can of pepper spray and a taser on his belt.

It was a simple enough show of force, one whose message was a simple, _behave_ , and Urd smiled at him. "Everything's fine," she said. "We just... need to make a call." The woman grabbed Belldandy's hand and led her away and outside the building, ignoring not only the prying eyes of the security officer, but Morgan's inquiring gaze as well.

They ran into Debra outside, who appeared to be in the midst of her own phone call. The detective jumped when she saw Urd and Belldandy, yet neither Norn paid her any mind. "Make the call, Urd," Belldandy urged. "We need to make sure Lind-" She stopped herself when the demonic aura subsided. "Urd...do you...?"

"Yeah, I feel it," Urd rumbled. "It's fading."

"Could you still call Lind though?" Belldandy pleaded, facing towards the courthouse as the presence faded. "It-it could come back. Urd, please." She looked back at her sister.

Urd sighed, irritated, but pulled her phone out regardless and dialed Lind. Further off, Debra edged closer to them, still holding her own conversation but observing them carefully as Lind answered the call. "Lind?" Urd asked. "Listen, I need a huge favor from you. Can you descend to Midgard today?"

Unnoticed by the sisters, Debra paused in her talk, mouthing ' _Midgard'_ to herself as her brows knitted together in confusion.

"You're already on Midgard?" Urd asked in surprise. "Oh! Fuck, right, sorry. Crap, I hope I'm not interrupting something between you two."

"Urd..." Belldandy pressed. Urd waved her off.

"Right, so.. .you can still locate my signature from Virginia, right?" Urd continued. "Sweet, cool. So... listen, don't freak out or feel the need to ditch Jackson or anything, but there's a demon nearby to us." Urd yanked the phone away from her ear, and for a moment Belldandy heard Lind's voice shout ' _demon?!'_ before Urd continued. "Yeah. No no no no! Don't come rushing over! The demon is gone now, okay? But... if I feel it again, would you be able to get here fast? You would? Okay, sweet, thanks Lind. I'll give you a call or text you if Bell and I sense it again, sound good?" She paused, listening to Lind's response, before nodding. "Got it. Thanks Lind, I owe you one. Bell too." She hung up the phone and looked at her sister. "Lind says she'll stand by for another call," she said. "But judging by how our problem is gone now..." The elder goddess shrugged.

"Better safe than sorry," Belldandy murmured. "I will not be at ease until Keiichi and Aiko are out of that room and I know for a fact they are both safe and sound."

"I'm sure they're perfectly fine," Urd replied. "We'd have sensed its magic if it cast a spell and we would have heard shouts and screams it anything physical happened. Like I said, demons have to follow the same rules all other tenth dimensional entities have to follow. That's an interdimensional rule _everyone_ has to follow, not just us."

"Still..." Belldandy murmured.

"C'mon, lets head back inside and get out of this heat," Urd suggested. "We'll ask Jank and Aiko if they noticed anything weird after the hearing is over." Throwing an arm around Belldandy's shoulders, the woman guided her sister back to the courthouse.

Leaving in her wake a perturbed detective with more questions than she had answers for.

"...Demons?"

* * *

 **A/N: As mentioned, Nena and I are very busy right now, so the releases will be a little more sporadic. Hoping for things to calm down after a couple of weeks or so.**


	45. Chapter 45 - Contra Timorous

-45-

 _PRERECORDED VIDEO_ _THERAPEUTIC_ _COUNSELING STUART HOLZKOPF DATE/TIME: ERRORCODE_

"I've been told your dreams were bothering you, Mr. Holzkopf. Would you like to talk about them?"

"Not really." The therapist had to lean forward to hear Stuart's reply. He took note of the man's posture in the large, plush recliner reserved for patients, and scribbled a quick note.

 _Uncomfortable speaking about dreams._

"Why not, Mr. Holzkopf?" the therapist asked. "From what I've heard, you've been suffering from some pretty severe nightmares recently. The guards mentioned you've woken up screaming on several occasions and once even begged them to stay with you, isn't that true?"

The man gave a half-hearted shrug, rubbing his arms from where they were crossed along his waist while he avoided eye contact with the therapist. His legs were folded too, his posture slumped forward. To the observer the prisoner looked small; a child sitting in his father's large entrepreneur chair and trying hard to look smaller still. The psychiatrist scribbled another quick note. _Insecure. Doesn't want attention._

When Stuart said nothing after a time, the psychiatrist switched tactics. "Perhaps if we talk about them, we can figure out the root cause of your nightmares and work through some methods to combat them."

"I don't want medication." Stuart snapped, and then scrunched down in his chair, as though terrified of what he'd done. "Sorry, Doc."

"It's quite all right, Mr. Holzkopf," the man replied. In comparison to some of his other clients, Stuart was mild; he wasn't looking for handouts like the druggies, nor was he one of the short-tempered gang members who were quicker to lunge at him than speak on what led to their life of crime. He wasn't even like the hardest nuts to crack: those folks who'd fully lost their grip on reality and belonged in a mental facility instead of a prison, those who thought the psychiatrist was a fraud and spent their hour together trying to get into _his_ head, or even the worst ones, those individuals who were agreeable and assured him that 'there was nothing wrong' and 'everything was fine'. _You're in a prison ward. How could things be 'fine'?_

Stuart was one of the better patients, in that regard. He'd pleaded guilty at his trial and had since been working hard to address the issues that had landed him in prison, and the man had been quick to admit that he had a problem. He'd worked closely with the psychiatrist to address the issues and work towards improving himself, and on all accounts appeared to genuinely regret what he'd done to his victim. It was a sign of progress for the man, a sign that, should he win his upcoming parole hearing, the inmate would be safe to release into society without too great a fear of a repeat attack. Stuart had even worked with him to find a community absent of children to prevent a repeat, a place where he could settle down and find a job without temptation to ruin his possible parole.

As such, it was a noticeable change in behavior when Stuart clammed up about these dreams that so troubled him. They were violent. Bad enough that on several occasions the on-duty guards had to enter his cell and restrain him, as when they didn't he was liable to injure himself in his flailing. "It was documented that you screamed something about a... white woman?" the psychiatrist said. "Is that true?"

Stuart went stark white. "You know?" he whispered.

"You screamed it on several occasions to the guards," the psychiatrist reminded him. "Is she from your dreams? Can you tell me about her?"

Stuart looked reluctant, his eyes wide and his brows knitted together with worry. "I can't," he breathed. "I don't want to draw her attention."

"Why not?"

"She gets closer every time I think about her," Stuart confessed. "Every night when I close my eyes, when I think I'm asleep, I can see her. When she first appeared, she was on the other side of the prison bay, watching me through Ramos's cell. Only in my dreams, Ramos wasn't there anymore, and I thought to myself, 'it's 'cause she killed him. She ripped him up and ate every bit of him to keep her going', which is stupid because when I woke up I could see Ramos across the cell block waving his junk at me like he does every morning. He says it's 'cause I'm a child rapist and I need to re-acquaint myself with adult genitalia."

"Let's stay on the subject of this woman, Mr. Holzkopf," the psychiatrist said. "So, she is Caucasian then? Can you describe her features for me?"

Stuart shook his head. "I never said she was Caucasian. I said she was _white_. Like... all of her. White as a ghost." He hesitated a moment before continuing. "She's... sick. I know this in my dreams but I don't know _how_ I know, but I do. She's dressed in dirty white rags, and her skin is white. Not peach or pink like you or me, but _white_. Her hair is white, but it's all messy and matted, and her eyes..." Stuart shuddered. "Her eyes are white too. White like a corpse, like they're covered in cataracts, but somehow she can still see because she'll look right at me and just... just..." he groaned in misery, burying his hands in his hair. "Can we stop talking about this?" he asked. "I can't- she'll come for me, I know it. Please Doc, let's change the subject."

The psychiatrist paused, noting the mounting distress of the inmate. "This woman scares you."

"Yes!" Stuart cried. "She terrifies me, Doc! Every night I see her and she's closer. First in Ramos's cell, then outside of his cell, then standing on the railing of the third floor, then-then fucking _floating_ and-" He made a noise in his throat, his left foot tapping a fast and steady rhythm on the old slate floor of the room. "She's coming for me. She speaks to me every night, but I don't know what she says. All I know is that it's bad, like she wants something from me, and that when I wake up I know I did what she wanted but it's _not enough,_ Doc, it's _not enough!_ I- I can't sleep anymore, Doc. I can't. She gets closer every time I close my eyes, and I don't want to know what will happen when she gets to my room. Something bad is gonna happen Doc, and I'm either gonna wake up dead or mad when she pops into my cell."

"And how close is she now, Stuart?"

"Close." Stuart whispered. "She- she's hovering three-fourths of the way from where she started." His voice rose with a tremor. "It's getting worse Doc. I wake up and still think I see her. I blink and I see her face, and her lips are moving but it ain't in English, and, and, oh _god_ I just want her to leave me alone!" The tremor rose into a wavering scream, and tears began to pour down his cheeks. "I can't take it anymore! I think she's killing people, Doc! I think she's killing people, and she wants me next!"

"Killing people?" The psychiatrist sat a little straighter in his chair. "What do you mean, Mr. Holzkopf?"

The man groaned and buried his face in his hands. "I don't know..." he moaned. "It's... when someone bullies me, I find out later they were in an accident and they're dead. When someone threatens me, an accident later and they're dead. People think I'm cursed. People think I've made a deal with the devil. People think I'm somehow murdering people who are harassing me. I'm not. I'm not doing anything. It's that damn white woman! She's killing people and I can't prove it and its all getting linked back to me! I haven't done anything! I just want to be left alone!"

Abruptly the inmate stood and pointed to an empty corner of the room. The psychiatrist followed his finger, yet nothing was revealed by the gesture; just an empty corner. _"You hear me?!"_ Stuart screamed. " _Leave me alone you white bitch! Leave me the fuck alone!"_

"Mr. Holzkopf!" The psychiatrist rose to his feet, abandoning the notepad in his lap as he reached under his desk and hit the red, worn panic button installed there. "Mr. Holzkopf, what's the matter?!"

The man stumbled back, tripping over his own feet and falling to the floor with a wail. " _Leave me alone!"_ he shrieked, and crawled backwards along the floor, his legs kicking at something that only he could see. He had reached the other corner of the room by the time the guards on post burst in, curled into a ball of howling, sobbing terror. He lashed out at the guards as they approached, too lost in his psychosis to distinguish the people from the hallucinations. "Don't touch me, _don't touch me! You fucking bitch, don't touch me!"_ Further words dissolved into mindless screams that left his face red and blood vessels bulging in his neck and head. He struggled with a strength born of fear, and even managed to escape the grip of one of the guards long enough to rake the nails of his right hand across the man's arm. Blood began to well up from the scratches. After a moment longer, both guards managed to pin him on the floor, cuffing him as the psychiatrist approached. Stuart's eyes, dark and mindless with terror, rolled in their sockets before focusing on the doctor.

"No... no, _no!"_ Stuart screamed with fresh vigor. "Don't put me to sleep, _don't give me drugs! She's coming for me!"_ A syringe was in the psychiatrist's hand, a simple cocktail of tranquilizers designed to knock out any inmate who grew too violent during a session, and what a pity it was that Stuart had relapsed so badly when he'd shown so much progress up until this point. "Doc, I'm begging you, I'm _begging_ you! _Don't knock me out, she's coming for me!"_ A true shame. These notes would go into his file and be presented alongside of the evidence to be used against him in his parole hearing in the coming weeks. " _Doc!"_ Stuart pleaded, yet his words went ignored as the psychiatrist injected the drug into the inmate. In less than ten seconds, he was out cold, and the guards rose off him and picked him up.

"You okay Doctor Bautista?"

"I'm fine, Booker. Are you, though? You're bleeding pretty badly."

"It's fine, Doc," replied the guard. "Just some scratches. Fucker got me good. I'll head to the infirmary to get it cleaned up after we send this guy back to his cell."

"What set him off?" Tucker, the other guard, asked.

"Apparent hallucinations," the doctor replied. "A first for him. Possibly a result of lack of sleep. I'll need to get some blood work on him to be certain though. It could be something in his system we aren't aware of yet."

Tucker sighed. "Cavity search?"

Booker nodded, scratching at his injured arm. "Cavity search," he agreed. "Can you grab Chan for me though? This thing is starting to swell like a balloon."

"Go get fixed," Tucker said. "This guy's out cold. He won't rouse before Chan comes and helps drag him out of here.

 _END PRERECORDED VIDEO_ _THERAPEUTIC_ _COUNSELING_ _STUART HOLZKOPF TIME/DATE: ERRORCODE_

 _Soon after the end of this video, Jim Booker was put on paid leave after a trip to the ER. His left arm, it was later reported, was infected and quickly progressed to n_ _ecrotizing fasciitis,_ _with a gross amount of_ _Streptococcus pyogenes_ _bacteria that caused his arm to rot at a rapid rate. The arm needed to be amputated in order to save the patient's life. Jim Booker is currently recovering at Zuckerburg San Francisco General Hospital._

 _A closer examination of inmate STUART HOLZKOPF revealed no traces of flesh eating bacteria, and an in-depth cavity search and bloodwork showed that there were no traces of foreign substances in his system prior to his breakdown in the psychiatrist's office._

 _Investigation is ongoing._

XXX

Belldandy and Urd returned to a lobby filled with people, most of them, Belldandy was relieved to see, being the Morisatos. Together, the two sisters slipped through the crowd to where Keiichi and Aiko stood. Aiko looked pale but relieved, yet as the Norns drew near Morgan approached, stealing the blue-haired woman's attention. For that, Belldandy was thankful. If there were demons around, she did not wish to spook the younger woman without due cause, and this would allow her to question Keiichi without rousing the college student's suspicions.

Keiichi spotted Urd first, then Belldandy. His eyes roamed the crowd around them, then zeroed in on Urd. "Where's Debra?" he asked.

Belldandy flinched.

Urd took Keiichi by the arm and led him away from the others. "Smoking I think, but never mind that." She glanced around to ensure that they were alone. Belldandy held back, still unwilling to say anything to Keiichi. "Was everything all right in there?"

Absentmindedly, Keiichi reached down and scratched under his watch. "No, it wasn't," he admitted. "I had to stop myself from jumping over the railing to wring Stuart's neck. Why do you ask?"

"Think back," Urd replied. "Was there anything, anything at all that was out of place?"

Keiichi furrowed his brows in thought. "Come to think of it, Stuart. There was something wrong with Stuart."

Unable to contain herself, Belldandy stepped forward. "Like what? Please be specific."

There was an urgency in her tone that the dark-haired man could not ignore. It caused the skin on the back of his neck to break out in goosebumps. "He was… off. Kept rambling, and at one point was asking to be left alone." Keiichi looked to the two deities, who were listening with rapt attention. "There were times it almost seemed like he was talking to someone else. Someone… not there? Shit…" He reached up and rubbed the back of his head. "I probably sound like an idiot."

"I'm sure it's nothing," replied Urd as she put on a pleasant smile. Keiichi watched as she glanced to Belldandy, then returned her gaze to him. "I mean, earth prisons can do some weird things to a guy, right Belldandy?"

Keiichi frowned. "You guys are hiding something, I can tell."

Urd stared at him, her face void of expression. "Hiding something? Why would you say that?"

"Well, partly because of Bell," he said, his eyes moving to the almond haired goddess for a brief moment. "She's shifting around pretty nervously behind you."

"You must be seeing things," countered Urd without even a hitch.

"No. No, I'm not." Keiichi narrowed his eyes at the deities. "Something's got you two worried, and I have a right to know what it is. _Especially_ since my family might end up involved here."

"Keiichi, it's not that-"

"It's a demon," interrupted Belldandy.

"What?!" yelled Keiichi, drawing the attention of everyone else in the hallway. Immediately, he clapped his hands over his mouth. After a moment, the attention faded as people returned to their conversations.

Urd shot Belldandy a glare. "Thanks, Bell," she growled.

"What else would you have me do?" demanded the almond haired goddess. "It's better he knows so that he can prepare."

"Fine," replied Urd, shaking her head in frustration. "He's all yours." With that, the silver-haired goddess stepped away.

Belldandy took a deep breath. Truthfully, she was fine with Urd taking the lead on this considering how things had been going with Keiichi. After seeing Debra enter his room, she had gone back to her own, dejected and defeated. Remembering that the blonde mortal had been there before, Belldandy had done the math. 'Three is a crowd' was the old Earth saying, as she recalled. So, rather than make any type of scene, she decided to grant them their space and just quietly fade away into the background.

But now it seemed that Urd had other ideas. Keiichi was looking at her expectantly. "I do not feel like you have anything to worry about."

"How can you say that?" asked Keiichi. "I still remember all the shit Hagall did to me back in March. That's shit you don't forget."

"Yes, I remember as well," replied Belldandy. "But please understand, that was a special circumstance. Aoshima had called upon her to help, and she was contractually obligated to do so." Belldandy shuddered slightly at having to recall events from that time. "If you are not interfering with one of their contracts, they are not allowed to harm you."

"I don't know..." Keiichi looked unconvinced.

"Please, just trust me on this," replied Belldandy. While her tone was firm, to herself, her words sounded hollow. "If Urd or myself catch any inkling of danger, we will act, and act decisively."

Keiichi visibly calmed after hearing that. "Thanks Bell," he murmured, relieved. "I'm glad you are here."

Belldandy completely missed the meaning of his words. "Well, even though things are going well for you and Debra, I still have an interest in keeping you safe." She folded her arms across her chest, hoping she looked stern and certain in her words but feeling insecure and vulnerable. She didn't want to talk about this. Not here, not now, by Yggdrasil, not ever, if she had any say.

"What do you mean; 'going well between me and Debra'?" asked Keiichi as he stared at the goddess as if she had grown a third eye.

Belldandy bit her lip and looked away, unable to hold his gaze. "I know you two are back together."

"What are…" started Keiichi before deciding on taking a different track. "Where did you get that idea?"

"I saw Debra go into your room last night!" Belldandy snapped. A flash of annoyance came and went at the idea that the goddess had to spell it out as she leveled a glare at him. Behind her, the heavy wooden doors that led into the courtroom splintered and cracked with a sharp _snap_ , and those near the doors jumped back, their voices rising in protest.

Neither Keiichi nor Belldandy noticed.

Keiichi was still nervous though. "Oh, you did?" There was a slight hint of fear as he spoke which was easy to detect, and Belldandy felt her aura flare around her even more. He was afraid. He was _guilty_. Well, she wasn't about to make this hard for him. Her decision was already made.

"Yes," replied Belldandy. "And it's fine. When we get back, I won't get in the way. I can even have my stuff packed and –"

"No!" yelped Keiichi, as he reached out and grabbed the Goddess by the arm and turned her to face him. A blast of wind buffeted his face, and though there were no open windows, his hair rose for a brief moment before falling limp once more. More pedestrians, already spooked by the cracked wood, began to protest, moving away from Keiichi and Belldandy as though the two were jinxed. "It wasn't like that!" the SEAL cried. "Nothing happened between us."

"What?" Belldandy stared at the man in astonishment. "What do you mean?!"

"Nothing happened," he proclaimed, desperation seeping into his voice before he recovered. "We had a long, heart to heart. I told her I was with you and she said that it was fine, and that she would step aside."

Belldandy stepped closer to Keiichi and looked deeply into his eyes. While there was iron in his words, there was still a little something off. Three months of living with him and learning his every nuance told her he was hiding something. _The fear in his voice._ A part of her whispered. _He would not be afraid if he was honest_. The woman's eyes narrowed. "I think there was more to it than that," she accused after a moment.

Keiichi flinched. "Well... ok, here's the deal." Belldandy could tell he was bracing himself for what was to come next. Truthfully, she was doing the same. Her stomach dropped, and she could feel her heart thump wildly in her chest- not out of excitement, but terror. "That wasn't the first time she came to me." the man confessed, and in his eyes Belldandy saw pain. Pain and regret. "The first time, our first day here... we kissed," he said after a moment. The man took a long, slow breath. "We... Bell, I'm sorry, I just- we got caught in the moment."

The goddess paused. While the 'news' might not be as bad as she had imagined, it was still something of a shock. Keiichi had kissed another woman. A tinge of redness invaded her field of vision as she glowered over the mortal. "What do you mean 'kissed'?" she demanded, causing him to shrink back. "Was it like some kindergarten playground thing? Or was it like if you took one more step further you'd have ended up fucking on the bed?!" Keiichi looked genuinely afraid.

"It wasn't..." he croaked out, but stopped when it became apparent Belldandy was not even listening. The goddess clenched and unclenched her hands, her lips peeling back in a wide, toothy snarl that spoke of dwindling self-control falling into agonized rage. It was the look she'd worn on her face several times before, during Peorth's visit. "Bell, don't get any-"

Belldandy cut him off. "I'm going to fucking rip that cunt's heart out so she can understand what she is dong to me right-"

" _No, you're not."_

Holy Bell's voice rang in her mind, causing her to pause before she could finish what she was going to say. The goddess went rigid, like a child caught by her mother. _And just why the hell not?!_ she demanded of her inner self.

In her mind and soul, she felt the sensation of someone wrapping their arms around her. She felt warmth well up in her as her angel spoke. _"Because you are only seeing the bad side of this, as you always have,"_ replied the angel.

 _What good side would you have me see here?_ demanded the goddess.

" _He told you the truth, did he not?"_ asked Holy Bell. " _Even though he was afraid to do so. I think that indicates he regrets what happened._ "

 _That may be, but as I have been reminded on multiple occasions, it takes two to tango,_ replied the goddess.

" _That's right, it does_ ," agreed the angel. " _But this has been a three-way dance, and you are not without fault. Let it go, Carrie. You should focus your anger where it belongs._ "

Carrie.

Holy Bell had called her Carrie; had taken up the same special little nickname Aiko liked to call her during their late-night conversations. Aiko on one end of the phone with coffee and Belldandy on the other end with tea, both of them conversing of everything from the silly to the despairing to the ridiculous and the depressing. Carrie and Bangle, talking about their respective siblings and the unruliness of youth and the unfathomable depths of the spiritual to straight advice on how to get out of debt by means that may or may not have been legal.

Bangle, _Aiko_ , who had shown her support when she'd barely known Belldandy and had forgiven the goddess when she'd killed Keiichi.

It tempered her rage, but did not extinguish it. _And where should it go?_ She asked her angel, _This rage over the man who would be so careless as to hurt me; where should I focus this anger?_

" _Well, not on some woman that we will probably never see again."_

As Belldandy had her inner dialogue with her angel, Keiichi was growing increasingly concerned at seeing the goddess in what was almost a catatonic state. She had simply stopped talking and started staring off into space, as if falling into a trance. He tried waving his hands in front of her face to get her attention, to no avail. Just as he was contemplating the idea of finding Urd to see if she could help, Belldandy's hand snapped out and grabbed him by the shirt. With a grip strong enough to tear the fabric if he struggled, the Norn pulled him close to her until they were nearly nose to nose.

"When we get home, we need to sit down and have a serious talk about where we are with this relationship." Though her voice was calm, her eyes terrified Keiichi in ways he could not describe. The irises were cloudy and spiraling, like the swirling, hypnotic depths of a tornado against a blue sky, and the SEAL feared that if he held her gaze, he'd be sucked in; sucked in and lost, spinning endlessly within a sky of blue until time stood still. She released him then, and he let out a breath that he didn't realize he was holding. She glared at him for a moment more before turning to walk away, pausing only for a moment to look back over her shoulder at the mortal. "Keiichi, get your head out of whatever nether region it's located in right now and step up, or be prepared to step away. I'm not above canceling _MY_ wish and ending it all at this point." She then turned and walked to the front door, leaving the stunned mortal behind as the glass windows splintered into hairline fractures at her retreat.

XXX

"Too bad Stu." Stuart kept his head bowed as the guards escorted him back to his cell, doing his best to ignore the cat calls and insults thrown his way from the inmates. It'd been hard to focus during the parole hearing, where he'd had to fight to stay awake, and on several occasions through the proceedings he'd thought he'd seen the woman. Not right in front of him, no, but off to the side. In his peripheral vision. Watching. Muttering. And the voices... he was hearing _voices_ now too. Conversations at the edge of his hearing. Discussions on the verge of comprehension. They scared him, almost as much as the woman, whose voice he'd come to know in his dreams as deep and baritone with an odd, hollow edge. Those voices weren't the woman's, but some piece of him recognized them still. They were what made him speak out in the courtroom, trying to drown out the voices in favor of the men and women speaking around him.

Yet to his disappointment he realized that mortal voices fell silent in the wake of ghostly whispers. And he knew them. He _knew_ them. That was what terrified him the most. These whispers were not the whispers of strangers but the voices of close, personal friends. Of lovers whose faces had been forgotten and family long since passed on. He didn't know what they asked, but some piece of him, his very _soul_ he suspected, understood, and what it understood was that Stuart had done something for them. He'd agreed to, to _something_ , but he didn't know what.

It made him want to stick a pencil in his ear, the voices. To grab a pencil sharpened on the cement floor of his cell, long and pointy, and shove it into his ear canal in an attempt to deafen himself to the voices. Only he suspected that even then, those voices would no more fade than the White Woman, and he'd be trapped, deaf and mad, as the voices whispered in his head and the White Woman drew near and he was imprisoned in a hospital bed with lead poisoning.

She'd be coming for him tonight.

The thought made him shudder as he entered his cell. He didn't have a roommate, given his history, and the tiny little cell never looked more cold and uninviting. _I'm going to die tonight_. He found himself thinking, stepping inside as the cell door slammed shut behind him and sticking his hands through the small window for the guards to remove the cuffs. _They'll find me dead in the morning. Dead with white eyes, like the White Woman._ It was a morbid thought, but one he felt held some level of truth to it. _Something_ was going to happen tonight, of that he was certain. The White Woman had been perched on the railing of the third-floor cell block two nights ago. It had been the first time he'd gotten a good look at her, and what he'd seen repulsed him even now.

The rags of her outfit had at one time been a complete wardrobe, but time and abuse and... tumors— large, bulging, deformed tumors— had left it in tatters. Her flesh was thin and translucent in his dreams, and he could see the veins and muscle and bone of her exposed flesh. Her lips were dark and swollen, and when she spoke he caught hints of her tongue, which was black and rotten inside her mouth.

The sight of her and all her wretchedness had been enough to leave him howling with such mindless terror that he'd woken up the whole cell block. The guards who'd come to investigate had come with the rush of police officers hearing a murder, yet finding it was only Stuart and his nightmares at the end of their chase had left them in a sour mood. They'd thrown him in isolation for the rest of the night, and like the horrible wraith she was the White Woman had followed. Isolation had done little to shield him from her, and while she never ventured through the heavy steel door into his room, he knew she was out there. In his dreams the door was removed, and he'd lain on his small cot paralyzed as she'd stared down at him from the guardrail.

That time, when he screamed, no one came to wake him.

He'd been returned to his normal cell in the morning after everyone else had woken up, and in his fear of being imprisoned once more in isolation and the dreams of no-doors, he'd fought sleep. Last night, the night before the parole hearing, he'd fought the need for sleep with all his might, and though it left him exhausted and delirious, he only glimpsed the White Woman on two or three occasions. They had been small, quick glances from when he'd nodded off, and the sight of her right outside his cell door had always been enough to jolt him awake with a shout.

It had made the parole hearing an absolute nightmare, but regardless of his efforts to work towards an early release, Stuart had given up any hope of gaining parole long ago. The Morisato family was a stubborn lot, he'd learned, and they did not forget or forgive easily. Every time word of a possible parole came forth, the Morisatos sprang forth to shoot it down faster than he could blink. He didn't hold it against them, though. Not in the slightest. Their anger towards him was more than justified, even now, years after the incident had occurred, with Aiko a grown woman. What he'd done to her as a child had been a loss of self-control for himself. He'd realized that after the long sessions with Dr. Bautista, and the guilt of his crime shamed Stuart by the day and by the hearing, where Aiko-each time older than before, steeled herself to speak of how he'd raped her.

But this particular time...

With the White Woman waiting behind his eyelids and the voices whispering sweet and terrible nothings in his ears...

God... what would it have taken to have the bailiff kill him? Or better yet, maybe Keiichi? If he'd just hopped over the table and into the audience pews, would Keiichi, Mr. Navy SEAL Morisato, if the rumors were true, been enough to end his suffering? Free him from the voices? End his life before the White Woman and all her wretchedness ended it for him?

He'd been tempted. Oooh, how he'd been tempted. A neck snap. Quick and fast. That's all it would have taken. Wasn't that what SEALs did? Snap people's necks and whisper 'nothing but dreams now'? The inmate would have gone for it if he'd thought he had a chance, if for no other reason than to die at the hands of another man rather than the hands of whatever monstrosity waited for him at night's end. He was too cowardly to take his own life, though that wasn't to say he hadn't tried, and goading the other inmates into a fight had only led to his own injuries and the inevitable death of the inmates.

The White Woman wanted Stuart for herself.

It was close to six in the evening as they closed the doors behind him, and there were still three hours left before the lights out call was made. Three hours. Three meager hours to plan on what to do when the White Woman appeared that night, as there was little doubt in his mind that she would come. Time was of the essence, and he'd wasted most of it in his panic of the White Woman's first arrival. He had no tools outside of paper, and though he'd heard of inmates fashioning shivs out of less, Stuart had neither the time nor expertise to craft one. He had a pencil he could sharpen to a point, but the only thing it might be used for would be as a quick end to his own life-the White Woman was supernatural, for certain, and a pencil used as a shiv would do nothing against her. But with a sharp enough point, he might still drive it into his neck and bleed out before his time was up, and at least then he could die a man before falling victim to whatever horrors the specter had in store for him.

What a worthless thought.

He eyed the pencil from where it rested on a small shelf built into the back cell wall. Even now, the thought of driving the pointed end of a pencil into his neck...of taking his own life...

He shuddered and looked away.

Coward. Always the coward. Always quick to roll over, that was Stuart. And now he was too cowardly to take the coward's way out. What a disgrace.

Defeated, Stuart walked over to his bed and sank down onto the old and musty mattress that was his bed. The springs squealed beneath his weight, and the lone light of his cell cast a long and dark shadow across his face from the bed above him. The man heaved a sigh, hiding his face in his hands. A broken sob was muffled by the palms at his lips, and a part of him wondered what his fate with the White Woman would be.

Throughout the cell block the lights flickered and hummed. Stuart wondered with morbid curiosity what the White Woman would do to him. Rip his spine out, by chance? Pull him through the bars of his cell door until he was nothing but pulp? Devour his soul like some kind of demon, leaving him to suffer for eternity?

The man lay down on his back and sucked in a shuddering breath.

Perhaps he slept.

XXX

The cell was dark when his hands finally slipped from his face. It was a thick blackness, of the sort one might expect to find in a black hole: deep and all-consuming. The lights were off, which in and of itself was not strange; the lights for the individual cells went off at nine-thirty at night, yet what was strange was the fact that the outside lights, which remained on but dimmed for the night watch, were off as well. It wasn't a power outage; in the half-dozen times such an event had occurred, emergency lights fueled by a generator came on to provide illumination, and on this occasion the red lights were off as well, leaving the cell in complete darkness. There was no abstract light source that could provide so much as a glint, and even as his eyes attempted to adjust to the darkness, he could make out nothing to mark his surroundings. He could not even see his hands, which he held out an inch from his face and flexed, but he felt their touch.

As if to add to the strangeness, the cell block was _quiet._

If not for the way his bed protested his weight, Stuart would have thought he'd gone blind _and_ deaf. Against the deafening silence that surrounded him, the squeak of his mattress was a loud scream. There were no footsteps that spoke of a walking guard making his rounds. No moans or sniffs or coughs or snores or voices to hint at his neighbors in their cells, and with such an encompassing darkness around him, they should have been screaming and hollering and complaining to whoever would hear them.

Yet it was all silent.

As far as Stuart could tell, he'd closed his eyes in one world and opened them to another. A world of silence and darkness, with him the last man on earth, locked away to rot in a cell with no hope of escape.

He wondered if he was dreaming, and smashed a fist into the wall his bed was propped up against. There was a thump, another blessed sound, followed by a yell which he could not contain as pain blossomed in his knuckles. Hissing through his teeth, the man drew his hand back, rubbing the knuckles in the dark and feeling liquid smear his thumb.

He was awake then.

Awake and enveloped in darkness and silence.

"I'm awake." He tested his voice against the silence and found it lacking. The quiet somehow stole substance from the sound, and the voice he heard sounded faint and weak, quivering in its attempt to stand up to the quiet around it. He tried again. "I'm _awake_." It was stronger now, but so too was the quaver of his voice, reflecting the fear gathering in his gut.

He could hear his heart hammering in his ears now, its beat rapid and pounding like a drum. He felt it beat against his ribcage, and it left him feeling breathless, breathless but awake as he peered in the direction of the cell gate. He couldn't see her, not yet, but he was certain the White Woman was out there, lying in wait. What was she waiting for, he wondered? Why hadn't she appeared to swoop down on him like he had been so dreading this past week. _Where was she_?

Was it because he was awake?

"Hello?" He called out into the darkness, yet nothing called back to him; not even the hint of an echo. "Is anyone there?" He rose from his bed and crept to the front of his cell, his hands out in front of him and searching for purchase. They found the cell bars soon enough, the steel cold and hard against his hands. "Warden?" He projected his voice into the cell block, and an echo finally returned, making him feel even more alone. His breath hitched in his throat, and he swallowed, tasting panic and bile on his tongue. "Morris?" He called to the cell mate on his left and got nothing. "Hayfever?" He called to the prisoner on the right and got the same. "Ramos?" He called across the bay and only his voice returned to him, nervous and high like a lost child. " _Anybody?"_

Nothing.

"What the fuck?" He whispered to himself, squinting through the bars of his cell. Yet it was the same outside as it was inside, and Stuart saw nothing.

But he could hear something now, at least.

He could hear voices.

Distant at first, but growing stronger by the second, their words still too far and indistinct for him to make out. Stuart pressed himself into the bars, straining his ears to make out what the voices were saying and hoping it wasn't his mind playing tricks on him. A whisper first, then he could assign genders to them. He thought one of them might be male, but as a whole most of them sounded feminine, which should have been a warning to him. There were no females in San Quentin unless they were visitors, and those visitors never went into the cell blocks.

"Who's there?" he called. The voices continued on as if they'd never heard him. "Hello?" he tried again. "I know someone's out there, I can hear it. Who's out there? What's going on?"

None of the voices responded to him, and he realized with growing dread that as they grew louder, he could find no meaning in their words; whatever language they spoke was so strange and so foreign that it was almost otherworldly, a Lovecraftian slur that made the hair on his arms stand straight.

 _They're in my head._ He thought. _Like before, like in the courtroom and when I'm asleep. It's the voices all over again._

"I'm awake though," he said out loud. "I'm _awake!_ "

Yet if the voices heard him they cared not. They continued their conversation, heedless of his protests and growing louder by the second. The whisper became a murmur, the murmur became noise. The noise grew to first a dull roar, and then a deafening shout, as one voice after another warred for dominance in his psyche.

"Stop it!" he cried, and was ignored. "Shut up! Leave me alone!" He covered his ears with his hands and discovered it did nothing against the voices. Their tumult grew louder, and when he screamed he could no longer hear his own voice. "Go away! Shut up! Shut up! _Stop!"_ He slammed his head against the bars but didn't feel the pain against his temple. Instead Stuart fell to his knees, clutching his head as he screamed, hoping to drown out noise with noise and failing even at that. "Please, no more!" he begged. "I'll do whatever you want, just _stop!"_

At once the voices quieted.

The resulting silence was enough to make Stuart whimper.

"Oh god, just make it _stop," he_ groaned, and popped himself up against the bars of the door. "I just-I just want to be left _alone!"_

Yet he was not alone.

The White Woman was in his cell.

She glowed with an internal, ethereal light, and her white gaze was horrible. She came to him, large and otherworldly, and Stuart began to scream. _"No! Stop! I'm awake! I'm awake!"_ He screamed long and loud and shrill, until his face grew red and the veins bulged in his neck.

The White Woman swept down upon him in silence, and amidst the hysteric screams of a man driven to hysteria, Stuart Holzkopf disappeared from his cell.

No trace would be found leading to the reason of his disappearance or how he'd slipped through the bars. And by the time he was discovered missing and word was released to the San Francisco police, the events that followed his disappearance would already be completed, and the actions, and resulting consequences, would be out of even the hands of gods.

XXX

Dinner that night was one of celebration and good cheer. Stuart remained behind bars, and with it came a sense of satisfaction and serenity for many of the individuals involved. Many, but not all. Aiko celebrated her victory against Stuart at dinner that night, where Keima paid for her meal as those gathered toasted to Aiko's success. It would at least a year before the man in question would be up for parole again. That knowledge brought with it a certain peace of mind for his lone victim; peace of mind that Stuart would not be released, that he would be unable to hunt out new quarry, and that there would be no possibility of him committing further crimes upon his release.

For those most involved, it was like a great weight had been lifted from their shoulders. Aiko smiled a bit larger, Morgan conversed with the others a bit more, Megumi became a bit more open minded and Takano laughed a bit more. Keima was vocal in his happiness as he spat out curses at the man behind bars. Yet not everyone shared in the joy of the celebration. The Norns were uneasy amongst the festivities, and were quiet and reserved amongst the Morisato family. Belldandy smiled and laughed and listened whenever someone paid her particular attention, but otherwise offered no conversation during dinner. Urd didn't even bother with an attempt to conceal her mood, her gaze long and distant as she appeared lost in thought. She was left alone, unlike Belldandy, leaving her to brood in peace as Keiichi looked on in concern, his thoughts troubled with memories of Hagall and the hellish mental attack cast against him.

Though he, like Belldandy, managed to smile and laugh for the others, those who knew him well could see that there was something off. The grip on his drink was tight and tense, leaving the veins in his hands and forearm bulging, with a smile that did not quite reach his eyes. It almost looked like a snarl was on his face; a warning to those around him he was in no mood to be trifled with, and similar to Urd his family let him be. And while Aiko laughed and enjoyed herself and celebrated Stuart's defeat, her gaze was drawn to her elder brother and the goddesses who lived with him on several occasions, her eyes questioning but her voice silent, unwilling to spoil the good mood.

Debra watched the Norns with suspicious eyes, following their actions with a frown as she observed them. Her eyes remained centered on Urd, who appeared too distracted to notice the woman's gaze. However, when the woman _did_ look towards Debra, the detective was quick to turn away, as though fearing the silver-haired woman's eyes or perhaps, that she might see _(beneath the mask_ )something she didn't want to see. On several occurrences she attempted to start up a conversation with Keiichi, but lost her nerve at that last minute each time.

Nothing more happened that night.

It was not until the following morning that disaster struck.

It was the morning Keiichi and those who'd accompanied him were due to fly out. Their flight back to Virginia was scheduled for 10:13 that day, and so most of the early morning was spent gathering what few possessions they had and double checking the rooms for any last-minute forgotten items. The group made their way down to the lobby for a final hotel breakfast at a slow crawl. There was no rush; it was only seven when Keiichi awoke, and by then the Norns were already awake. Aiko was the last of their unofficial group to awaken, appearing downstairs at close to nine with her bags and Morgan in tow. The two women beamed with happiness, and it made Keiichi smile when he looked at them. They made a cute couple together, now that the initial shock of their relationship had faded for him.

The duo moved to join the Norns at the table where they sat, dining in amiable silence next to the table Megumi and Keiichi ate at in their final hours together. It was a comfortable silence; one that allowed Keiichi to forget the events of yesterday. They'd be leaving soon, he told himself, in a matter of hours, in fact, and there was no way, no goddamned way, that what Belldandy and Urd sensed yesterday in the courthouse, something that in private even _Keima_ admitted being unnerved by, would come to them at the hotel. No way.

And if he looked to the Norns, he found them in a similar state of mind. Or perhaps they were just tired. Neither woman appeared very concerned with the goings-on around them, though they both looked tired. Keiichi wondered if they'd sung in the early morning hours of a tiny hotel in San Francisco when there were demons present in town.

 _It doesn't matter,_ a tiny voice whispered in his head. _This will all be over once you get on the plane home._

Keiichi was unconvinced.

The rest of the morning passed in peace. Wayfarers loaded with travel bags and suitcases checked out of their rooms while cleaning personnel began their slow creep through the corridors. The initial rush of departing guests faded, and as the hotel staff began clearing the breakfast bar, Keiichi and the others grabbed their own possessions.

Keima and Takano were there to see them off in the hotel lobby as they all checked out. "If Keigo scores well on his tests, will you still allow him to visit you?" Takano asked, embracing Keiichi in a tight hug that belied her tiny form. Her gaze turned to Belldandy, who was holding an amiable conversation with Keima. "Especially now that you have other... priorities to sort through?"

Keiichi winced internally. In the excitement of the Norns coming to live with him, he'd forgotten about his baby's brother's aspirations to come and visit during the summer time. Part of the deal had been that he achieve a straight-A grade point average, and from his exchanges with the youth, Keigo had worked diligently to achieve that goal. Before Urd had come to him on that Friday night, Keiichi had been looking forward to seeing his younger brother, as the age difference between the two of them left them with little closeness as siblings. Keigo's visits were a way of getting to know the boy and to bond with him, and the boy's exuberance and excitement whenever he came to stay with Keiichi were the highpoints of his life, especially after returning from Iraq.

Yet that had been before a pair of goddesses had entered Keiichi's life. The Norns were quick to change that excitement. _Belldandy_ was quick to change that excitement. It had taken all of two days for Belldandy to forget herself and 'spill the beans' to Aiko during that one Easter weekend, and though the goddess had progressed towards recovery, a part of him still feared the idea of a boy like Keigo, not even a teenager yet, learning what had become his 'dirty little secret'. Despite everything else, to include the onset of puberty, Keigo was a perceptive boy. Though he was the only one in the family who wore glasses, his eyes were sharp, and he could spot things that were out of the ordinary or out-of-place with an ease that at times made Keiichi envious. And while Belldandy had gotten better since Easter, hell, since her _angel_ , the Norn still at times simply didn't fit in the world around her.

Keigo, a child sensitive to such dissimilarities, would pick up on that in a heartbeat.

With a heavy heart Keiichi opened his mouth to decline the invitation, and then immediately shut it when he caught the expression on Takano's face. The look was one of expectation and rock-hard stubbornness, the glint in her eyes holding an edge like a knife that dared the Navy SEAL to go back against his word. Keiichi knew that gaze and knew it well from his childhood. That was Takano's legendary 'my way or the highway' look, the one that left little room for argument and had left everyone from Keima to Keiichi to Keigo to coworkers and friends silent and withdrawn, reluctant or perhaps simply unable to hold an argument that went against Takano's will. That was the look that told Keiichi that there was no choice for him, and that Takano was not so much asking as she was reminding him of his past promise to the baby of the family.

A sinking feeling filled his gut, and Keiichi glanced back at Belldandy, then at Urd. With Urd around, they _could_ goddess-proof the house before Keigo arrived, which was still a little way off, and, well... Belldandy _had_ improved by leaps and bounds since the scene with her angel. Of course, that was before this latest fiasco with Debra, but maybe if he...

With a smile he didn't feel, Keiichi looked back at Takano. "It'll be fine," he assured her. The smile Takano gave him was not so much relieved as it was pleased. "The house is pretty big, and the girls don't take up much room. It'll be nice to have another man in the house, given I'm already outnumbered with Urd there as well."

Takano nodded, her smile long and generous. "Wonderful," she said. "I'll make sure to let Keigo know before he tests. He got a ninety-six percent on his last test, and I'm beginning to fear that he's starting to slip in his studies, especially after we informed him he would not be coming with us to the parole hearing- he's too young for such things- and I'm afraid they'd slip further if you changed your mind. Perhaps this will inspire him and reaffirm his goals so that he can still come out and see you, although—and don't you tell Keima about this—I was thinking of allowing him to visit you even with such a poor grade as an A-."

"You're a generous woman, Takano," Keiichi said dryly.

Takano hummed in agreement, and for one final moment drifted back towards Belldandy before looking back at Keiichi. "One more thing," she said, unconsciously mimicking her husband. "When Keigo visits you... don't let Belldandy sleep with Keigo."

Her comment was odd enough to leave Keiichi staring at her. "What?"

"I don't want her sleeping with all my children, and she's already got a head start with you and Aiko," Takano said, and then turned away, distracted as she moved towards Megumi.

Keiichi remained where he was, staring at his mother's back in bafflement. " _What_?"

Takano and Megumi embraced, and it was as they were parting that Morgan approached from the direction of the bathrooms. The woman looked uncertain, drawing behind her a small, wheeled, maroon suitcase that looked small enough to be a carry-on. The woman approached at a rushed walk, her brows knitted together with worry as she made a beeline for Keiichi, and it was enough to make the SEAL's hackles rise.

"Hey, um... Keiichi?" Morgan's voice was low as she approached, and her eyes flitted around the lobby in search of something that eluded the man. "Uh... listen, this is going to sound weird but... Aiko didn't come over here, did she?"

"No..." Keiichi drawled, and that lump that had formed in his stomach at the mention of 'demon' yesterday became a boulder in his intestines. "The last I saw her, she was with you."

"Yeah..." Morgan was growing more anxious now. "I- we went to the bathroom together, you know? Only I forgot I left my brush in our room, so I went to run and grab it real fast, and when I came back, well..." She shrugged, and though the response was flippant, Keiichi could see the dawning fear on her face. "I... I was hoping she'd come here to join you," Morgan continued. "She... she isn't answering her phone."

As if to prove this, Morgan pulled her cellphone out from her pocket and checked the home screen. The phone remained empty of notifications, and after unlocking it and going to her texts, she showed Keiichi her recent history. The past ten minutes detailed a dozen or so texts from Morgan asking about Aiko's whereabouts. None of them had a response.

Keiichi frowned, uneasy but trying to reassure himself. "Maybe her phone died when she left the bathroom," he suggested, though by the look on Morgan's face she remained about as convinced as he felt. "Come on, let's go and see if we can't find her."

Morgan nodded, and as he moved to depart she went to Belldandy, catching Keiichi off-guard. "Excuse me, Belldandy?" The goddess had been talking in Japanese with Keima. It sounded like they'd been talking about food, unless Keiichi's ears were mistaken, and that would have been a first in Keiichi's books. Bell never talked about food with _anyone_. "Could you- could I speak with you and Keiichi in private for a minute?" She said nothing of Aiko's possible disappearance, and her tact earned her brownie points in Keiichi's eyes.

"Of course," Belldandy murmured, and excusing herself from her conversation, Morgan and Belldandy walked out of the lobby and into the neighboring media room. Keiichi followed, and held back a small distance as the young woman explained Aiko's disappearance to Belldandy. The room was empty aside from themselves, and beneath the low din of the weatherman reporting clear skies and sunny days, Belldandy listened with rapt attention.

"Could you come with us to go look for Aiko?" Morgan requested. The young woman bit her lip. "Aiko, she... if- if anything happened to her, she told me that you could help. You and Keiichi both."

Belldandy started. "She said that about me?" The woman was shocked by the simple revelation. " _Me_?"

Morgan nodded. "It's true, right? You'll help find her?"

Belldandy opened her mouth, and then closed it when no words came out. She stared at Morgan with wide eyes, and then frowned, the shock dissipating into determination. "Yes. She's right. We'll find her, Morgan." The level of certainty in her voice was reassuring even to Keiichi, who was fighting down his own anxieties about his sister's disappearance amidst the presence of demons yesterday.

Together the trio moved to the bathroom where Morgan had left Aiko. They found Debra exiting it with a frown, a bag Keiichi recognized from Aiko's many visits to his house hoisted on her left shoulder. She looked at the approaching group in surprise. "Kei?"

"That's Aiko's bag." Morgan breathed.

Debra nodded. "I found it in the bathroom," she said, and handed it to Keiichi to examine. "I'd been washing up and noticed it'd been left unattended on the countertop." She looked between Keiichi and Morgan. "What's going on?"

"Aiko's missing," Keiichi said, and as he spoke Belldandy pushed past Debra and into the bathroom. Keiichi dug around in the backpack, coming up with a spare change of clothes, a tablet, a textbook, and, most worrisome of all, Aiko's wallet. It still had Aiko's driver's license, college ID, debit card and fifty dollars inside, indicating that the bag had not been trifled with. "This isn't good," Keiichi mumbled, staring down at the wallet before pulling out his cellphone and dialing Aiko's cell. After a minute of ringing, the phone went to voicemail. "Fuck," Keiichi grunted.

" _Fuck!"_ An oath emerged from the bathroom, and all three of the mortals jumped as Belldandy came storming out, eyes wide and anxious and, worst of all, _angry._ Her eyes found Keiichi's first. "I need Urd," she said, and then looked at Morgan, who was starting to dance on her feet next to Debra. It made the goddess hesitate, and some of the fear and anger vanished under a mask of calm. "Morgan, can you go back to the others and send Urd here?" she requested. "She can help me find Aiko, but until we find her, I need you to let the others know to keep an eye out for her."

Morgan nodded. "Yeah, okay, I can do that, sure," she said, all too eager to help. "I'll- I'll keep Aiko's bag on hand and keep an eye on her luggage." She licked her lips. "Besides, maybe she's already back with the others."

"Maybe..." Debra murmured, watching as Morgan took Aiko's bag from Keiichi and raced off. "I'll stay with you guys." She looked at Keiichi and Belldandy. "I want to help search for her. If I'd been aware she was missing, I'd have done a more in-depth investigation of the bathroom before moving her backpack. I might still be able to find some traces of what happened to her."

"That won't be necessary-" Belldandy began.

"Fuck you, it won't," Debra interrupted. "I grew up with Aiko. She's as much my baby sister as she is Keiichi's."

"Deb-" Keiichi began.

"Don't start, Kei." Debra snapped. "I'm not just going to sit by on the sidelines while you and your girlfriend and her sister do whatever to find Aiko. I don't know what's going on between you three, and quite frankly, right now I don't give a shit. Aiko's missing, I'm helping, and fuck all of you if you think I'm not getting involved."

Belldandy bristled, her lips pulling back in a snarl that was interrupted by the arrival of Urd. "Aiko's missing?" the Norn asked, and any chance at arguing died on Belldandy's lips.

"She is," Belldandy said. "Come, you need to examine the bathroom. Keiichi, you too. No one is inside right now."

The group of four entered the woman's bathroom, a small, three-stall restroom with a white porcelain counter. To Keiichi it was like watching Urd walk into a spider's web. The goddess visibly stiffened upon stepping inside, and her lips peeled back in a grimace as she tossed her head. "Holy fuck, Bell."

"Agreed," Belldandy muttered.

Debra ignored them both, approaching the countertop where she had said Aiko's bag had been left. The woman examined first the counter top, then knelt on the floor, searching for what Keiichi could only guess was hair or bobby pins.

"Bell, this place _reeks,"_ Urd rumbled, her voice deep and low next to her sister. "It's bad enough that it's giving Elegance the heebie-jeebies."

"You aren't alone," Belldandy murmured, stepping around Debra and approaching a small window that let light in from the outside. It was two-by-two feet, mounted high on the wall with thick, translucent glass that flooded the bathroom with light.

"What do you mean?" Keiichi asked, glancing at Debra before turning his attention on Urd. "This place doesn't smell that bad, does it?" To him at least, it smelled like any woman's public bathroom- like potpourri and artificial fragrances.

"It's not a smell," Urd said, and her voice lowered. "It's a sense. There were demons here, Jank."

"Like yesterday?" Keiichi asked, and felt his gut tie itself in a knot as Urd nodded.

"Urd, will you contact Lind now?" Belldandy looked over her shoulder at her sister. "I fear we will need her if we're to locate Aiko."

"Who's Lind?" Debra looked up at Belldandy.

"You'll find out soon enough." The Norn sent an imploring look to her older sister, who scowled and reluctantly pulled out her phone.

"We can't meet Lind at the hotel," Urd said.

"Then we follow the trail and see where it goes," Belldandy said. "We find some place private and call her from there."

"Keiichi, what's going on?" Debra asked. Her eyes remained on Belldandy.

"We're calling for backup," Keiichi explained, looking at Urd. "Right?"

"Yeah..." Urd trailed off. "Bell, you sense it too, right? There's no trail through the restroom door."

"It came in and left through the window," Belldandy replied.

"Wait, what?" Debra looked between the two sisters in confusion. "What did? How could you- what are you talking about?"

Neither sister answered her, and as Debra rose, Urd moved to her sister's side, her voice dropping into a soft murmur as she spoke to Belldandy in a language Keiichi didn't understand. He recognized it though. It was that same musical song-language Belldandy spoke on occasion when her emotions got the better of her. The siblings conversed briefly, and Debra moved to stand beside Keiichi, her attention never leaving the two women before them.

"What are they speaking?" she asked. Keiichi wondered why she was whispering.

"I don't know." Keiichi wondered why he was whispering too. It was as if their native tongue, so like a duet to the women who spoke it, demanded silence, like a choir performing within an opera house where any interruption would be deemed sacrilegious to the song in question. It was an enchanting sound to listen to when Urd paired her voice with Belldandy's, and Keiichi felt his grip on time loosen, drawn as he was to the music of their voices. A glance at Debra would have revealed much the same, had he the will, yet the voices of the goddesses had robbed him even of that, and as they spoke Keiichi felt himself fall prisoner to them, robbed of will and desire to pursue whatever had drawn him into the women's restroom to begin with.

At length, the sisters stopped, whatever plan they'd discussed finalized with a single head nod from Urd. The spell broken, Keiichi brought a hand to his brow, massaging his temples and blinking rapidly. His mind felt slow and his thoughts like molasses after whatever Belldandy and Urd had discussed, and this time, when he worked up the energy to glance at Debra, he saw that the effects were not limited to him and him alone.

Debra had closed her eyes, gritting her teeth as she pressed her fingers down on her forehead. Blood had begun to trickle from her nose. Keiichi touched his upper lip in reflection, but found no moisture dripping from his nostrils, and wondered why Debra had been affected in such a manner. "You okay?"

Debra looked at him with one eye. A blood vessel had burst within it, leaving part of the sclera red. "I- I think... so?" She didn't sound so sure herself. "My head hurts... but, it's fading now. I'm fine," she assured. "Really, I... I'm fine." Once more her attention was drawn back to the Norns, watching as Urd moved to the window and peered up at it. "Kei, what was that?" The Norn reached her long arms up to the window to pull it open, and with a soft click it surrendered to her will. "That... that wasn't any language I've ever heard before."

"You don't look so good, Deb." Keiichi ignored her question, his concern real. Whatever the Norns had done had affected Deb in a more negative fashion than Keiichi, and the woman looked pale and shaken as a result. The blood had slowed but not stopped its path down her upper lip, and even as Debra dabbed at it with her arm, a fresh dribble began as soon as her hand fell from her face.

"I'm _fine_." Debra insisted, but the grimace on her face told another story. "Better question would be what your girlfriend and her sister are doing and _why_."

The man looked back to the Norns, and his jaw nearly dropped as he watched Urd hoist herself up to the now open window and shimmy through it. "What the fuck?" Before he'd even completed his question Belldandy was jumping up after her sister, slipping through the tiny window with the same efficiency as her older sibling. A moment later, Urd's head popped back up on the other side of the window.

"You coming or what?" she demanded. "Bell's already off, and I can't wait forever.

"Urd, you crawled through a _window!"_ Keiichi exclaimed. "What the hell are you guys doing?"

"Hunting," Urd replied. "We've got our trail, and we can't waste time or it'll grow cold."

"So you crawled through a window instead of circling around like a normal, sane person?" Debra demanded.

Urd looked her square in the eyes. "Yes. Now are you coming or not?"

"Through the window?" Both Keiichi and Debra demanded.

"Yes."

Keiichi looked at Debra.

Debra looked at Keiichi. "Kei, no."

Keiichi ignored Debra and moved towards the window. Urd disappeared once more. "Kei, you won't fit! You'll get stuck in the window!"

Keiichi jumped and grabbed hold of the window ledge. With a grunt he hoisted himself up and through the window, and as Debra predicted his arms, large and beefy as they were, combined with the thick chest he'd built to support such a massive frame, left him stuck. A muffled oath came from the other side of the wall, and Debra watched as Keiichi flailed in the window, his feet kicking to find purchase as his hands clenched and unclenched.

"Kei, hang on!" Debra ran over to grab his feet, to pull him back down so that they both could walk around to the front entrance like a pair of sane, normal people and not some half-mad pair of sisters. "Keiichi, stop kicking!" she called. "I'm going to pull you down!" The man stopped fighting, and his legs fell back against the wall, his knees banging against the tiles. The detective wrapped her arms around Keiichi's quads, and holding tight, began to pull him back down.

Yet instead of him falling back through, something else pulled him _up_ , something that had to have been large and with monstrous strength, because it pulled Debra up as well. She screamed as she found herself hauled up to the window, a passenger along for the ride, yet she never thought to loosen her hold on her ex-husband. The window loomed closer with a ferocious speed, and Debra closed her eyes, waiting for the onset of pain as she crashed into it.

However there was no pain. Just a brightness behind her eyelids and a flush of fresh, hot, California air, followed by gravity once more exerting its hold on her. She opened her eyes to find herself tumbling down to the grass with Keiichi, only to be caught by Urd before her head could impact the ground. "Wow, easy there," Urd exclaimed, righting Debra as if she was a child caught in her mother's arms and placing her feet-first on the ground. "Wasn't expecting two people coming out at once. That's dangerous, you know."

Keiichi picked himself up off the ground with a moan, then looked up at the window he'd crawled-been pulled-through. "How...?"

"What the hell was that!?" Debra exclaimed.

"You going through a window," Urd replied. "What else would it be?" She looked at Keiichi. "Grab your car. Bell's already well ahead of us, and we're going need to catch up with her. She took off as soon as her feet touched the ground, and I don't think hell or high water is going to stop her from tracking down Aiko."

"Why not just run after her then?" Keiichi asked. "Bell never struck me as a runner."

"She's hunting," Urd said, and Debra sent her a queer look. "Have you ever tried to race Usain Bolt?"

"What? No!" Keiichi cried.

"Same principle," Urd replied. "Only add parkour to it as well. She's won't let anything block her trail now that she's on it, and I'll be lucky if I can track her down now. We'll need a car to catch up with her."

"Wow, wait, are you serious right now?" Debra demanded. "You're telling me your sister fucking Usain Bolted the fuck out of Dodge and is now jumping off rooftops on some kind of imaginary trail I can't even see? Are you _high_?"

"Not since coming to California," Urd muttered, then looked to Keiichi. "Well? Let's go! The trail won't last forever."

"Right." Keiichi nodded, then raced off to grab the car.

Urd hung back and Debra stayed with her, turning to regard the woman next to her as Keiichi walked away while digging in his pockets for the rental key. "Who are you?" Debra asked. " _What_ are you? Really?" Urd looked at her, and the detective frowned. "You can't fool me forever," she continued. "I know what I saw when I saw you with that Blonde Woman. You aren't human. Neither was that woman. I doubt Belldandy is either."

Urd was silent.

"I know what I saw. You're wearing masks. You and that other woman too," Debra continued. "I saw what you really are." When Urd said nothing still, the blonde continued. "I saw it, you know. The snake-bird. And that blonde was... some kind of cheetah-dog mixed with a centipede." She saw Urd's eyes widen at the description. "I'm right, aren't I?" she asked. "I only saw it for a few seconds but... that's what you really are, right?"

"You're too sensitive," Urd replied. "That's... unhealthy." She narrowed her eyes, and turned to face Debra more fully. Her eyes were drawn to Debra's upper lip, still with its red smear from the bloody nose. "Keiichi's sensitivity comes from exposure to us, but you were born like that." She pursed her lips, then dug in her pocket and withdrew a small vial. "It's dangerous for you to be so close to people like me." She offered the vial to Debra, then mumbled to herself, "How does a man with the sensitivity of a rock draw people like you to his side? There must have been shamans of some sort in his family... monks, priests, wisemen, _something_ to explain the attraction..."

"Is that poison?" Debra asked. "Are you going to make me forget?"

"Venom," Urd corrected. "And no. It'll heal the damage done to your mind. I don't know how we hurt you because I wasn't paying attention, but... you'll need it if you want to continue this journey with us. It won't make you forget though. That comes later, after Aiko is rescued and I can decide how big a threat you are to Belldandy and me."

Debra eyed the vial with distrust. "It's _your_ venom, isn't it."

"It is," Urd replied. "But I promise you on the friendship I share with Keiichi, it will not harm you. My venom is used as the base for all my potions, and I use them to heal rather than harm." The woman made a face. "I don't use my venom as a poison."

The detective eyed the potion a moment longer before taking it in her right hand. "Does Keiichi know?" Debra stared down at the little vial. "He certainly seems to trust you. Is that because he already knows?"

"He does," Urd said, and her words were a slow murmur. "Perhaps when this is all over, I'll explain it more, but... for now, for Aiko, will you hold off on your questions?" she requested. "Because the truth of what I am is not something that should be the topic of conversation right now. Not when Aiko needs us at our best."

"That woman who was with you..." Debra continued. "Humor me this at least: Is she on our side?"

"She is," Urd replied. "And we're about to get more on our side too. Drink the potion, Debra Johansson. If it's what I fear, we'll need all the help we can get."

Debra eyed the potion with trepidation. "I feel like this is the first time you've really been honest with me." With a sigh she removed the small cork and downed the contents. The fire that chased the liquid down her throat reminded her of whiskey and left in her nostrils a smell like rain during a thunderstorm. She grimaced and handed the vial back to Urd. The headache that had haunted her since Urd and Belldandy had spoken their strange song at once began to diminish. "And what do you fear it is?"

Yet Urd didn't respond. Keiichi had pulled up to the sidewalk in the vehicle, and the woman was already making her way to the car. "I'm taking the back seat," she announced. "I'll need the freedom if I'm going to drag Bell into the car."

Debra regarded the silver-haired woman for a moment, and then circled around the car to take the passenger seat beside Keiichi. Keiichi adjusted the rearview mirror to look at Urd. "Where are we going?"

"Hang a right outside the hotel and head towards the coast," Urd instructed. The man grunted, then wheeled the vehicle out of the parking lot and into San Francisco's traffic. With Urd's direction they traveled onto the interstate and then into the city. Rush hour had long since passed, and they made good time as they sped along, where even police cruisers seemed to ignore them though Keiichi was going close to twenty over the speed limit. They slowed down in the city, and as Urd continued shouting directions, she shuffled over to the right side of the vehicle, rolling down the window as she eyed the flat rooftops of the brick buildings they passed. "Debra, cover your ears," Urd advised. "Keiichi's hearing is already shit but I don't want to damage yours."

"Hey!" Keiichi protested.

At this point, Debra had ceased questioning Urd's instructions and instead did as was bidden, sticking her fingers in her ears and giving the go-ahead to Urd. The silver-haired woman then stuck her head out the window and whistled so loudly that even Keiichi, the Great and Fabulous Ear-Ringer Himself, winced at the sound. The whistle started off high, then dipped in a series of lower frequencies, almost as if the woman was sounding off a message somewhere outside. As soon as it ended another tune picked up in response, one equally loud that came across in a series of higher notes. Debra looked outside, trying to locate the source and using Urd as a frame of reference.

She saw Belldandy soon enough, running and leaping and bounding from one rooftop to the next, running alongside the rental as if she was out for a leisurely jog. The woman released another sharp whistle that made Debra wince, and Urd responded in turn before pulling her head back inside the car. Debra, transfixed by the racing woman on the rooftops, didn't notice.

"Hang a right at the next intersection," Urd instructed. "Head down two blocks towards the coast before taking a left. You'll see a storage facility with a black gate in front of it. Belldandy will open it for you."

"What's at the storage unit?" Keiichi asked, following her instructions and turning off the main road they were at and down a smaller, less populated road. Belldandy, still high up, vanished for a moment before hopping down to a lower rooftop. A moment later, and she was running past them as Keiichi lowered the speed to thirty-five.

"Christ, what is she, The Flash?" Debra breathed.

"She's the wind," Urd corrected, and looked back at Keiichi. "That's where the trail ends," she said.

"A storage facility. Of course," Keiichi muttered dourly. "Where you can store your grandmother's corpse for half a century and no one would ever know until someone complained about the smell."

"We'll find Aiko, Jank," Urd assured.

"I know," Keiichi mumbled. "But I'm worried what we'll find with her."

The gate to the storage facility was already open by the time they'd arrived. They drove through unhindered. The front office had a large _CLOSED_ sign in its window, and the blinds were drawn behind it. There were no cars parked in any of the long rows of storage crates that might signify other people, either. Keiichi parked the car near the front gate, and the small group exited the vehicle, finding Belldandy near the closing automatic gate. The spot she was occupying had been empty a couple of seconds before.

The Norn's eyes narrowed when they fell upon Debra. "You're here?"

Debra scowled. "Surprise Motherfucker."

"Don't start, either of you," Keiichi growled.

"Agreed," Urd sighed, and the look she sent Belldandy was disappointed. "We're here for Aiko, not for some Wild West Showdown bullshit."

"Fine." Belldandy sighed and massaged her brow. "Urd, call Lind now. _Please_."

A flash of discomfort wormed its way across Urd's face, there and gone in an instant, and with reluctance the Norn withdrew her cellphone once more. As the woman dialed Lind, Belldandy drew near to Keiichi. "There are demons here, Keiichi," she said, and glanced at Debra. "It's not safe for _her_ to be here."

"I don't think it's safe for _me_ to be here either, yet here I am," Keiichi replied. "Deb wants to help too, and I'm not looking a gift horse in the mouth."

"I can't look after her if there are demons around," Belldandy protested.

"Something tells me you won't be able to look out for Keiichi either." Debra spoke behind Belldandy, and the goddess jumped, wheeling to face the woman with a start. "I've heard you mention demons before," Debra continued. "Is that what we're facing? Demons? Are you actually telling me that _demons_ kidnapped Aiko?"

"Yes." Belldandy's reply was firm. "And no, I don't know why. Perhaps Stuart made a contract with one and this is partial payment. Or perhaps whoever these demons are recognized my sister and I for what we were and saw Aiko as a target of opportunity. I can't say for certain until I know what we're up against, and I can't spend that time shielding a mortal who has no place in a battle against demons."

"But you're saying you can shield Keiichi, is that it?" Debra argued. "Or does he just have some kind of superpower I'm not aware of to help combat demons? What, is he armed with Holy Water and a blessed whip? Or is he housing a Stand?"

Belldandy bristled, and next to her Keiichi groaned. "Stop, both of you!" he snapped, "I'm fed up with your bullshit. Every time we go out somewhere you two pick fights with each other, regardless of what's going on around you! Both of you, get your heads out of your asses and grow the fuck up. There are more important things to worry about right now than who's the top bitch on the fucking food chain!" He looked over at Urd, who was pocketing her cell phone. "Help me out here, Sheila!"

"At the rate you two keep arguing, Aiko's going to be dead and gone by the time we rescue her," she said. "Apologies mean nothing to a corpse. Both of you either get your shit together or get out of our way." She sent a meaningful look to Belldandy, who had the decency to look ashamed. "Debra, stay with Keiichi, no matter what happens here," Urd continued. "Belldandy is right in that we can't waste time shielding other people when there are demons around, but if you both stay together at least we won't have to worry _as_ much. Truth of the matter is that neither of you should be here right now, as you both are going to be collateral at this rate." This time both Keiichi and Debra winced. "But you might yet prove useful. Keep your heads down when the fighting begins and don't make yourselves a target."

She looked over at Belldandy. "Lind is on her way now."

"Wait, isn't that going to draw attention here?" Keiichi asked.

"No more than we already have," Urd replied. She turned to look up towards the roof of one of the storage units, and the others followed her gaze. A blur of white descended like a blazing star from the heavens, and it hit the roof with enough force to disturb the accumulated dirt and debris that had gathered there through the years. Something-some _one_ -hopped down from the rooftop with a grace Debra would have killed for in her teenage years.

The debris began to settle, and from the cloud of dust walked the superhero Aiko Morisato.

Debra stared.

And stared.

….and stared.

"Oh my god, Aiko's got an alter ego."

The woman dressed in white, who looked all too much like the missing Morisato, stared at Debra, unamused. Apparently, Aiko's superhero persona lost her sense of humor as well.

"Oh my god, Aiko's Batman."

Before her, Aiko-Batman sighed and brought a hand to her brow. "Why is it," she began, "whenever I come down here, either Aiko is mistaken for me, or I am mistaken for Aiko?"

"You gotta admit, Lind, the similarities in appearance are kind of scary," Urd pointed out.

"Urd..." Lind's voice was strained. "You called me here because of a possible demon presence, not to make jokes about Aiko's resemblance to me." She leveled a blue-eyed glare at Urd. "Well?"

"Thanks for coming, Lind." Urd sent her companion a wan smile, approaching her and throwing an arm over the shorter woman's shoulders. For what might have been the first time in over one hundred years, Lind didn't flinch at the action. "So here's what's going on..."

As Urd explained the events leading up to Aiko's disappearance and their own arrival at the storage facility, Debra continued to stare. "Okay, Keiichi." Her voice dropped an octave. "Seriously, what the fuck?"

"Weird enough for you yet?" The question was meant to be humorous, yet Keiichi's voice lacked its usual humor. "It only gets weirder from here on out."

"Fuck me," Debra muttered, watching Urd and Lind with disbelieving eyes. "At this point I might as well start seeing little gray men from Mars paired up with Agents Mulder and Scully. At least then I'd be able to make some kind of sense of this whole thing."

"I doubt even they'd be able to make any sense of it," Keiichi grumbled. "I've been going through this shit for months now, and I still don't understand half of what these girls do."

"So who is... Lind?"

"A Valkyrie," Keiichi replied. "I guess... a kind of divine soldier?"

"A what?" Debra sent Keiichi a disbelieving look. "A divine- like an _angel_?"

"Oh no," Keiichi replied, "Ohhhh no no no no _no._ Definitely not an angel. Trust me on that. I've seen angels, and they're totally different from Valkyries." He missed the displeased look Belldandy sent him. "Trust me on that."

"So then...what are your girlfriend and Urd then?" Debra continued. "Is this like some crazy episode of _Charmed_ where I learn these two are sisters, a third one is missing right now, and that they're all some kind of magical trio needed to keep the Powers That Be in balance?"

This time both Belldandy and Keiichi stared. Neither said a word.

Debra cursed. "I'm right, aren't I," she stated, then muttered under her breath. "Fucking Hollywood."

"Alright guys, I think we're just about ready." Urd returned with Lind in tow. The Norn looked nervous as she looked amongst those gathered. "Let's do this. Time to save Aiko and kick some demon ass."

* * *

 **A/N: Is 3 weeks the official cadence right now? I am hoping not. I am hoping we can start getting this out a little faster, but I also cannot make any promises.**

* * *

 _Comments of a Madwoman: "Forgive me for this violence I am about to inflict."-Prayer for forgiveness from a Kung-fu stone angel._ KILLSIXBILLIONDEMONS _._


	46. Chapter 46 - Contra Timorous

-46-

Cheilonerus Paralia _takes parasitic insects to another level, laying its eggs inside the larvae of other chalcids that are already developing inside a host insect-like a parasitic Russian nesting doll._

 _-Natural History Museum_

 _You're gone, gone, gone away,_  
 _I watched you disappear_  
 _All that's left is a ghost of you_  
 _Now we're torn, torn, torn apart,_  
 _there's nothing we can do,_  
 _Just let me go, we'll meet again soon_

 _-Little Talks, Of Monsters and Men_

XXX

"Listen Lind, I'm going to be blunt with you: There are demons involved here. A lot of demons, not just the ones we're going up against." Urd had guided Lind away from the others to talk with the Valkyrie in private, and the air of joviality that the woman was initially met with vanished from Urd's face. "I can't explain everything right now because that would compromise the safety of other parties involved, but... when we start this, when we go in there hunting down the demons who kidnapped Aiko, eventually those other parties are going to get involved." Urd stared down at Lind, her eyes earnest and pleading. "When the time comes, I'm asking you to trust me. Can you do that for me?"

Lind was quiet, staring at Urd in astonishment. "Urd, are you saying you're involved with demons?" She went rigid, a look of disbelief and even hurt on her face. "You- what is going on, Urd?"

The Norn grimaced, guilty and ashamed all at once. "I never said that." Her voice dropped into a whisper. "I said that there are outside parties involved. Listen, Lind, I swear I'll explain everything to you afterwards, but for this moment... please, can you trust me?" she asked. "This isn't something I'd normally do, and I'm putting a lot on the line just speaking to you about this, which is why I'm asking, because there's more at stake here than just who I'm interacting with."

Lind was silent, her face grave.

"Please Lind..." Urd begged. "I wouldn't have called you here if not for Belldandy for this exact reason. I didn't want to get you involved but..." She glanced away from Lind, presumably to her sister. Lind didn't know. Her eyes never left Urd. The goddess turned back to the Valkyrie and bit her lip. "Listen, I swear when all this is over I'll answer any question you ask and I'll be honest with you. I'll explain everything I can to you about what is going on, but please, for right now, can you help me?"

Lind still said nothing.

Urd gritted her teeth and closed her eyes. She sucked in a deep breath. "I don't know what else to say," she mumbled. "I don't know how else to convince you to help me without saying something that would be a lie." She opened her eyes. "If you won't help me though... will you at least do it to help Belldandy? Or at the very least to fuck over another demon?"

"Urd..." Lind began.

"Lind, please."

The Valkyrie sighed, and in her eyes was a deep, smoldering anger that cast a glamor like molten gold across her irises. "You tell me _everything_ after this is over," she growled. It was a low, deep sound, one that brought with it the impression of an angry bear. "And after this... after _this_..." She shook her head, gnashing her teeth together as she bit back what she wanted to say. _I can't trust you after this._ She thought. _You went behind my back and conspired with demons, and this after I would have called you my friend!_

Urd nodded, hearing none of Lind's thoughts but perhaps reading them by the look of betrayal on Lind's face. "I understand," she mumbled. "And I apologize. You weren't meant to be a part of this." The woman dug into her left rear pocket and withdrew something. At first Lind thought it was a potion, and was gearing towards yelling at the woman, _and now you offer me drugs?! Are you attempting to bribe me to get me on to your side?_

She stopped herself when Urd opened her hand. "Here." It was a bracelet, handwoven with seashells and snakeskin. The seashells were tiny, almost miniscule, and dyed an intense shade of violet that almost glowed with power. The snake leather was wrapped at the base of it, primarily black but with a pattern of silver stripes that contrasted starkly against the darker scales. It was a rustic piece of art, old and well cared for, that seemed out of place in Urd's possession.

"What is it?" Lind grunted, her eyes darting from the bracelet to Urd.

"Protection," Urd revealed, and after a moment's hesitation, continued. "Water is... sacred to demons," she said. "It's... a symbol of life. It's why so many pieces of their jewelry incorporate seashells, as they're considered more valuable than precious stones and can take and hold spells easily. Snakes are sacred too." She rubbed the snakeskin between her thumb and forefinger, as if taking comfort in its presence. "Snakes- serpents rather- hold a special place amongst Falkin. Nidhogg is the First Serpent, which brought knowledge and wisdom to the Poison-Blood clan after the Elder Gods defeated the Ancient Ones and banished their children into darkness. Nidhogg's children are snakes, and... well... Falkin don't attack snakes because of their closeness to Nidhogg." Urd hesitated a moment more before continuing, "Falkin don't attack people who wear snakeskin either. It..." She bit her lip, reluctant to continue. "Okay Lind, what I'm about to tell you is a huge deal, and I need you to promise me you won't tell anyone else about this."

"What?" Lind demanded. "Why? What is so significant about snakeskin?"

Urd shook her head. "No," she stated. "Not until you promise to me. On your True Name. Not the name granted to you as a Valkyrie."

Lind recoiled. "How do you-"

"My step-mother was a Valkyrie," Urd reminded her. "I know a thing or two about their laws and policies, and it's because of _them_ that I need _you_ to promise me you won't say anything. Because what I'm about to tell you could affect the tides of war between Niflheim and Asgard, and I'm only telling you this because I see you as my friend Lind, and I feel like I can trust you with this information without all of Asgard hearing about it." She frowned, for a moment looking afraid. "I have friends in Niflheim. Family, too. And while I might have a rocky relationship with them now that I'm part of Asgard... I still care about them."

The confession was enough to make Lind pause. For a moment she took a step out of her anger, separating herself from the emotion with an ease only granted to her by the injury sustained by Spear Mint. Unhindered by her emotions now, Lind looked at Urd with a fresh perspective, taking note of the way the woman danced on her feet, the way she gritted her teeth when she attempted to smile, and how her eyes bore a sense of unease and despair that aged her face by decades. They were subtle, Urd's emotions, but Lind saw them easily after over a century without, with over a century's experience learning how to _identify_ emotions in others, and after so long a time Lind was nothing if not an expert in that respect. Urd stood before her as a cornered woman, one pushed to the point of desperation as she attempted to barter for Lind's aid, knowing that what she did put others she cared for at risk. _You're playing a dangerous game right now, Urd, and you know it, don't you?_ Lind thought. _And all for what?_ She glanced down at the bracelet in Urd's hand, still held out in offering to the Valkyrie. _For protection? Protection of who? Yourself? Belldandy? Myself? These demons who you're involved with?_

The warrior took the small bracelet from Urd in silence, observing it as she worked her fingers over the small shells. The ridges had been worn away long ago, and the shells felt smooth and warm to her touch. "You realize you can't protect everyone, don't you?" Lind asked.

"I'm not trying to protect everyone," Urd replied. "Just those people who are important to me."

"That's what I meant." Lind sighed, staring down at the bracelet before slipping it over her left wrist. "I'll make my promise though. I promise on the name given to me by my mother, _Aja_ Sedna Kajistiaat of the Frozen Waters, as Tanarak-Nanuk Kajistiaat, the White Bear on the Icy Tundra, that I will not breathe a word of what is spoken in this place, at this time, to another entity, be they of my kin or of my life, my enemy or my ally."

Urd's shoulders sagged with relief, yet Lind wasn't finished yet. Not by a long shot. "And in return I want you to swear to me by your Secret Name that you will tell me those secrets you've hidden from me in return," she whispered. "And don't tell me you don't have one. You're the Daimakaicho's daughter, Urd. Don't tell me she gifted you an Asgardian name that came from a rune."

Urd flinched, and this time Lind saw Urd's own anger at having been swindled by Lind's promise. Yet it was gone in an instant, and sucking in a deep breath, Urd calmed herself down. "Very well," she said. "A promise on a name for a promise on a name. Fair enough." The woman pursed her lips, and then spoke. "On the Secret Name granted to me on the graves of my ancestors, the _Igigi_ , I _Azag Uru'mir_ The Great Serpent that writhes in Thunderstorms, promise to reveal to you those secrets kept hidden to you upon your arrival, to be spoken in greater detail upon the completion of aid rendered and received, and of only those secrets knowingly kept from your ears and to be heard by your ears alone."

"Then it's settled?" Lind tightened the knot on the bracelet, cinching it tight against her wrist.

"It is." Urd held out her right hand. "Shake on it." The two women shook, and Lind started when she felt a small shock travel up her fingers and into her elbow. Her entire forearm tingled when Urd released her hand.

"You've done this before."

"I wasn't always from Asgard," Urd reminded.

"So it seems..." Lind murmured, flexing her right hand in an effort to dissipate the tingle. "The bracelet?"

Urd sighed, but did not try to dodge the question. "Snakeskin... in particular, snakeskin from Nidhogg's favored children, which has a nullifying effect on Falkin demons," the Norn explained. She pointed to the bracelet. "So long as you keep that on your person, a Falkin demon will not attack you. Keep it out in the open and exposed, where there's nothing to block it, and it will protect you from most attacks." She hesitated a moment longer before continuing, "It's... one of the only reasons Niflheim doesn't suffer from mass genocides in power plays. Falkin just... lose the will to strike their opponent when they're garbed in snakeskin. It was... part of the First Laws Nidhogg and the _Igigi_ laid down when establishing Niflheim as a world." Her voice once more fell into a whisper. "It's... meant to protect Nidhogg... and... those favored by Nidhogg."

Lind stared at the woman in no small amount of shock, then looked down at the small bracelet on her wrist with new appreciation, recognizing the significance of Urd's gift. "You won't keep it for yourself?" she asked. "Or at the very least, give it to Belldandy?"

"No," Urd said firmly. "I'm letting you borrow it because you weren't supposed to be a part of this. Had I not been pressured into calling you, you'd be safe and out of the picture. But because you're here now, and at my summons, no less, I'm responsible for your well-being. Not Belldandy, whom I have already gifted one bracelet which was lost to her in a moment of carelessness. Not Keiichi either, for he is Belldandy's responsibility, not mine. Just you."

"I see," Lind murmured. "I... thank-you Urd." She touched the line of snakeskin. It felt rough but warm beneath her fingers. "I'll take good care of it until I can return it to you."

"Thanks." The smile Urd gave her looked weak and uneasy. Strained. Like how it was during the Angel Fiasco after Holy Bell had first manifested. _Alone,_ Lind realized. _Like a woman struggling to shoulder the burden of the world by herself._

"You're not alone, Urd," Lind reminded her, and the startled look on the Norn's face was painful to behold. Frustrating as well. "We're in this together now, understand? Which means you don't have to bear this alone. So stop acting like it and put on your game face so we can beat the shit out of these guys and I can leave none-the-wiser."

"Right..." This time Urd's smile was a little stronger. "I apologize. I'm used to roughing things like this alone. It's... strange to know I've got someone to watch my back."

"Strange but not unwelcomed, I would hope."

"You'd be correct." Urd laughed softly. "Thank you, Tanarak. It means a lot to me. Life for you, water for your crops, Lind." The woman placed a hand on Lind's shoulder and squeezed it in a show of camaraderie, then turned away, making her way back to where Belldandy and the others were gathered. "All right guys, I think we're just about ready," Urd announced, her voice projecting over the brewing argument between her sister and Debra.

Lind didn't hear her, however. Her hand reached up to touch the shoulder Urd had gripped, then dropped to her wrist, where she thumbed Urd's bracelet.

Seashells.

" _Life for you, water for your crops for the knowledge you shared with us." Captain Cabatu Temo of Clandestine Base 4210 leered at Gunnr from behind his desk, and Lind watched on in tense agony, fearful of the fate that would befall her sister-in-arms for speaking out loud._

Seashells.

Why was she thinking about _him_ now? Because of Urd? Over a simple Falken saying for prosperity?

" _Through me you pass into the city of woe."_ Cabatu's voice rumbled in her ear. _"Through me you pass into eternal pain. Eternal and eternal you will endure. Abandon all hope, ye who enter, for your life has no meaning and less value than you believe, and death is but a passing grace into escape."_

The Valkyrie closed her eyes and brought a hand to her brow, a part of her surprised to find the onset of tears ready to trickle down her cheeks. Why was she- over a simple saying? Her mind chose _now_ of all times to throw her back to the past over a simple _sentence?_

Beyond Cabatu's voice, another called her back to the present; one filled with false bravado as Urd gathered the others around her.

"Let's do this. Time to save Aiko and kick some demon ass."

For all their sakes, Lind certainly hoped so.

XXX

They decided to stick together in their pursuit of Aiko. To split up now would be to invite misfortune, and it came as a relief to more than one person that there would be no division of their group. Instead, Belldandy and Urd took the lead, navigating the rows and rows of storage units like a pair of bloodhounds after a fox. The two were swift but thorough, displaying a side of themselves new to both Keiichi and Lind, who followed with Debra behind the two sisters.

On three separate occasions Belldandy had them retrace their steps. "They're playing games with us," she explained. "Leading us onto false trails to throw us off."

"They're experienced," Urd agreed with her.

"They're a pain in my ass is what they are," Keiichi grumbled. Lind was inclined to agree.

"How can you tell?" Debra asked. "I don't see any evidence indicating someone was here recently."

"It's their aura," Belldandy explained, for once not outright hostile to the woman in her pursuit of Aiko. She was too focused on the path before her-whatever path that might be-to bother with snide remarks. "It leaves an imprint, a residue if you will, that can be tracked back to the original owner when there is no solid trail to follow."

"Jeeze," Keiichi muttered. "And you and Urd can see that?" he asked. "Can you do that as well, Lind?"

"Not me specifically," Lind replied. "Skills like that require specialized training to acquire, and I never attended that specific course." She neglected to mention that such a technique was designed purely to track other tenth-dimensional beings, nor that Valkyries had their own dedicated career field of 'man-hunters' who did nothing _but_ track down gods and demons and spirits. "Where did you learn to track like this?"

"Our grandfather taught us," Belldandy said, pausing for the fourth time and staring down at the ground before her. "Not this way," she mumbled. "Back the way we came."

"Who's your grandfather?" Lind asked, her own curiosity getting the better of her.

Belldandy turned and retraced her steps, distracted, but not before muttering a name that sounded like either "Othin" or "Wodan".

Lind looked at Belldandy in surprise. The man she was referring to _had_ to be Odin, the previous Daitenkaicho who'd retired close to five hundred years ago due to an injury that had left him unfit for his position. Odin had been the one to establish the 'man-hunters' career field amongst not just Valkyries, but Aesir as well. He still bred hounds designed for that specific purpose for the military and law enforcement; huge, wiry-muscled beasts with long muzzles and heavy jaws, housing a speed in their bodies that could run down all but the fastest of gods.

The Valkyrie suppressed a shudder. "The more I learn of you and your family, the more I come to fear you," she muttered to Urd. Odin had near-legendary status amongst the military, and was often used as a talking point in military history, and she'd met one or two dog handlers in her military career. The beasts were notorious for their aggression and loyalty, and had to be penned away from people they were unfamiliar with for fear of attack.

The group of gods and mortals found the den of their prey after another fifteen minutes of searching. It was towards the far end of the facility, nestled behind yellow caution tape and temporary fencings held up with concrete blocks. A Red STOP sign hung near a door, followed by a message from the property owner warning people away from where the structure had collapsed during a recent earthquake.

Neither Belldandy nor Urd were deterred by the warnings. Belldandy leapt over the tape like a child playing hopscotch on the street, while Urd ripped it apart and moved the lock on the fence door. A moment later, and the gate swung open for them, allowing the group access inside.

A row of storage bays lay off to their left, the long line of jagged sheet steel that served as the roof having collapsed at an angle that grew steeper towards the end. The wall nearest to them had collapsed as well, revealing rubble and crushed boxes of some unfortunate family's possessions. A wooden crib, antique and at one time perhaps even valuable, lay broken on its side, with ripped and torn books scattered haphazardly across the cement floor from where a box of them had broken open. Beyond the storage containers was a visible dip in the road, hinting at internal damage that might yet lead to a sinkhole if the issue was not addressed soon.

At the far end of the facility, where a large brick wall stood lined with barbed wire, another group of people stood watching them. The wall behind them had been vandalized with graffiti ranging from the inane tags of gang names to the over-the-top style of street art. There were two of them at present, though Lind sensed more eyes watching from the shadows of the destroyed architecture around them. One of them was female, standing close to the wall but not leaning on it, garbed in blue jeans and a red and black plaid shirt. The sleeves were rolled up past her elbows, and a pair of black suspenders held her pants up in pace of a belt. Her hair was long and blonde, braided behind her in several thick ropes. The other was ambiguous, sitting with their knees pressed up to their chest next to their female companion, their features obscured by a long and dirty cloak that was more brown than white.

Aiko was nowhere in sight.

Belldandy and Keiichi recognized one of the bystanders immediately. "Hagall." If Lind didn't know any better, she would have thought the SEAL sounded scared. She dismissed it as her imagination, growing more interested, or perhaps confused by Urd, who dug into her pocket, withdrew her cell, hit a single number on the touchpad, and then pocketed it without a word.

" _You."_ Debra stepped away from Belldandy at the level of sheer loathing in the Norn's voice. " _You're_ behind this?!" the goddess hissed as she stormed forward, only to be stopped when Urd grabbed her arm in passing. The almond-haired goddess jerked back, then tore her arm from her sister's grip as she sent a heated glare towards the demon before her. "The things I will do to you..," she growled, and then in a louder voice, demanded, "Where is Aiko?"

"Who the fuck is _Cholo_ -lady?" Debra whispered to Keiichi. "She's got _facial tattoos._ "

"A demon," Keiichi whispered back.

"That doesn't look like Pennywise the Clown."

"Don't bring _that_ demon in here," Keiichi breathed, and repressed a shudder. As if Hagall wasn't bad enough with her mind tricks. The last thing they needed was for her to spring some kind of mind trap with a fear-eating Lovecraftian monster from the primordial in-between of _Todash._ "She'll make _IT_ happen."

Debra visibly shuddered.

The conversation of the two mortals ignored, the demon before them smiled. "Where indeed?" Hagall's voice was clear and jovial on the far side of the area. "And it's a pleasure to see you too, Belldandy- _chan_. And with your side-boyas well. I wonder, does your husband know?" The goddess stiffened at the title, spoken in mockery and with venom. The smile on the woman's face was more akin to a sneer. "I must say, I've missed our time together. You... me... Toshiyuki... What ever happened to your dear, sweet lover, by the way?" Belldandy flinched. "It's as if he just... _vanished_."

"Like Aiko?" Keiichi growled, moving to stand beside Belldandy. "Where is she, you fucking _cholo_ Lumberjack?" He snarled.

Hagall narrowed her eyes at the man. "And I see the mortal who left such an impression on me is here as well," she hissed. "If you are wise, you will hold your tongue, Boy. Our last meeting left much to be desired, and of you _especially_ I will take great pleasure in torturing."

"What, you didn't enjoy Monty Python?" Keiichi asked, his voice heated. "Your new taste in fashion says otherwise." Then, in a sing-song voice he said, "She's a lumberjack and she's okay."

"She cuts down trees and she works all day!" Belldandy chorused after him, and the smile she threw at Hagall was vicious and challenging. There was violence in her eyes. Violence and blood rage of the kind that would have been more at home on Hagall's face than Belldandy's. "I'll greatly enjoy finishing what I started in Japan, Hagall. Return Aiko to us."

"Not sure it's a good idea to be pissing off ol' Pennywise over there," Debra muttered beneath her breath.

Lind, her gaze lingering on the cloaked figure next to Hagall, was inclined to agree.

"What are you up to, Hagall?" Urd's voice rang clear and cold across the area, seeming to echo off the collapsed buildings and surrounding brick-and-mortar style high-rises around them. "No more games. What's a high-ranking demon like yourself- a demon that has the _Damkianna's_ ear at any given time, doing kidnapping mortals on Midgard?" she asked. "Don't tell me this is about vengeance. Not over a mortal like Keiichi. Not even over a goddess like Belldandy, when there are so many other ways you could extract revenge on her."

Hagall frowned at the small group, her eyes narrowing to bright blue slits. "And what would a _goddess_ like you know of such things, _Igibala_?" It was Urd's turn to flinch. "You are not of our stock. You do not even have the right to refer to the _Damkianna_ by her given title- refer to her as your _chosen_ people do, _shahniga_ \- as the Daimakaicho. You, of _everyone_ here, have no right to call her by _our_ title." The hate in Hagall's voice was astounding in its intensity, and Urd recoiled as Hagall hacked and spat on the ground. " _Ni gis kas tag til nigin'zu,_ " she hissed, then gestured to her loins. Lind, as ignorant as the rest of them in terms of _Falken_ terminology, recognized an insult when she saw one.

Urd's lip peeled up in the start of a snarl, and her cheeks flushed a deep scarlet. " _Peh ninin nam'us-tal!" she_ roared back, and the venom in her voice made both Debra and Lind retreat from her. "Is this what this is all about?!" she demanded in English. "All of this? Because I did not choose Niflheim?!"

"You are a plague to Niflheim," Hagall continued. "A sleeping disease, an incubating virus, a worm-infested _zibanitum_ that the _Damkianna_ loves and grooms and plays with, ignoring the foam at your mouth and the wheezing in your swollen throat!" she screamed. "What I do- _all_ of what I do, what I _have_ done, what I _am_ doing, and what I _will_ do- is for the sake of Niflheim!" she growled. "If I must stake a lure to bring the _zibanitum_ from its den, so be it." She gestured to Belldandy. "If I must lay a steak at its feet to make it stand still, then so be it." She pointed next to Keiichi. "And if that is what it takes to lure that _zibanitum_ from its den in order to shoot it, then so be it, I shall bring my gun, I shall bring my axe, and when I shoot it I shall cut off its head and bury it far from Niflheim, where it cannot poison the land or pollute the water." She pointed to Urd. "You are that _zibanitum._ You are that mad dog. And I shall be the one to end you." Her smile was cruel and filled with the promise of pain. "If I must go behind the _Damkianna's_ back, then so be it. If I must gamble my life in the Doublet System, then so be it!"

Belldandy stared at the demon in shock. "You mean... all of this... _all_ of this has been about Urd?" she breathed. "Aoshima? The past ten years of hell I've lived?"

"Bait." Hagall spat. "To lure the _zibanitum_ from her den in Asgard."

" _Bait?!"_ Belldandy stared at the woman in astonishment, scarcely believing her ears. Ten years she'd wondered _why_. Wondered if it'd been sheer misfortune on her part or if, as she'd felt in her most secret heart of hearts, if this had been a personal vendetta against herself. A question that had kept her up into the long hours of the morning and had haunted her dreams in her rest, where Aoshima was still a very real monster.

Not this though.

Some part of her could almost accept the idea that someone, a demon, had despised her enough to trap her with an animal like Aoshima. Some part if her could accept the idea that Yggdrasil had suffered an outstanding glitch that she'd been the misfortunate victim of.

But not… Not as _bait._ Not as a pawn trapped for ten years in a sick political game she had no stake in.

Not as some discarded bit of trap designed for _Urd._

The knowledge shocked her as much as it horrified her. Was that all she was? A worm on a line? A piece of meat in a trap? For _Urd?_

It hurt. Like a knife stabbed into her heart, oh _lordy_ how it hurt. And now Hagall had gone and twisted it just a little deeper, just a little harder, and that wound in her chest left her wanting to scream, left her wanting to break down sobbing, because in the end what she'd suffered – in the _grand scheme of things –_ everything she'd tolerated (like a goddamned martyr, that one) had been for _nothing._

Hagall, with a single word, " _bait_ " (like worms and bugs and tiny fish, and that's all she was, was that it? A tiny fish for a big fish?) had destroyed all the good she'd done, all the children she'd rescued, all the pain she'd endured and it was all…

Because.

She.

Was.

 _Bait._

Like poison, the word spread from her head and into her heart, and it was through such a means that Hagall, very unknowingly in that moment, won her first victory on that day.

"Then you're also responsible for hacking into Yggdrasil," Urd stated.

"No," Hagall replied. "That was my associate. I am one with Legion, and we are many."

"Wait..." Keiichi joined in now. "Then that demon... that man who attacked Urd when I first met her-"

"One of us, yes," Hagall agreed. "And I will take the _Nitadam_ back with me after I rip your head from your body and free him from that damnable watch you have!" As if hearing her voice, a scream, loud and agonizing in its depths, rose from Keiichi's watch.

Debra screamed, and Keiichi yelled as well, holding the watch away from him as though it was poison.

Yet for the two Norns involved, there was no reaction. Belldandy stood stock still, her face as white as a sheet as she stared at the demon across from her with wide eyes. "All this time..," she breathed, and her voice trembled with unspent emotion. "I... ten years... ten years of..."

"Is that why you stole it?" Urd demanded, her voice rising in a shout as she stood trembling beside Belldandy. "The developmental bio-weapon? So that you could take _me_ out?"

"What?!" Lind stared at first Urd, then the demon across from them. "She stole a _bio-weapon?"_ Memories of her flight, of the lost Kestrel, and Cabatu in his clandestine base with his pet _Rabishu_ ran screaming through her mind. For a moment the Valkyrie was left paralyzed as a wave of sharp fear, familiar and alien all at the same time, raced up her spine and fell into her gut. Within her breast, she felt Spear Mint stir restlessly, and a whimper arose from Cool Mint in her mind.

"Rabishu _,"_ Spear Mint whispered, and said nothing more.

"Urd, what are you talking about?" Keiichi looked at her in concern. "What bio-weapon? Like a nerve agent?"

He never got an answer.

The woman's attention was focused on Hagall, who appeared taken off-guard. "And what would _you_ know of that?!" she exclaimed. "Or did your traitorous allies convene with you?"

And then Belldandy began to scream. It started off low, an agonized moan and rose at a gradual rate, gaining ferocity as it rose first into a roar, and then pitch as it became a shriek like that of a banshee. Above their heads, clouds began to form in mass, moving at a rapid pace and swirling together in their place in the heavens, Belldandy the eye of a storm about to give birth. The air around her began to snap and dance with light, and a heavy pressure fell upon those in the surrounding area, pressing down on mortal and goddess and demon alike and making it difficult to draw breath.

" _HAGALL!"_ Belldandy roared, and her voice rolled with the sharp peal of thunder. "Today your life _ends!"_ Keiichi retreated from her in a rush, and Debra cried out, falling back into Lind, who shoved the mortal roughly behind her.

Hagall laughed. "Then you will face your end alongside the _zibanitum, Din'gir Shagiga," she_ exclaimed, and without another word vanished from sight, leaving only her silent companion in her wake.

"That _bitch!"_ Belldandy screamed, and wheeled around, racing back from whence she came, determined to track Hagall down.

Urd grabbed her arm. "Belldandy, wait!" she cried, only to release the goddess with a yelp when a sharp burst of air buffeted her face, the pressure so intense that the older Norn had to shield her face.

"Don't touch me!" Belldandy snarled, and Urd looked at her in shock. "I- ten years. Ten _years,_ Urd. Because a demon was after _you."_ She bared her teeth at the goddess, who recoiled, wounded by the words. "I'm going after Hagall, and then I'm finding Aiko," she professed. "And you." She jabbed a finger towards Urd. "Stay the fuck away from me." Her voice was cold, like morning frost in late winter, and Urd flinched.

"Bell, I didn't know." Urd's voice was soft and pleading. "I'm sorry, but-"

"No." Belldandy backed away from her. "No Urd, not like this. I can't-not now. Not after-" The anger, the _betrayal_ on her face never faded, and the woman turned her back on her sister, refusing to listen to another word.

She stormed off towards the car, and Keiichi chased after her. "Bell, this is crazy!" he cried. "You're being unreasonable!" If anything, his words made Belldandy walk faster. "You can't blame Urd for Aoshima's actions! She was trying to save you!" A sharp gust of wind barreled into him, and before the man could steady himself he was knocked off his feet, smacking the broken asphalt with enough force and momentum to send him rolling.

By the time Debra and Lind helped him to his feet again, Belldandy was gone. He looked back at Urd, short of breath and his ribs hurting as though he'd been punched in the chest. Urd hadn't moved from her spot. She stood where Belldandy had left her, with an expression of such exquisite pain and despair that Keiichi felt his heart break just looking at her. He'd never in all his years of knowing the Norn seen a look so forlorn and lost on her face, and he knew that by intent or simply undirected anger, Belldandy had hurt her sister gravely.

He just hoped it wasn't too late to mend the rift before it could destroy their relationship.

The man moved towards the Norn. "Urd, she didn't-"

"Leave." Urd's lips barely moved, and if not for a coastal wind that smelled of summer storms blowing through her hair, Keiichi would have thought her a statue.

"But Urd-" Keiichi tried again.

" _Leave_ , Jank," Urd repeated. "Aiko needs you." Then, in a lower voice, "Belldandy too."

Keiichi frowned. "Not without you too," he pressed. "Belldandy didn't mean what she said. Come on. Let's all get out of here and find Aiko. _Together_."

"No." Urd's voice remained firm.

"Urd, you're being stubborn-"

"No Jank!" Urd snapped. "You need to leave!" Her voice rose, and Debra watched on in tense silence. Lind's attention was elsewhere. To the person Hagall had abandoned, only just now starting to stir. The bioweapon. "Not because of Belldandy, you idiot!" Just as quickly, her voice dropped. " _Look behind me_ ," she hissed.

Keiichi looked, and became afraid.

"That thing you see behind me?" Urd breathed. "That is a bioweapon. A living, breathing, walking _monster_ , Jank." Urd still hadn't moved, and now Keiichi understood why, watching the cloaked figure rise- stumble rather- to its feet.

Perhaps its body had borne a likeliness to a human, once upon a time, but if so those days had long since passed. Tumors and outgrowths spread across the visible portions of its body like white knots and stumps on a tree. _Like elephantiasis_ , Keiichi found himself thinking. _Like the Elephant Man._ The figure was horribly disfigured, what he saw of it, and as it righted itself it swayed like a tree in a gale, leaning heavily first to the right, then teetering to the left with a low, deep and guttural groan.

When Keiichi was fourteen years old, he and his family had taken a winter trip up to Wisconsin for the holidays. Debra's father had invited the Morisato family up there to join them in a lodge Debra's uncle owned, and the family got to enjoy a family vacation at a discounted rate of one additional adult and child plane ticket up to the Great White North and back again. Debra, ever adventurous, and Megumi, ever the animal lover, and convinced their respective fathers to take them to a wildlife reserve located up in the mountains, and Keiichi had come along as well when he'd heard that there was a real _wolverine_ located in the facility.

The wolverine had been smaller than he'd expected, and nothing like he'd imagined; Marvel Comics had filled his mind with images of a wild beast more terrifying than a wolf and larger than a grizzly and twice as aggressive. The creature he'd been introduced to had been a little... lacking, in the appearance department. He'd seen dogs bigger than the creature, which when viewed from the right angle could kind of look like a very small and slim bear, but which he'd later learned was more closely related to some kind of weasel instead. It had been a disappointing introduction, he'd decided... at least until the thing had gotten cagey around the visitors gathered around it. Until the creature had started growling and snarling and chewing on the leash at its neck.

Then it hadn't looked so small and disappointing.

Then it'd looked and sounded very much like a wild animal that could bring down caribou four times its size, despite its short and stocky nature.

Now, looking at the creature that was starting its slow and lumbering trek towards them, Keiichi was reminded of that wolverine. The noises emerging from its throat resembled all too closely the animal in question, and the man felt his arms break out into goosebumps.

All at once he realized how vulnerable he was in California, away from his Kevlar vest and his weapons and his team, without even a pocket knife to hold him over.

"You need to take Debra and go after Belldandy," Urd continued, her voice still that same, low whisper. It was ominous, Keiichi decided. Scared perhaps, as though fearing that by speaking louder she might draw the thing to her, might have it attack them both in the midst of conversation, with Urd's back to it and Keiichi without a weapon, and them both slaughtered before either of them could react. "You can't fight this thing, Jank. Not you or Deb, and I'm not going to endanger you. Leave this to me and Lind."

"But-" Keiichi started to protest.

Urd drew a finger, slow and silent, to her lips. Keiichi shut up. "This thing doesn't belong on this plane of existence, Keiichi," Urd murmured. "We can't ignore it, Jank. It'll destroy California, it'll destroy the States, and when it's done here it'll spread. It's an Ultimate Destruction Program, Keiichi, I _know_ this, and it won't be stopped until it's either completed its programming or is stopped by another force."

"But there's only two of you," Keiichi whispered, his brows furrowing together with worry. "Urd... even if you both are gods, will that be enough?"

"It will have to do," Urd said. "And besides, I've got backup." She smiled, but Keiichi had long ago come to recognize the fake smiles from the real ones, and the one he saw did not fill him with confidence. "It'll be fine. Think of it like Japan all over again, only now we're rescuing _your_ sister instead of mine."

Keiichi was silent, and the worry on his face didn't fade in the slightest. He didn't _want_ to think of Japan again, where Hagall had raped his mind not once, but _twice_ , had invaded it and had shown him those scenes he hated most, those failures that had almost destroyed him and had almost done so again if not for Belldandy's intervention. And he didn't want to think about leaving Urd with only Lind at her back to face this- this _thing_ that was grunting and growling and grumbling like an angry wolverine, that was lumbering and stumbling and rocking towards them in some wretched kind of dance, while Belldandy and Deb and him abandoned them to what might be their death.

 _It's either Aiko or Urd._ Something sinister whispered in his mind. _And you can do nothing for Urd._

The man set his jaw, grinding his teeth so hard together he heard something pop and felt a flair of pain that sent flashes of red across his vision. "Promise me," he said. " _Promise_ me you'll make it through this. You and Lind both, Sheila. You hear me?"

And Urd smiled. It was a reassuring smile, one filled with confidence and ease and promise that Keiichi took heart in. "I promise," she assured, and in his relief, Keiichi missed all the little cues Urd was hiding from him. The way she squinted her eyes to make it seem as if her eyes were smiling in a genuine grin. The way she planted her hands on her hips to hide the tremor they'd gained. And the way she fell silent after speaking those two words, as if to mask the shake in her voice.

For there was one thing about Urd that Keiichi had forgotten in the years since meeting her. One thing that Skuld knew, one thing that Belldandy knew, and one thing that even Lind, who'd known her for a grand total of ten years but had only _really_ known her a couple of months, knew very well. And that was this: that Urd was a professional liar who could sell the devil the souls he already owned when the moment called for it, and that moment was now.

Later, when everything was over and the excitement had calmed down, Keiichi would come to know this as well, and he would curse her name.

But by then it would be too late, and so instead Keiichi gave the Norn one last look (as if to imprint her last image into his memory, he would later think) and then turned away. He grabbed Debra, who shot the Norn one last, lingering glance, and for the two women: the hyper-sensitive detective and the lying Norn, it would be the last either ever saw of the other. And to Debra, who perhaps was more perceptive than Keiichi at the wide range of emotions that a human could exhibit, it looked as if Urd was afraid. Afraid and alone and filled with regret, abandoned by a sister she'd sacrificed so much for and sending away the people who would have stayed at her side, and for a moment even that vanished. For one final moment, Debra perceived the Norn Urd in all her greatness: As a great serpent, its body large and long and ever-expanding, its hide grey-black storm clouds, its eyes white-violet lightning, decorated with a silver plumage of feathers like the white lining of rain. It was a terrible beauty, one that brought tears to her eyes. Not the tears of fear but tears of awe, tears of gratitude that she was granted this rare opportunity to see and know a god, for in that moment there was little doubt in Debra's heart that was what Urd was, in the most bare and basic _essence_ of what she was.

A strange urge befell Debra Johansson in that moment. An overwhelming urge to approach the Norn, to either thank her or to ask for her forgiveness, and to at the very least wish the woman luck on her endeavor with Lind, who lumbered to stand by the goddess not as a woman who looked like Aiko (she was wrong of course- Lind did not look like Aiko; Aiko had based her image off Lind without realizing it) but instead as a great and immense polar bear whose pelt was a snowdrift and whose eyes were blue glaciers.

And then Debra blinked, and where once there was greatness indefinable two women stood instead. The moment of opportunity passed before she could seize it as Urd turned to face the approaching monstrosity and Lind moved to join her.

It was the last time Debra Johansson ever saw the Norn Urd and the Valkyrie Lind in her life.

XXX

As Lind drew near Urd pulled out her cellphone once more. Her eyes came to rest on the creature that could only be the Ultimate Destruction Program (Mara had warned her and damn had she nailed it-Elegance was _screaming_ ) before speaking into the phone. "Did you get all that?"

" _A-firm."_ The distortion over the phone combined with the rough voice Mara had gained two years ago made the demon almost unrecognizable. " _She moving?"_

"That she is," Urd replied, and then, after a moment's hesitation added. "Make that bitch suffer for me, Mara. I want her _begging_ for death by the time this is over."

" _Damkianna? That you?"_ There was laughter in Mara's harsh voice. Urd failed to see what was so funny. " _I don't need your instructions on how to play with my food,_ Ki'aga-san." Some of the humor faded. " _Will you be okay?"_

"I've got a Valkyrie helping me out." Urd shot a look at Lind, who stretched her arms out in front of her and summoned a halberd, its metal silver-white and etched with blue, magical runes. "Between the two of us we should manage."

" _I do not like you facing this with a mere Valkyrie alone."_ The disdain in Mara's voice was obvious. " _When we have Hagall and her allies, we shall come to you, if you have not already destroyed the beast."_

"Thanks, _Gibil._ "

" _Remember our talk."_ And then Mara was gone, a beep signaling the end of their conversation.

Urd pocketed her phone once more and called upon her magic, feeling plasma gather in her hands. It felt like a warm and comforting presence in her palms, and she carefully clenched her hands around it, curling her fingers around the energy like it was soft, malleable ball of putty ready to shape to her will. She fell back into one of the stances SEAL Team 12 had drilled into her head, and brought her hands up in front of her, watching the slow approach of their opponent. "That's the bioweapon," Urd murmured. "My source says it's some kind of experimental device. A magical creature designed for combat against Valkyries." She heard Lind grunt, but didn't bother to look at the woman's face. As such, Urd missed the way Lind's face paled. "I heard it's some kind of... angel eater, or something," she explained. "I was told that our best defense is to keep it silent. So that-"

"So that it can't call our angels out, I know," Lind said quietly. Urd looked at her, and felt a cold line of fear traverse down her neck. Lind looked scared. Lind looked _terrified_. "I've faced these things before."

"You what?!" For a moment, Urd forgot their opponent, staring at Lind with disbelieving eyes and feeling a well of despair crawl into her gut at the bleak look on Lind's face.

"It was different from this thing. More insect and less humanoid, but we can compare notes later," Lind replied. "After this thing is good and dead and not even ash remains." She said nothing else. Instead, despite the fear that haunted her face, Lind threw herself towards the lumbering Angel Eater, a rallying scream emerging from her throat that reminded Urd of a peregrine falcon.

For a moment, and just for a moment, Urd stood in awe of the woman that was her lone comrade. Here was a woman who stood afraid against a creature designed to defeat her and those women like her. Who had experience fighting this monster and still felt the fear of what she'd fought. And here that woman braved that beast, ignoring the fear that gnawed at her gut in the face of the danger this creature, this _Rabishu_ , presented to not only herself, but Midgard and those realms attached to it as well.

The Norn took strength in the Valkyrie's courage, and with a shriek of her own, joined her companion, her _friend_ in combat.

Lind landed behind the creature and spun on her feet, using the kinetic energy generated to add force to her blow. The angel eater proved to be as slow as its lumbering body suggested, and it proved unable to avoid or even block the path of Lind's weapon. The blade bit deep into the thing's shoulder, and Urd heard a sickening _squelch_ , followed by the sickly-sweet smell of rotting meat. It was a noxious scent, one that made Urd's stomach revolt even as she sent a fist filled with plasma into the thing's stomach. Her hand sunk into the angel eater's body like a fist into thick and sticky mud, and the dirty cloak the creature wore began grow dark and damp with moisture; some kind of internal body fluid that had ruptured at Urd's strike.

The goddess recoiled, and the scent of rancid and rotting flesh grew stronger as the thing rocked on its feet, and the hood that covered its head fell back, revealing the Angel Eater in all its wretched glory. It had been a woman once, Urd saw, though time and whatever disease had so consumed her had left her face bloated and unrecognizable from the person she once was. Her eyes were two bulging white disks in their sockets, and even as Urd stared at them, she watched them move; not as a pair of eyes, but as something else. Something moving _within_ those sockets, like a fungus or a snake that had taken residence in her head. It made the goddess retreat, gagging as she tasted bile in the back of her throat as her stomach churned uneasily, nauseous by the sights and sounds and smells that surrounded her. And then the Norn saw the fallen woman's sigils, as bright and blue as the day they'd marked her as a Fledged Valkyrie.

It was only then that Urd grew aware of the screaming, and was surprised to find they came not from the Norn herself but from Lind. It was a horrible sound, a distinct wail of not only despair but _defeat_ , and Urd was frightened by the sheer _horror_ in the woman's voice. It took her even longer to realize that the shriek was a name; one drawn out into a long and despairing howl.

" _Rota!"_

Time had not been kind to the Valkyrie Rota.

The century since Lind's rescue; since Rota's disappearance into the depths of first one clandestine facility as a prisoner and then into another clandestine facility as an incubator, had been cruel. " _The larva feeds on the host throughout the gestation period."_ Mara had explained it to Urd while the Norn and Mara's team had been eating lunch together. The whole pack of them, ten Wilder demons and one Asgardian goddess, had all stopped for lunch at a nondescript little Roach Coach after Urd had turned down Aiko's invitation to go shopping. "Izza straight mongrel is what it is." The folks running the Coach had been charmed by their accents, and one of their mates had made a crack on one of the two sisters running the van, earning him an extra serving of refried beans at no cost to himself. "Cunt's like a mozzie, but worse. Th' eggs're laid on the bloke's back, an' when they hatch they'ah dig into the body through the back. Take up in there like a swaggie at Macca's and just start liven' off the host's body."

Mara had taken a large bite of her burrito then, and to Urd's mind at the time the rice that had come pouring out had looked like maggots. Like tiny little parasitic eggs, waiting to hatch after ingestion. "They latch onto thah' flesh an' feed off the nutrients, an' from they'ah comes an incubation period. The mozzies grow then. They'ah grow and grow and grow and _grow_ , but somehow...somehow the ripe ol' cunts don't kill thah' host." Mara shrugged. "I dunnah how, and I don't _wanna_ know, neithah."

"It's 'cause they know." One of their mates had spoken up, then. Mr. Steal-yo'-girl-for-refried-beans. "Magical implanted knowledge or shit," he said, and tapped his forehead with the back of his fork. "They know not to touch any organs and only stick to blood. Blood and marrow and nutrition to make em' big an' strong. So the cunts'll push the organs around, but won't destroy 'em, and the host can go on living and doing its thing."

"Only they aren't 'doing their thing'," Urd guessed.

"Nope!" Emesh. That had been his name. It'd been years since she'd ran with her old mob, and most of their faces had become faded and changed with time and age. Mara had been easy to remember, but that was because Mara had always been the only other sheila besides Urd herself, and so had always stuck out in the Norn's mind, even as a child. Emesh and the others she'd had to reacquaint herself with, though Emesh in particular was quick to stand out, if not for his talk and flirting then for the scars, deep and old, that marred his otherwise handsome face. "The poor cunt's a goner already," he continued. "At around the fifty-year mark, the thing's worked its legs up into the host's brain, an' at that point, you can't call 'em a person no more. They just a pack mule for the bug by then. Carry 'em, feed 'em, water 'em till they'ah nice and groomed and ready to pop!"

Urd had winced. "Bloody nasty way to go."

"You think we like this thing?" Mara had gotten riled at that. " _I_ never said yes to its concept. That's all the military side a' the house, an' I'd just as soon see the whole thing scrapped then see it out in thah' field."

Now, seeing it up close and in person, Urd recalled her memories and agreed with her initial assessment. It was a bloody _nasty_ fucker, that was for sure. One that, as Mara had implied, had no place in the real world and that sounded better on paper than in real life. _This thing really_ is _a monster._ She thought to herself, and in her head it was Belldandy's words that traveled through her head, " _Beware the monster that dwells within the man."_

Fuck, hadn't that been when Bell had been sleepwalking?! Right before she'd driven a haymaker into her—

Without thought the Norn grabbed Lind, still screaming, still horrified, and pulled her to the ground away from the lumbering figure. A ripping sound as flesh tore, a snapping noise as bone broke, and a horrible, wet noise that Urd would be unable to describe in a century's time, and the Valkyrie Rota, MIA for over one hundred and fifty years and the last of Peregrine Flight to be discovered, exploded in a hailstorm of blood and bone and gore as the _Rabishu_ emerged from its host. It was then that Urd joined her voice, her _screams_ , with Lind's.

It was in that moment that something happened in Lind. Something snapped in that despairing moment, watching the lost member of her flight explode in a hail of bits and chips. Something that Keiichi would have recognized in an instant and something that would have left McGuiness worried.

In that instant, a light went out in Lind's eyes.

It would have been a look Keiichi would have had shortly after witnessing Fida's death. A sight McGuinness had seen in an untold number of soldiers and sailors and even a couple of marines. A broken look. One that drove men to do anything from walk off a sailing vessel in the middle of the ocean and let the undertow take them out in their inability to cope to sampling the bullets of their personal guns or testing the support beams in their house with a noose and their neck. Or it could even be something as simple as seeing how many pills could be swallowed before the pain finally came to an end. It was the look of a limit that had been reached, had been _breached_ , where that person's ability to cope had been stretched and warped until finally it'd snapped.

For Keiichi it'd been the death of a child he'd come to know in the span of months.

For Lind it was the death of a woman she'd known longer than a lifetime and better than half her family.

And in the midst of a battlefield with the monster that was Rota's murderer, such an action could only end in disaster.

The monster was massive; three times the size of Urd _at least_ , and how had it... how had it managed to _fit_ inside its host for so long?!

The creature uncurled from the remains of its house, its carapace glistening with shades of liquid color ranging from the white of bone, light pink to black-red of blood and to an uncomfortable green-brown like spoiled meat and rotting organs. Its tail- or was that its head?- crashed into the spot of where Urd had been standing a moment before, and had it not been for Belldandy's voice in her head it would have been where she'd _still_ have been standing. The Norn stared at the monster but could not understand what she was seeing; it was nothing but a long body comprised of legs and jaws and mandibles, where either end could be a mouth, and with the gore that covered it- _what was she looking at?!_

" _Rota!"_ Lind was howling, her face red with blood and rage, and her eyes, _horrified_ , _traumatized_ eyes, were glued to the _Rabishu_. She sucked in another breath, only to release it in another scream-wild, unthinking, and frenzied.

Urd stumbled to her feet, her heart seized with fear, and slipped her hands beneath Lind's armpits. "We need to _go_!" she tried to scream over Lind's own cries, yet her voice was drowned out amidst the Valkyrie's anguished wails. "Come on, _come on!_ Stand _up_ you idiot!" Yet Lind showed no indication of hearing her, did not even seem to realize Urd was at her side; the woman was dead weight in Urd's arms. She dragged the woman backwards, away from the _Rabishu_ , still too much a newborn to have noticed them yet. Blood on the asphalt made the ground slick, however, and Urd's foot slipped on a thick wad of tissue. The woman went down with a shout, and Lind fell back on top of her. The Norn's face hit the ground, and with it came the heavy reek of iron and rot. She gagged, almost retched as memories of two years buried came flooding to her conscious. _It's a person._ She thought, and felt an overwhelming desire to giggle. _Oh Yggdrasil, it's not an animal, it's a_ person _._

Above their heads, the _Rabishu_ began to scream.

And their angels were all too happy to respond.

Spear Mint came first, as frenzied as her host goddess, perhaps as frenzied as she'd been when last she'd still had both her wings. Her pupils were contracted into two tiny black pinpricks against her blue irises, her lips peeled back in a snarl that screamed for blood. She screamed, but it was Lind's voice that gave life to her cry, and without hesitation she threw herself towards the _rabishu_ without care. Her intent was obvious and simple, and that was to kill the creature before her and if not kill it, then maim it as much as possible before it wiped her out.

Cool Mint came next, and had any saner heads been there to see her, they would have wept with relief. The younger angel looked terrified in comparison to her sister, almost as if unaffected by the horrible cry of the angel eater but instead pursuing that of her raging twin. Her face was a mask of pure terror, one that would have mirrored the look Urd had seen on Lind's face before the Valkyrie had assaulted the host of the angel eater. She ran to her sister, not the _rabishu_ , and wrapped her arms around her sibling's wing, dragging the maniacal angel down and out of the range of the angel eater before it could strike. But then, Cool Mint had always been an anomaly. More so than even World of Elegance with her black wing and striking tattoos. World of Elegance had not been born with the incorporated genetic material of the _rabishu_ after all.

And last came World of Elegance, lost in a berserk mania that was rabid with blood lust one moment, terrified and reluctant the next, and shackled to both sets of emotions with chains so thick Urd feared _she_ might be the one to go mad. Unlike the twins, each with their own set of objectives in mind Elegance was at a loss, twisting and writhing in the air like a majestic, free-form dancer... or perhaps some long-winged carrion eater caught in the midst of a seizure while drifting through the sky. It was as beautiful as it was awful, a useless dance that did little but draw the eye and capture the attention, and it terrified Urd because the emotions she received from her end of the link with World of Elegance were jumbled and confused in ways she could not explain. They made her nauseous, left her both light headed and suffering from vertigo. Her mind danced with a poisonous red light and her ears heard nothing but the crazed shrieks of her angel intermingled with the terrible screams of the _rabishu_ , and _Yggdrasil why wouldn't it stop?!_

" _Kill!"_ A new word had entered Lind's violent and limited vocabulary, yet at this point it may as well have been her regurgitating Spear Mint's thoughts. " _Kill it! Tear it to shreds! Die! I want you to die!"_ Her voice broke beneath her shrill monologue, and with it came a broken sob. " _Rota!"_ A name that meant nothing to Urd and everything to Lind, and the angel eater did nothing but flex its fleshy jaws and scream, its tail, that wicked false head filled with a venomous stinger, whipping and bobbing and swinging and swaying like it was in the heat of the same dance as World of Elegance.

Yet it never _moved_ from its spot. It stood where it'd been 'born', resting in its red pool of blood and gore. Perhaps it was too new to the world to move yet; a butterfly newly emerged from its cocoon and whose wings had yet to unfurl, or perhaps a beetle whose new carapace was not yet black and shiny but instead still soft and white. Or red, as was the case with this one.

Whatever the reason it was a blessing in disguise. The creature was slow, lacking the bewildering speed that Lind had grown so intimate with in Clandestine Facility 4210. Slow and _fat_ , as if in further evidence of how much it had dined on its host.

Lind crawled to her feet, her eyes blazing like a pair of golden suns. She grabbed World of Elegance, who hovered three feet above her head, and pulled her to the ground with such force that the feedback left Urd's world spinning with pain. It was not to protect the angel, not to get her away from the _Rabishu_ , but because the angel was unfortunate enough to _be in her way_. The growl that rumbled in her throat was long and deep like that of an upset bear, and wasn't there truth in that comparison? Was she not the embodiment of the White Bear of the Icy Tundra? One pushed to the edges of despair and, above all, _rage?_

It was Cool Mint, of all people, who brought the woman back to sanity. The angel, fighting Spear Mint as the older twin attempted her assault on the _Rabishu_. Cool Mint had one arm wrapped around her sister's wing, the other in a loose choke hold that was unable to bring Spear Mint down. Her face was marred with panic, and Spear Mint fought her like a wild horse. The angel thrashed against Cool Mint's grip with such force as to take her younger sister off her feet, and it was as Cool Mint was floundering, as Lind was advancing, that her own's angel's foot smashed into the Valkyrie's chin.

It sent the woman crashing to the ground, stunned by the unexpected attack as stars flew into her vision. Her tongue throbbed and burned from where her teeth had come down on it, and liquid copper filled her mouth, her own blood, not ( _Rota's)_ the _Rabishu's_ host. She spat it out, where it landed on the asphault in a wad of bloody phlegm, then looked back at the angel eater with fresh, cold logic accelerated by pain. She observed the situation around her, rolling away from the angel eater as its tail came crashing down next to her, and looked to her angels as though seeing them for the first time.

 _It's just like before_. Some piece of her whispered. Some cold, unfeeling piece of her that had taken over when it had just been Sanngrior and herself, locked away like mice with a snake. _Just like before, only now there are more angels and a civilian, and not just any civilian, your_ friend _, Pepper._ The voice sounded like Sanngrior. Sanngrior, who'd gripped her shoulders tight and whose final word had been Live or Lind, one or the other and in the long run did it even matter? _Your friend is in danger, Pepper. Look at her. Look how frightened she is._ Her eyes were dragged to Urd, as if Sanngrior had grabbed her head and forced it to look at the woman in question. Urd was terrified; her fear was open and bewildering on her face in ways Lind had never seen before. It was almost childlike when coupled with the confusion and bewilderment on her face, and the screams coming from her were raw and wild like a cornered animal. _She's never fought these creatures before. You're responsible for her safety, Pepper. She said she's responsible for you, but that's a lie and you know it. You're the warrior with the expertise. Now stop acting like a rabid bear and destroy this beast. You can mourn Rota after it's dead._

 _Yes Ma'am._ Lind thought, and a wave of cool control followed it. The Major had always given sound advice, and the woman in her head proved no different. With direction in hand, Lind pushed herself to her feet. The angel eater shook itself, like a dog casting off water, and something that was not quite a scream and more of a chitter emerged from it. _Cool Mint._ She called, and sensed rather than saw her angel look at her. _Keep Spear Mint and World of Elegance safe._

 _Affirmative,_ came the entity's reply, and Lind didn't stop to question how sanity remained to one of her angels but not the other. Like mourning Rota, that could come later.

A haze of gold, like a yellow filter, slipped across her eyes, and Lind felt the hair on her arms and legs and back stiffen, as though she'd been engulfed by static. She recognized the strange Golden Eye technique that had come to her following Sanngrior's defeat, amidst Spear Mint's endangerment at the claws of the last _rabishu_ , and peeled her lips back in a smile, knowing that it was more a snarl.

Like a silent bullet, Lind launched herself at the _rabishu_ , and it was then that the real fight began.

Her body low to the ground, she came up and into the beast's center, about two feet above its head. She avoided its leech-mouth, which looked large and ominous with the blood ( _Rota's blood, her mind whispered)_ that still clung to its teeth. Her fist sunk into its carapace with ease, yet did not break the surface; as she'd suspected, the shell was too new, too malleable, to crack beneath her attack. Yet that also meant the creature was soft. _Squishy_. And the Valkyrie wasted no time in following one punch with another, that punch with an elbow, that elbow with its twin before driving her knee into as well. The creature keened in pain, not an angel's death cry but the high wail of an animal in pain.

Yet unlike before, the Valkyrie's attacks did not break its carapace, did not spill its guts in a steaming pile to the floor, and that enraged Lind. She kicked off its body before its metatarsals could snag hold of her, and landed six feet away from it. As soon as she touched ground the warrior launched herself at the beast once more, wanting, needing it to keep wailing, because so long as it was stupid with pain it couldn't scream, couldn't draw the angels to it, couldn't bite their heads off with a single chomp.

She aimed for its head this time, and almost lost her hand when the creature lunged at her. It was a bolt of white-violet lightning that saved her, and as Lind retreated she threw a look to Urd. The woman had crawled back to her feet, panting, and silver hair clung to her face. There was a wild, almost frenzied look to the goddess that brought back memories of Japan. Yet when their eyes met, Lind found Urd's eyes clear of any madness that would have left her berserk. The Norn nodded to her, rubbing the sweat from her eyes, and bolstered by the support her friend offered Lind returned her attention to the _Rabishu_.

It was retreating now, and another pained scream left it as another Urd Bolt collided with its head. It scrunched its body down low to the ground then, and curled up into a long coil. A wave of confusion passed through Lind, having never seen _this_ before, and then cried out when the creature sprang on her. Another scream emerged from it, this one that same hair-raising death-knell that had sent Spear Mint into a frenzy. Lind swore, and somewhere behind her she heard Urd scream as well, her voice hoarse and ragged after her first bout with the angel eater. It landed in the midst of the group, separating Lind from Urd and the angels. The scream left Lind slow to react, and it spun as it landed, the blasted false-head of a tail colliding with the Valkyrie and sending Lind sprawling.

What happened next could only be described through the eyes of another, as the two goddesses, one Valkyrie and one Norn, were too preoccupied with the monstrosity before them to bear witness to it. Here, through the eyes of the one lone, sane angel, Cool Mint watched as the _Rabishu_ screamed and as Spear Mint lunged toward it. She watched World of Elegance flail in mindless confusion-not affected in the same manner as Spear Mint but _close-_ and was struck with inspiration. A moment of insight into World of Elegance that no one: not Urd, not Nebo, not even Moony, had ever concluded.

 _Like an angel, but not._

The thought rang through Cool Mint's mind. _Like an angel, but not._ The angel eater screamed again. Spear Mint fought her, Cool Mint winced, and World of Elegance danced. _Like an angel, but not._ But what then? Like _what_? The answer brushed her like the wing of a bird. _Like how Luna Spirit is an angel, but not._ It whispered _. Like how Urd is a goddess, but not. Like how Urd is a_ demon, _but not._

But what did that _mean_? And more importantly, how could she use that against the _Rabishu_? _Black touches white, you'll be all right._ A nursery rhyme grazed her mind. _Black touches red, better off dead_. It was a strange thought, and one that had no place in her head. Something like the old poems taught in childhood about snakes and seas. _Red touch yellow will kill a fellow, Red touch black, friend of Jack,_ or _Red sky in morning, Sailor take warning. Red sky at night, sailor's delight._ One attributed to snakes, the other to the sea, and the final one... _Black touches white, you'll be all right._ Where had she heard that before? _Black touches red, better off dead._ What was it attributed to?

Like an angel, but not.

 _I've heard it before._ Cool Mint thought to herself, staring at World of Elegance in retrospect. _It's knowledge that was already there, I'm certain, but what was it..._

And then it came to her.

Chugach was a land known for its regional diversity, sectioned off as it was by tundra and oceans and icebergs. Beneath its harsh waters dwelt creatures of unfathomable biology, and above it only the most durable of creatures were able to survive. Yet Chugach was also a land that had been held under siege by foreign entities throughout its history. The Jotun, Chugach's closest neighbors, had claimed it first for half a million years against the will of the indigenous people, and with it they'd brought invasive species ranging from Jotunheim locals to exotic Niflheimian sub-species to the region. Many of them were unable to survive the harsh Arctic conditions of the region, yet there were some-there were _always_ some-that managed to adapt and survive. To _thrive_.

Like an angel, but not.

By the time the Jotun had been defeated by their Asgard enemies and chased south out of the region, those creatures had integrated themselves completely into Chugach's ecosystem. For better or worse, like rabbits in Australia, they'd made themselves a home in the icy tundra, and some, over that long course of half a million years, had evolved to better suit Chugach's cruel and merciless environment. Sahara birds grew fur on their legs and a white plumage in the snow. Reptiles that survived Chugach's summers-even then with snow on the ground-developed long claws for digging deep burrows away from the frost or evolved feathers to lock in body heat.

Black touch white, you'll be all right. Black touch red, better off dead.

And wasn't there one species that was like that? A serpent brought up from Niflheim ages ago with claws like knives and fangs like swords? A serpent large enough to pray on caribou that had grown a thick, downy plumage after its introduction to the region? Yes, as Cool Mint thought about it now, that was exactly it. There was no regional name for it-its name held the same meaning for everything from salt-water eels to rare summer snakes to thermal water worms: _N_ _imiàiaq,_ though the Jotun had called it by another name. Its ancestral name, if Cool Mint remember correctly, straight from Niflheim itself: _Ušum gùn'kus,_ the decorated serpent. It was rumored the species were the offspring of Nidhogg itself; the chosen sigil of the Daimakaicho as a creature renowned for its aggression when provoked, capable of a bite that could kill even those beasts with the thickest of skins with its venom.

Its hide was rare; a unique type of scale that could reflect light in different angles to create the illusion of different colors. A hide that could be used for camouflage (like a rock, but not, like a tree, but not, like an angel, but not) or to warn off invading animals that came too close. They were known for hyper-aggression when they scented prey, and could smell blood from up to three miles away. Their invasion into Chugach had always been a problem for the local population, but the natives were known for nothing if not their own adaptability, and after half a million years living beside the invaders, they'd learned to co-exist with _N_ _imiàiaq_ as they had _nalutuk_ and _pisukti._ Black touch white, you'll be all right- _N_ _imiàiaq_ was full and sleepy in the sun, and felt no need to hide or sneak or stalk. Black touch red, better off dead- _N_ _imiàiaq_ was angry or had scented blood and wanted a kill; its bite would lead to agony before death, which would come as a relief to the victim after the seizures finally faded.

The puzzle pieces came together in a giant picture, and Cool Mint at last understood what her mind was attempting to communicate with her.

Urd was _Azag Uru'mir._ The Great Serpent that writhes in Thunderstorms.

 _Azag Uru'mir_ was _N_ _imiàiaq._

And _N_ _imiàiaq_ was World of Elegance ( _like an angel but not)_ in the sun. Passive. Confused, but passive, despite the provoking shrieks of the _Rabishu_ at their back. Passive until angered, until-

She knew what she needed to do. By Yggdrasil and the _Yakone (may it cradle Rota in peace)_ , she knew what she needed to do. Her heart rammed in her chest as the gravity of what she was about to do sank in, and the angel risked a glance back at her host.

The tide was turning in the angel eater's favor. Lind was pinned to the floor by the creature's tail, screaming and writhing in an attempt to dislodge it. Not far from her was Urd, kneeling on the ground, her face a grimace of pain as she cradled her head with one hand and fired off one Urd Bolt after another in futile repetition. The _Rabishu_ screamed again, and this time Urd screamed with it, abandoning her attack in favor of clutching her ears as World of Elegance writhed in ( _Thunderstorms)_ agony and Spear Mint struggled mindlessly.

Cool Mint fended off most of Spear Mint's attacks, yet this time... _only_ for this one time, she let her elder sibling wound her. A scratch made by dull, short nails not designed as a weapon but still deep enough to draw blood. A single, small scratch that stung, but hurt less than the bruises Spear Mint was inflicting on her person through her wild blows. A single thought, a single prayer entered the angel's mind in that moment: _By the Luna Spirit, Sweet Mother, let this work_ , and then Cool Mint spun on her feet and tossed Spear Mint over her shoulder. She saw her sibling's eyes meet hers- wild and chaotic and primal- and then Spear Mint crashed into World of Elegance, knocking them both far away from the distracted _Rabishu_.

Cool Mint followed their crash, her heart in her throat as she clawed at her scratch, expanding it, deepening it, bringing more blood to the surface and into a free-flowing trickle that smeared her skin. Red stained her nails. The sting began to burn. Tears welled in her eyes and some small inner voice began to scream- _Lind_ began to scream, in pain now- and her lips peeled back in a fearful grimace. She tackled the two angels as Spear Mint began to rise from World of Elegance, and wiped her bloody arm on the first bit of World of Elegance she could touch: the angel's right cheek, where (white touch red, better off dead) the angel in question stiffened.

Something flickered in World of Elegance's eyes in that moment. Something wicked. Something ominous. Something _primal._ ( _Like an angel but not. Like a_ Ssaratu _but not_.) Something that Cool Mint would not in a million years be able to put into words, but which filled her with such grim foreboding that the angel grabbed her sister and sprang away, as quick as a rabbit escaping the strike of a snake.

World of Elegance slowly sat up from where she'd been knocked over, and snarled.

Cool Mint did not recall seeing canines quite so long against the angel's top jaw before.

The angel looked around, her actions slow, deliberate, like a predator on the trail of prey, and Cool Mint felt her heart quicken as a pair of dark eyes-one so dark as to almost be called black (Black touch white, you'll be all right, right? _Right?)_ came to rest on her and Spear Mint. _Drawn to movement, drawn to heat_. Cool Mint thought. _Oh, sweet_ gudan _._ She thought. _Please see us as your own._ Cool Mint's blood stained World of Elegance's cheek like gross war paint, and the look on the angel's face did not fill the one-winged entity with ease.

Spear Mint broke Cool Mint's grip on her shoulders, then, and World of Elegance lunged at them both, shattering what hope Cool Mint had of getting _N_ _imiàiaq-_ that was all World of Elegance _could_ be at this point-onto their side. The black-winged angel collided with Spear Mint first, which knocked the older sister down on top of the younger, leaving them both pinned. A hand, large and ogreish, wrapped around Cool Mint's neck, and the angel's face was buried painfully into the hot, black asphalt of their battlefield. She closed her eyes, terrified, and what her eyes missed her imagination more than made up for her as her other senses were amplified in her fear. She felt a heavy weight press down on her. Felt the useless flutter of a lone wing not her own against her back, and heard a long, drawn-out hiss from somewhere high above her head. The heated asphalt burned into her cheek, smelling of dirt and rock and pollution, and above her head came another cry from the angel eater- this one again in pain rather than bait, as Lind or perhaps Urd scored a lucky strike against it. She heard her sister's rasping breaths. She felt her own breath against her knuckles, the pain from her self-inflicted injury, and then another breath, hot and damp which smelled faintly of lavender and jasmine, against her cheek. She tensed, her eyes screwing tighter, and then...

" _Stand_."

She knew that voice. Had come to know it very well over the past several months, in fact, and the angel opened her eyes. She peered up, and found World of Elegance mere inches from her face, her expression scrunched up in a snarl that was as much confusion as it was aggression.

" _Stand."_ The angel breathed again, and the snarl on her lips began to subside, as if by some way, some how, World of Elegance had reached the conclusion that the two angels before her were not the prey _N_ _imiàiaq_ scented.

Yet the confusion remained, and she stared at Cool Mint expectantly, as though seeking the angel's advice. Direction. She rose away from the two angels, and her eyes seemed to glitter in the afternoon sun like a pair of dark and sinister stars.

And Cool Mint was all too happy to steer her on the right path.

She pointed behind _N_ _imiàiaq_ , towards the angel eater, and World of Elegance turned, her lips pulling back once more in a snarl as a hiss emerged from deep in her throat. It seemed the _rabishu,_ monster that it was, had found an enemy in serpents as well as angels.

Cool Mint crawled out from beneath Spear Mint, who lay panting and exhausted on her right side. Blood was starting to weep from her ears, and when Cool Mint brought a hand to her own ears she found much the same. A closer observation of World of Elegance also revealed blood. The angel eater was taking its toll on all of them.

World of Elegance began to stalk towards the angel eater. Not rush, not run, not propel towards it blindly, but _stalk_. Like a snake in the bush or a cat in the grass. Cool Mint looked around and spotted Lind's fallen halberd resting on the ground not too far from where Rota had died. It rested a mere three feet away, and Cool Mint wondered if it'd always lain there or if the angels by some strange turn of fate had come to lie near it. With a quick glance to Elegance, the angel rushed to pick it up. She hoisted it in front of her at an angle that felt natural in (Lind's) her hands, and fell into step at Elegance's side.

They didn't speak. There was no discussion of plans or objectives or desires. It was as if, in that moment, with the one-winged angel that imitated her host and _N_ _imiàiaq, (white on red, better off dead)_ were united in their hearts, their minds, and their souls. In that one unique moment, their thoughts were shared, where one knew the actions of the other, and need only _wait_ for their individual opportunity.

It was time for the angel eater to die.

The _rabishu_ reared its false head up at their approach, the circular jaw on its true head expanding and contracting as it released Lind from its grasp. Lind crawled away, and she left a bloody trail in her wake as she put distance between herself and it, evidence of the damage this version, this latest and greatest iteration (version 3.0? 4.0? Who knew? Cabatu?) had managed to inflict on the warrior who had destroyed its predecessor. Its carapace remained undamaged, still soft and rubbery as if by design rather than hard and brittle like its ancestors. Its tail bobbed aggressively, the false mouth housing the stinger opening and closing, opening and closing in imitation of a threatening beast.

It shrieked, and Cool Mint did not flinch. It screeched, and _N_ _imiàiaq_ did not move. It screamed, and Spear Mint, fatigued and winded from her battle against her sister, rushed anew towards the _rabishu_. Its tail arched higher and higher against the sky, a scorpion about to sting its prey as Spear Mint soared to meet it, and it was as she passed that Cool Mint launched herself forward. With halberd in hand, she leapt for the _rabishu's_ true head, and brought the spear head down upon it, using gravity's pull to add power to her thrust. The blade indented the creature's head, formed a crater around itself...and then Cool Mint succeeded in puncturing its carapace where Lind had failed. The beast let loose a shriek so great Cool Mint feared she'd lose her hearing, yet wasted no time to stop and check. With the weapon driven into the thing's soft gray matter, the one-winged angel grabbed her sister and bolted away from the beast not a moment too soon.

They 'heard' World of Elegance shriek in their minds, and a bolt of lightning, so large and so bright as to leave the wicked curve of a serpent imprinted against their eyes, struck the exposed metal shaft like a lightning rod. Electricity surged across the monster's body, and abruptly the angel eater's cries were cut off. Its body began to seize. Its carapace began to smolder. Like a voracious snake the lightning feasted upon its body, and in its wake, black, charred burn spots remained. It went on for an untold length of time, jerking and wriggling and thrashing until finally the arcs of white-violet that assaulted its body began to fade. With it, so too did the seizures, until even those faded, leaving a black, dead shell where once there was life.

For a time, there was silence. Nothing but the labored breath of the combatants could be heard from the immediate area, and in the distance came sounds of the ocean crashing on the docks and the sound of cars on the main road of San Francisco. Somewhere far off, a trolley rang its bell, and from farther still came the distinct ring of a railroad crossing warning travelers of an oncoming train.

It was Spear Mint who approached the carcass first. The blood in her ears had trickled down past her earlobes and dropped in tiny red _plinks_ to the pavement. She stared at it in silence for a long moment, then raised her right foot and smashed it into the broken carapace of its head. The shell crumbled around her foot like ash, burping a hefty puff of black smoke into the air. She raised her foot and kicked it again. It crumbled. Again. It crumbled. Again and again and _again_ , until Cool Mint rose to pull her away. Spear Mint shoved her away at first, her face a mask of pain, of anger, of a hurt and loss so deep that it could not be described. It was not until Cool Mint attempted to pull her away a second time, now with World of Elegance at her back as well, that Spear Mint gave in. What was left of her crumbling composition broke, and with a scream heard by only half of those present she fell to her knees, weeping for the first time in over one hundred years. Cool Mint joined her on the ground then, and enveloped her sister in a tight hug, allowing her own tears to fall for the loss of an angel she'd know only by the memories held by her sister. A pair of wings enveloped them, and World of Elegance, either as the angel or as _N_ _imiàiaq,_ it didn't matter which, brought them both close to her side, allowing them both to mourn in peace.

Urd, exhausted, her magic spent and her mind and body overexerted, dragged herself to her feet and approached Lind, who'd come to kneel where Rota had last stood. The Valkyrie stared down at the spot, the blood that comprised it still with its final last sheen of red that had yet to dry. She didn't appear to notice the Norn's presence, and flinched when Urd rested a hand on her shoulder.

They stayed like that in silence for a long time before Lind finally found her voice. "She'd been missing for over a century." Her voice was a harsh whisper, and she visibly swallowed, as if the words hurt to speak. "I'd... forgotten her." She stopped and grit her teeth, then forced herself to continue. "And she was... a host. To that... that _thing."_ She bit the words off one by one, as if in doing so would make them easier to chew, easier to swallow, easier to digest. "Like- like Iritif. And... I never knew. Never even considered..." Her voice rose and cracked, and her lips peeled back in a sorrowful grimace. "Oh... Yggdrasil..." She fought to draw breath, but for some reason the air wouldn't come. It avoided her lungs somehow, and it was not until Urd knelt to her level and wrapped her arms around her shoulders that Lind suddenly found her breath. She sucked it in, filling her lungs with air that tasted of smoke and fire and blood and electricity, and then released it in a high, painful wail. The Valkyrie dragged another painful breath into her lungs, and by the Icecaps, it hurt to mourn, felt alien to scream and cry even as another knell rang from her throat, and she just wanted to... just wanted to...

She grabbed hold of the woman at her side, desperate and afraid and feeling as if the emotions inside her were tearing her apart. Tearing her apart like the _rabishu_ had Rota, and all she felt was _pain_. Her head throbbed. Her chest ached. Her heart hurt. Her very _soul_ hurt and she just wanted it all to go away.

Urd said nothing throughout the ordeal, and for that Lind was grateful. She let the Valkyrie clutch her like a child, though she knew the position had to be uncomfortable. Yet if it was, Urd made no indication of it, merely holding her close and allowing herself to be held, allowing the pain to die down into something that was at least manageable. To Lind, it felt like they were there for hours. Days could have passed without her knowing it, yet the truth of the matter was that they were like that for only a few minutes.

They were only _allotted_ a few minutes.

For it was as the two sects mourned: one of angels and one of gods, that _it_ emerged. Something... something new, something small, something with wings like an angel, wings like Rota's Storm Bringer, burst from the crumbling remains of the _rabishu_. A parasite within a parasite, like a Russian nesting doll, it launched towards the angels before anyone realized what was happening. It struck World of Elegance square in the back as the closet target of opportunity and left the angel with a large, seeping hole spanning five inches in diameter. Blood, a poisonous mixture of black and red, back-sprayed onto the creature, and as the angel collapsed, as Urd began to convulse, the monster raced off.

"Urd?" Lind peeked up at the Norn and noticed too late that something was amiss. _"Urd?!"_ The Norn fell to the ground, her body arching in spasmodic pain as her eyes rolled back in her head. "Urd, what's going on?!" Lind cried, " _What's going on?!"_ The woman's foot kicked wildly and struck Lind in the kneecap, hard enough to send stars dancing across the Valkyrie's vision. Then came white-hot pain as another undirected kick crushed something in her leg, and Lind lost her grip on the Norn. The woman slid to the ground and her arms flailed violently against the asphalt. Lind grabbed them, trying to control the seizure, yet she could do little for the woman's head, which bashed against the ground with a force that terrified the Valkyrie.

Her attention focused on her fallen friend, Lind didn't notice the monster, the _mite_ , fall onto her back until it was literally upon her. It writhed in fresh agony, its body smoking from where World of Elegance's blood had splattered upon it (black on red, better off dead) and in its death throes stabbed Lind in turn. Its stinger was long and smooth, empty of the venom that so paralyzed the victims of its host _rabishu_ but still strong enough to kill, and in that respect it was well on its way to completing its job; to destroy what had destroyed its host, to kill in a flash of vengeance before falling, and the parasite's stinger went straight into Lind's back and through her chest like a knife through butter. Lind jerked forward as it tore through her chest, and for a moment she stared down at herself, her confusion comical as she looked at the stinger that had pierced her. _Oh? What's this_? Her expression seemed to say. _This wasn't here a moment ago._ Her body jerked again, and she watched the strange protrusion vanish back inside her.

It grew difficult for the Valkyrie to breathe in that moment, and Lind had the sneaking suspicion the reason behind that had little to do with the emotional damage imparted by Rota's death. She thought instead it had more to do with the fact that a lung had been punctured, _the wound's squealing like a noisy balloon, Pepper._ She tasted blood when she exhaled, and her throat felt obstructed; as if in the span of seconds she'd caught a cold that lined her throat with phlegm. She coughed experimentally, _just to see what happens_ , and the taste of blood grew overwhelming. With it came the pain, and oh _lordy_ did it hurt. It hurt more than anything she'd ever experienced in her long life, hurt more than her entire stay at the Clandestine Hotel 4210- _you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave-_ enough to leave her _breathless_ ( _but that's your lung, Silly! That's your lung with its hole making that high-pitched noise like a balloon leaking air! I bet if you tried real hard you could make it sound like a raspberry, like a big ol' juicy fart, like what Iansi used to do to you when you guys were kids! Just put his lips on your shoulder and blow a big ol' fat one!)_

Cabatu and the scientists who'd developed the _rabishu_ had indeed learned quite a bit in Lind's time at their facility.

Perhaps it was sheer irony that the vengeance killer, the mite, brought down the lone Valkyrie who had so inspired its design, right in its last moments of life as the poison in World of Elegance, the poison of _N_ _imiàiaq,_ worked its magic and ended its short life. Lind fell forward and caught herself with an arm that was losing strength by the second. It trembled until she locked her elbow, and the fall forward brought with it liquid heat that began to seep into her uniform. Her mouth suddenly was filled with that liquid heat, that blood, and she spat it out, watching it join Rota's blood on the asphalt. She clutched at her wound, still wheezing its high squeal, and felt blood coat her hand. The edges of her vision began to grow dark, and in her final moments, the Valkyrie looked over to her friend.

Urd still lay writhing beside her, squirming and wriggling and writhing in agony. Her eyes bulged in their sockets, her lips were pulled back in a screaming rictus of pain, and blood - either her own blood or Lind's blood - smeared her face as her head crashed once more in agony. Scrapes covered her arms, and there were now signs of bruising there as well. Bruising in her arm with a left wrist that hung at an odd angle and with fingers to match; all broken from the uncontrolled abuse of her seizing body.

Lind beheld the sight in pity, and no small amount of regret. The black in her vision grew denser, creeping further up the edges of sight. A strange pulse came with it, quick and wild as her heart gave it the final go, and a wave of exhaustion rolled through her bones like a soft, warm blanket.

She was tired.

By the _Yakone,_ she was so, so tired.

Her arm gave out beneath her, and Lind thought she heard a splash when her body impacted the earth. _What a useless fucking way to die._ Someone- perhaps her, perhaps someone else, perhaps even the _Yakone_ Itself, whispered in her ears. _Sorry_ Nimiàiaq. She thought with what was left of her strength, and as she angled her head to look at Urd, she thought she saw the woman staring at her in a final moment of lucidity, reaching for her with her broken fingers and her broken wrist that appeared to be darkening, growing black with bits of white like _N_ _imiàiaq._

Yet that proved to be only her vision losing its last bit of sight, and with a final sigh Lind coughed, spat blood and fell still next to the woman who was her last friend, whose broken body gradually came to rest as well.

And so Hagall won another victory that day

* * *

 **A/N: Biggest. Chapter. Ever. (for now I guess)**

* * *

 _Comments of a Madwoman: "Violence is life. There is only peace in death." -An old Falkin saying._

" _Ni gis kas tag til nigin'zu,_ "- _A grave Falken insult: "I offer my excrement/urine to quench your hunger/thirst," is a rough translation._

" _Peh ninin nam'us-tal" Another grave Falken insult, usually exchanged among females: "May you miscarry a monster and die screaming," though this is not an exact translation._


	47. Chapter 47 - Contra Timorous

-47-

" _And now,' said the unknown, 'farewell kindness, humanity, and gratitude! Farewell to all the feelings that expand the heart! I have been heaven's substitute to recompense the good - now the god of vengeance yields to me his power to punish the wicked!"-The Count of Monte Cristo_

XXX

Mara stared down at her phone, and then off to the demons gathered in a loose cluster before her. They'd all come from different tribes. All of them. Different _Wilder_ tribes that the _Damkianna_ had run through with a fine-toothed comb. All of them were chieftain's sons surrendered as a war prize after she had conquered them single-handedly. Had it not been for the _Damkianna_ , they'd have grown up slaughtering and devouring each other and stealing the sons and daughters of other tribal leaders to signify their victory. And those children, no matter how young or how old, would have been slaughtered and devoured in turn; a victory feast to instill fear and submission in the defeated tribe.

Yet the _Damkianna_ had changed that.

The spoils of war, they'd all expected to die at her hands. None of them had expected to live.

None of them had expected to _learn_.

The _Damkianna_ had taken them from a land of savages and made them civilized.

And her daughter, in that strange _Highkin_ philosophy called 'friendship', had united them. For the _Kalbisharur zi Agu'Rimanis,_ The _Damkianna's_ pet _Wilder_ , that meant loyalty. Loyalty to the one who owned their lives and loyalty to the one who brought them together as children before vanishing to realms untouched by filthy _Wilder_.

"Am Rimu, you get that?" Mara asked, pocketing her phone and looking at a man older than her by ten decades. Of all of them, he'd been the oldest surrendered to the _Damkianna_ , and perhaps because of that, the most set in the ways of the old.

The man was handling a magi-electronic device, one of those arcane designs that was too complicated for Mara to understand. She'd never been good with anything that mixed magic with technology, but the Wild Bull, as the others liked to call him, excelled at it. "I've got it recorded, _Daku_." It was the only name he called her. It was the only name he called _any_ of them. Mara had stopped caring. It had ceased being an insult long ago, and instead had become something akin to a term of endearment. "The _Damkianna_ will be pleased."

"What are your orders, _Sizkur'mash_?" There was a hungry gleam in Akal's eyes, and the smile on his face was wild and ravenous, like a starving dog chained just out of reach of a meal. They all had that gleam in their eye, Mara noted. Perhaps even she herself had it.

She smiled at that. "We have all the evidence we need now," she said, and her voice, despite its rough and grinding quality, projected to everyone within the vicinity of the roof. "The _Damkianna_ said the hunt was ours so long as we had sufficient evidence, and Hagall has fucked herself thoroughly this day." Midnum was stomping his right foot now, and Tidnum, a man who would have slain or been slain by Midnum had they still been _Wilder_ , joined him. "We will have our hunt this day, _Shes."_ Red eyes roamed the rooftop they stood upon, watching as Akal added his beat to the heavy drumming of Tidnum and Midum, and then Am Rimu, followed closely by Alad, the youngest of their lot but still old by mortal terms. Durah, still proud of his heritage, joined next, followed by Edakua, whose name was a curse by Niflheimian standards. "Emesh, remove our cloak, it's time we _Kalbisharur zi Agu'Rimanis_ made ourselves known to this world." The pounding tempo grew harder, faster, _wilder_ as Emesh, handsome despite the deep facial scars, ended the spell that had hidden their presence on Midgard for the past month. Then he too joined the beat, frantic now like the racing heart of a hunted animal-or an animal on the hunt. One of them, Mara didn't catch who, laughed, and it was mad and excited as finally Kili, who acted as Mara's second, and then Mara herself joined the cadence.

"Today is our day!" Mara roared over the pulse, and the gutteral howl of nine raving demons met her call. "Today we are released! Today we _hunt_ , and let every demon who treads upon our path be consumed by fear!" An aura, red and ominous, began to pool around their feet, like dust stirred up by the devils' dance. "Let those who stand by Hagall's side tremble in fear, for they face _Wilder_ now!" Her voice rose in a shrill scream like that of a hawk, and around her nine bellows like those of angry bulls joined her cry. She laughed, and the aura gathered around them and above their heads before erupting in a red miasma.

When the miasma faded, there was nothing to indicate their presence. Just the remnants of an ungodly aura set loose across the plains of Midgard.

XXX

And less than a quarter mile away, the goddess Belldandy froze as an unearthly magical signature, one made of either several small ones or one large one, swept through her seventh sense. Cold, she reached forward and grabbed the seat in front of her, uttering a single sentence:

"Stop the car."

In front of her, Keiichi looked in the rearview mirror at her, and Debra turned to look back at her as well, having maintained her claim to the passenger seat. "What is it, Bell?" the SEAL asked. His voice was strained, thick with worry for Aiko, and perhaps Urd as well. They'd left her and Lind in a rush after Belldandy had stormed off, and now Belldandy herself was beginning to question her actions. If her senses were correct, Belldandy feared there would be much more to worry about than one demon and one missing person. Perhaps she'd been wrong to leave her sister and a full-fledged Valkyrie behind, rushing off with only two mortals to guard her back.

Perhaps she'd been very wrong indeed.

"Keiichi… " the Norn lapsed into silence, unsure of how to proceed. Had this been what Urd had been warning her about in the court house? This… presence, this sense of dread that had manifested without warning, this… _these_ demons. Did Hagall have so many allies?

Beside her Debra shivered and rubbed her arms. Belldandy thought she heard her mutter something about masks, but couldn't be certain. Keiichi, at the next opportunity, pulled into a gas station and parked the car before turning in his seat to observe her. "Bell, what is it?" he demanded. Fear made him snap, she knew. Fear and urgency for Aiko, because Belldandy had pressed the need for urgency on him, because Aiko was in danger, but now...

She bit her lip. They'd been following her directions, pursuing Hagall. Now that the demon had been confronted once, Hagall had made it apparent that she _wanted_ to be followed. That this was some _game_ to her, and in the wake of this new presence…

 _She's following a Line, Belldandy,_ Holy Bell whispered. _We need to be careful. She's following a Ley Line, Carrie, and you know that the dimensional rules don't apply the way they should. Like the Veils where Verdita made your dreamcatcher. She doesn't have to follow the rules of this plane on a Ley Line, and that makes her dangerous. Not just to you, but to Keiichi and Debra as well._

"Keiichi, we may be in over our heads."

 _That storage facility was part of the Ley Line, Belldandy._

 _Stop Holy Bell._

 _I'm worried about Urd and Lind, Belldandy._

 _Holy Bell, please be quiet._

 _We left them with that...thing. That-that_ thing _, Bell. It wasn't a demon. I don't know what it was, but it wasn't a demon. I'm certain of that now._

 _Holy Bell-_

"What do you mean?" Keiichi interrupted her, and his voice was worried and afraid. She saw similar emotions splayed across Debra's face.

Belldandy didn't blame him. If anything, she felt the same. Whatever owned that new aura was large and dangerous, but to go further and risk interception was suicide, even for one such as her. "We need weapons," she said. "There is… just now, I sensed a powerful aura, and it is demonic in nature."

"Hagall?" Keiichi asked.

"No," said Belldandy. "Bigger than Hagall. Much bigger. Possibly several demons clustered together, but I cannot say for certain."

Debra's face was ashen. "You mean there's-" she stopped herself at the last minute, then whispered, "they're wearing masks… oh god, they were wearing masks!" Her voice rose in panicked realization. "They were wearing _masks!"_ The woman turned back forward in her seat, then leaned forward and swore, leaving Belldandy and Keiichi to stare at her in bemusement.

"Who're wearing masks?" Belldandy asked.

"The _Suits!"_ Debra ran her hands through her hair with exasperation. "I can't believe they- it all makes so much sense! Those were- they were _demons_!" She sucked in a shuddering breath. "Oh my... fuck! She just... this whole time, but-why would she-"

A cellphone rang. _Hey Jude_ began to lament from Keiichi's pocket, and swearing the man put the rental into park and dug it out, grimacing as he looked at the name. Belldandy wondered why he bothered. She recognized that song as the same one that always played when McGuinness called him. The man stared down at the device, his expression pained as a variety of emotions went to war on his face. Then, sucking in a deep breath, Keiichi slid his finger over on the screen and answered the phone. "Hey Sir, what's up?" A strange, almost alien level of calm overcame his voice; a level of calm that was absent from the face Belldandy saw looking back at her in the rearview mirror.

Deb watched him with the silent concern of a woman preparing herself for more bad news. Keiichi listened to the man on the other end in silence, drumming the fingers of his right hand along the rim of the steering wheel. His lips were pressed in a thin line, and as McGuiness spoke longer, that line grew thinner, tighter, the surrounding lips growing so light as to be white. At once Keiichi stopped his tapping, and the fingers of his right hand instead wrapped around the steering wheel, gripping it in a white-knuckled vice. "Sir I-" Whatever else he was about to say died in his throat, and for a long moment Keiichi sat there, in the front seat of the rental car, his mouth hanging open as his eyes grew large.

When he spoke again, it was a harsh whisper. "Are you sure?" The color was draining from his face, leaving him pale, leaving him white like a ghost, and when next Keiichi looked back in the mirror at Belldandy, for an instant that was what she thought: that Keiichi had died in that exact moment, that his soul had fled his body, and that what stared back at her in that tiny mirror was nothing but the remaining corpse.

 _His eyes just died._ A voice murmured; a passing thought, like a fish in the broad ocean of her mind. It was gone before it could fully settle, but its departure paved the way for another voice. Holy Bell's voice.

 _Something happened to Urd._

The level of certainty in Holy Bell's voice was scary. Perhaps more so than the look on Keiichi's face as the man looked back at her with his white face and dead eyes.

 _Nothing happened to Urd._ Belldandy retorted. Denied. There was a sudden _need_ to deny that voice, those words, as a wave of foreboding washed over the Norn. _Nothing happened to Urd, because Hagall abandoned her._

You _abandoned her._ Another fish-thought. Larger than the last but still slippery, sliding through the net before she could reel it in.

"Sir, I just spoke with her." There was almost a tremor in Keiichi's voice. Almost. His eyes never left Belldandy. "...what do you mean, 'When'?" the man rumbled. "I swear I just-" Belldandy could almost physically see the man stop himself from saying anything more, for it would give indication to the situation they were in now. He leaned forward in his seat, squeezed the steering wheel, and breathed deeply. Still watching Belldandy.

It was enough to give the goddess goosebumps. "No Sir, she was fine when I spoke with her. Yes Sir, I swear. Right as rain."

"Keiichi?" Debra's voice was kind. Gentle. _Scared._ "Kei? Hon?" A nickname said without thought, falling back on past experiences in a time of shared tension. "What happened?" Belldandy didn't even hear the pet name. Her attention was locked on Keiichi.

"I'll... give her a call," Keiichi continued, his words slow and methodical. It made him sound cool. Calm. Collected. In control, and for that Belldandy admired him; admired the way he spun an illusion of tranquility around himself, despite the fear so rampant on his face. Admired the way he sounded confident in his words, though he did little but slow the pace of his speech. But most of all, she was afraid.

That calm wasn't for McGuinness. She knew that with absolute certainty, the same way she knew plain as day that ( _something happened to Urd)_ the sky was blue. That calm was for _her_.

Keiichi ended the call. He broke eye contact with Belldandy and stared straight ahead, sucking in a long, deep breath. He released it slowly, then pocketed the device once more. He closed his eyes, and Belldandy began to count the seconds his eyes were shut. _One, two, three, four..._ He opened them when she reached ten, as she'd expected, and then looked back at the rearview mirror to Belldandy.

Had it been Debra he'd looked at instead of Belldandy, she would have seen something in his face. A familiar look, a familiar pain, a familiar _war_ as Keiichi battled wits with the SEAL inside his skull. The Man and the Warrior dueled side by side on his face in an internal struggle Debra had come to know well in the months leading up to their divorce. Those times had always incited arguments with the detective; fights over outbursts that meant nothing and led to heartache and heartbreak when the Warrior won, fights that devolved into forgiveness and comfort on both sides when the Man won, and more often than not, it was the Warrior, the SEAL, that took over in those moments.

A strange look passed through his eyes, then settled as Keiichi- not SO1 Morisato- won out.

"...Let's take a breather," Keiichi said.

The man opened the door to the car and stepped outside. He didn't bother to shut the door behind him. Debra shot a look to Belldandy, her face alarmed, her eyes wide and worried, then followed the man out as well. Belldandy watched her go, then looked out her window at Keiichi. The man had his phone out and to his ear again. Debra walked around the car to join him, and steeling herself, Belldandy left the car as well.

"I can't reach her," Keiichi mumbled, and then looked at Belldandy. "Bell... that was Mac on the phone.

"I know," Belldandy said, perhaps a little too sharply.

"He was calling about Urd." The man paused, looking like he wanted to say more.

 _Out with it._ Some impatient piece of her said. _Just hurry up and be out with it! I know already what it is!_ She banished the voice to the back of her mind. "Why was he calling about Urd?"

The man frowned. Hesitated. "Bell... can you contact Urd?" he asked. "Mac thinks something bad happened to her."

The goddess felt cold and hot at once, and tried to ignore the rising voices that began screaming in her mind. _I knew it, I knew it!_ they shrieked. _You thought you could drown me out?! Look at what happens! What were Hagall's final words, you_ dunga _, you_ fifl _, you cur? Did she not speak of death? Of pain?_ She pushed them out of her mind. "Why would you be alarmed by that?" Belldandy asked. "He's a man. There is nothing special about him, nothing supernatural about him. Why has his call left you so spun up?"

Keiichi frowned. Worse yet, _Debra_ frowned. "Nothing..." Keiichi began, again in that slow, calm, even tone. "But Mac sounded worried. He seemed convinced something bad had happened to Urd, and..." Again that hesitation. Again that reluctance. "The last time he sounded that scared was when I tried to kill myself."

"Kei-" Debra began. Keiichi silenced her with a simple hand raise.

"He said it over the phone, guys. 'Morisato, the last time I felt this scared I stormed your house and you were collapsed in the bathroom with an empty bottle of pills at your foot.' That's what he said. He said, 'I can't storm over to California, so I need to know, when's the last time you heard from Sheila? Is she okay? Because I don't think she is.'" The man fell silent, and his gaze was nervous. Imploring. "And... I don't think she is either." His voice dropped. "We left her, Bell. We left Urd and Lind alone with that... she called it a _bioweapon_ , Bell." He shook his head, still soft, still calm, but his eyes were worried and terrified and perhaps even a bit angry. "She told me it could destroy California, Bell. That it was some kind of... destruction program. That it couldn't be stopped unless it was destroyed, and Bell, I don't think I've ever seen Urd look so scared before."

He raised his cellphone, gripping it tight as if it was a stone he was about to throw. "I told Mac I'd call her. She's not answering her phone though."

 _That doesn't mean anything,_ part of her whispered. _It means everything,_ another piece retorted. _He's a mortal! A man! You've seen him and there was nothing strange about him! There is no foundation to build his 'premonition' as real,_ reason whispered in her ear, rising above doubt and joining with reassurance. There was no magic inside Christian McGuinness nor any strange waver in his aura that would denote a magical heritage. Just a man. _Just a man who sensed Keiichi was dying and abandoned everything he was doing at the time on a moment of weak intuition._ Doubt again reared its head. _What if..._ Again, that simultaneous feeling of being both hot and cold. This time accompanied with a restless stirring in her chest, her breast, her _soul_ as Holy Bell writhed. She could feel her angel all at once then-another presence, almost alien in nature, fighting to escape, to burst from her chest and be set free, and to run, run _run_ back to that damned storage facility where she'd left Urd and Lind.

 _They need our help_. Holy Bell's voice rose above all others. _We never should have left them, they need our help!_

Debra was looking at her now. It looked like she wanted to say something, but was afraid. "What?" Belldandy snapped. She didn't mean to. Not this time. She was scared because Holy Bell was scared, and she didn't want to make anyone else scared. Not with Aiko missing already.

She felt guilty when the woman flinched. "You said... you said you could sense those, those demons, right?" she asked, but didn't wait for Belldandy to respond. "Then... could you sense Urd? Urd and her friend?"

 _No, because they're gone._ The voice of panic, pure and laughing and screaming, rose in her head, almost drowning out all other thought. _They're gone because we left them, we abandoned them, and now you'll never see them again!_

She banished the voice to the depths of her mind. Nobody knew that for certain. "I can try," she said, and in truth she could if she wanted to. Urd was a familiar aura to her. One as familiar as the scent that always followed her elder sister around, that soothing scent of Lavender and Jasmine that always brought to mind potions and sake, songs and laughter, silly arguments and comforting hugs and irritation and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and-

And she couldn't sense Urd.

She'd always tuned Urd's aura out. Ever since coming to North America, Belldandy had started tuning Urd out, dismissing her aura because it was a constant presence. A _constant_ presence. There wasn't a day that passed where that presence wasn't near, wasn't enveloping her like the coils of a snake, wasn't hanging over her head like a cloud blocking out the heat of the sun. She'd grown so used to it that she'd _forgotten_ it, the way one forgets the nose in front of their face until they remember it's there or the warmth of a house until they come in from the cold outdoors.

 _You wanted her to 'stay the fuck away from you'. Isn't that what you said?_ That sweet voice of panic, like a long-time friend, came rolling back from the depths of her mind once more. _Stay the fuck away from me, and wasn't that what you wanted? In that exact moment, didn't you want her to disappear? To vanish? To 'go away', because it was_ her _fault you'd suffered ten years of hell? Well con-grad-u-fucking-lations, Belldandy me girl, you got your wish, just like how you wished to stay with Keiichi forever. Only this time, no takesie-backsies._

She felt the color drain from her face. _What about Lind?_ Holy Bell exclaimed. _Carrie, what about Lind? What about Spear Mint and Cool Mint? Maybe it's- maybe it's something else. Surely if we can't sense World of Elegance and Urd, we can sense the twins and Lind, right?_ Belldandy didn't like the panic rising in her angel's voice. Holy Bell's panic fed her own panic, and right now she needed calm.

The Norn did her best to ignore her angel and spread her senses out, back in the direction they'd come from. Urd's aura had always been easy to identify because it was _sharp_. It left in the mind the sense of edges and corners and spines and chaotic twisting and turning. It held the clear scent of rain and the sharp scent of electricity. But Lind's was different. Lind's was cool. An icy calm that could be sharp at times or soft at times depending on the mood of the goddess at hand. It always felt somehow hard in her mind; like the earth beneath her feet or an iceberg adrift in the ocean, but always cool. Clean. _Still_.

Yet this time Belldandy neither found the chaotic sharpness of Urd nor the cool stillness of Lind. Only the residue of where last they'd stood, fading into whispers dissolving once more into nothingness.

 _I can't sense World of Elegance._ Holy Bell sounded scared. _Belldandy, I can't sense World of Elegance anymore!_ A shout this time, one that interrupted any further investigation and left Belldandy wincing as though her angel had screamed in her ears. _The twins are missing too! I can't sense Spear Mint or Cool Mint or, or_ anyone! The goddess felt something constrict in her chest, felt something claw its way up her throat, and then, to her horror, felt Holy Bell attempt to rise from her soul. _I need to go to them!_ Holy Bell screamed. _I need to help my sisters!_ The angel began to emerge from her back, unsummoned...

And then Debra gasped.

Something snapped in Belldandy in that moment, and at once Holy Bell was pulled back into her soul. Perhaps, had the woman not been there, or indeed even if she'd missed the beginning of Holy Bell's rising, perhaps things would have gone differently. Perhaps Holy Bell would have forced herself into being, racing back from whence they came, dragging Belldandy with her. Perhaps, if not for a single woman, a single _mortal_ , things would have turned out differently: Belldandy and Holy Bell would have returned to discover her fallen sister, or perhaps even fallen victim to the _rabishu_ like those that had brought it down. Maybe she, too, would have suffered a grave wound in that battle, or perhaps she would have instead merely come across the bloody scene of her fallen companions, her fallen _family,_ and been left in such a state of shock she'd be unable to act. Perhaps, in seeing that she had lost a sister searching for a sister, she would be unable to continue her search for Aiko.

Regardless, the fact remained that Debra Johansson, in a single action, had led Belldandy to reassert her self-control by the simple act of making herself known, and it was enough to rouse the goddess from her shock. The Norn looked at the detective, who took a step away from her when their eyes met. "What did you see?" Cold terror seized her heart for a moment. Not the hot, numbing fear of her sister but instead the icy chill of a mortal witnessing something she never should. Witnessing the debilitation of Belldandy's own _soul_ , which still fought and struggled and cried for release, for freedom, for her _sisters,_ in her heart.

"N- nothing, I-" The woman took another step away from the Norn, her expression showing open fear of the woman before her. Belldandy took a step towards her, and Debra took another step back, maintaining the distance between them.

"Don't lie."

The woman's face paled as Belldandy advanced. Almost white. A sickly white. A _scared_ white. "I-I don't know what I saw." she stammered. "It- I don't know! They- they looked like wings, but-"

"But what?!" Belldandy demanded.

"Bell-" Keiichi began, and was ignored.

"What did you _see_ Debra?" Belldandy pressed, and for a moment a look of such terror befell the mortal woman that she looked ready to either run screaming or attack; that ol' 'fight or flight' mechanism that had been with Man since the dawn of time.

"I don't know what I saw!" Debra exclaimed. "I don't know… wings, maybe?! Like, boney, naked wings or something? Fuck I don't know, okay? I only saw them for a second!"

 _Fuck the wings, Belldandy!_ Holy Bell's voice made Belldandy freeze. She'd never heard her angel swear before. _Fuck the wings, World of Elegance is gone!_ Urd _is gone!_ Her angel mourned, and a wave of grief swept through Belldandy with such force it left her reeling. _Spear Mint is gone. Cool Mint too. They helped, Belldandy. They had Lind make a sweater to keep me warm without my feathers! And we left them! We abandoned all of them-World of Elegance and Urd and Spear Mint and Cool Mint and Lind-just...gone! Like that!_ the angel raved. _Hagall said she wanted Urd dead, and damn it, damn_ her _, she did it! We let her_ win _, Belldandy!_

For a moment the world fell away. Debra melted from sight and Keiichi faded like a dream from time. The gas station they were parked at faded into obscurity and the roar of traffic faded into a distant memory. In its place was Holy Bell, and the look on her face was one of heart-felt tragedy. _She wanted one thing,_ the angel said, _Urd's death. She was willing to commit whatever atrocities necessary to achieve that goal. And she succeeded, Belldandy. She succeeded because we abandoned Urd. We_ betrayed _her. We left her to_ die _, Belldandy, and now she and World of Elegance and Lind and the Twins are_ gone _._

"Bell?" A hand came to rest on her shoulder, and Holy Bell vanished. Keiichi replaced her. He looked concerned. "Belldandy, what is it? What happened?"

She stared at him as though seeing him for the first time, and Keiichi moved to rest both his hands on her shoulders. "You're crying," he murmured. "What is it? What did you sense?"

The goddess stared at him, aghast, and touched her face with a hand that trembled. Her cheeks were damp, and now that it had been brought to her attention Belldandy grew keenly aware of the tears sliding down her face. She stared at Keiichi, opened her mouth, _Urd is gone,_ and no sound came out. _My sister is gone._ The words traveled through her mind, echoed from the very depths of darkness and came racing to the forefront of her mind like a bullet. _Urd is..._ She tried to speak, tried to pass on this information, yet she found her grief to overwhelming, and only a small, pitiful word came from her throat: "Urd..."

Though she was unable to speak her despair, the grief on her face must have communicated what she'd sensed to Keiichi. Without a word, he pulled her into a hug, and it was there, in that moment, that the truth of Urd's fate settled itself into Belldandy's mind like a bird to a nest. A wail, long and broken, arose from deep within her chest, and the Norn embraced the man tight, clinging to him like a lost child.

 _Urd is gone._

 _Yggdrasil, Urd is gone. If I hadn't... If_ Hagall _hadn't..._

 _Hagall. Hagall wanted Urd dead._

 _Hagall._

 _This is Hagall's fault. Not just mine but Hagall as well._

 _Hagall was the one responsible for Aoshima._

 _Hagall is the one responsible for Urd's death._

 _Hagall._

Hagall.

 _I'm going to kill Hagall._

The final thought came to her in a moment of stillness within her mind, a voice spoken aloud in silence, and which came across almost like a scream. It struck her, filled Belldandy with a cold sense of resolve, and in an instant the grief that so filled her was gone. In its place was something else, something _new_ , and it settled in her mind and filled her body like a glass of icy water. Hate. Pure, frozen, _hate._

It was different from the hate she'd developed for Aoshima. That one was kindred with anger- hot and smoldering, furious and righteous. But this... this was something she'd never felt before. The Norn opened her eyes, and to her it seemed almost as if the world had cleared. As if a filter ( _Urd)_ had been removed, and everything- from the scent of the man holding her to the noise of traffic beside them to the sadness and pity on Debra's face- seemed sharper, clearer, in a way she hadn't noticed before.

 _I'm going to kill Hagall._

She repeated the thought to herself with the curious confoundment of a scholar coming to higher understanding of the world around her, and waited for Holy Bell to challenge it.

Yet her angel was silent. As silent as _Urd,_ and Belldandy recognized in that moment that her thoughts and desires were united in mind, body, and soul. A demon was going to die today, Doublet System be damned. Urd would be avenged.

She sucked in a deep breath and drew away from Keiichi. Her cheeks were dry, the tears spent. All that was left was resolve. Resolve and _vengeance_. Keiichi met her eyes as they parted, and on his face she saw a plethora of emotions dance across. Concern for her, but grief as well for the person they'd both lost. Grief and _guilt_ , though he was not responsible for Urd's fall. And then worry. Worry coupled with anxiety and even a small bit of impatience.

 _Don't forget Aiko_. A voice, so soft as to be called a whisper, another fish-thought, swam through her mind, flashing its scales at her before vanishing into the depths of her consciousness again. _I won't._ She told that same thought. _I will not lose two sisters this day._ "Let's continue." She was amazed at how steady her voice sounded to her ears. "We must find Hagall."

Debra approached, and for once Belldandy found no distaste in the woman's presence. It was spent, or else repurposed. All of that would be for Hagall now. "I'm sorry," the detective mumbled, and Belldandy was taken off guard. "For Urd," she clarified, and met the goddess's startled blue eyes with dismayed brown. "I don't know what happened, but... for what it's worth, you have my condolences." Debra looked away, her lips pressed in a pensive frown. "Are you sure you want to continue this?" she asked. "When..." she trailed off, unable to voice her thoughts into words.

Belldandy understood the message clearly enough. "I am certain," she said firmly. "If I do not continue with you, then Aiko will not be retrieved. You will not stand against Hagall." She paused, remembering her earlier words and the new, large presence she'd felt before the discovery of Urd's fall had reached her. "Not without proper equipment. But let us continue. You will be armed when the battle approaches, and together we will bring Hagall and all her allies down."

She passed the woman and walked around the car to the front passenger seat, crawling in without another word. Keiichi and Debra shared a look. "Aiko needs us," Keiichi said in answer to Debra's inquiring look. "I don't know if what Mac said about Urd is true or not but... we can't dwell on it right now." The SEAL was starting to encroach on Keiichi again, trying to slip past the Man and take over the reins like it did in any combat or hostage situation. "We can't afford to waste any more time. Let's go." There was sadness in his voice. A deep melancholy that scared Debra, as it was of the same sort that had followed him back from Iraq, from _Fida_ , and had left him with wounds she couldn't see and couldn't treat.

The man climbed back into the driver's seat, and for a moment, Debra debated on the wisdom of following them into the car. She'd seen fellow officers pulled from cases that were close to them on an emotional level, and had heard similar stories of service members being pulled from active rosters as well. Emotions didn't mix well with weapons. Anger mixed with guns about as well as alcohol mixed with vehicles. It made people stupid.

It made people _dangerous_.

And here were two people who'd just suffered a loss. Here we have Suspect Number One: Female, unknown age, wielding power unknown/infinite and who had just recently suffered the loss of a close relative and was going after the suspect who may or may not have been guilty of that death. Surely played a part in it, possibly indirectly.

Next to her was Suspect Number Two: Male, late twenties to early thirties, military background, trained in hand-to-hand combat and to a level where his hands could be considered deadly weapons in their own right. One close relative kidnapped and an a close friend murdered by that same suspect. Currently searching for the individual responsible right alongside Suspect Number One.

 _Will you be Suspect Number Three?_ The Detective in her piped up. _Female, late twenties, law enforcement background and possible accessory to a crime? Because these two look like they want to meet up with that demon-woman, and something tells me they aren't about to have a friendly chat over tea and crumpets. You saw that look on Belldandy's face. There's only one thought on her mind, and that thought is murder._

If ever there was a time to turn and walk away, it was now.

Just turn and walk away. She could call a cab and return to the hotel and whatever happened from this point on, happened.

Just walk away, Debra Johansson. This was business suited for gods and demons and those people associated with them. Not for law-enforcement where the laws of men need not apply. Not for a mortal like yourself.

Just walk away.

Her eyes drifted to Keiichi, lingered there as the engine to the car started up, and the man looked out the window at her, his gaze questioning and impatient. _You coming or not?_

Was she really going to abandon Keiichi with all this insanity of gods and demons happening around them _?_ To abandon Aiko, the baby sister she never had?

Just. Walk. Away.

 _Don't do it, Deb,_ The Detective in her whispered. _Get the proper authorities involved. This is way over your head._

 _Aiko could die,_ she told that voice. Keiichi _could die. I'm not about to abandon my family._

 _You could die as well,_ the voice reasoned.

 _I'll take that risk for Aiko and Keiichi,_ she decided.

Debra opened the door to the rear passenger seat and climbed inside, slamming the door shut behind her. She buckled her seat belt and sucked in a deep breath as Keiichi pulled out of the gas station and back into San Francisco traffic.

 _You're in this all the way then?_ The detective, Reason, asked in her head. _Then you'll have no one but yourself to blame for whatever comes to pass._

 _And trust me, Deb, it_ will _come to pass, whether you like it or not._

XXX

The trail led them northeast through San Francisco, onto Interstate Eighty and over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, where the water gleamed a murky green-blue far beneath them as boats ranging from small tugboats to large fishing vessels went about their business. The day was ripening to a high of ninety-eight degrees outside when they came onto the man-made Treasure Island, and with Belldandy's guidance they changed their course northwest, driving up Treasure Island Road and past the Blue Park, where their journey ended at a small café marked, _The Glowing Tea._

From there they continued their trek on foot, walking past the vendors selling wine and small markets housing electronics and into a more residential district that looked to have fallen into disrepair. Here, the flora introduced to the island to prevent soil erosion was scarce. Instead, a long line of fences surrounded the area. Belldandy looked tempted to hop over the fence, eyeing it with the same intensity of a cat about to pounce, but Keiichi convinced her otherwise. "There's barbed wire on the fence, see?" He pointed to the top, where a long, looping spool of barbed wire circled the top of the nine-foot fence. "You might be able to leap over, but we'd get shredded. Let's find a gate instead."

"I could bring it down," Belldandy suggested.

"Let's not draw too much attention to ourselves," Debra replied, watching as a dark blue Toyota truck passed them on the neighboring road.

"She's got a point Bell."

"Fine."

They followed the fence line north and then west, away from the main road. They found a gate tucked away behind a small line of trees that looked to have been recently planted, and at Belldandy's touch the thick, heavy chains that locked it fell away with a hearty rattle. The circular handle to the gate proved to either be unlocked or merely gave way at the strength of the goddess gripping it, and seeing the combination pad beneath the doorknob left Keiichi inclined to believe the latter. The Norn stepped inside, and taking a deep breath Debra followed after her.

Keiichi grabbed her arm. "Wait," he cautioned.

Both women paused, looking at him in confusion. "What is it?" Debra asked.

"This place is dangerous."

Debra stared at him blankly. "No shit, Sherlock," she said. "We're tracking down legitimate _demons_ , Keiichi."

The SEAL frowned. "No, I mean this place is _dangerous._ To _us_." He gestured to Debra and himself, then looked at Belldandy, his face worried. "Bell, this place has nuclear hazard signs posted on it."

"It has what?" Belldandy stared at him blankly.

"It has _what!?"_ Debra jumped away from the gate like she'd stumbled across a rattlesnake that had started to shake its tail. "Kei, are you _serious_?"

Keiichi nodded. "I noticed those as we were approaching the gate." He pointed to a rectangular, laminated sign that been tied to the grid of the fence line. The sign was yellow, with a black nuclear hazard symbol centered on it. Above it were the words _RESTRICTED AREA_ in big, blocky text, followed by a line beneath the symbol that read _Authorized Personnel Only._ Next to it was a second, white sign of a similar lamination. _NOTICE,_ it read, _CONTROLLED AREA. Authorized Personnel Only._

In nineteen thirty-nine, Treasure Island had been created for one purpose: The World Fair that was held in that same year. Following that, the island was left as it was, with all its architecture and flora, until the US Navy came into possession of it and turned it into a naval base. In the nineteen forties, it was repurposed for use as a dumping ground for the Navy's nuclear waste, acting as a location to clean ships and get rid of hazardous materials used in the creation of atomic bombs. Though the Navy had gone through efforts to correct the erroneous act, many of the buildings were still considered radioactive as a result, despite the large residential district that had sprung up on the island in the past twenty years. Those areas were still held under possession by the Navy as a preventative measure for those new residents, and it seemed that now, such places also made alluring dens for demons.

"Bell, we can't go in there," Keiichi continued. "If that place is off limits with a big hazard sign, then that means the place still has a dangerous level of radioactivity for humans. I'm not going in there on the risk that I'll turn into some ghoul from Keigo's videogames sixty years down the road."

"Of all the goddamned... these motherfuckers would..." Beside him, Debra muttered oaths under her breath, eyeing the signs she'd failed to notice with wary eyes.

Belldandy looked at them both in surprise, confounded by their reluctance to breech the gate's perimeter. "Aiko may be in there," she said.

"And might be suffering from radiation poisoning," Keiichi continued. "Bell, don't misunderstand me, I want to save Aiko too, but if _that_ ," he pointed past her to the territory behind her, "is radioactive, then unless I know I'm protected, I _cannot_ take another step inside, and I'm not allowing Deb in there either."

"You don't have to tell me twice." Debra muttered. She looked pale, ashen, almost, spooked by the danger she'd almost walked into without a second thought. "I don't fuck around with nuclear hazards."

Belldandy looked between the two mortals, flabbergasted. "You would stop here?" she demanded, "At the gates of the demon's den, _this_ is where you balk?"

"It's _radioactive,_ Belldandy." Debra emphasized the word 'radioactive', speaking slowly and drawing the word out in a long breath as though speaking to a slow child. "If we go in there without protection, we could die. Do you understand that? We don't know what the half-life on this place is or what kind of rads this area is pumping out, and unless you want us both to start vomiting blood while you have a go at Hagall, we need to either draw her out or find some suits to protect ourselves."

"Vomit-" Belldandy looked at the woman in alarm. "This is such a hazard to you?"

"There's a reason why there are warning signs telling people to keep out." Debra snipped.

"Deb, don't start," Keiichi warned. "Bell, she's right. I don't know if you have something comparable but... unless you know how to wipe out radiation or have some spell up your sleeve that can shield us from radiation, we can't go in there.

The Norn fell silent, observing the two of them with mixed emotions. "This... scares you, doesn't it," she said, and watched as Keiichi and Debra nodded with no small amount of enthusiasm.

"Radiation will fuck a man up," Keiichi emphasized. "We do drills for this kind of shit in the military-leave no body part exposed, wear a gas mask with filters, the works. We don't have protection? We burn up from the inside out. The radiation exposure will start destroying our cells and our organs until there's nothing left but cancer." He shook his head. "I want to rescue Aiko, but I want to rescue Aiko _intelligently_. We don't go into combat without IPE. We don't go into radiation without MOPP." He looked at Belldandy, his expression leaving no room for argument. "We don't run naked into the line of fire."

"I see," the goddess murmured. There was logic in Keiichi's words. Logic Belldandy hadn't considered in her fear for Aiko's safety and her anger over Hagall's reappearance ( _Urd's dead because of her, lest we forget!)_ as well as a reminder that once again, the members of Belldandy's party were _mortal_ , they were _fragile_ , and they could be wounded very easily without the proper protection.

The goddess pursed her lips, looking back over her shoulder into the fenced off perimeter behind them. An area of radiation. Yes, now that she concentrated on it, she could indeed sense something... different about the area behind her. Off. _Unstable,_ almost. As if the very atoms of the territory itself were struggling to stabilize themselves, like a series of miniscule bombs that might go off at the slightest disturbance.

She turned more fully to the land beyond the gate, her eyes narrowing. It would be simple enough to protect the mortals at her back from the release of energy that unstable matter was emitting, yet that would be a prolonged spell that would require constant vigilance, and in the midst of a battle that would be a dangerous thing to lose track of. While it would take more of her energy at first, it would be easier instead to merely stabilize those atoms and prevent the release of energy as a whole, rather than have a slow drain on her energy and mind that would be caused by a protective shield around the two people behind her.

The goddess nodded to herself. "Back away from me, please," she requested. "Go towards the road. What I'm about to do will affect the surrounding land on an atomic level, and I don't want to risk the two of you with some side effect I did not take into consideration."

"What are you going to do?" Debra asked.

"Cleanse the land," Belldandy replied, and then walked through the gate and into the restricted zone. She took several steps inside the perimeter, and only stopped when her seventh sense told her that the air around her was starting to hum, stirred in part by her movement onto the land. She allowed her consciousness to spread out from there, expanding into the air and into the ground, spreading to encompass those atoms so unstable and stopping only when she came to atoms that _were_ stable again. It encompassed a long expanse of land; one that went well past the fence like that quarantined the area and deep into the earth itself, where the soil still leeched poison and the roots of surrounding flora were weak with mutation. She even sensed it in the animals that inhabited the land; insects with wings too thick to fly or additional legs that left them vulnerable to predators. Birds with cancer in their breasts, deteriorated muscle and wings (Holy Bell shuddered) too weak to fly. Lizards and snakes ( _World of Elegance,_ Holy Bell mourned) born with thin skin or blind, with patches of flesh without scales or with limbs without enough or too many toes.

It made her physical body shudder, left her gut churning ( _where is Aiko in all of this? Where is Hagall? Her allies?)_ with nausea to know that something as simple as unstable atoms could wreak so much havoc on the land and its creatures. _Enough of this,_ she thought, and with a mental hand reached out and grabbed the atoms. She willed them to be still, to be _stable_ , and felt the nervous energy they produced grow calm at her touch. _Be calm,_ she instructed, and to her it seemed as though the land itself sighed and relaxed, releasing a tension that had until that time been unknown and unseen.

She released a meditative sigh with the release, and for a moment felt a small bit of tranquility flow through her. A thought came to her _,_ not hers but something else's: _thank you._ It came and went with the passing peace, yet by the time Belldandy realized it was the spirt of the island itself, the owner of the voice had already moved on. With it came a new and sudden revelation: Belldandy did not like California. There had been nothing but stress and anger, heartbreak and depression, hurt and hate since arriving in this state. _This is no land for gods,_ she thought to herself, turning back to the front gate and returning to Keiichi and Debra. _This is a thieving land. It robs you of your joy, it robs you of your happiness, and it pits family against one another before stealing them away._

 _I miss Virginia. I miss my forests and swamps and cooking my own food and singing with the rising and setting sun and my quiet evenings with my family and silly weekends with Team Twelve and strange opossums that live in tree trunks and cougar spirits that roam my woods and rifts that are guarded by old copperheads. I want to go_ home _._

 _We need to take care of our business here first._ Holy Bell reminded. _Let's hurry up and finish Hagall and rescue Aiko, and then we can see for ourselves what happened to Urd and World of Elegance._ Brave words from her angel. Painful ones, as well. A reminder.

 _Don't forget about the mortals behind you. They will be useless if they cannot protect themselves._ She didn't bother to differentiate whether those words came from herself or Holy Bell. By now, it seemed like a moot point.

"It's safe now," the Norn said, letting those thoughts fade into the background of her mind as she approached Keiichi and Debra. "The radiation is gone. You may enter without fear of damage."

Keiichi and Debra shared an uncertain look, and then Keiichi walked firmly inside the fence perimeter. He looked nervous and uncertain, as though worried that at any moment he might burst into flames. Debra's expression, following his path, looked to be of a similar mindset. When nothing happened, however, Debra followed after, perhaps a tad more open in her fear. "Is it really safe?" she asked.

"It is," Belldandy said. "The plants and the animals are still weak and ill from the poison of the land, but the poison is gone now. It will not harm you nor anyone else who comes to stand on this ground." She looked to Keiichi, and missed the look of open awe and fear that fell across Debra's face. "Keiichi," she began, "before we continue, I need to ensure you will be able to protect yourself from Hagall and any demons that might be allied with her.

"Like Skuld _?"_ Keiichi asked, and got a strange look from Debra.

"Yes," Belldandy replied. "Though I am not my sister, I can still provide you both a means of protection." She pursed her lips, her eyes hard. "Keiichi, I need you to focus for me." She hesitated, and then looked at Debra. "You too. Your sensitivity will make it easier to draw out."

"What do you want us to focus on?"

"Your weapons."

"My-" Keiichi stopped himself, his jaw falling open in shock. "What do you mean, my weapons?"

"Your weapons," Belldandy repeated. "The two guns I've seen you take out on the weekends when you leave for target practice with Team Twelve. The small hand gun and the larger..."

"The AR-15?" Keiichi supplied. "The Colt and the AR-15? Why would you want us to focus on those?"

"Because we are only on the bordering edge of a ley line," Belldandy explained. "The rules of this world can only be bent so much before they are broken, and while this ley line allows me the opportunity to manifest these weapons, it requires outside assistance." She shook her head. "I must still, to an extent, follow Midgard's rules of existence, however if I have your aid- both of you, not just you Keiichi- I might bend them just short of breaking them."

"Kei..." Debra sounded wary and uncertain, and Keiichi looked at Belldandy with dismay.

"Bell, I _used_ a gun against a demon," he said. "When I pulled the trigger the bullets didn't do anything to him."

"They wouldn't," Belldandy agreed. "But that is the least of our concerns at this moment. I will take care of that once we have brought the weapons here. Now think of guns."

Humanity was a strange race.

By the standards of all the races of the Nine Worlds connected by Yggdrasil, they were oftentimes seen as the weakest of creatures. They were tiny where Jotun were large. Stupid in light of the wisdom of the elves. Talentless when compared to the craftsmanship of the Dwarves. Idiots when pitted against the Vanir and weak from an Aesir's point of view. They could not reincarnate like the Demons and were sentenced to live lifetimes amongst Helr's legions of the dead. And their capability with manipulating spiritual energy-be it their own or that of the world around them - was dead and nonexistent in the grand scheme of all the races. In truth, they were perhaps the most pathetic of the races of the ten great dimensions in all the Nine Worlds, outclassed in almost every way by those who would be their peers. They were fragile. They were ignorant. They were stupid, violent, and as spiritually dead as they were creatively dead. It was a small wonder they had not wiped themselves out in the years since they'd forgotten the gods, and indeed had not destroyed their very world with their recklessness.

Yet there was one thing that Humanity had that was unique to the mortal that was Man, and that was _Will._ They had a strength of will like none other, one said to surpass even the gods themselves when given the right motivation. Their will, as a whole, could dream impossibilities into reality: It gave Man control over Fire, allowed him to fly with metal wings and populate a world that would have torn his soft and fragile body apart. It allowed great warriors of old to stand on their feet like Cu Chullain after they had fallen days before. It rallied troops who before had been too afraid of their imminent death to face their enemy with laughter and taunts. It allowed Humanity to advance to the realms of space while they were still in their infancy, and all with a strange stubborn tenacity that could not be mimicked even by those frightening demons of illusion.

And now, with the aid of a goddess, that same stubborn Will of Man would bring a pair of guns all the way from Suffok, Virginia to Treasure Island, California, through a process which Man could only deem as _magic_.

The two children of Man stood in front of each other, their eyes closed as the Aesir Norn stood with her palms out before her. A look of deep concentration lined the brows of their faces, and the land was silent and still around them, as though fearing to interrupt the strange ceremony conducted by those gathered. Keiichi closed his eyes and thought of the gun range, of fire fights and practice rounds, of smoking brass cases that sometimes found their way down his blouse and left burns and the sharp, metallic scent of gunpowder that covered everything. Debra closed her eyes and thought of her youth, of trips into the woods with her father and shooting glass bottles with the heavy M1 Garand-back then taller than her-with her father standing behind her. Of qualifications with an M9 in the Academy and the wicked exhilaration of watching a wooden target shaped like a man disintegrate with two blasts from a shotgun.

 _The scent of steel and gunpowder filled the air. A pulse gathered in a goddess's hands, near and far at once as the world warped to her desires, to the impossible will of her two mortal companions._

They both closed their eyes and recalled the cool metal of the weapon against their fingers, the safety levers and buttons and the sharp curve of the trigger. Recalled being drilled over and over and over again to _always keep that booger hook off the bang switch_ and to never aim at something you didn't intend to shoot. Of idiots armed with M-4's discharging their weapons into the fire barrels on accident, where Keiichi got his first bout of Tinnitus. Of arriving on-scene to Debra's first case, a messy accident where children had gotten ahold of their parents' weapons, never realizing the dangers they held. Of centering all the rounds in the magazine at a target and seeing a nice, tiny cluster of holes when that sheet was brought close. Of recoil that could kick like a mule or give a light tap on the shoulder, of cleaning barrels after use and disassembling semi-automatic weapons in less than fifteen seconds.

"Open your eyes."

Together, the two mortals did as they were told, blinking owlishly at each other as between them, the air appeared to warp and bend and dance, bending the light and deforming its surroundings as though they looked through an irregular pane of glass. It was a disturbing effect to look at, one that induced nausea in the two humans present and made their eyes water. A headache broke out in Keiichi's head at the appearance, and Debra, more sensitive, recoiled as a severe migraine struck her all at once. Then it seemed as though the air settled, and the strange, disturbing effect phased into nonexistence. The pain of staring at the unnatural disturbance began to fade, but not before Debra stumbled away to a nearby tree where she lost her breakfast.

Both Keiichi and Belldandy averted their eyes, giving the woman her privacy. She finished and stumbled back, rubbing her brow with a grimace. Keiichi looked at her with fresh concern. "You okay?"

"I will be when this is over." The detective hocked and spat into some nearby bushes. "Fuck demons. Fuck this magic stuff too." She spat again. "I'll stick to the human magic of Science and Technology. This shit's for the birds."

"When all this is over I shall treat any damage that has been done to you," Belldandy said. "You have stayed with us despite the dangers presented to you, though this is not your battle. For that you have my respect."

Debra waved her off. "You can thank me if we survive this shit and save Aiko," she grumbled, and for a final time hocked and spat on the ground again. If anyone noticed the red mingled with the phlegm, they held their tongue.

Belldandy nodded. "Then I will leave it for you both to decide who should wield which weapon." The Norn clumsily held a semi-automatic rifle and a smaller hand gun in her arms. Keiichi's AR-15 and the Colt forty-five Debra had gifted him for this twenty-seventh birthday. The mortals knew this because both recognized the Colt's custom coffee bag burlap-scales.

Without a word Keiichi took both weapons from the goddess, who appeared more relieved to be rid of the devices. He offered Debra the revolver grip-first, the barrel pointed to the ground, and took the AR-15 for himself, checking the chamber and clearing it with a smooth, practiced motion before looking at Belldandy. "I don't keep the ammo or magazines with the weapons," he said.

"I know." Belldandy nodded, and from her pockets as if by magic (indeed, perhaps that was all it was- _magic_ ) withdrew three semi-automatic magazines and a box labeled ' _WINCHESTER SUPERX 45 Colt, 250 GRAIN COWBOY ACTION LEAD FLAT NOSE'_. She passed the magazines to Keiichi, who took all three, looked inside the first one, and then popped it into the rifle. He stuffed the spares into the pockets on his right side, one in the front pocket and the other in the rear pocket, and then looked back at Belldandy, his face grim.

Debra, likewise, grabbed the box full of ammunition and hand loaded six cartridges into the revolver, spinning the six-shooter and listening to it whiz before pouring a handful of spares into various pockets on her person. "I take it this is special ammunition?" she asked. "And not just what the box says?"

"They've been enchanted," Belldandy replied. "There is a... spell that certain Aesir are taught for such times as this. When we are on another plane not our own and do not have our standard weapons available to us."

"Similar to how you tracked _Cholo_ -Pennywise to the storage yard?" Debra asked.

" _Cholo..."_ Belldandy stared at Debra, then shook her head, as if to rid herself over the mortal's odd term for Hagall. "Yes, I suppose. In a sense." She hesitated. "It is a Valkyrie spell. I learned it in my youth from a previous mentor, once upon a time. It is a spell that changes the composition of the weapon itself. It... brings the weapon to the 'tenth dimension', in a sense, where it might pierce the flesh of demons and gods alike, rather than never touch them as your weapons would here In the third dimension."

"That sounds entirely too complicated for me to follow," Keiichi muttered. "In layman's terms, this will allow us to shoot Hagall, right?"

"Yes," agreed Belldandy."

"Then that's all I need to know." The man sucked in a deep breath. "Let's go. We've wasted enough time. Hagall and Aiko are waiting for us."

XXX

The once-irradiated land beyond the wired fence was once a series of office buildings and housing structures. The majority of them were single story, multi-room buildings whose windows had been punched out and vandalized by vagrants over the ages. The insides of some of the buildings held a sixties-era lime-green coat of paint that hurt to look at with modern eyes. The desks inside were hardwood and thick steel that was now bent and rusted with time's progress. Further past these, off to the west near the coastline, were a series of smaller buildings that at one point may have been vacation homes leased out by a hotel. Barnacles clung to ancient wood, the white paint that once protected them long gone, with a single dock that had collapsed and been cordoned off by yellow warning tape screaming at the dangers of the local area.

Further inland, away from the beach and closer to the fence perimeter, a large, multistory complex stood, its innards gutted long ago by possible sailors or possible vandals. This late in its life, it was difficult to tell. It was towards this that the trio made their way, trekking through underbrush that was in the process of reclaiming the land and splashing through creek water that was surprisingly clear.

Belldandy led the way, and together they walked through what was left of the old, decrepit neighborhood that had at some point been abandoned and left to rot. It was creepy: some areas still had rusted remains of cars from the fifties in their driveways, and others held the rusted skeletons of steel bikes, so red and ancient that it seemed the slightest touch might cause the entire structure to collapse. Old cribs and older bed frames rested naked and barren near broken windows, and the remains of green glasses and broken ceramic plates lay scattered upon ancient tiled shelves in various kitchens. To Keiichi it reminded him of stories about Chernobyl and how the residents had abandoned everything in their haste to escape. Of Fukushima with its nuclear power plant and how the residents in the city had been forced to evacuate without any time to prepare, and how quiet and _alone_ the three of them were, like survivors in a post-apocalyptic world as they marched towards the facility that supposedly held demons and Aiko.

"This is where Aiko is?" Keiichi's voice was low as they stood in front of the building's entrance.

"No," Belldandy replied. "I haven't been tracking Aiko's aura. I don't have the skills necessary to track her down, as her aura is of the Third and is too faint for me to follow. This is where the thickest mix of demonic aura has led us."

"Wait, seriously?" Debra hissed in dismay.

"Yes," Belldandy replied, ignoring the mortal's distress. "If we find Hagall, then reason stands that we shall find Aiko as well. Let's continue."

Keiichi flipped up the safety, moving the tiny lever to BURST on his rifle. "Let's go then."

The building at one point looked like it had been some kind of government facility. Large WARNING signs, the paint peeling and the letters worn off, still adorned some of the heavy metal doors on the first floor. Where dirt had not come to cover the ground, there were indentations in the floor and light spaces that once might have been areas where desks, tables and cabinets had sat, as well as a variety of doors rusted shut so tightly that Keiichi could not force them open. On the northwest corner was a tiled stairwell whose insides were black other than a pinprick of light that spoke of the next floor. Keiichi found an elevator shaft with no elevator on the west hallway. On the opposite end of that same hallway was a large door with the words FIRE DOOR stenciled in red, and it was here that Belldandy stopped. "The aura goes through here," she announced, and touched the door.

It fell forward at her touch, crashing to the ground with a solid metal _screech_ that left Keiichi's ears ringing. Debra yelped, startled by the sound, and the two mortals stared at the Norn in shock. Belldandy paid neither of them any mind, sticking her head into the darkness of the hidden stairwell within and looking around. "The aura goes down," she announced, her voice echoing against the tile walls.

"Of course it does," Debra griped. "It wouldn't be an evil demonic plot from hell if it was up in the sunlight."

"You'd rather be discharging a weapon out in the open on an unstable platform that's who knows how far above ground?" Keiichi countered. "The third floor of this place looked ready to collapse from the outside. I'll take my chances underground."

"Do we even have a flashlight?"

"We've got Belldandy."

"So a goddess Swiss army knife then," Debra muttered, and as if to prove her point a bright orb of light burst into existence in Belldandy's left hand.

"Let's go," Belldandy called impatiently. She tossed the orb of light into the stairwell, where it hung suspended seven feet in the air, illuminating the row of stairs as easily as if the lights were still on inside.

Keiichi shot Debra a smug look.

Debra stared back, baffled. "What?"

"Let's _go!"_ Belldandy called again, and disappeared inside the stairwell. The globe of light followed her obediently.

"When all this is over," said Debra as she fell in line behind Keiichi. "I think I'm going to make a request to forget I ever did this. Otherwise, this shit is going to haunt me for the rest of my life."

Keiichi held his silence.

The two of them followed after Belldandy, carefully picking their way down steps littered with broken tile and more broken glass. The air smelled stale and old when they reached the bottom. Large flocks of dust specks danced in the light of Belldandy's magic orb, where Keiichi sneezed once, twice, three times in huge roars, the sound echoing in the room.

"Well, if they didn't know we were here before, they sure do now," Debra muttered, looking past Keiichi and to the door that led to the basement floor. Like the other fire doors, this one was another heavy, full-steel beast, only this one had at some point been locked shut; a large steel lock at least an inch thick ran through a deadbolt located just above the handle. Rust had devoured the chrome from the steel, yet it still looked thick enough to withstand any kind of mortal abuse.

Belldandy touched it, and the deadbolt and all the steel attached to it fell clattering to the floor.

The Norn swung the door open, and the trio walked inside the basement floor of the abandoned facility.

And it was then, of course, as the group of three spread out and attempted to gain their bearings in this underground floor with its dirty tile and moldy walls that of course, the light went out.

It shouldn't have mattered.

Not for the group present, secure in their position as they were with a goddess on their side.

At least not until Belldandy uttered one. Single. Word.

One single word that gripped the hearts of those present.

A familiar word, known throughout the English language and whose meaning spanned innumerable definitions.

"Fuck."

And Keiichi and Debra became afraid.

* * *

 **A/N: Next chapter we get nasty.**

* * *

 _Comments of a Madwoman: In typical Camadera fashion, I went into the weeds and never made it to the anticipated action I was gunning for. We'll make up for it in the next chapter._


	48. Chapter 48 - Contra Timorous

-48-

There is something innately wretched about darkness.

Something horrible about its vast, eternal nothingness, something terrifying about its insurmountable unknown and how its presence can haunt every corner and every aspect of one's life. It was impenetrable, the darkness; like a yawning void waiting to gobble up the unsuspecting; like a black hole swallowing a star. It was silent. A stealthy, sleek predator that lies in wait: both there and not at once, housing together those things both real and imagined and nothing but dust in the same moment of time, where Schrödinger's Cat was both alive and dead, about to kill and about to flee, about to breathe and about to suffocate, as in that moment of Unknown, everything was possible. The darkness housed the monster under the bed and the boogeyman in the closet right alongside dirty clothes and misplaced toys. It housed the bum in the street, the mugger in the alley, the murderer with a gentleman's smile and the rapist drunk or high out of his (her) mind right alongside the food cart, the trashcans, the cat chasing mice and the forgotten runaway seeking shelter from the rain. It was all those things and none of those things all in the same unforgettable moment, for the darkness, with its great unknown housed the one thing Man had discovered since the dawn of time: Possibility.

And oh... there was _endless_ possibility in the darkness Belldandy, Keiichi, and Debra found themselves in. It was a complete darkness; an abyss of the sort that left children with thoughts of the boogeyman and adults with fears of burglars and murderers in their own home. It was an expansive darkness, a deep void of _nothing_ that gave no hint as to what surrounded them nor even the distance to the door ( _and in that moment, that single moment in time and space, was there really a door? It could be miles away by now if it still existed, and if it did, who could say if it would open, or if it was not in reality the yawning maw of a beast brought to life, ready and waiting to swallow them up in a single gulp.)_

It was quiet too. So quiet. That same kind of quiet that was so still, so silent that it left a man wondering if he'd lost his hearing along with his sight. But Belldandy could still hear Keiichi's pounding heart, so loud as to be right next to her ear and she could just as easily make out Debra's breath, rasping now with a frightened, almost hysterical edge to it that did not fill the goddess with assurance. She could hear her own breath, hear her own heart hammering in her ears and her blood pounding in her skull, and ( _there are scratching noises in the darkness like a giant spider, like a giant, chittering spider and it's not a friendly spider, not like Verdita or Kashi-chan but something else, something worse and-)_ the silence around her was heavy and still.

 _There's something in here with us._ Holy Bell whispered; Belldandy's own voice reflected back to her from the depths of her soul. _We aren't alone in here._ But was there really? _Of course there is!_ Holy Bell cried. _Our magic went out! Even now it will not respond to our call-there is no light, no source of light to guide us. That means someone is actively combatting our attempts to illuminate our surroundings!_ But they were _alone_. There was no sound to hint that something else was with them ( _the chittering though-)_ no attacks for which they needed to retaliate ( _but the light-)._ Nothing, _nothing_ , to hint at the fact that someone else, some _thing_ else, dwelt with the two mortals and one goddess in the deep, dark, room.

She felt something back into her and almost screamed, stopped only by the sound of Keiichi's voice, "Bell, is that you?"

"It's me." Belldandy groped behind her and grabbed an arm.

"That's _me_ ," said Debra. "But thanks. Glad to know you care."

"Can you cast that light spell again?" Keiichi asked. "Not that I'm afraid of the dark but... if we get attacked, I'd like to know what I'm aiming at."

"I'm trying," Belldandy replied. "Nothing is happening."

"Wonderful," Debra muttered. "Just what we-" The woman stopped mid-sentence, and in the darkness Belldandy looked in the direction she thought she had heard her voice from, wondering why she'd fallen silent. "You guys heard that, right?" The detective asked.

"Heard what?" Keiichi asked.

"I don't-" Another pause. "There it was again."

"I don't hear anything," Belldandy said. _But did she really? Wasn't there something clattering in the darkness? Something with clawed toes going 'clack clack clack' against the tile? Or was that the chittering of some monstrous creature with a chitin carapace? Surely her mind wasn't playing tricks on her, right?_

"I don't hear anything either," Keiichi grunted.

"Keiichi, you're on your way to fifty percent disability pay with your tinnitus alone when you retire," Debra groused. "I consider it a miracle you can hear anything we say at all right now."

"Hey, I resent that remark."

"You resemble that remark," Debra grumbled.

"What?"

"My point, exactly." Debra sucked in a loud, noisy breath. In a louder voice she announced, "So... what now?"

Belldandy never had the chance to answer her. Not before something slammed into her from behind. Not Debra, not Keiichi, but something ( _large and chittering and it was crawling on her)_ else. She fell to the ground with a shout, and vaguely heard Keiichi and Debra crying out in similar dismay. The Norn tried to rise, only to feel herself pressed back down to the floor as a weight settled on top of her. She grunted, more irritated than afraid, and tried to shake it off her back.

And then she felt a hand settle on top of hers. " _Hey my little_ Gaijin- _flower, it's been a while, hasn't it?"_ A voice whispered in her ear ( _in her head)_ , and Belldandy froze. _"I missed you, Babe,"_ Aoshima breathed in her ear, and she felt her heart skip a beat. She could feel that breath. She could _smell_ that breath. That familiar stink of expensive French cologne and Cuban cigars. _"Where've you been? I've been so... lonely since you left._ She could feel another hand now. Another hand, hard and rough, connected to an arm that wrapped around her waist. She could feel it... it was so real, and she could _feel_ it, working its way under her shirt and to her bra, slipping past the thin fabric and squeezing a breast hard enough to hurt, hard enough to make lights explode behind her head.

" _Sing for me, Babe."_ She felt his hand slide to the other breast, heard her own sharp draw of breath as he pinched the nipple, but denied him the cry he was seeking.

 _He's not real. He can't be real, he can't be here, not here, there are nothing but demons here it's not him it can't be him-_ Her mind began to race as panic seized her heart. Terror stiffened her muscles, and she could feel Holy Bell flailing in her chest even as that same hand, that same _goddamned hand_ \- his left hand, he always favored his fucking _left hand_ \- released her breast and slipped out of her shirt.

" _I've missed our time together, you know,"_ the phantom continued, and she thought she heard the jingle of a belt buckle- another dreadful sound that had haunted her ten years of life with him. _"You remember those times, don't you? Just you... me... and a camera, with the boys watching on the other end. You always used to enjoy that, didn't you? When I made you scream for them?_ In the darkness, filled with its endless possibility, her senses seemed heightened, and in her mind's eye she saw his face: Toshiyuki, leering as he held her down with one hand, unzipped his fly with the other, and-

And a hand was back at her waist, only this time it moved down, moved to her pants and undid the button. She felt the pants loosen, felt the zipper slide down and there was a pressure on her underpants. And then something cool. Something cool and cold like ice cubes, like a corpse's hand, sliding into her underwear and down further still- _"Scream for me."_ Aoshima's voice was right in her ear, and she could feel his cheek against her own as he pressed his weight down on her. _"Just you, me, and your little fuckboy with his hoe. Scream for me. Give 'em a show. You think they can't see? Oh, Bitch, why do you think they're so quiet?"_

 _Carrie, it isn't real he's not here, he_ can't _be here because Urd took care of him, remember? Remember?_ Holy Bell was shrieking so loudly that even if Keiichi and Debra were making noise, her angel and Aoshima's ghost drowned them both out.

" _Bitch, I've always been here. You just forgot about me, that's all."_ There was a cruel hint of laughter in Aoshima's voice. " _Don't you remember? You belong to_ me. _Mind, body, and soul. And your Master just made an order._ Scream."

"No," Belldandy whispered.

" _What was that? Did I hear_ defiance _right there?"_ She could feel his fingers- and she was certain now, those were indeed the cold, dead, fingers of a corpse, rub against her vulva. They felt stiff. Stiff and bony and mummified, and that brought with it a new image in her mind: one of Aoshima, dried and wrinkled and emaciated, his skin flaking away and crinkling like tissue paper, leaving sores underneath that did not bleed but were instead dried and salted like jerky. _"Oh babe... I never told you this, but that shit turns me_ on. _I fucking love it when they think they can fight."_ Laugher. Dry and raspy, and she thought she could feel dust strike her cheek from where he brought up pieces of his dried lungs. " _Now_ scream. _"_

She gritted her teeth but refused to open her mouth. She refused to give him the satisfaction, here in the dark where the others would hear, where Aoshima would _win_ when she'd come so far.

" _Come so far? Bitch, who you telling?"_ Aoshima cackled. _"Look at you, on your hands and knees like a wanton slut, trembling like you want it with my fingers at your hole. You haven't done shit. Stop fooling yourself. You'd be fighting me if you didn't want it. Fuck, you'd be fighting me even if you_ did, _'cause that's just the kind of lover you are. He knows, you know. That other guy. He knows because you killed him. Just like you killed me._

 _Who's really the monster here?"_

 _No no no nonononononono-_

 _Don't listen to him! Don't listen to his lies, Carrie! Don't listen to him!"_

" _Scream!"_ She felt something penetrate her, cold and sharp and unyielding like an icepick-

And then Debra Johansson, Blessed Be Her Name, tripped over the Goddess Belldandy with a fatal scream, "Don't take another fucking step!" She howled. " _Don't fucking touch me Ja-"_ The woman fell atop Belldandy, and it was this combination along with the explosive discharge of a revolver that ended the darkness and its wretched, endless possibilities.

The report was deafening in the enclosed space. An explosion of such intensity that Belldandy felt the reverberation from the floor into the depths of her bones, with a ricochet that seemed to _zing_ from all directions at once. Her ears rang with such a shrill clamor that for a moment the Norn feared she'd gone deaf. However, it silenced Aoshima's voice as well, and she found she could almost accept her new state of hearing loss if it meant freedom from the man and his cruel words.

And it ended the darkness.

Somehow, by some way, _the gunshot ended the darkness._

All at once light flooded the area; the combined light of not two illumination pells but five, all of such magnitude that it was almost blinding to behold. Their rays chased away the darkness as though it were a living thing, and perhaps, in that all-encompassing moment of blackness and silence that had been what it was: Alive and made real by the fears of the mind, brought into tangibility by the demon that controlled it, a demon that, even now, was slinking off into a patch of shadows born from a partially collapsed ceiling on the far-edge of the empty room.

She was small. Dwarfed somehow by the light of Belldandy's magic, clutching the sides of her head with an expression of agony engraved in every line and feature of her face. She collapsed in the shadows, as though seeking shelter from the light, but a second look showed the demon needn't bother; her eyes were blank; her corneas so milky the irises beneath could not be distinguished from the sclera. Her palms were red, and it took Belldandy a moment to realize it was blood dripping from her hands. Blood from her _ears_ , she saw, and the demon- not Hagall but some other woman- took her hands away in favor of retreating.

Belldandy sat up. Her shirt was dark with sweat, but showed no signs of being tampered with, her pants still held tight against her hips with the fly still up. A hallucination then. Her mind playing tricks on her in the darkness. The goddess shuddered. She could still feel his lingering touch though. Still smell the undercurrents of expensive cologne and cigars and sweat and ( _rot and dust and degradation)_ feel his touch. _You're fine, Carrie,_ Holy Bell whispered. _Breathe. Deep, long breaths. You're fine. He's gone. We let our fears get the better of us. He's gone._

The Norn glanced to the woman who'd rather unceremoniously ended the darkness. Debra looked shaken, but otherwise, similar to Belldandy, unharmed. The revolver lay a scant inch from where she'd fallen, and the detective was heaving wildly, sucking in large, gulping breaths of air. Her attention lay not with the demon that had so stolen the illumination of Belldandy's lights but with _Keiichi_ ,brown eyes large, frightened, and almost childlike in their raw terror. Her left hand clutched at her shirt, as if willing her heart to calm itself. The woman shifted her wild gaze to the Norn. In it was painted the same frightened look that was on Belldandy's face, though the goddess was certain Debra Johansson did not even know a man like Aoshima Toshiyuki existed. _You saw it too, didn't you?_ that look said. _Something so awful and frightening it can't be spoken of in the light._

Belldandy tore her eyes away, having no desire to reveal to the detective that yes, that was _exactly_ what had happened and that she too, had fallen victim to it. A nightmare. A waking _nightmare_ made real by the expansive darkness that had so consumed them.

She looked instead at Keiichi and found him rising to his feet, his expression grave, angry, and upset. His eyes were bright with tears that left Belldandy guessing at what might have haunted him, and it was enough to rile her forgotten anger once more.

The goddess picked herself up, and with two armed and upset mortals- two armed and _dangerous_ mortals at her back, the Norn advanced. The demon, the woman, rested propped up behind the wall of debris she'd hidden behind, the angle of the fallen ceiling just enough to hide her small frame from sight. But that was all it did. The woman appeared too wounded, in too much agony, to do much aside from clutch at her injured ears and pant. She did not react to the trio's approach, nor seemed aware of their presence as Belldandy stopped in front of her.

She was a pathetic sight when seen up close. Here, the demon's disability was barren and naked for them all to observe, and made all the worse by the blood still trickling from her ears. Her brown hair was painted and matted with the blood of her injury, and tears trickled down her cheeks as she fought through her distress. _Ruptured eardrums_? Belldandy wondered, and almost pitied the demon. Blind _and_ deaf. A terrible fate for a demon of the _Falkin_ variety. With not just one but _two_ major senses taken out, she would be lucky to last the rest of the day before something else came and disposed of her.

" _But you_ don't _pity her, do you."_ Aoshima's taunting voice sent shivers down her spine, and with it came a thrill of rage as the world took on a red hue. _"Look at you, as cruel as they come. She doesn't even know you're standing right in front of her. What a useless wretch."_ The edge of red lasted a moment- a brief second if that- but was enough to spur the goddess into action. She knelt and grabbed the demon by her extravagant blouse (Niflheim's finest, Belldandy was certain). The unknown woman released a peal of terrified shrieks that sounded more akin to an injured animal than a woman. The woman's hands wrapped around Belldandy's arm, and a line of rapid, terrified _Falken_ chattered uselessly from the demon's lips. The words meant nothing to Belldandy; she'd learned a word or two here and there from Urd, but never enough to understand full sentences, never enough to follow what could only amount to _begging_ from the demon she held.

 _Carrie... Belldandy..._ Holy Bell warned. _She's helpless. She can't even answer your questions right now._

 _She hurt me,_ Belldandy told her angel. _She brought... she brought_ him _back._

 _And his voice is still with us, I know._ Holy Bell's voice was soothing, understanding, _but this isn't the way. Don't prove Aoshima right, Belldandy. Set her back down. She's been through enough. She's blind_ and _deaf and may be like that the rest of her life. Be kind, Belldandy._

The angel's words struck a chord in the goddess, and for a moment Belldandy stood frozen, staring down at the raving demon trying to pry herself free from the Norn's grip. It was a weak attempt. _Because she's a weak demon_ , Belldandy thought. _All she's good at is stealing light, isn't it? Bringing everyone down to her level and then letting the darkness do the rest. That's all she can do, isn't it?"_ There was no hidden strength in the demon's hands. No magic at her fingertips about to manifest. Just the panicked wailing of a scared and crippled demon.

" _And you're her tormenter, aren't you?"_ Aoshima laughed, and Belldandy felt sick. " _Behold! The Great and Terrible Goddess Belldandy, Scourge of the Crippled and Monster of the Handicapped, is that it?"_

She placed the demon back on the ground. The demon's wails fell into painful whimpers, and grimacing, Belldandy forced herself to turn away.

 _Go fuck an iron maiden, Aoshima,_ Holy Bell whispered. Aoshima said nothing back.

Debra was watching her with wide eyes. "You know, just for a moment," she said. "I thought you were going to kill her."

Belldandy said nothing, instead pressing past Debra in favor of examining the rest of the room. "What do we do with her?" Keiichi dropped in beside her, his voice uncharacteristically rough. Hard, almost.

"We leave her," Belldandy replied. "There is nothing we can do that her own people will not do in excess. _Falkin_ demons are known for nothing if not their concept of _Yosuga._ " She paused, then shook her head. "No... forgive me, that is not the correct word. I do not know if there is a proper word to describe the _Falkin_ philosophy of 'the strongest survive'."

Keiichi said nothing, and Belldandy was uncertain if she was happy or not for his silence. They continued their search of the room in silence, leaving Debra with the fallen demon- little more than a crippled woman whom they may never know the name of- while navigating the perimeter of the room, Keiichi eyeing the walls for any clues on how to proceed and Belldandy trying to find some hint as to where the aura she'd been tracking might lead them next. It was hard. The room was saturated with demonic energy after the demon's blanket attack, and it almost erased the trail from her sight. They found one shadowy corner with a couple of old, ten-pound weights in a corner that looked to have rusted through. They passed pieces of broken metal springs and rubber-wrapped steel beams as they continued their investigation, hinting that the room may have been a gym in some past lifetime.

A section of dust and mold on the far south side revealed a door that had escaped their initial notice, and here Belldandy paused. She narrowed her eyes, angled her head, and glared at it. "I _think_ the trail leads through here?" She sounded uncertain.

"I didn't see any other doors aside from the one we came through," Keiichi said. "Not unless Hagall used that fallen chunk of ceiling as another staircase to the floor above."

"No... I think not..." Belldandy looked back at the fallen section. Her eyes briefly traveled across Debra's kneeling form. The detective had ripped off portions of the demon's overcoat and had pressed the two wads of cloth to the woman's ears. In the silence of the room, only the demon's whimpering was audible, and a new emotion- that of grief - had come to mingle and dance with the pain on the demon's face.

Keiichi followed her gaze and was silent as well for a moment. Then he spoke. "I'm glad you didn't hurt her, Bell." A hand came to rest on the Norn's shoulder, and despite herself Belldandy jumped. "There's a difference between combat and crimes, and I'll admit, for a moment there I was afraid you wouldn't be able to tell where that line lay." He fell quiet once more. Then, in a softer whisper, said, "I'm glad I was wrong."

The man's hand slid off Belldandy's shoulder, and Keiichi moved towards the fallen rubble, with its demon and detective. He tapped Debra's shoulder, then gestured to Belldandy and the newly-discovered path. The woman nodded at him, then grabbed the demon's hands and pressed the torn cloths into her palms. She guided the demon's palms to her ears and pressed them firmly against the ear canals. "Hold them there," Debra said, and her voice seemed loud and disruptive in the silence of the room. Belldandy wondered why she was wasting her breath. It was doubtful the demon heard her. "Keep them there until help comes for you, okay?" She patted the demon's shoulders, as though in reassurance, then stood and followed Keiichi back to Belldandy.

"Is it safe to leave her here alone like this?" Debra asked as Keiichi cleared away dust and mold from the door's threshold.

"We can't take her with us," Keiichi said, not bothering to look back at her.

"If you're so concerned for her, you can always stay," Belldandy challenged, and was taken aback when, rather than throw back some retort, the detective paused and looked back over her shoulder as if considering the prospect.

"I..." She stared back at the demon, who'd curled up against the debris into a tiny ball of misery. "I don't like it," she said. "I mean... she's so... _helpless_ like this. What if she gets attacked?"

"By who?" Keiichi asked. "Not us, and we're the people she was going up against, remember?"

"Yeah..." The woman lapsed into silence. "When we're done with Cholo-Lady... can we come back for her?" She looked at Belldandy. Not Keiichi but the Norn herself. "Is there someone we can turn her in to who'll be able to take care of her? Some kind of... authority? Maybe some kind of medical institute?" She paused, as if in consideration of her own words. "Do... demons and gods even have that sort of thing? We can't just _leave_ her here."

"Not on this plane of existence," Belldandy replied, but she understood the detective's reasoning. It'd be irresponsible to merely... _leave_ the demon as she was, especially with her already crippled. Her and... _don't forget what happened to Urd,_ a voice reminded. _You don't know what happened. An investigation will be conducted to find out what happened to Urd and Lind. Especially if Urd was involved. This could lead to an interdimensional investigation if Urd is truly gone._

Belldandy shivered then, and this time when she gazed back at the nameless demon it was with real pity. While she'd never met the Daimakaicho, she'd heard stories. Perhaps, in some horrid kind of way, they'd provided the blind demon a form of mercy by robbing her of her hearing. It'd be one less way the Daimakaicho's interrogators would be able to harm her, if what the stories said of their law-enforcement branch were true. And with the Daimakaicho's _daughter_ no less...

"We'll come back for her," Belldandy decided. "She should be fine here alone. So long as she remains where she is, I doubt there is much in here that can hurt her. Once Hagall has been dealt with, we shall take her with us and figure out where to go from there."

She looked back at Debra, who appeared relieved by the Norn's verdict- another confusing act, if Belldandy was to judge.

"Come on then," Keiichi said. "Let's not waste any more time. I think I found where the door handle used to be." The man stared at the door, then took one step back and kicked the door near an old, rusted lock with a grunt. His foot slammed into the door hard enough to produce an echo, and Belldandy was surprised when the door flew open before them all, squealing on rusted hinges before colliding with the wall and rebounding back towards them. There was light inside, though the source wasn't electric and was far enough away as to only provide a dim illumination. Keiichi looked at Belldandy. "It looks like this one can see."

Belldandy marched through the door. "Then let's not keep them waiting any longer." Debra followed after her, and Keiichi, with a final glance back at the fallen demon, brought up the rear, covering their exit.

XXX

Her ears hurt.

Oh Nidhogg how her ears hurt. It was almost unbearable. The pain was so great that all she could do was suck in one ragged breath after another, one after another. And she couldn't even _hear_ it.

It left her scared.

She knew the darkness. Had come to know it as her friend since she'd been old enough to understand that her blindness was not 'normal' for a demon. It had never bothered her, and had in fact helped her in more ways than she could begin to name. People feared the darkness, after all, and held no desire to understand it like herself. So she'd used it, and as it was her closest friend, it had allowed her to use it, to manipulate it to her will in order to gain an advantage over her opponents.

By the Great Serpent, she was in so much _pain_.

But those three... that mortal with her noise-maker... what did they call them again? Gaahhhn... Gun! A gun, that was what it was. The woman with the gun. The discharge, the explosion, and oh... fuck, why did it hurt so much?

She breathed deep, willing the pain to lessen, willing her ears to _hear_ and knowing it was a futile attempt. Her ears had always been sensitive to sound. They allowed her to 'see' in the same manner her eyes did not, and it was what had painted the scene of Darkness, her old friend, wrapping itself around the odd trio of two mortals and a god and scaring them into submission.

But that discharge... that _fucking_ discharge, and now even _that_ was lost to her. No sight, which had never bothered her. But no _sound_... just... just the _feel_ of her pulse through her veins. Just the _feel_ of blood leaking from her poor, screaming ears, and by Nidhogg, was this what it like for those robbed of a sight they'd always had? This feeling of fear? Of desperation?

 _I don't want to be alone,_ she thought. _Not like this._ Who was to say she was safe like this?

And that woman... she hadn't heard her voice, but she recognized the sharp, metallic tang of gunpowder that clung to her after the discharge. She'd shown her... kindness _. Compassion_. Though Halval had gone out of her way to torture them, to stop their progress, to terrify them in the way only true darkness and the illusions their own minds conjured up... that mortal had shown her compassion where no one else, not her family who'd left her to flail on her own, not the Legion which left her to her own devices and who were perhaps nervous of her affiliation with the darkness, had ever shown her.

She'd heard rumors of such strange events from mortals before, but never experienced them herself. Mortals were mad, after all. Capable of cruelty one moment and kindness the next, depending on the mood that fit them, and despite everything else, despite all she'd been through, she found herself regretful when that comforting presence... that... _kindness_ had left her.

 _Please come back,_ she thought. _Please don't leave me here alone._ Anything was better than... _this._

 _I would know you if you would let me,_ she thought. _I would abandon this Legion if you would help me like before, if you would bring me my hearing back._ And she would too. A moment of pain and a moment of kindness. That was all it had taken to sway her allegiance to Legion, which had always been weak. They'd accepted her only because of her power in stealing the light, and she, in her desperation to be of value, had joined in order to belong.

She felt the ground vibrate beneath her. Once, twice, three times... she counted the different vibrations, holding her breath in a vain effort to be silent. Ten. Ten new vibrations. Ten new _people_ who'd come from the same place the Gun-Woman and her kindness had first come from.

 _You know who that is,_ some part of her whispered, and felt a fresh spring of despair emerge in her heart. Yes. She did indeed know who those were, for she had been told horror stories of them in her younger days as a pup. " _The Wilder are coming for you."_ The voice of her mother, of her father, their voices in low whispers to provoke a daunting atmosphere, rose in her mind. " _They come for all little children who are bad boys and girls. They come with long claws. They come with sharp teeth. They come with deadly wit, and the knowledge of how to keep their meals alive for as long as possible."_ Her parent's voice had always scared her siblings in her childhood, but Halval had never felt that same fear. Perhaps because she was blind, and lacked the imagination that came with those words. Now though...

Now her imagination was sprung anew, a renaissance of monsters and ogres that came in the darkest of days and were so quiet they could walk unheard through a crypt. And indeed, they were quiet. Not just because she was deaf but because they were light-footed. She had to strain to feel their footsteps, and it was like attempting to feel a ghost; little more than a gentle breeze, almost indiscernible from the air around her. _Come back for me,_ she projected back to the Gun-Woman. _Don't let them take me away, please! I'll pledge my loyalty to you. I'll fight for you. I'll fight against Legion, just don't leave me here for the Wilder!_

She could smell them now. Ten different scents from ten different tribes. The _Damkianna's_ pets then. Of course. Who else _but_ the _Damkianna's_ pets would be sent for her. _"They come for all little children who are bad boys and girls,"_ the conjoined voice of her parents continued. _"And you've been a very bad little girl, haven't you, Halval? They're here for_ you _at the_ Damkianna's _instructions, and you know what they'll do? A little nibble here, a little chew there, just enough to taste you. Then they'll wrap you up and haul you away, and whenever one of them is hungry... a little bit of the fingers, a little bit of the toes, until they're all gone. Then they'll chew on your arms and on your legs, going for the meaty bits, going for the fatty bits, but leaving the veins whole and intact so you don't bleed to death. They like their meat alive, remember? They like their meat chewy, and fear stiffens the meat. Gives it a special, special flavor that only Wilder can enjoy, and enjoy it they will, until they no longer can. Then they'll drag what's left of you before_ Damkianna _Hild, and you'll still be alive, and you'll tell her whatever she wants to know because at that point, it's not about living. At that point, it's about dying, so that you can escape the nightmare of the Wilder._

 _Please don't leave me with them._

They were around her now. Staring down at her, she was certain. Perhaps licking their lips in anticipation.

 _Please come back._

She felt a pair of hands on her. Felt them pry her hands from her ears and felt the cloth that was catching the blood fall from her hands. She struggled and felt more hands come down on her, felt them wrench her arms up over her head, felt hot, moist air glide across her fingers.

 _Please no._

She felt something slice into the tips of her pointer fingers. Felt fire rise from the fingers and consume her hands as the pain traveled up her arm and to her brain.

She felt herself scream.

She felt the cloth that had been used to cover her ears- _it tastes like blood it tastes like blood it's my blood oh Nidhogg please help me-_ stuffed harshly into her mouth, silencing her cries. _Oh please oh please oh please oh please oh plea-_

XXX

Debra froze as a scream rose from the room they'd just come from. "Fuck!" she swore. "That was-" Abruptly, the scream was cut off, and an icy hand of fear, of _worry_ gripped the detective's heart. "We need to go back for her." She turned back down the hallway they'd been walking down, the dim light that illuminated it outside of Belldandy's magic emanating from the farthest door at the end.

Belldandy grabbed her. "Wait," she hissed.

"Wait? _Wait_? Wait for _what_?!" The detective looked back at the goddess incredulously, and then over to Keiichi, who was looking back down the hallway as well. The man's lips were pressed in a thin line, where dancing shadows played games across his face, making the SEAL look malevolent one moment, benign the next.

"Listen," Keiichi whispered.

But there was nothing to listen to. Nothing but _silence_.

"Whatever struck her is already finished," Belldandy whispered. "They're already gone."

"Gone?" Debra whispered. "Not dead? _Gone_?" She looked back at the Norn. "How can you be sure?"

"Whoever they were wouldn't have killed her," Belldandy replied. "The Doublet System would not allow it."

"The what?"

"The Doublet System," Belldandy repeated. "It is... there is a ceremony all demons and gods must go through. A safeguard to prevent massive murders on either side of the fence."

"What do you mean?" Keiichi asked.

The goddess hesitated, then licked her lips before continuing. "Our souls are joined with a demon whose identity is anonymous," she explained. "As a means to prevent us from killing demons, and to prevent demons from killing gods. Should a god die, the anonymous demon connected to them will perish as well. Should a demon die, the same will hold true."

 _Except whoever went for the blind demon wasn't a god,_ Debra thought to herself. _It was one of the Suits. One of those... those demons that Belldandy sensed earlier. The ones with Urd._ "And does that hold true for demons going for demons?" She inquired.

Belldandy looked at her strangely. "No... not generally," she said. "It would cause too much of an uproar between our two sides if that were to happen.

"Can you sense any other gods?"

Belldandy hesitated, looking back down the hallway. "No," she said. "I can only sense demonic energy."

"So you're saying that there is no way another god could be down here with us," Debra continued. "It _has_ to be another demon, and you're certain that they didn't kill that blind woman because of this... doublet system."

"Yes," Belldandy said, frowning at Debra. "Is that so hard to understand?"

"It is," Debra replied, and felt her heart begin to hammer in her chest.

"Why is that?" Belldandy asked.

"Because you want to kill Hagall," Debra accused. _Here we go..._ "Which means, if I'm to understand this correctly, you are also willing to risk the life of an innocent bystander by murdering this person." She saw Belldandy's eyes widen as the dots were connected in the Norn's eyes, and added the final nail to the coffin, praying it wouldn't get _her_ killed.

"Murdering Hagall isn't going to bring Urd back, Belldandy."

She saw the Norn's eyes narrow in anger, saw the woman's arm spin towards her and thought, _I'm going to die._ She felt something grab her collar and grunted as an undefinable _force_ slammed her into the wall. Stars exploded in her head, and her ears, just recovered from their half-deaf state after the gun discharge, began to ring a fresh, high din. Somewhere beneath the din she thought she heard Keiichi cry out, but it could have just as easily been her imagination. The detective blinked rapidly, trying to clear the lights in her eyes, and when they began to fade Debra sucked in a gasp. _It's a tiger._ She thought madly, and this time the stars that erupted in her vision were spawned by panic. _Oh god, I'm pinned against the wall by Byakko._

Growing up side-by-side with the first generation of Morisato children to live in the United States had been an interesting childhood for Debra Johansson. One of exotic words and exotic foods. A strange sense of humor and unusual adventures through ghetto neighborhoods. Of spooky sleepovers and above all, _stories_. Stories of foreign islands that seemed distant and magical, like the undying Lands of Valinor from the _Lord of the Rings,_ of the Summer Lands that were said to never grow cold. Listening to tales of Izanagi and Izanami, and the menacing, eight-headed serpent Orochi ( _not Urd, don't forget)._ Of brave little Momtarou, the Little Peach Boy who defeated an _oni_ and Yuko-chan, the blind girl who saved her village with a _damura_ doll. Stories of the Sun, Amaterasu, born from Izanagi's right eye and who hid in a cave after a dispute with her brother, Susano-o, the god of storms (born when Izanagi cleaned his nose, what a hoot!), and how it was only through Ama-no-Izume stripping down and dancing, of the laughter of the watching gods, that sparked the Sun's curiosity enough to peek out from her cave and drag her out into the world again.

Of the Four Heavenly Beasts (their tales ranging all over Asia, though Keima would claim they originated in Japan) that represented everything from the four directions to the four seasons. The majestic Azure Dragon of the East and Spring (Seiryu), the lithe Vermillion Bird or Pheonix of the South and Summer (Suzaku), the sturdy Black Turtle of the North and Winter (Genbu), and the tiger. The great white tiger of the West and Autumn and _wind_. Byakko.

And it was Byakko who pinned her to the wall now. Byakko, with her blazing blue eyes and snarling fangs. Byakko, made of a cold autumn breeze and the moving clouds in the sky. Byakko, whose stripes were the shades of trees and whose claws could pierce like frigid morning frost, with fangs as long as her forearms and whose breath steamed-or cooled, Debra wasn't sure-the air.

Byakko, whose fur was matted and covered in tar, a shadow of her former glory.

She saw it only for a moment: black poison that mixed and matted the once great, white coat into messy gray clumps. Black tar that looked like it had started to dry and flake off in some areas, but looked wet and shiny and new in other areas. Black tar that, even as Debra watched, seemed to reach up with a will of its own and cling to more fur, and Debra couldn't help but think to herself, _It's poison. It's a living poison and it's consuming her. It's killing her and she doesn't even_ know _it._

And then Byakko vanished, replaced by Belldandy in all her fury once more. "And what," the Norn hissed, "would you know of it?"

All at once the reality of Debra's situation came sweeping back to her-she was pinned against a wall by a goddess who looked very willing and very capable of killing her, and she'd just provoked the woman into violence. _Deescalate it!_ Some piece of her screamed, _Keiichi isn't going to be able to do fuck-all against her like this, deescalate the situation before she rips your head off!_

"I know that you're hurting," Debra said, and fought to keep her voice calm, drawing on all her eight years of law enforcement discipline to keep herself as collected as possible. She didn't want Belldandy to see her fear. At this stage in the game, some piece of Debra was willing to bet her life that if Belldandy- if _Byakko-_ smelled her fear, her life was over. "And I know that Hagall's death won't help that hurt."

Belldandy's lips peeled back in a snarl, her eyes glittering like precious gems in the light and _god, why hadn't she seen it before,_ it was all so _obvious_ now. "And what would _you_ know of loss?" the Norn demanded. "Of pain, of _suffering_?" Her voice rose until she screamed the words out, but Debra refused to wince, refused to so much as blink in light of the goddess's rage. "What do you know of the pain this demon has caused? Of the death she's brought with her, of the sheer _torture_ she's brought on me over the course of a _decade_?! What do _you_ know of the sheer _havoc she's wrought?!"_

"Nothing," Debra said, her voice still calm, still cool, still collected despite the danger of the woman who held her against the wall, whose fist alone could splatter her brains against the moldy plaster she was pinned against. "I admit that I know absolutely nothing about this woman or what she's done against you. However I've seen some things in my life, Belldandy. Maybe not to the same extent as you. Maybe not even to the same extent as Keiichi, but I've seen some things."

She heard a deep rumble from the Norn, a rumble like the angry growl of a tiger ( _she'd been so stupid not to notice it before- she'd been courting death with a fucking_ tiger _since running into Keiichi again)_ yet Belldandy held her silence. Watching. Waiting. An invitation, narrow though it was, to _speak_ , and oh Lordy Debra, it had better be a good one, because if it wasn't, her journey was liable to end right there on the spot. Behind Belldandy, the detective caught a passing glance at Keiichi, scared and uncertain, his hand grabbing hold of the goddess's shoulder as he shouted demands that seemed somehow far off and feeble to the detective. She caught his eye and saw just how terrified he was, thrown into a situation where he needed to choose between his (goddess) girlfriend and his ex-wife.

Debra waved him down, but didn't smile, didn't try and reassure him, because Belldandy was watching her with keen eyes, watching her like a goddamned tiger about to pounce and rip her throat out. She sucked in a deep breath, and spoke, "I've seen a grown man break down crying in front of his daughter when he's trying to explain to a five-year-old how her mother died in a drive-by between two local gangs," she began, "I've seen the blank look of shock on a child rapist's face as he's been hauled into a court room and the dead eyes of his victim as she's told to explain to a judge and jury what happened to her. I've seen the fury of a father who wants nothing more than to murder that same man get thrown into a jail cell to cool off because he plans to make good on his threats, and I've seen the lingering trauma done by that rapist's deeds. I saw what made me want to become a cop, what made me want to help my local community, and let me tell you some of the shit I saw in my rookie year-that year that makes or breaks a would-be officer and either sends them packing or leaves them gunning until retirement. I've seen hate crimes based off race, where one group of men will beat another man to death based off the color of his skin. I've seen hate crimes based off sexual orientation, where a group of college kids threw another off the Golden Gate because he wagged his hips at them.

"I've watched the light go out in the eyes of a gangbanger as I held a bandage to his jugular, where a rival member has flayed him open like a fish. I've seen my fellow officers suffer consecutive gunshot wounds in an effort to protect a life someone else thought wasn't worth a damn, and I've had mothers and fathers and brother and sisters curse me out and call me a pig when I rang their door bell and told them that their sons and daughters and siblings were dead. I've seen life wash out of men's eyes like water in a gutter, and then watched their brother pick up the mantle of their gang life and continue the trend of violence-one life for a life, an eye for an eye, vengeance for their fallen brother, with the rest of their family pleading on deaf ears to let it go, to stop the hate, to move on with that life before it gets thrown behind bars or lost in the bowels of an alley like a bag of trash."

She narrowed her eyes at Belldandy, and with it came an indignant anger; a _justified_ anger, of a woman who'd seen a wheel of death and vengeance with no end and had grown sick of it even as it had jaded her. "I've watched those same men get the same tattoos that marked their brothers, their cousins, their fathers for the same gang, and I've watched them meet their family in prison- not the fucking gangs they claim is their family but their honest-to-god _blood_ in the same penitentiary and for the same crimes of murder, of drug trafficking, of car theft and black-arms deals and rape and robbery, and now here I am, stuck against the wall and looking at you, Belldandy, looking at a _dumbfuck_ goddess and wondering, are you really any different from them? Cause from where I stand I don't fucking see it. I see what I've already seen: a sister who's just lost a sister due to some kind of violent act. A sister who's seeking vengeance under her self-imposed definition of justice, and who's just confessed that she doesn't care who dies with the person she sees that's so wronged her."

Belldandy's lips had pulled back in a snarl now, and Debra could damn-near _feel_ the heat radiating off the goddess. Fine. Let her. From where Debra stood, the woman who held her pressed against the wall was no better than any of the other suspects she'd had to deal with over the years, and the detective had a sneaking suspicion that the Norn needed to hear this, if for no other reason than the sheer look of anger and shock that someone, and fuck it, let's be honest here, not just someone but a fucking _mortal_ , would dare to speak to her in such a manner. "You'll kill and kill and kill if it means getting you to Hagall, isn't that right?" Debra challenged. "Because Hagall is the source of your pain, because Hagall is responsible for your suffering, because Hagall killed Urd? And in the process not only will you kill these demons, these _people_ who work with her, but you'll kill those men and women who are their doubles too? Is that it?" Belldandy was trembling now, not just with rage but with something else too, something Debra had seen on only a handful of different people's faces before, and something that gave the detective hope, gave reason to believe that this one, this _goddess_ might be one of the few people she managed to reach with words and words alone. Someone who might doubt their actions, someone who might question their resolve, someone who might hesitate before pulling the trigger that would end the life of… a mother, a daughter, a sister, a wife, who _knew_ what Hagall had waiting for her back home? Who knew who she was connected to, if Belldandy's definition of a 'doublet' was to be believed?

"This isn't some animal you're planning on slaying, Belldandy." Debra's voice dropped into a low murmur, but one that Belldandy could hear just as well. "This is the life of another _person_ you're considering. I've spoken with the gang-bangers. I've seen the hitmen and the murderers, Belldandy, and let me tell you something of a personal belief of mine: When you kill a person, a little piece of yourself dies with them. A little piece of your conscience, a little piece of your compassion, a little piece of what makes you _good_. It dies, and you don't come to regret it's missing until its already rotting in some dark and decrepit part of your mind, and that rot is a cancer, Belldandy. A tumor that's hard to remove and with a stench that follows you wherever you go."

"Now I don't know all of what Hagall's done to you. I don't know what you've lived through these past ten years, but I can see it on your face right now, clear as day, that it was cruel for you. But you know what? I've seen some good in you too. Maybe that's the real you- the untainted piece of you that draws a man terrified of women to your side and who makes a scared college student laugh and smile and take faith in you like the goddess I've only recently discovered you are. I _know_ there's some good in you because I've seen the way Keiichi looks at you when you aren't being a complete _bitch_ , and I've personally borne witness to some of the amazing feats you can accomplish- the amazing _good_ you can do by cleansing a land of radiation or tracking down a scared, kidnapped girl. There _has_ to be some fucking good in you somewhere, because otherwise Keiichi wouldn't be attracted to you, wouldn't still be behind you right now, scared shitless because you're forcing him into a corner between me and you, and you wouldn't have left that other demon-woman to live with the promise of us coming back to help her.

"Don't let that good die in you because you decided to kill another person today, Belldandy." The detective fell silent, the fight washed out of her now that she'd finished her spiel and her jaw aching from the speech she'd made. With it came fright rekindled, because if something in that long lecture didn't reach the goddess, then Debra doubted anything would, and she was certain that if the words were tossed aside like litter on a highway, then not only would Hagall's life be forfeit, Debra's herself would be in this exact moment.

A strange look overtook the goddess in that moment. Her face slackened, as if all the muscles in her face relaxed at the same time, and for a moment the goddess leaned forward-not so much forcing Debra into the wall as her body relaxing completely for a brief second. And then a whisper. "She's right, Carrie."

The strange incident was done and gone as soon as the words were spoken, and to Debra it was like seeing a light return in the depths of Belldandy's eyes. The goddess released her, and not only Debra, but Keiichi breathed a sigh of relief as well. Belldandy considered the detective for a long instant, and in that time Debra grew aware of just how small and insignificant she must appear to the woman before her. Here was a woman capable of manifesting guns on the whim of two regular humans. Who could leap across rooftops at an easy, loping pace of over thirty-five miles per hour, of a woman who could cleanse the land of a radiation that had destroyed it for over seventy-five years. Here was a tiger, its fur once white and magnificent and since matted and dirtied. And what was she in comparison? Why, just a lone mortal who knew how to run her mouth.

As if to complete this thought, Belldandy said one thing to Debra, "You talk too much." And nothing else, turning and continuing her journey down the hallway and to the next room, the room that would hopefully contain Hagall and Aiko and would put an end to this mad and terrifying journey. Debra watched her go, took a step after her, and almost fell flat on her face as her legs turned to trembling jelly beneath the resurgence of her weight.

Keiichi caught her and hauled her to her feet, wrapping her left arm, free of any weapon, around his shoulders to better support her. "Deb, you know I care about you, right?" Keiichi asked, and his voice was tight and strained; a combination of anger and fear and stress. Debra didn't blame him. She felt similar emotions running through her own head, making her both light-headed and thick-headed all at the same time.

"Yeah."

"Don't ever fucking do that to me again, okay?" Keiichi requested. "You two were so lost in your own fucked up world of 'Top Bitch' that I don't think either of you ever heard me screaming." The man sucked in a shuddering breath. "Please… don't ever force me to decide between you two like that again."

"Make sure you save some of your scolding for Belldandy too," Debra murmured, then patted his left shoulder with her left hand. "I can walk now, Mister Navy SEAL."

Keiichi released her. "I will," he said, and she knew his word was as good as a promise. "I'm going to have a long talk with her after all this is over." And then, in a lower voice, "I've never been so afraid of her before… even when she killed me- for a moment I was honestly afraid I'd have to _shoot_ her to get her to let you go." In the light spawned by the magic, Debra saw that his hands shook against the grip of his rifle stock and magazine.

Debra froze when something that he had said registered. "Say _what_?" She looked at him in disbelief, yet Keiichi saw her look of horror and assumed it was for a different reason. Not Keiichi dying but him almost turning his rifle on an ally.

"She wouldn't let you go," he explained. "I kept shouting at her to let you go… kept screaming that I didn't want to but that I would if she hurt you, but…" He shook his head, morose. "I just want Aiko back." He grumbled, and fell into Belldandy's shadow, for a moment looking small and insignificant; a shell of his former self.

The detective watched him go, and was left with a strange sense of foreboding. _I never should have come here,_ she thought. _It's too late now, Debby._ The voice of distant past whispered. _You've made your bed, now it's time to sleep in it. You passed up the opportunity to abandon this suicide mission at a gas station a life time ago, and it'll be another lifetime before you see the light of day again._

 _Demons at your back and vengeful gods in front of you. I hope you're still as flexible as you used to be, because the time is drawing near for you to place your hands behind your knees and kiss your ass goodbye, and I don't think Heaven is awaiting you on the other end of that long road. Not with your current company. At this rate it's looking like Valhalla, and forgive me if I say you don't look of the sort to sit and mix company with great and ancient warriors who died in combat. No, you look more the sort that wants to live a long life and die peacefully for those pearly gates. Shame it doesn't look like those are coming for you in this life time, doesn't it?_

XXX

The source of the light led into another room, this one an order of magnitude larger than the 'dark room' with what Keiichi had come to dub as the 'Bat-Girl'. The door to it crumbled at Belldandy's touch, and by the way the Norn jumped Keiichi was willing to bet it hadn't been her intent. It was spooky. She'd just touched it... and the door just _disintegrated,_ as if it'd been held together by sheer force of will alone. A force of will that had been disrupted, or abandoned in the wake of their arrival.

With Belldandy leading, they walked inside, and Keiichi could feel the hair on the nape of his neck and across his arms stand straight in a stiff salute. _I don't like this place._ Was his immediate thought. _This place is dangerous. I feel like I just walked into an ambush._ It wasn't that the place was _quiet_ , per se, nor even that it was empty; signs of life littered the room ( _arena-not a room but an_ arena, a voice whispered in his ear. _Like some kind of cage match held deep underground_ ). Moss and lichen decorated the rotten plaster in thick blotches ranging from white to green, brown to black. Throughout the walls were areas where the plaster had rotted through and collapsed, and the metal skeletons within were thick and hairy with mold. There was a distinctive earthy scent in the air around them, stale but dirty as well. Musty. Like an old basement whose walls were made of old boards that only just held the earth at bay, and that was just the _start_.

Someone had been decorating in the room. Old desks and drawers made of solid sheet metal lay like obscene statues around the room, some twisted like thick, metal rope and others with deep, hollow gouges punched into them, as if the Hulk or the Juggernaut had mistaken the metal for a punching bag and gone to town on them. In other areas were more desks, all metal skeletons of their former selves, twisted around each other like daisy chains, and some of them almost looked to have been fused together by either friction heat or blow torch, though Keiichi couldn't smell any smoke of hot metal in the air. Off near the farthest wall a group of these daisy-chained skeletons had been clustered together into a strange platform, one that reached well over Keiichi's head and probably rested just over Belldandy's. Keiichi stared at it with some trepidation. Some of the bars were bent and twisted in so many odd angles as to weaken the structural integrity of the entire platform, and strange, curved indentations littered the outside of the bastardized platform's frame. _Like they were punched into place,_ Keiichi thought. _Not bent with pliers or tools but with hands and fists._ As they approached it, he brought his own hand to a section of the strange grooves experimentally. While his knuckles didn't fit- the owner must have had hands as large as his fucking head- they still matched, to an extent, the grooves that could have been made by Keiichi's own knuckles if the bars were made of play-doh and not rebar and heavy sheet steel.

A silly thought occurred to Keiichi in that moment. This room, large and auditorium-like though it was, reminded him of the old, makeshift gyms made by the regional soldiers as a way to stay in shape. The international gym of _Lift Things and Put Them Down._ In fact... the more that he stared at it, the more he couldn't get the image out of his head. _We're in someone's gym,_ he thought. There was a stack of old metal frames that had been torn up and fashioned into weights with holes punched into them, using a twisted frame made of two pieces of rebar as a weight bar. There in one corner was a line of old bricks, their lichen-and-moss faces pointed up, to act as a weight bench. There were two protruding pieces of the wall's internal frame, torn out, twisted, and bent at a ninety-degree angle for dips. Beams that hung down from the ceiling that might be used like a make-shift pull-up or chin up platform. And now that he looked at it... hell, the entire perimeter of the room had been cleared away, _cleaned up_ even, with those protruding beams that might get in the way either well above six-feet high or off in a corner where they wouldn't get in the way of a person running laps for cardio. Hell, there were actual _grooves_ in the perimeter from where the constant laps had worn away the floor near the room's corners; a visible shininess that Keiichi wouldn't have noticed if he hadn't already suspected it existed.

"Well it's 'bout fucking time you got here." A voice, deep and raspy, rose from... somewhere. Everywhere. From the room _itself_. "I thought I was goin't' die a' boredom with how long you were taking." Something smashed down on the raised metal platform, and Keiichi heard Debra cry out as a wretched _screech_ tore through their ears. There, a person, the owner of the makeshift gym, if Keiichi were to guess peered down at them. "Y'all had me wait'n so long I had t'entertain m'self!" The stranger, a man- no, a _woman,_ no man had a pair of tits like that on a body that beefy- the _woman_ drawled, her accent thick and strange to Keiichi's ears. Not Southern, but... something similar. A bastardization of a Southern accent, as if the stranger (demon, Keiichi reminded himself) had taken a liking to the accent and had adopted it as her own. A bastardization of a bastardization of English. It made Keiichi's ears want to bleed. Almost as much as his eyes by just looking at the woman.

 _Don't be Arh-nie. Be bee-ger,_ Keiichi thought to himself, and cringed. The woman was _huge_. She had to stand close to seven feet tall, dressed in a tight vest whose zipper looked ready to shoot off to parts unknown and short shorts that looked close to bursting at the seams just trying to contain her mass. The woman watched them, smiling down at them with a bronze face that reminded Keiichi of a spray-on tan, her hair the bleach-blonde he occasionally saw from Florida natives who spent their lives out in the sun. The woman was _stacked._ A body builder to the point of excessive, almost unhealthy in sight to the point where Keiichi was genuinely repulsed by the demon. _Bro_ , _do you even lift?_ It was only the belief that this person was a demon that kept his mouth from opening up and delivering that comment to the stranger, as he was certain this woman could rip him in half with her bulging arms alone, never mind the use of magic.

"So, y'all have fun w'Halval, did'ja? _Did'ja?"_ The stranger slapped her knee and laughed, as if she'd shared a joke with them. "She a hoot, that 'un. One trick pony, but harmless as a fly." The woman smiled, and her eyes traveled from Debra to Keiichi before finally resting on Belldandy. Keiichi felt his arms break out in goosebumps as that gaze drifted over him. There was something almost... _hungry_ about those eyes. "So _you Ver_ -dandy, ain'cha?" she called down to the Norn, who stiffened at the pronunciation. "Oooh-hooo, baby-girl, I been _wait'n_ for _you_." The woman's smile was broad and rapacious, and her eyes, bright green eyes like new leaves, glittered like hard gems in her skull. "Hagall told me _all_ 'bout you, Hon. You an' me? We gon' _dance_." She cackled then. "Y'see, I been look'n for a good challenge. Them boys back home ain't worth the salt they weigh, but ol' Hagall-girly, she tol' me 'bout you. She tol' me _all_ about you and who your mama is."

The smile vanished from her face. "You're _Alal's_ daughter, aren't you, _Din'Gir Verdandi?"_ The accent vanished as well, and the words came across clear and precise.

Belldandy sucked in a sharp breath, and her eyes widened in shock as she stared up at the demon. "What would you know of it?" She demanded.

The woman smiled again, but this time it was cruel. Cruel and cold. "I know _all_ about it," she said. "I fought in that old war against your mother, the great Spooker herself, I'll have you know, though I was never... _gifted_ the opportunity of facing her in combat." Again the smile vanished. "Your mother killed a lot of good people, you know. A lot of talented, good men and women. She and her unit were good at PSYOPS, you know. So good that when they slew those men and women, they died screaming and in terror, so scared of their own shadows that they couldn't even work up the nerve to fight back." The woman rolled her neck on her shoulders, and Keiichi's skin crawled as he heard the demon's neck pop in several quick successions. "I was _mightily_ pissed off when I heard she left the service before I could pay her back for what she did. _Mightily._ "

The demon stepped off the platform, and when she landed the ceramic at and around her feet crumbled in a ringing clatter. "But then ol' Hagall, my ol' buddy, ol' pal, ol' _friend_ , came up to me and said, 'hey, you know The Destroyer's got a daughter? Not just one but _two_? And that one of them is here on Midgard right now?" She walked towards the trio, yet Belldandy appeared daunted by this nameless woman. She backed away, intimidated, and taking her lead Keiichi backed away as well, leveling his weapon on the woman as he listened to the woman talk, not fully understanding the conversation but knowing on some lower level that whatever grievances this demon held, it went back a generation or two.

It made Keiichi wary. Grievances that spanned generations ran deep, if Afghanistan was any indication.

"I'm no Valkyrie." Belldandy seemed to be aware of the danger as well, and was quick to voice her side of the argument. "Your anger would be wasted on me."

"Yeah?" The woman bore her teeth in something to hostile to be a smile. More like a snarl, like that of an angry bear. "You think so?" She continued her advance. "Because I don't think so. I don't think so at all. Not you. Not you, who whupped Hagall's ass buck-naked here on Midgard and not even at full power. Not you, who is not only the daughter of the all-feared _Alal_ but also the _Din'Gir Lugal_ of your people as well." Keiichi noticed with some worry that Belldandy paled at this comment, and wondered what both 'alal' and a 'lugal' were. Apparently, it was bad. Bad for Belldandy at least, which left him worrying about Urd as well, and to some lesser, minute level even _Skuld_ , though the youngest Norn was not with them on this day.

"I'm not a warrior."

"Well bless your heart, if that ain't the biggest crock a' shit I ever heard." The woman said, and a twinge of that old accent came about once more. "You ain't a warrior like I ain't a woman. It's in your blood. Your _nature_." And then came that blasted smile again. That blasted cruel, cold, 'I've-got-something-up-my-sleeve smile that made Keiichi's skin crawl. "You just need the right motivation, is all."

An arm reached behind her, and a sudden burst of imagination engulfed Keiichi. _It'll be a head._ He thought. _It'll be the head of someone Belldandy knows-maybe even Urd's head. Like a rabbit out of a hat. 'Abrakadabra, Alakazam, a little touch and a great big slam, out of my ass, here I come! Wham, bam, thank-you, Ma'am!'_ Only it wasn't a head. Not in the slightest.

Instead the woman pulled out something long and thin from behind her back. At first, Keiichi thought it was a stick; some long, thin tree branch or perhaps a sapling that had been up-rooted. Except that it was... _spindly._ Spiny, even. The branch looked too uniform in its size, bulging only in two areas- each a third of the way down the limb, where the strange sapling tapered off into a point. It was black. Black and shiny, except for a wide, yellow stripe that engulfed the midpoint on the second-third of what Keiichi could only think of as a _joint_ , and... it was a limb. Of what, Keiichi was unsure, but he was certain now that what he was staring at was no branch, was no tree, but the disjointed limb of some kind of animal. If flailed like a stiff whip in the woman's hands, bending at the thick joints ( _it's the bee's knees!_ Keiichi thought) before she tossed it at Belldandy's feet.

Behind Belldandy, Debra sucked in a ripe, sharp breath and danced away from it, looking desperately like she wanted to scream but somehow unable to in her fright. She glanced at Keiichi. "S-sp-spy..." The word faded into a high keen, and the woman looked at the walls, looked towards the shadows, looked towards the holes in the plaster in the sudden and profane terror of someone who'd come across a creature she hates most.

"We found her trespassing, you know," the woman continued. Belldandy looked like she didn't hear her, the Norn's eyes a pair of small pinpricks in the light of the gym. "She'd been snooping for a while. A dangerous hobby for a little lady like her. We roughed her up a bit as a warning. Ain't no business of spiders to be playing in the affairs of demons and gods after all." The woman heaved a sigh. "But she just didn't get the message. It was all ' _gaijin_ this' and _'youkai_ that' and _kami_ bullshit that don't make no sense no how to good and decent folks like you or I." She shrugged, and Belldandy knelt, a hand that shook reaching out and gingerly touching the limb, as though afraid it might flinch. "Mind you, I'd been bored out of my skull at the time when I found her again." The goddess wrapped her hand around it and drew it close, holding the limb in her hands with the same sobriety Keiichi had seen samurai hold for their swords in movies. "So perhaps her death wasn't as clean or as kind as it could have been." The demon shrugged. "Figured I'd save you a souvenir though. A present from Japan with its _youkai-_ freaks and-"

The movement was too fast to track with his weak, mortal senses. Too fast even for Debra, who might have had an edge with her heightened sensitivity. One moment Belldandy was kneeling on the ground, staring down at the leg, the _leg,_ the fucking _spider's leg_ in shock. The next she was on her feet, brandishing the stiff, thick trunk of the limb with both hands like it was the hilt of a greatsword that she'd just used on her opponent. Before her the demon stumbled back, her eyes wide and startled as she clutched at her cheek. "I would have the name of the demon whose _shit_ I am about to _wreck._ " Belldandy's voice was calm and even despite the intent of violence on her face.

The demon smiled, then. Not cold or cruel but _excited_. A worrying smile to Keiichi, and one that put just a hint of madness in the muscle-bound woman's bright eyes. "That's more like it, _that's more like it,_ Verdandi my girl!" she cried, and the lunatic expression on her face brightened. "You stand before Thrymr, _Din'gir Dumumi-lugal_!" she announced. "Remember it well, for it shall be engraved on your broken body when what's left of you is brought before the _Alal!"_ The woman's hand fell from her cheek, revealing a shallow, bleeding gash from where the spider's leg had whipped across her face. "I've been waiting for this moment," she breathed. "I've trained _centuries_ for this moment; swam in the coldest of oceans that Jotenheim has to offer, meditated within the hottest of magma within Muspelheim's core. Trained in the most extreme environments and pushed my body beyond the limits of its capability. And already, it is _you_ who draws first blood."

"What is it with all these women and their excessive chatter?" Belldandy muttered, and with no other warning lashed out at Thrymr, bringing the spider's leg, her weapon of choice, down on the demon in a diagonal sweep. Like a samurai- _no, like a viking,_ Keiichi thought. There was no... finesse in her strikes. WIth just practical fuck-shit-up functionality-Belldandy began her attack. The diagonal sweep down was followed by a stepping vertical blow as Thrymr dodged away. Thrymr side-stepped, her smile growing larger as that side-step gave way to a well-positioned kick. The goddess ducked under it with the subtle grace of a cat, then slipped her weapon to her left hand as she caught the demon's exposed foot between her waist and her right arm. The goddess spun in an attempt to break the demon's leg, but Thrymr twisted into the turn, her knee curving into the spinning goddess and drawing the Norn close.

"Peek-ah-boo, Sweetheart." Belldandy's eyes widened as an elbow came racing for her brow, and she released her hold on the demon, deflecting the energy of the strike away from her face with her right arm. Keiichi heard the goddess cry out in pain, then launch her own foot into the demon's groin in a well-known and beloved tactic that made his family jewels throb in empathy. Yet it seemed to have no effect on Thrymr, who merely laughed at the attempt before raking her knuckles across the Norn's face in a backwards palm strike.

The goddess's face whipped back against the strike with such force that Keiichi could hear the woman's neck crack. Thrymr was merciless, however, and before the Norn could recover drove her fist into Belldandy's solar plexus with enough force to drive the goddess off her feet. The man saw Belldandy's mouth open in a mute, breathless scream of agony, and then fall limp and lifeless at Thrymr's feet.

Thrymr frowned. "Well that was anticlimactic. Is this really all The Destroyer's offspring has to offer? I've fought kittens more terrifying than this." She used her foot to roll Belldandy onto her back, the frown deepening when Belldandy flopped beneath her like a boneless husk. "How disappointing."

"Don't do it!" Keiichi could read her intent easily enough, and knew he was courting Death when the demon raised her eyes to observe him.

"Oh?" The woman's foot moved to Belldandy's head. As it rested there lightly, Keiichi's head was filled with repulsive possibility. _She'll step on her and crush Belldandy's head,_ came one voice. _She'll stomp her and leave Bell's head as nothing but a smear on the tile,_ whispered another. _She'll drive the toes of her boot into her face and shred the bone,_ another cried. All of them could agree on one thing, though. _She needs to be stopped before she follows through._

"And what do you plan on doing, Little Man?" Thrymr asked, her expression one of such honest curiosity that Keiichi felt insulted. _She doesn't even view you as a threat!_ the voices in his mind screamed, and left him with the grim realization that to Thrymr, he probably registered about as much as a mosquito buzzing in the demon's ear.

"Remove your foot from Belldandy and step away from her." It didn't matter _what_ she thought of him though. She'd acknowledged he was there, registered he _was_ a presence, however minute and annoying he might be, and god damn it he was going to make it count. He wasn't about to let Belldandy get her head caved in any more than he was about to let Debra get her head ripped off. Not if he had any say in it, and though Keiichi Morisato had always been a short man, he knew how to bellow like the best of them. "I am _warning_ you right now!" he roared, and his voice echoed back to him in the high walls of the gym. "Step away right now! _Back away from Belldandy!"_

Thrymr snorted, amused. "Well would'ja look at that. Little Monkey knows how to scream. That all you got, Son? In my experience all your race's good for is shit slinging and screaming, and I don't see you tossing your poo." Beneath her Belldandy stirred and moaned, a leg drawing to her chest in slow pain as she tried to roll onto her right shoulder and cradle her stomach.

Thrymr did not move her foot.

"This is my last warning to you!" Keiichi instructed, and now he brought his weapon up, resting his cheek against the stock as he peered down the red-dot sight at the demon. He pointed the dot squarely on the demon's chest (always go for center of mass), and kept his pointer finger extended next to the trigger. Not on the trigger though. Not _yet_. "Remove your foot and step away from the goddess! I'm giving you to the count of three!"

"Or what, Little Man?" Thrymr mocked. "You gonna fire that little pea-shooter at me?"

"One!"

"Keiichi, think about this for a moment, don't do anything rash," Debra sounded close to panicking herself, but then, she'd always been cautious when it came to the use of guns. For her, they were a last-ditch option for when there was nothing left, not a first-response weapon for a known and very dangerous threat.

"Oh, this gon' be _good!"_ Thrymr laughed. "Come on then Monkey Boy! Let's see what that piss poor piece a poo can do!"

"Two!" Keiichi curled his finger around the trigger.

"Keiichi, this isn't a joke, fucking _stop!"_

" _Three!"_

Thrymr didn't move, in fact held her arms out to him in open invitation, as if to say; " _Shoot me_ , _you little shit!"_

" _Keiichi-"_

Keiichi pulled the trigger, and the world seemed to slow to a crawl. Again, the SEAL was reminded of how strange fire fights could be, and how it was certain small, unnoticeable things that always seemed to stand out to him. He saw Debra reach for him, her hand grasping like an outstretched talon. He felt the jolt of recoil in his shoulder. He smelled the heated metal intermingled with spent gunpowder as the spent brass flew over his right shoulder. And he saw Thrymr's eyes bulge in intermingled horror, surprise, and realization as her body recoiled and blood sprayed from her pierced chest. Then time sped up, returned to normal, and the woman fell back, the look of surprise never leaving her face as she lost her balance and fell to the floor.

Keiichi didn't move from where he stood. "Deb, I'm going to approach Thrymr. Cover me. When we get close to Bell, drag her and get to cover." He paused, and though the demon didn't move Keiichi was unconvinced of her defeat. "I don't think this is over yet."

 _She's playing 'possum and you know it,_ the voice of wary experience sang, and Keiichi was inclined to agree. Keeping his rifle aimed at the demon, Keiichi drew near, his posture low and bent to give him a solid position in case he needed to fire again. Behind him Debra was quiet, her revolver raised up against one shoulder. As soon as they neared Belldandy, the detective grabbed her with her free hand, adrenaline brought on by fear allowing her to drag the goddess away from the demon. Keiichi heard a strange, garbled keen rise from the Norn, and prayed that Thrymr hadn't crippled the goddess with her blows.

He approached Thrymr, his weapon steady on the fallen demon. If she so much as _twitched_ , he was going to shoot her again.

Unfortunately, the human eye could only track so much, and despite the heavy bulk of her appearance, Thrymr, Keiichi would discover, was a _fast_ motherfucker. Even with his training as a SEAL, even with his experience in combat, it was all _human_ expertise, and none of it could make up for Thrymr's beyond-human capabilities. Despite the sizable holes in her chest left behind by the AR-15, the woman still somehow managed to move at a fearsome speed. A hand was wrapped around his foot before he was even aware she'd moved, and by the time his finger moved to the trigger the demon was yanking him off his feet. She lifted him up as if he weighed no more than a doll, and Keiichi screamed, the rest of his body falling to the ground has he discharged his weapon once more. Yet by the time the AR-15 fired he was already upside down, already thrown through the air like a ragdoll, and the gun's own recoil tore it from his grip.

The world spun around him. His back impacted something sharp and protruding, and he felt something pierce through the upper right side of his back emerge just shy of his breast. His vision flashed red, and he could hear the heavy, rapid _Ka-kow ka-kow ka-kow_ of his heart pounding in his ears. Somewhere, beyond that, he thought he heard screaming, but it was all but drowned out by the pulse drumming in his ears. The SEAL looked down at what had pierced him, and found a bent piece of rebar-one of the Thrymr's self-made pull-up bars-erupting from his chest. A fire of intense agony welled from the injury, and he stared at the injury in horror, only realizing in that moment that part of the screams he was hearing were from his own throat, his jaw stretched long and gaping to the point of aching as he howled.

The man tried to dislodge himself, but even an action as simple as moving his right arm was enough to bring a fresh wave of heated anguish to the injury, and for a moment the world took on a fuzzy, hazy tint to it. _Don't black out, don't black out!_ The SEAL in him screamed. _You'll die if you black out! You won't wake up again! Stay awake Fuckhead,_ stay awake! He sucked in a ragged breath, and even _that_ hurt. _Oh god, it hurts! Come on, Jank, you gotta get yourself free! She'll go after Bell if you don't unhook yourself from this thing!_

He gritted his teeth and squeezed his eyes shut, grabbing hold of the red piece of rebar with his hand. The metal was slick against his palm, though, and try though he might the man was unable to maintain a solid enough grip on the metal to help relieve the pain. _Kick off, Boss. Come on, get your feet behind you and push off. You gotta get off this thing! Get your feet against the wall behind you and push off!_

He tried, but even that act brought with a pain of such extravagant brilliance he thought he might vomit. Thought he might black out before he could move his body into position, and what was Thrymr doing? Where was the demon in all this? Was she going to Bell or Keiichi? Was she going to Deb? Could Deb hold her off? Were the girls still _alive_?

He found fresh strength in his worry for the women, Bell and Deb both, and with an agonized moan managed to get the flat of his sneakers against the plaster. He bunched his legs against it, ( _oh god he couldn't stand it he was going to fucking_ die _it hurt so much)_ and got ready to push his stocky, two-hundred-pound frame off the protruding rebar.

His feet punched through the moldy, rotting plaster instead.

Oh god he was pinned. _Oh god,_ he couldn't get free. A surge of panic caught in his chest, mingled sweetly with the terror and the agony, and he kicked, trying to remove his feet from the new hole he created. Instead it brought with it a fresh wave of pain, and some small piece of his mind was aware that the screams and howls rising from him now were the panicked cries of a coyote in a bear trap (" _Scream, Little Monkey-Boy!" Thrymr laughed, "Can't chew yourself outta' this trap now, can ya,? Can ya!?")_ Yet no matter how he struggled, her couldn't get free. _I'm going to die here._ The voice of panic began to sink its claws into his brain, slipping in-between the wrinkles of the soft gray matter as it began to exert its hold on him. _I'm going to die here like a fucking pig on a meat hook!_ His vision started to gray, and with dismay her realized that the adrenaline was losing its hold on him, that he was blacking out, that he'd lost too much blood with the red that soaked his shirt through and was starting to soak into his jeans now, staining the blue into a deep shade of purple ( _Like Urd's eyes. Guess you'll see her soon, Janky-baby. Jank and Sheila lying in a grave, R-O-T-T-I-N-G)_ and that soon it wouldn't matter what happened to him because he'd be too dead to care.

 _God damn it._ He thought. _After coming so far, this is how it ends? I need to save Aiko..._

And then he was free.

"Hang on, Keiichi." He heard a voice, distant and muffled beneath the pounding of his ears, but familiar as well. "Stay with me, I've got you. Come on, stay awake!" He pried his eyes open, the lids feeling like they weighed a hundred pounds each in his weakened state, and was met with silver hair. "Come on, Keiichi. Stay with me," the voice continued.

"Urd..?" He croaked, and a hand grabbed his left wrist, guiding it to cover the wound in his chest. "Oh god, Urd," he breathed. "I thought you were dead. Oh god, Urd, I'm so sorry. We never should have left you, oh god, you came back, you..."

He trailed off as the owner of the voice looked at him with a pair of shockingly blue eyes, bright and brilliant like the sky on a clear day. _Belldandy_. Not Urd but _Belldandy._ She brought him down to rest propped up against the wall. He stared at her in mild shock, and for a moment the Norn's features darkened, bringing Urd back to his fatigued mind once more before it cleared again. "Bell..?"

"It's me, Keiichi." Belldandy's voice emerged from Urd's mouth, and when he blinked the elder Norn was gone again, replaced with Belldandy once more. "I had to release my seal. Please, hang on a little longer. I need to stop the blood loss.

"You... what?" Keiichi stared at her blankly, and a feeling of cool enveloped him, soothing the flames that centered in his chest and back and expanded from there. It felt like he'd tumbled into a vat of aloe vera. Aloe vera mixed with some kind of hallucinogen, because Belldandy's hair was almost as silver as Urd's was and wasn't changing no matter how much he blinked. "You look like Urd."

Belldandy stared at him, and in her eyes he saw pain. Pain from loss. Pain from guilt. Pain from _memory_. "Thank you, Keiichi," she whispered. "I think I'll need her strength if I'm to win this fight."

"'M sorry," he mumbled. "Tried to hold her off... thought she was gonna kill you."

"You did well," Belldandy murmured. "Rest a moment with Debra. It's time I ended this fight." The goddess rose and turned her back to Keiichi, and again the SEAL was amazed at just how much Belldandy resembled her older sister in that moment. It wasn't just the hair. It was the _aura_. He could see it now-maybe because he wasn't in his right mind, but he could see it all right: thick and dense and filled with so much power it was almost unnerving to behold. _Like when I first met Urd._ He thought, and the thought felt distant and far away. _Just bright and unearthly and swallowed by her own power. That's what it was like back then._ That was what it was like _now_ , and as he watched her another person came to join him. Deb.

 _Holy shit, I must be dead and surrounded by angels 'cause these two sure as fuck wouldn't be working so well together if I was alive,_ he thought, and stared at Debra with tired eyes as she came to stand next to him, kneeling beside the man and armed not only with his revolver, but the AR-15 as well. _Fucking... hell. It's Sarah Conner and Ellen Ripley to the rescue, ain't it? One alien already down and now we got the Terminator to finish off._ The thought made him laugh, and the laugh hurt. It made him laugh harder. _Oh jeeze, man. You are beyond fucked right now._ He tried to move and winced as fresh pain racked his form. _If this fight doesn't end soon and we can't locate Aiko, you're going to be screwed to the moon, it won't matter how fast you get rushed to the ER._

He watched Belldandy, her resemblance to Urd so uncanny it was spooky ( _dead girl walking, dead girl talking)_ , walk towards Thrymr, who stood leering at the goddess, a gross, excited smile on her face. "Now that what I'm talkin' 'bout, now that is what I am talking _about!"_ The demon cheered. "I knew there was more bite than just ya' bark! Now _let's get this party started!_

* * *

 **A/N: Next chapter: The fight we all wanted but never got in the manga: Unsealed Belldandy vs. Thrymr! Taking bets now.**

* * *

 _Comments of a Madwoman: Deb tends to ramble under stress and rant when she's angry. Who knows though, maybe something in her words snapped Bell out of her funk enough to stop her attempted murderous rampage..._


	49. Chapter 49 - Contra Timorous

-49-

 _When the stars threw down their spears_  
 _And water'd heaven with their tears:_  
 _Did he smile his work to see?_  
 _Did he who made the Lamb make thee?_

 _Tyger Tyger burning bright,_  
 _In the forests of the night:_  
 _What immortal hand or eye,_  
 _Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?_

 _-The Tyger, William Blake_

XXX

Where Urd's hair was silver shading to white, Belldandy's hair was now silver shading to platinum. As she stood and turned towards the demon, it became apparent that her hair wasn't the only thing that had changed. Her now familiar sigils, the thin diamond on her forehead and the triangles on her cheeks had completely changed. She now sported a more ornate diamond above her eyes that consisted of two triangles with curved bases around a circle. The triangles were pointed up and down, mimicking the shape of the original. On her cheeks were more circles, with single triangles similar to the ones on her forehead that both pointed towards her nose.

Her clothes had changed as well. Gone was the casual outfit she was wearing previously, replaced by a white, skin tight body suit with the seams trimmed in blue. Over this she wore a blue vest trimmed in golden triangles. Two sets of what looked like leather wings hung down her back to complete the outfit.

As a first-class goddess and daughter of two of the most powerful beings in existence, Belldandy had inherited an incredible reserve of power, something she never had told Keiichi (nor did he ask). So much so that she could erase the existence of the planet she was standing on, as well as the solar system that contained it, with but a mere thought. In truth, only her sisters rivaled her in pure, raw, power potential. They were only held back by their status as second-class goddesses.

In order to prevent anything happening accidentally due to the nature of what they could do, goddesses' powers were routinely sealed. The power to destroy a planet was simply not needed when it came to nearly all aspects of a goddess's life. For Belldandy, her seals were in the form of the ornate earrings that she always wore. On her left side was a hoop with two chains attached that looped around and hooked into the back of her ear. On the other was a larger hoop with all manner of dangling jewelry coming from it. Both were now missing.

Thrymr roughly cleared her throat, then spat. The wad that splattered on the ground was thick and red with blood. She wiped away a small line of pink drool as she faced Belldandy. In spite of her injury, it was apparent that the demon was recovering quite quickly from Keiichi's gunshots. The wounds in her chest were already closed, leaving nothing but three bloody holes in her shirt. A smile formed on her face as she took a step closer to the goddess, whose aura danced around her like white fire. This time, Belldandy did not back away. "Enchanted bullets, eh?" asked the demon rhetorically as she absentmindedly fingered one of the holes in her shirt. "Should'a expected that. Pretty much the only way yer monkey-boy could even touch me."

"Your fight is with me, demon," announced Belldandy as she dropped into a fighting stance. "You will leave them alone."

"Oh, I will," replied Thrymr. "So long as they don't present any type of challenge to me. I thrive on challenge. Live for it. It's what makes me strong." That smile formed on her face again, and a weird, almost crazed look came to her, so much that Belldandy worried that the demon's eyes might pop out of their sockets. "Now that you have released your seal, the _real_ fight can start."

The goddess shook her head. "So much talk."

To those observing, it was as if Belldandy had simply disappeared, only to reappear next to Thrymr. The demon similarly had little time to react as the goddess's left fist smashed into her cheekbone, causing her whole body to shudder. At once the demon was flying towards the far wall of the makeshift gym, only to be intercepted by Belldandy before impact. She buried her knee into the Demon's gut. More blood and spit burst forth from Thrymr's mouth as Belldandy brought both her fists up above her head, then brought them down on the back of the blonde's skull, sending her crashing to the floor with such force that when her face hit the concrete beneath, it caused a crater to form, spraying rock shrapnel around the area.

Belldandy stood over the demon, who lay inert at her feet. The power of her aura was still coming off her in waves as she stood over her opponent. She was about to reach down and make a closer inspection of the demon when she heard her name. "Belldandy! I think Keiichi is going into shock!" yelled Debra desperately from the far side of the gym. In truth, Belldandy had only had enough time to stop the bleeding and alleviate Keiichi's pain before she had to confront Thrymr again. Now that the threat was neutralized, she could go back and heal him properly.

"I am on my-"

Thrymr grabbed hold of Belldandy's white boot. "We ain't done yet," she slurred. With that, the demon, who had already gotten halfway to her feet, lifted Belldandy up and flipped her. The goddess quickly regained control of her body in midflight, landing deftly on her feet some twenty feet away. The two stared at each other for a moment before Thrymr started to laugh. "Oh boy-" she started before she gagged on something. Her brow furrowed for a moment as she worked her lower jaw for a moment.

She then spat again.

Instead of another wad of phlegm as before, a whole tooth and fragments of one or two more clattered onto the concrete. A throaty chuckle came from the demon as she ran the back of her hand against her lower lips and smiled. Belldandy could see the blood coagulating on the teeth that were exposed by her grin. "Wow, that was AWESOME!" Thrymr cheered. "I mean..." She paused a moment to use her tongue to inspect what the goddess assumed was the empty space on the right side of her mouth where the teeth had been. "I mean, no one's ever hit me that hard before! I'm totally geeking out over it!" The blonde shifted, and her expression grew more serious. "But I going to have to ruin your ride here. If you think that's enough to stop me, you've got another thing coming. I'm the immovable object, baby! You got nothing that can-"

Once again, Belldandy simply appeared next to Thrymr, this time on her left, the goddess's right fist already in the air.

Thrymr caught the blow in her left and winked. "Not this time, babe. I catch on pret-"

With her fist caught, Belldandy used the demon's own strength as leverage to jump up and kick her in the chin. The blow loosened the blonde's grip on her fist so that she could wrench it out. The goddess flipped in the air, and as soon as her feet hit the ground, she whipped her leg around and again smashed the demon on the side of her head with a spinning kick that sent Thrymr flying through the gym again. Belldandy allowed her to smash into the wall before following up, flying in and planting both of her fists into the demon's stomach, doubling her over. Belldandy then grabbed hold of the blonde's hair, jerked her head up, and again smashed her left fist into the demon's cheek.

Thrymr crumpled over and fell to the ground. Belldandy reached down and jerked her head up, and not seeing any signs of consciousness, let it fall back with a thud. She left the demon and sped across to where the two mortals were. The dark-haired man looked ashen, and she could literally hear his heart starting to slow down.

"Belldandy, please," pleaded Debra as she cradled him in her arms. Her shirt was stained red from the blood that had again started to seep from the wound.

"Hold him still," coached the goddess as she knelt down next to them. She leaned in and placed her hand over the hole in Keiichi's chest. She then looked at Debra. "Do you still love him?"

The blonde mortal was taken aback. Of all the times to ask something like that, how could _now_ be a good time? "Belldandy, I-"

"Do you still love him?!" Demanded the goddess more forcefully this time.

"Yes!" Exclaimed Debra. "Of course I do! I don't think I will ever _stop_ loving him!" She almost looked angry. "But he has made his choice, and I have decided I can live with that."

Belldandy nodded, then reached up with her free hand and took Debra's in her own. She then guided it over to where the goddess's other hand covered the wound and pressed it down on top. "Good, then we can both heal him, together."

"Together?!" yelped Debra, but even before the word was out of her mouth, Belldandy had begun to speak in a language that was almost completely alien to the mortal woman. The tempo rose and fell, almost as if the goddess were singing, and it mesmerized the detective. A golden glow began to emanate from under where her hand covered Belldandy's. It started to spread up the goddess's arm, and much to Debra's surprise, hers as well. When it reached her chest, a sudden feeling of warmth overtook her. All of the anxiety over Keiichi's condition, all of the fear from the predicament they were in, all of the worry about what Belldandy might do when they finally caught up with Hagall, disappeared in an instant. In its place was nothing but a feeling of warmth and love. It reminded her of the time when her father took her fishing as a girl in Minnesota.

It reminded her of sleepovers where sleep was never an option.

It reminded her of weekends spent at her grandparents' house and the kindness they always showed her.

It reminded her of the love she had for all of the Morisatos, with their heterophobic father, eccentric mother, three children whom she considered her brothers and sisters, and the fourth who was her former husband.

As these feelings flowed through her, she could see the bloody stains on Keiichi's shirt begin to shrink. Blood that had pooled on the ground rose up and floated back to its owner where it reentered Keiichi through whatever orifice or pore was available. He suddenly took in a deep breath, then settled into a more normal rhythm where before his breathing had become shallow and uneven, a clear sign of shock. The color of his skin turned back to a much healthier shade as well.

And then the glow subsided. Fortunately, the feelings they imparted on Debra lingered. She looked at Belldandy, who had removed her hand from Keiichi's chest, sitting back on her haunches. The hole from where the rebar had punctured his skin from the back side was now gone. There was barely even a mark, just a slightly discolored area where the injury used to be. "What did you do?" asked Debra shakily after taking a moment to recompose herself.

"I used the power of our love to heal him," replied the goddess, and to Debra, it seemed as if she were speaking of such mundane things as doing the dishes or taking out the trash.

"You've done this before, haven't you?"

Belldandy lovingly stroked Keiichi's hair. "Yes, but never on this scale before."

"But someone else has done it on this scale before, haven't they?" asked Debra, remembering what Keiichi had said earlier. "Was it Urd?"

The goddess swallowed, and nodded, but she did not elaborate. "One day, Debra. One day, I may speak to you of the horrors that I went through at the hands of mortals. Horrors that still haunt me to this day. Horrors that have, up until recently, put him and those around me in peril. It's a wonder that my faith in humanity never failed." She looked down at Keiichi, who showed no signs of the pain he was in previously. Instead, it simply looked like he was asleep. "It was because of him. Somewhere, in the back of my mind, I always felt that he would come and save me from..." Belldandy choked back a sob.

Debra furrowed her brows in confusion. "You mean that someone like him would come?" she asked.

"No," replied the goddess with conviction as she turned her head to look at the woman. "Him." She gestured to Keiichi. "He was always the one." When Debra's confusion did not subside, Belldandy smiled. "That is also something I may speak of later."

"So, how was Hagall involved in all this?" the mortal asked.

"She was the one that was ultimately responsible for what happened to me," the goddess replied. "Keiichi became involved when Urd and my younger sister Skuld reached out to him. They sent him to save me, but Hagall found him before he could find me and she captured him in a very powerful glamor. You see, Hagall has the power to cause powerful visions in her captive's mind. Normally, she uses them to incapacitate someone in order to perform whatever deed she desires. However, if she does not release them, it can drive them insane." The goddess paused and sighed as she recalled the ordeal. "She captured him in one that even now he will not tell me about. Yet somehow, someway, he was able to break free from it in order to free me." A tear rolled down her cheek. "My black knight came to save me."

"'Tis but a flesh wound," said Debra as half smile formed on her face.

Belldandy laughed. "Such a stupid, funny show. Yet that is how Keiichi fought back." She turned her head to look at Debra, a smile on her face. "By thinking about Monty Python. Somehow, it caused some sort of feedback loop in Hagall. She became so engrossed in it that she could not focus to maintain her hold on him. And if what we saw earlier before we left..." She choked a little on the words, then cleared her throat. "If what we saw of her earlier was any indication, then it affected her more deeply than even I imagined."

Before Debra could respond, both women heard something. It sounded like someone was whispering. They both turned their attention to Keiichi, whose eyes were open about half way. He looked exhausted. "What was that, dear?" asked Belldandy as she leaned in towards him in order to hear him better.

" _Behind you."_

Belldandy turned around just in time to see and dodge a wicked haymaker from Thrymr. Debra yelped and started to drag Keiichi away as the goddess rolled to her feet, ready to reengage the demon that just wouldn't stay down.

"Is your little boy toy all better now?" asked Thrymr as she circled the goddess, ready for another attack. "Doesn't matter. There's no way you can beat me."

"I seem to have done a good enough job of it so far," replied Belldandy.

Thrymr raised a finger and wagged it at her opponent. "Battles, honey. Not the war." She then straightened out of her fighting stance and began to casually walk as she continued to circle Belldandy. The goddess had to move so that the mortals did not end up between her and her opponent. They were completely exposed at this point, but there was nothing she could do about it.

"You don't know how long I have been waiting for this day," said Thrymr. "All of those demons in Hagall's little troop? None of them compare to me. None of them can give me a challenge. But you, Belldandy-girl..." She wagged a finger at the goddess again. "You have challenged me like none other. I thought I had you last time, but man, you sure showed me!"

"Great, then we can end this farce now," suggested Belldandy as she was continuing to keep the demon from getting a clear path to Keiichi and Debra just in case she felt so inclined to harm them.

Thrymr chuckled at that suggestion. "No, I don't think so. As I said before, I live for challenges. They make me stronger. Fuck Hagall and her little vendetta. You are the only reason I came in the first place, and I intend to make good on you being here."

In truth, Belldandy was starting to tire of this. AIko was still out there, and she needed to get to her. They were close, she could feel it. If she could end this now, all the better. "Then I refuse to fight," she stated and relaxed herself. If the demon only wanted to fight, then she would do the opposite. "I admit defeat, Thrymr."

The demon paused and gave Belldandy a queer look. "What?"

"I feel that there is no chance of winning," replied the goddess as she turned and knelt down to help Keiichi to his feet. "I have attacked you twice now, and I have failed to defeat you. Me, an unsealed goddess first class have failed to best you. Congratulations."

Thrymr could only stand and stare in dumbfounded silence as Belldandy guided Keiichi's arm over her shoulder. Debra gave the goddess a similar look after glancing back at the demon, but kept her silence and played along. Belldandy scanned the area and identified a door on the opposite side of the area that looked promising. "May you overcome all of the challenges that your life brings to you." With that, the trio began to slowly make their way to what they hoped was the exit.

The demon stood rooted in place for a moment, not exactly comprehending what had just happened. However, after a moment's reflection, she laughed. Belldandy did not bother to look back.

Thrymr appeared in front of them, stopping the group up short. "No, I don't think so. This is my arena, and only I say when anyone can leave."

Belldandy sighed. "But you have defeated me, so I do not see how I can continue to be a challenge to you any more than I have." The goddess desperately hoped that the demon would agree, even if that hope was fleeting. She did not want to fight if it meant further delays.

"Oh, but we must continue!" replied the demon. "Only after I have bested you will I be happy. All the work I did! I mean, I forged blades with my bare hands! I literally pulled light out of a black hole! I've done everything _except_ defeat a first class goddess."

"But I have conceded defeat, so surely that goal has been obtained?" asked Belldandy as she tried to reason with Thrymr.

"No, that's not how this works," replied Thrymr as she pounded her fist into her other hand. "You will be defeated only when you lie broken and bleeding at my feet."

"I refuse," said Belldandy simply. She tried to get her group moving again, only to be stopped again.

"Then your little monkey-boy will die," said the demon menacingly.

The goddess did not flinch, did not even move. The only tell on her that what Thrymr said affected her was a double blink. Internally, it was as if bomb had been set off as red flashes crossed her vision. Slowly, deliberately, she took hold of Keiichi's arm and slid it off her shoulder. "Hold on to him, Debra," said the goddess. Free of her burden, she squared up on the demon and took a step forward. "You're going to regret that," she said.

Thrymr slammed her right fist into the palm of her left hand. That maniacal smile reformed on her face. "No, I don't think I will," she said.

The demon and the goddess stared each other down for a moment, giving Debra a chance to help Keiichi get back. Fortunately, his condition had improved enough to where he was more ambulatory than before. Together, they moved away from the impending restart of the fight as quickly as possible. Their target was a section of concrete that looked like it had fallen from the ceiling above. The hole in the ceiling indicated that two floors had collapsed down, so there appeared to be enough cover.

They barely made it in time.

With mighty yells, Belldandy and Thrymr both launched themselves at each other, both leading with haymaker punches aimed at their opponent's faces. Instead, their fists met in the middle. The resulting explosion and shockwave washed over the mortals' shielded position and toppled over all of the makeshift gym equipment Thrymr had constructed all around them.

The combatants jumped back, then flung themselves at each other again, causing another shockwave to roll over them again. "Holy Jesus!" screamed Debra as a third screamed past. She was laying on top of Keiichi, trying to shield him from the carnage that was happening not far away. When a forth shockwave failed to materialize, she peaked over the concrete slab and found the goddess and the demon locked in a frantic duel. Punch after punch, kick after kick they traded, but none reached their mark. The fists and feet were flying almost too fast for the mortal woman to follow. They were also seemingly bouncing to and fro as they danced around each other, each trying to gain the upper hand.

One of them finally did.

Debra watched in horror as Belldandy went flying past, having taken a right cross to the chin. "Yeah baby! How do you like that!" screamed Thrymr as she flexed the impressive musculature of her arms. "I'm telling you Belldandy-girl, the longer this goes, the stron-"

The mortal woman didn't even see it coming, and neither did Thrymr, apparently. Belldandy jetted past and caught the boasting demon in mid-sentence with a left hook, rocking her back. The goddess immediately followed that with a wicked uppercut and embedded the demon into the ceiling. However, Thrymr extricated herself before Belldandy could take advantage, catching the goddess with a kick to the face that sent her reeling.

When Belldandy got up, Thrymr was waiting, almost catching her with a devastating punch. Instead, the fist hit the ground, carving out another crater. Belldandy retaliated, and again the dance commenced.

Beside her, Debra felt Keiichi pull himself up so that he could see the action as well. "Where is my rifle?" he asked. His voice still sounded weak.

"What do you think you are going to do?" asked Debra incredulously.

"I don't know," replied the dark haired man. "But I have to do something!"

"You are in no condition to do anything right now!"

Keiichi glared at her. "I may not be able to do much, but I can at least be a distraction!"

XXX

Faster and faster they went. Belldandy punching and kicking. Thrymr blocking and then retaliating. Belldandy blocking and dodging, then rolling into a counter which in turn was countered. Each one probing the other for an opening. Each one looking for that small advantage that would end this fight. Belldandy had to admit that the demon was not presenting any openings for her to exploit in spite of her constantly increasing the speed and ferocity of her attacks. For every instant she exerted more speed, more force, more _power_ , the demon would respond in kind.

"Haha!" trumpeted the demon. "What's wrong, Girl, having trouble keeping up with my fists?"

In fact, Belldandy was having very little trouble at the time. But worry was starting to seep in as she could tell that the demon, as had been predicted, was seemingly starting to get stronger. _We aren't making any progress,_ Holy Bell chimed in, trying to coach Belldandy as the Norn ducked a haymaker.

 _I know,_ replied the goddess as she blocked a punch and then sent a kick towards her opponent's head. _Do you have any suggestions_? The kick was blocked.

 _Maybe, but you won't like it._ Another punch came her way, this time Belldandy dodged it and sent one of her own towards the demon's midsection.

She grumbled to herself as her strike was batted away. The demon then lowered her guard for a brief moment, but Belldandy did not strike. She had almost been caught trying to take advantage of that opening once before. Fortunately, with her powers and abilities unsealed, she was able to avoid what would have been a catastrophic blow to her face. "He-he, smart girl," said the demon as she sent another attack towards the goddess. "But this will only end one way. Once I catch you, it will be all over."

Although the demon's banter was starting to get on her nerves, Belldandy did not let it affect her as she batted away an overhand right and shot a jab out in return. _I'm all ears, at this point,_ she sent to her angel.

 _You can call me out so that we can use Wind Arrow,_ was the reply.

Holy Bell was right, Belldandy did not like that prospect. _I do not think you have sufficiently recovered to be able to call that attack._ She slipped under a haymaker and tried a left, which was blocked.

 _I think you're just embarrassed,_ challenged the angel. And she was not wrong. While Holy Bell's appearance was much improved, she still only barely had feathers on her wings. But that was only part of it. She was still weak compared to what she was before Aoshima, and Belldandy could feel that weakness in herself. Even though she was unsealed, she was still not fighting at her full strength.

 _I'm not sure you are strong enough_ ,replied Belldandy.

The demon whooped with glee. "This is great! But watch out, I'm going to finish this here in just a few."

The goddess rolled her eyes. _I really wish she would shut up._

 _I can make her shut up if you let me!_ replied Holy Bell. _I need this, for Urd and Elegance._

That was a low blow, but it hit its mark. As Belldandy ducked under another blow meant to take her head off, she made her decision. _Fine, but this needs to work. I can feel my power draining._

"It's over!" screamed the demon as she led in with a right cross. Belldandy went to block it, but it was only a feint. An overhand left came in seemingly from the opposite direction. However, Belldandy surprised the demon by quickly adjusting and blocking the blow. This time, the demon was open for real, having over extended herself in her zeal to land the finishing blow. Belldandy came up underneath and landed a vicious uppercut right under Thrymr's chin, sending her reeling back. Instead of following that up, though, Belldandy jumped back a few feet and spread her arms wide.

"Come forth, Holy-!"

The sound of a gunshot interrupted the goddess. She flinched as a second report reverberated through the room. Wincing, her eyes locked with Thrymr's, where a look of shock spread across the demon's face as her gaze drifted down to her chest. Two holes had torn through her vest, and blood was already seeping out and intermingling with what had been spilt already where Keiichi had first shot her. Slowly, the demon turned her head to look behind her. Belldandy's gaze followed, and found Debra standing about twenty feet behind Thrymr. Her feet planted and arms raised, she stood holding Keiichi's Colt, the sights leveled on the demon. "That monkey-bitch!" exclaimed the demon, her voice weak. She fell to one knee.

"Whatever you're going to do, do it fast!" screamed Debra.

Knowing that the demon was really only going to be stunned, Belldandy screamed back to Debra. "Give me something, anything!"

"What do you mean?!" replied the mortal as she started to inch away from the demon. "It's not like I brought my purse or anything!"

"Your watch!" screamed Keiichi from his place of concealment. "Take your watch off and throw it near Muscle-bitch!"

Debra looked at the demon and paled as Thrymr started to stand back up. It was obvious that she was regaining her strength faster than she had before when Keiichi had initially shot her. How or why, when the demon had already lost so much blood and energy, was a mystery that would have to be saved for another day. Quickly, she unlatched the pink Momentum stainless steel diving watch that had been a birthday gift from Keima and Takano about a year before she and Keiichi divorced. She had kept it because of its practicality. Tossing it on the ground, she then ducked away towards where Keiichi was holed up.

Belldandy began moving her arms in ever expanding and increasingly intricate circles. Thrymr groaned as she took a step towards the goddess, but it was apparent she had not regained her strength yet. The goddess closed her eyes and began chanting in a language only she knew. It sounded more like she was singing than anything else. In front of her, a ball of ethereal energy began to form. Blue and gold lightning danced across its surface as it grew from a mere pinprick.

" _Vandr taka hǫndum_!" screamed the goddess as she pointed to her opponent.

The energy ball flew at Thrymr and struck her in the chest. It began to twirl around the demon, forming a vortex that grew and eventually enveloped its victim entirely. "No!" screamed the demon as she was picked up into the air. The whirlwind began to move across the ground towards Debra's watch. "No! I won't let it end like this!" she yelled.

Her body was completely distorted by the energy surrounding her, twisting her into almost unrecognizable forms. As Belldandy held her hands out in order to maintain control of her sealing spell and move it to where it needed to go, she could see the demon frantically moving her arms in rapid succession. She started to see wisps of energy start to bleed off the vortex, in some cases clearing things up enough for the goddess to see the demon's fist.

Belldandy redoubled her efforts and was relieved when the energy vortex and its victim finally made contact with the watch. It vibrated for a moment, then lifted off the ground, the face turning upwards and ready to accept its new resident.

She then gasped in horror as Thrymr's arm broke free. It was so fast, Belldandy had no time to adjust her spell to recapture it. The demon punched down, her fist impacting with the watch.

A bright flash of light nearly blinded Belldandy. She turned away as she threw her arms up to shield her eyes. The shockwave from the uncontrolled energy release hit her just as she did, sending her to her knees. Forcefully shutting her eyes, she waited for the blast to pass before tentatively opening her eyes and looking behind her. The spell had taken a lot out of her, and she was visibly panting as she finally located Thrymr. The demon was lying on her back some twenty feet away, having been thrown aside when Belldandy's spell exploded.

The goddess dared to hope that the demon had been finally incapacitated, but her hopes were dashed when the blonde stirred. She turned to her side and slowly began to lift herself up. Belldandy did the same and both, unsteadily, got to their feet at the same time. Whatever she had done to break free and destroy the spell had taken a very large toll on the demon. But the goddess was in no position to take advantage of this.

So both combatants stared at each other for several moments, sizing each other up.

Thrymr shook her head. "You almost had me," she said with a smirk. "But these fists, they have never let me down." To emphasize this, she kissed each one on the knuckles before dropping back down into her fighting stance.

Belldandy could feel the fatigue permeating her body. She let out a sigh, then dug deep and readied herself. This fight needed to end quickly, as she was going to be unable to continue for much longer. Fortunately, she could tell Thrymr was in just as bad a shape as she was. The demon looked drained in spite of the smug smile on her face. The spell had seemingly taken more out of her than it had Belldandy, for that she was thankful.

The pair glared at each other for a short while before Thrymr launched herself at the goddess with a roar. Belldandy did the same.

This time, when they came together, instead of trying to strike at her opponent, Belldandy slipped under the fist aimed at her head. Lunging forward, she hooked her leg around Thrymr's, which was extended forward in an effort to put more power into the blow. The goddess put her shoulder into the demon's hips and then pushed. The move unbalanced the demon, and she toppled over backwards. Belldandy wasted no time, pushing herself up the demon's body until she was straddling her chest. Using her hands, she pushed Thrymr's arms down the ground, holding them there and trapping the demon underneath.

Her head came down and smashed into Thrymr's nose.

I…" She head-butted the demon again.

"Have had…" Again.

Enough…" Again.

"Of you!"

One final blow, then she pushed herself off. Thrymr groaned at her feet as she took a step back. Once again, Belldandy started chanting. As she waved her arms in geometric shapes, runes began to form in the air in front of her. " _Akepia annarr!_ " she cried as she came down on one knee and slammed her fist into the demon's chest. She then jerked her arm back.

A crimson mass came out when she did that. As Belldandy staggered backwards, the object fell at her feet and began to uncurl. Arms and legs immediately began to emerge from the unspeakable mass at the goddess's feet. She stepped back further as it continued to grow and take shape, eventually taking on a form similar to the demon that was starting to moan and get to her feet.

As she did, so did the mass, which now looked almost exactly like Thrymr.

Debra screamed from her hiding place. "What the fuck did you just do?!"

"I know what I am doing," snapped the goddess back.

The former mass stretched its arms. It was vaguely female in the same way that Thrymr was. Muscles rippled over every inch of her body. Still, there were many differences. Her skin was much darker than the other demon's, and her hair was black instead blonde.

Thrymr put her thumb against the side of her nose, closing the nostril, then blew hard. A bloody booger splatted on the ground. She then took hold of her nose and wrenched it back to its normal position, causing it to let out a sickening crunch. She then looked at Belldandy and that smug smile returned. It looked like she was going to say something when she noticed the new presence standing next to her. "What the hell?" she exclaimed.

"The name's Rmyrht," replied the other demon. She smacked one of her fists into the palm of the other hand. "I'll take it from here," she said hungrily as she eyed Belldandy.

"Like hell you will!" exclaimed Thrymr as she reached up and grabbed hold of Rmyrht's shirt, pushing her back.

The second demon stared at the blonde incredulously. "What the fuck you gonna do? She been beatin' yo' ass like you a red-headed step-child. It's time you tapped out and let me take care of her proper-like."

"Me and these fists are going to beat your ass, is what we gonna do!" exclaimed Thrymr as she dropped down into her fighting stance.

Rmyrht followed suit. "We will break you," she replied as she brought her massive fists up to the ready.

"Fuck me." Keiichi whispered, his eyes wide from where he watched with Debra. "It's the goddamned Water Temple all over again!"

Belldandy did not know who threw the first punch, nor did she really care. In fact, she barely registered that the demons had begun fighting because she was chanting another spell. As the duplicates traded blows, it was finished. She reached down and picked up a small box that had appeared at her feet. It was a blueish gold color and had mandalas covered in runes adorning all of its faces. Calmly, she flipped open the lid of the box, then walked over to where the demons were facing each other locked hand in hand, trying to gain the upper hand through sheer strength with each failing to make any headway.

Thrymr had her back to the goddess as she approached. But she was too preoccupied to notice. Nor did she feel it when Belldandy slammed the open box into her back. In a brilliant flash of light, both demons were gone.

XXX

As Keiichi and Debra approached, they found the goddess sitting on her knees on the ground. The small box sat there in front of her. The lid was closed and a small latch and padlock had appeared, sealing the box shut.

The mortal woman stooped down and examined the box. "So, both of them are in there?" she asked.

"Yes," replied the goddess. "They will continue to fight in there for as long as the seal lasts."

"How long will that be?"

"They won't be released any time during your lifetime," replied Belldandy without even looking. She continued to stare at the box. Both mortals could tell she was exhausted. "In fact," started Belldandy after a long pause. "They won't see the light of day while any of your descendants hold a recognizable piece of you in them."

Debra stepped over and leaned down, putting a hand on Belldandy's back. "Are you going to be able to continue?"

The goddess nodded wearily. "For Aiko, I must." She then reached down and grabbed the box. As she stood, she held it out in front of her and blew on it. It disappeared from her palm. She then stood and faced the mortals. "I am ready."

"What just happened?" asked Keiichi. "Those two vanished like a pair of cenobites in the lament configuration."

"I sent them somewhere safe," replied Belldandy.

XXX

"You made it."

They'd found her.

After losing their own and fighting through two nightmarish opponents, they'd finally found her.

Hagall.

 _Where is Aiko though?_ Belldandy wondered, and though her attention was focused on the demon who was making her way towards them, her senses were spreading out, out, _out,_ spreading, filling, searching the room for signs of another, signs of a weaker aura, a hidden breath, hell at this point even a _body_ that might be Aiko's. Yet the room was empty aside from Hagall. Small and empty and somehow disappointing with its bland walls and lone desk and chair. A small lamp illuminated the desk, coupled with the gentle light from a computer that had been rigged by either technological or magical means. It was from this desk, from this chair, that Hagall stood as the group of three came barging in. It looked almost as if they caught her in the midst of writing a report, and as the trio entered the room, Hagall looked at them with a mixed bundle of expressions: surprise, dismay, disappointment, and even some wariness. "Surprising. I wasn't expecting you to get past Halval and Thrymr. The two of them together should have been enough to take out even a Valkyrie at full strength."

Her words were unexpected. Belldandy had expected her to come out gloating, to be standing on a pedestal or a throne, waiting, laughing, _mocking_ them over Urd's fall, over her _victory_ over the fallen Norn. Perhaps taunt Belldandy, or Keiichi, who'd spurned her, or the absent Lind, for no other reason than that she was a Valkyrie. Not... this. It felt like they'd barged into someone's office looking for a fight, like _they_ were somehow the villains here: violators of the peace coming to ransack a building regardless of its occupants, instigating fights with white collar workers who'd stood up to them and were now going for the boss so they could lynch her from a tree.

 _It's because of her that Urd is dead,_ Holy Bell reminded, and Belldandy felt what was becoming a familiar pulse of anger- the only thing keeping her going it felt like- surge through her body. Her elder sister, who heckled her every morning into waking up at the ass-crack of dawn, who pestered and prodded her when she wanted to be left alone, who fought with her in the basement when Keiichi wasn't around to watch in order to teach her new techniques... who'd gone out of her way to stay with Belldandy when she'd been most vulnerable, who'd stayed awake at her side when she'd suffered nightmares, who'd taken up chores and tasks that Belldandy would have otherwise done in order to allow her to relax... Urd, who'd worked so hard for her, who'd sacrificed her own happiness to help Belldandy, who'd stood in shock as Belldandy had left her in anger because _this bitch—_

She could feel her throat tighten at the thought of her sister, felt a wave of misery wash over her like a wave, filled to the brim with guilt that tasted like bile and anger that was nothing but heat. She felt it fill her, that anger, that _rage_ , flushing her out like water down a drain and filling her body from her toes straight up into the roots of her hair. The fatigue from her duel with Thrymr vanished- for the moment. Oh, she was on _fire_ right now. She was burning up, the embodiment of flames, the borrowed owner of Urd's favored element when plasma was too dangerous. She'd bring the heat in Urd's stead, and Almighty stop her, she'd burn everything to the ground if Hagall spurned her again.

The goddess sucked in a long, deep breath, and stared at the demon across from her. She internalized that heat, put a chain of cold, hard, _will_ on that beast, and brought it to heel. And she delivered her ultimatum.

"You have one chance, Hagall," Belldandy said. "Return Aiko to us, and you may yet leave this chamber." She wouldn't kill her. Oh no. Debra's ranting and raving had done its job and ended that bit of madness before it could consume her entirely. But she would make this woman _hurt,_ would leave her begging, would leave her crying, would leave her _screaming_ for an end of what was to come. She wouldn't stop until Hagall started howling for death, and it was only then, she decided, that Belldandy would stop. Only when Hagall was begging for death would Belldandy end the fight, and the Norn would leave her bloodied and broken here in this chamber. She would leave and retrieve the blind demon, but Hagall she would let stay. Let her rot here. Let her succumb to her injuries. Let her wounds become infected. Let the mold and the insects and the earth she'd surrounded herself with end her wretched existence. It would still be more than what she'd afforded Urd. But she'd give Hagall a chance to lessen the pain.

One. Chance.

 _Return Aiko_.

Perhaps Hagall, a demon, sensed some of the vicious intent radiating from Belldandy. Demons were sensitive to bloodlust, given how easy and how often it was for their vicious nature to consume them in battle. The demon paused, opened her mouth, and then closed it and pursed her lips, staring at the Norn thoughtfully. Belldandy watched her with keen eyes, feeling like an owl hovering over a mouse, a tiger about to pounce on a deer, all coiled muscle and energy waiting to explode at the most trivial of opportunities. The woman watched her warily, her eyes locked on Belldandy without a single glance to so much as acknowledge the two mortals who'd come to stand on either side of her.

The three of them together must have been quite the sight to Hagall: A man who stood clutching a weapon, his shirt down to his pants drenched in blood with a murderous expression on his face as he stared her down. A man she _knew_. A _mortal_ she'd failed to defeat in Japan and who now stood before her again, this time armed with a weapon that could wound, that could harm, that could _kill_ with a good eye and a steady hand. On the other side of Belldandy, a woman, a stranger, a wildcard who by all rights should not be standing at the side of the goddess. A person who should have gone mad in the darkness and been struck down by violence, and who wore the wounds of her battles in the form of baleful eyes and the reek of used gunpowder and magic.

And of course, Belldandy herself. A goddess who'd already suffered a decade under the demon's hand, and had now lost a sister to Hagall as well. A goddess who'd gone through great lengths to reach her, had defeated the monsters that rose in Darkness and sealed the impenetrable will of Force to face Hagall in her terrain.

"Urd isn't with you." It was only with this comment that Hagall broke eye contact, observing the room and the door the trio had entered through as though expecting the woman in question to appear at any moment.

"No," Belldandy said, and a piece of her was amazed at how calm her voice was, "She's not." The words sounded somehow unimaginably large in their simplicity. An admission. A defeat.

A victory.

Hagall sucked in a breath through her nose. "Then it's been done," she said.

Belldandy said nothing.

Hagall nodded, unsurprised. "They'll come for me then, I suppose... Halval and Thrymr weren't meant for you." She laughed, and it was a pitiful sound. "They were my only line of defense against those who'll hunt me down for what I did." She sighed deeply and rubbed her eyes, for a moment looking not like some wretched, arrogant demon but like a woman who'd been trapped and cornered by her own foolhardiness and was recognizing what would be her inevitable end. "I regret none of it." Her hand dropped, and the demon's eyes were hard. "I say this to _you_ , now, Din'Gir Belldandy. While my mind and body are still sane and whole. I regret _nothing_ , and I would do it all again in a heartbeat if it was for Niflheim."

"You took my sister from me, Hagall."

"I did."

"You left me at the mercy of a sick and depraved man for ten long, painful years in order to get to her, Hagall."

"I did."

Belldandy gritted her teeth, glaring at the woman, whose disposition still remained calm and collected: a doomed woman who'd come to accept her fate. The Norn's hands clenched at her sides. "Where is Aiko, Hagall?"

"She is the mortal, correct?" Hagall asked, and her sudden need for clarification irked Belldandy for reasons she could not fully explain.

"She is," Keiichi rumbled beside Belldandy, sounding very much like the Navy SEAL that he was. "Return her now, Hagall."

"Or what?" Hagall looked at them as a group, amused. "You'll kill me? Child, with the ones who are coming for me right now, that would be a mercy."

"Answer the question, Hagall."

"She's not here."

"She's not-" Keiichi took a step towards the demon, his rifle swinging up towards Hagall's chest. "Don't fuck with me, Hagall. Where's my sister?"

"Not _here_." Hagall shrugged, and a small smirk twitched at the corner of her mouth; a sign of the arrogant Hagall that Belldandy had come to know and hate. "She was never here. I don't even know where that idea came from."

"Bullshit-" Keiichi began.

Hagall interrupted him. "No more than the words you're spewing," she said. "The _rabishu_ was the one who took her, not me. We never saw where it took her and it is too simple-minded to communicate with us."

"Are you serious?!" Debra stared at the demon in disbelief. "That-that thing we left with Urd and her friend? _That_ is what took her? And you don't even know _where_?!"

"It is of no concern to me where the _rabishu_ makes its nest," Hagall replied. "Only that it comes when we whistle and screams where we point."

"You... _bitch_..." Debra breathed, and for once Belldandy found herself agreeing with the woman. "We came all this way... we fought past your guards... and for _nothing_?! Because Aiko isn't even _here_?!"

"The presence of a mortal on a Ley Line where both demons and gods combat would bring down authorities higher than any of us on our heads," Hagall retorted. "Mortals cannot stay on Ley Lines for long periods of time with tenth-dimensional beings. In their words, their definition of reality becomes... _screwy_ , for lack of a more imaginative phrase." She eyed the two mortals on either side of Belldandy with scorn. "Though it would seem there is leniency with children of a _Lugal_ residing on a lesser plane. Typical," she scoffed. "Child of a _Damkianna_ or child of a _Lugal_ , it does not matter. They all have no discipline, no respect for the laws of the lower planes, and so wave their power around without care."

Belldandy twitched.

"Hagall, by the time we're through with you, you're going to wish you'd paid closer attention to your monster." There was a dangerous edge in Keiichi's voice now. A _tremble_ in his tone. One of rage filled to the brim and about to spill over the edge, and the look on Keiichi's face only reaffirmed that reality.

"You'll have to beat me first." Hagall said. "And let me share a secret with you, Boy. While you have your numbers on your side, while you have your _goddess_ on your side, with her strength and with her rage and with her _power_ , you will be in for a long fight." The demon sucked in one final, long breath, and her eyes fell once more upon Belldandy. "Because there is nothing more dangerous than a cornered demon, and let me tell you something: With the _Damkianna's_ _zibanitum_ gone, I am being hunted, and it is by monsters that make that _rabishu_ look like the weak shell of the woman it hides itself within. You stand before a speaking corpse, and I have nothing to lose and everything to gain. So come at me, Children of Man. Come at me _Din'Gir_ Belldandy. Come at me so that I might fight. Come at me so that I might _die_." An aura of such power that even Keiichi could see it exploded out from the woman, filling the room and everything inside it before condensing back around Hagall. The demon's eyes began to glow crimson as she fell into her bloodrage, and she roared at trio. " _Come at me!"_

If ever there was an invitation for battle it was in that moment. Belldandy flew towards the demon with a savage scream. She was met by Hagall mid-way, who slipped under the kick aimed at her chest and came up into Belldandy's guard, her fingers, curved into wicked talons that glowed the same red as her aura, raking the Norn's inner thigh. Blood seeped from the wound, yet Belldandy felt none of it, too intent on causing her own damage to the demon that had spurred her wrath. Her left knee came up and planted itself firmly in Hagall's exposed belly, where the goddess had just enough time to register the snarl of pain before Hagall grabbed her shoulders. Pain exploded behind Belldandy's eyes as magic sliced through her shirt and into her skin, yet her body worked through it, acting on auto-pilot as her arms moved to break-grip, wrenching Hagall's hands away from her shoulders and seeing blood and cloth go with it. Free and with Hagall thrown off balance, the Norn lunged at the demon, hooking her fingers into Hagall's shirt and crossing a leg behind the demon's left knee. She displaced her weight, forcing it back on Hagall, and together goddess and demon fell to the ground.

They fought on the ground, Belldandy atop of Hagall, fighting for leverage as Belldandy attempted to grapple Hagall into submission, avoiding the demon's deadly talons which sliced into cloth, skin, even tile like it was paper. Hagall was fast for her size-made fast and powerful by her bloodlust, but she lacked the technique that had been drilled into Belldandy's head through her practice with Urd. Yet all the training in the world did not prepare her for Hagall's wild and unpredictable attacks. They did nothing to prepare her for the demon's _bites,_ filled with their own style of viciousness that was different from the damage rendered by her claws.

The attacks were enough to instill caution in the goddess, preventing her from getting a good enough hold of the demon to fully pin her. And she was losing blood; a _lot_ of it. The injuries weren't particularly deep, but they were numerous and Belldandy's heart was racing. _Get her away from you!_ Holy Bell screamed. _You need a new tactic-this isn't working and Keiichi can't shoot her this close to you._

She listened to her angel's advice, drawing on her magic reserves and flinging Hagall away from her in a gale of wind. The demon flew off her with a snarl and a shriek, teeth flashing in the mage light as Belldandy flung her into the ceiling. The ceiling crumbled upon impact, and Hagall vanished into the inky blackness of the floor above. The Norn crawled to her feet, panting, and wiped both blood and sweat from her brow. She glared at the hole, but didn't pursue the demon, knowing that in her bloodrage Hagall would come back swinging, empowered by her own rage, pain, and desperation.

She'd learned that the hard way in her earlier childhood with Urd, before her sister had gained a better control over that same ability. Back then, Urd had done everything from break bones to shred not only her clothes but limbs as well; one incident in particular, this one by far the worst, had been when Ansuz herself had gotten involved in an attempt to end the fighting. It'd left Ansuz's left arm, from the elbow down, in ribbons. Ansuz had seen the fight break out from a distance and had raced without thought into the melee, suffering talons and fangs as she'd attempted to stop Urd -back then not even ten years old- without actually harming her. Belldandy had managed to break Urd's collarbone before the bloodrage had taken over, and the wild intensity with which her sister had fought back then had been terrifying.

They'd needed a special Tic for Ansuz after Urd had expended so much energy that she'd lost her madness, and even after the injuries had healed Ansuz never fully recovered; her left arm remained weak, and Ansuz had trouble holding things in that hand after the tendons within her forearm had been mangled. Rumors claimed it was an issue that had led to her retirement as a Valkyrie, though when asked, Ansuz had always denied it.

Urd had never fallen into a bloodrage again, after that. She, and indeed even Belldandy, had never forgiven themselves for the injuries sustained on that day.

But that was a long time ago. Hagall was not Urd, a half-demon who'd been sent to their father against Ansuz's will. Not a nine-year old child who'd yet to master the berserker fury that came with the bloodrage technique inherent in all demons. Hagall was a grown, full-blooded demon who showed both mastery and intent of using the technique, and that made her much more dangerous that any child, even one born of both the Daimakaicho and Daitenkaicho. "When she comes through the hole, shoot her," Belldandy announced, keeping her eyes glued to the black depths of the floor above. Hagall had fallen silent, and that made Belldandy wary.

"Even if it kills her?" Debra asked.

"It won't kill her," Belldandy replied. "Not as she is now. It will take nothing short of ripping her to pieces to kill her in this state. She will keep going even if her body is filled with bullets."

"Great, so she's Hulking out like Thrymr on crack," Keiichi muttered. "Wonderful. If I knew I'd be re-enacting scenes from the _Avengers_ I'd have stolen a Tesseract."

Belldandy ignored him. Hagall had yet to emerge from the room above, and the Norn was not foolhardy enough to rush off into the darkness after her. Demons could see in the dark. Belldandy could not, and she was not about to waste magic on additional mage lights for herself nor leave Keiichi and Debra alone in the dark to be struck down. She strained her ears, yet heard nothing from the hole, though she was certain the floor would have been rotted through enough to groan beneath Hagall's weight.

"Where is she?" Debra sounded nervous behind her, and Belldandy could hear the woman shift her weight from one foot to another. Keiichi, like Belldandy herself, did not so much as twitch.

"Be still," Belldandy warned her. "Be silent." Was that scraping she was hearing above her? Pounding feet from a presence above moving about?

Behind her Debra's movements stopped, and the room in its entirety fell into silence. _Where is she though?_ Belldandy wondered, unconsciously reflecting Debra's own line of thought. _She wants to fight. She made that clear. She wouldn't have run. So where is she?_ Keeping her steps quiet, Belldandy approached the hole, her nerves on edge and ready to spring to safety at the first indication of attack. She squinted up into the darkness in search of any kind of glow that would give away Hagall's eyes- one of the disadvantages held by demons, they couldn't hide the glow of their eyes- and was perturbed when she neither saw nor heard anything.

 _She's up there. I know it. But what is she doing?_ She narrowed her eyes, expanding all her senses as much as she could, yet came up with nothing. The room was too filled with the standard aura of 'demon' to pinpoint Hagall's location, and her nose had never been strong enough to track by mere scent alone. _Come out you wretch,_ Belldandy thought. _You harlot, you scoundrel, you cre-_

A chunk of ceiling, not directly over her head or the mortals' heads but to the _left_ of her, exploded in a hail of dust, mold, plaster, and asbestos. She looked to the source, startled, and was too slow to react before Hagall collided into her. A rain of gunfire greeted her descent as Keiichi opened up on the demon, yet her descent was too fast for Keiichi's aim to keep up, and the man let up on the trigger just before the barrage could touch Belldandy.

Hagall hit Belldandy with enough force to send both of them flying, and Belldandy felt her feet leave the floor as she was propelled backwards. She watched with startled eyes as behind Hagall, Keiichi and Debra zoomed away from her, Keiichi holding his weapon steady but his finger off the trigger, unwilling to risk injuring Belldandy.

The two of them hit the far wall hard enough to push the air out of the Norn's lungs, and winded, the goddess gasped in a painful breath. Her head snapped forward like a cracked whip. Her chin crashed into Hagall's head. Stars exploded behind her eyelids, and pain soared up her body as her lower back impacted something hard and protruding.

"Look at me, Belldandy." Hagall's voice was so gravelly it was hard to recognize. "Open your eyes. _Look at me._ Look upon my face and know that I am dead. _Look at me."_

Grimacing, Belldandy pried one eye open, intent on getting the demon off of her and instead making the very mistake Keiichi had made in his first meeting with Hagall. In that moment, pinned against a wall by a demon whose power increased ten-fold in the heat of bloodlust, Belldandy and Hagall locked eyes. Hagall smiled then, with her eyes still glowing their ominous red, and around Belldandy the world began to disintegrate, began to fall into an inky blackness that felt somehow alien and strange to her mind as it reached for her, and whose tendrils were long and oily, seeping into the cracks of her consciousness as Hagall's trap worked itself up around the goddess.

In their first encounter, Hagall had made the mistake of engaging with a goddess lost in her own semblance of bloodlust: a state of berserker fury that all the Aesir, the warrior gods of Asgard, shared amongst themselves. In that moment Belldandy had been blind. She'd seen not _Hagall_ as her target but instead The Demon. The Demon had been her target, featureless and blank, for the mind erased what it did not want to see, and it was easier to attack a person when one could not comprehend the expressions on their face. When Hagall had met the Norn's eyes in another lifetime, there had been no connection between their gaze. Belldandy saw but had not _seen_ Hagall. Yet the Belldandy of the past was a much different person from the Belldandy of the present, and with an angel present to soothe that berserker fury from taking over, that disconnect was not present.

And so it was, Belldandy looked into Hagall's eyes, and went limp.

XXX

Keiichi watched the two combatants with wary eyes, wanting desperately to fire on Hagall but afraid of what a ricochet or a bad shot might do to Belldandy if the Norn was hit instead. Keiichi didn't know if the rounds would necessarily affect the goddess, however he had no desire to test the possibility now.

"Come on Bell, get out of the way!" Keiichi ground out, his impatience increased by his own anxiety as he watched the Norn struggle against Hagall. It was like watching a pair of wildcats fight with the level of savagery they demonstrated, and though the SEAL was grateful Belldandy had healed his injuries from Thrymr, the larger part of him was now concerned. How much energy did it take to heal a man, a mortal, such as himself? Belldandy wasn't a Tic. He didn't even think healing was something she specialized in. So how much of her own power had she wasted on _him_? Power- magic or energy or chi or whatever gods wanted to call it- that could have given her the upper hand in this fight?

"Get out of the _way_ , Bell!" he growled, and though he peered down red dot sight, placing the pinprick on Hagall's form, he could not find the will to pull the trigger. _It'll misfire,_ he thought. _Hagall will move at the last moment, or Belldandy will flip them, and I'll shoot Bell instead of Hagall. "_ God damn it, _move!"_ he urged, yet Belldandy didn't move. In fact, Belldandy _stopped_ moving, stopped _fighting,_ and oooh shit and shinola Hagall was standing up, and Belldandy wasn't stopping her. The demon's back was turned towards the two mortals, staring down at the goddess before her, and reflexively Keiichi stepped past Debra, placing himself as a barrier between his ex-wife and Hagall in case the demon suddenly decided to strike.

"Deb, this is bad," he breathed.

"Kei, don't tell me things like that." Debra sounded like he felt. "What is it? What did she do to Bell?"

"I don't know," Keiichi said, and after a long pause, "...I think she might have hypnotized her. Hagall did the same to me back when I first fought her. Another moment of hesitation. "It's like a mind trap. Don't-don't look into her eyes, Deb, understand? That's how she traps you."

Debra swore under her breath. "Of all the dumb-fuck ways to..."

Hagall, her eyes still glowing, turned to acknowledge the two mortals behind her.

"Oh shit."

With a burst of daunting speed, the demon propelled herself towards the duo, a snarl on her face that twisted the entirety of her visage into something malicious and inhuman. The image presented to the two mortals: one of a woman bathed in an angry aura that was visible to a man who was spiritually dead, with glowing red eyes and an expression of murderous intent as she flew, literally _flew_ towards them, was enough to instigate fire from them both. Throwing curses in the air, Debra planted her feet, aimed down her sights, and fired. As soon as the report announced the bullet's emergence Hagall ducked right, and was met once more with bullets as Keiichi unleased a small and contained burst of gunfire from his own weapon. This time Hagall bounded to the ceiling, as though gravity was a myth kept only by mortal men, and Keiichi fired again, his panic mounting when no evidence of a single bullet touched her person.

Again, Hagall propelled herself away, this time to the wall to the left of the mortal, where Debra made a second attempt at ending the madness. "Oh my god get off of the fucking wall you cunt!" she exclaimed. "This isn't fucking Silent Hill!" Another report, and Hagall was on the ground again, shrieking now with a scream that could not be defined as human. It hurt Keiichi's ears, it made Debra scream, and with a roar of his own he fired a third burst at her.

Once more he missed his target.

"Bell! You dumbass! Snap out of it you stupid god or you're going to be sorry," Debra screamed, and for a moment, Keiichi took the time to pause and look over at his ex-wife, staring at her in open bewilderment. "Maybe I'll fucking die because of you, but you know what? Keiichi's going to die with me!" she screamed. "I'll steal him away, and you won't be able to stop me, and you know why? It's because you got your ass hypnotized." She fired off another futile shot at Hagall, who dodged it once more, still unharmed, still whole. "How could someone so strong and so powerful get hypnotized like a little bitch? Huh?"

"Deb, now's not the time!" he screamed, blasting off another three rounds of ammunition towards Hagall, who dodged it like some kind of Hollywood monster, propelling herself from one wall to the next as she attempted to get close enough to rip his, hell, _both_ of their heads off.

Debra ignored him, still continuing her rant. "Face if Bell, the real person you're in love with here isn't Keiichi, its Hagall! Why else would you let yourself get hypnotized? 'Oh Hagall, I love you Hagall, give Belldandy a big sloppy _kiss,_ Hagall!'" The detective taunted.

"Deb, I don't think she can hear you!"

"Yeah? Well I think she does!" the detective retorted, firing another shot that _almost_ hit the demon. "Prove me wrong Belldandy, I fucking dare you!" Debra screamed. "Prove me fucking wrong! Pull your head out of your goddamned ass and start _fucking helping us!"_

The air exploded.

Keiichi couldn't explain it any other way. The air around Hagall literally _exploded_ , like an over-pressurized soda can that had finally ruptured. He felt the barest hint of a sharp breeze, felt a shift in pressure that made his ears pop, and then Hagall was flung away from them with a scream that sounded more painful than angry. Where she landed, Belldandy appeared, an expression that could only be described as 'wrathful' on her face. The goddess planted a foot in the demon's gut and drove Hagall to the floor, spurring another painful cry from the demon, before directing that look of rage onto Debra.

She pointed at the woman. " _You!" s_ he growled. "I will deal with _you_ after I finish with _her_."

"Then look _down!"_ Debra cried, and Belldandy did so reflexively, right in time for Hagall to finish grabbing the goddess by the ankles and yanking her feet out from under her. With a strength that defied her small frame, Hagall lifted the goddess off her with a snarl, and then brought her down with a roar, where Belldandy's shoulder blades took the brunt of the impact. The ground cratered around the goddess, and Hagall rolled to her feet, this time paying the goddess not so much as a parting glance as she glared at the two mortals.

"You two," she growled, "are starting to _piss me off."_

Keiichi shot her, and this time the shot didn't miss.

This time, with Belldandy out of the way (by Hagall's hands, no less) Keiichi's aim was straight and true. The demon's head snapped back as it was struck, and in that moment the SEAL thought he'd brought a quick and sudden end to the demon.

It was a foolish hope, of course. The hope of young boys gathering their courage to face the monsters of their life, both real and imagined. And as Keiichi watched, Hagall's head came forward again, the aura around her blazing now, and leveled her heated red eyes on him.

She'd caught the bullets with her _teeth_.

And even as he watched, the bullets began to melt. Not in a method applied by heat but instead by some other means. The bullets began to melt into a shiny, silver mess, a line of liquid metal trickling down her lips and off her chin as her teeth closed down on them, forming a snarl of nightmarish proportions that left Keiichi cold and afraid.

Debra stepped back, her eyes wide. "Oh god, Keiichi, the wall... look at the _wall!"_ The SEAL tore his eyes off the demon, looking at the wall nearest Hagall and watched as its mold-riddled surface began to smoke. The smoke was thick and gray, and the smell the permeated the quarters was noxious. The plaster began to melt from the walls, exposing the steel skeleton beneath, and then that too began to melt, the rusted steel flaking away like red dust. The shards hovered in the air, pulsing around Hagall like a heartbeat, dancing to and fro around her in a visible rhythm. Above her head, the ceiling began to melt, and a hole opened up above the demon's head. Dust and plaster rained down on top of her and disintegrated before touching the demon, and their smoking ash joined the rust shards, pulsing to and fro back and forth, up and down as Hagall's rage grew.

At once an image popped into Keiichi's mind, uncalled for yet demanding his attention with such force that for a brief moment it covered Hagall completely. It was one of the signs from the fence that covered the perimeter of the place, this hell hole, this demons den _._ An old, rectangular sign, laminated and held against the fence line with zip ties. A sign in yellow, with a big, thick nuclear hazard symbol on it, and for a moment, Keiichi was certain that was what Hagall was. _She's radioactive,_ he thought, and fresh, ugly fear, ancient and demanding, raised its head. _Oh lord, she'll kill us if it's the last thing she does._

He thought he could feel the temperature of the room rising and wondered if it was real or imagined. Men weren't supposed to feel radiation on its own, but Hagall wasn't exactly Fat Man or Little Boy. But she was making the walls melt around her, god damn it, and they weren't bursting into flame but they sure as hell were smoking, and if she started directing that attention his way he was sure his eyes would start smoking too. _Your eyes'll be the last thing you'll need to worry about at this rate,_ the SEAL in him spoke, and he looked at Debra, a mortal, like him, who wouldn't last a second if Hagall decided to go critical like some kind of human atom bomb.

"Deb, get out of here!" he cried, and when Debra looked back at him it was with a defiant mixture of confusion and stubborn will. "I don't know what she's going to do but it's liable to kill _us_ at least. Get the fuck out of here!" He bolted towards her, keeping one eye on Hagall as he reached out and grabbed his ex-wife by the arm. "Get going, Deb. _Now_." There was no room for argument in her voice, and the man pushed her back towards where they'd come from.

"What?!" Debra looked at him in frightened bafflement. "Are you-what about you and Belldandy?"

"Bell can survive radiation," Keiichi grunted. "Or whatever this... _thing_ is. I don't think we can."

"Oh, so you're just going to go and fucking martyr yourself-"

"Someone needs to find Aiko, Deb!" Keiichi snapped. "She's not _here_ , remember? If we both die here, if Bell can't stop Hagall, then what the fuck is going to happen to Aiko?" He risked one final glance back at the woman. " _Find_ her."

He saw Debra's eyes widen as the words sank in, and as she turned away Keiichi returned his focus to Hagall. _That's right, bitch. Stay on me,_ he thought to himself. _Don't mind Belldandy crawling to her feet, don't mind Debra running out the door, just keep them big ol' mind-rapey eyes on me._ He fired another burst of gunfire at her and missed as Hagall leapt at him.

At that point, all thoughts of combat abandoned him, and Keiichi turned and ran. He felt... _something_ sneaking up behind him, running him down, something huge and hot and radiating... god, he didn't know. Power maybe. Radiation, perhaps. _Death,_ he was certain. He could feel the shirt on his back begin to heat, begin to grow uncomfortable as the fibers began to singe his skin, and felt the flesh beneath heat up, sweat, and break out, not in a rash but in _blisters_. _She's coming for me. Oh god, she's coming for me._ His back began to burn, the pain like the scorching heat of a fire, and he pressed himself harder, willing his legs to move faster even as something reached out and grabbed his collar—

" _Don't touch him!"_ The roar echoed the ferocity of a tiger, and for a moment that was what Keiichi saw: a great and magnificent tiger, twice as large as a Siberian and with fur so white it glowed. And then the tiger was Belldandy, knocking Hagall off her feet and sending the two of them flying into a wall. Somewhere near the door Debra released a peal of shrieks, yet it all sounded distant and far off in the wake of Belldandy's rage. An explosion of dust and debris met their collision, and the two vanished from sight. When the dust began to settle, Keiichi made out Belldandy, fury incarnate, blood streaming from her nose, her right hand wrapped deep within Hagall's hair as she slammed the demon's face into the ground.

With a scream that was almost feral Belldandy jerked Hagal's head up by the roots of her hair, only to smash it back down into the floor, this time with such intensity that shards of broken porcelain danced around them. Hagall clawed at the goddess, yet Belldandy ignored her, though the demon's nails tore numerous cuts along her arms. Again she smashed the demon's face into the floor, and this time when she jerked Hagall's head back there was blood flowing from _her_ nose, the proud, sharp point that had once adorned the blonde's face a crushed stump of red gore. Hagall shrieked, and Belldandy answered it by once again smashing the woman's face into the floor. Over and over and over again, the goddess repeated the motion, and with each blow, Hagall's attacks weakened, her fingers, curled into such claws as to be called 'talons', losing their tension as they stopped clawing and instead began grasping. They pried at the hand that brought so much abuse, struggling against a vice grip that held no give and clutching weakly at an arm that contained no mercy.

And then even that fell away, and Hagall ceased moving at all.

It was only then that Belldandy ceased her assault. Heaving, the Norn stared down at her fallen opponent, her hand still buried in Hagall's hair. When the demon still didn't move, the goddess released her, lurching to her feet with an almost drunken gait as she swiped at her own bloodied nose with her left hand. It left a long, red smear across the Norn's right cheek, and Belldandy hawked and spat, as if to add one final insult to her defeated enemy.

For a moment, no one moved. All eyes rested on Hagall, waiting to see if the demon might yet have any strength left in her bones. A tense silence befell the area, and with it came a voice, a whimper, low and broken in the quiet of the room.

"D..die..."

Belldandy stiffened, staring down at the demon with an expression of both rage and disbelief. Her lips pulled back in a snarl, and the woman raised her right foot over Hagall's head. "You do not understand the definition of 'defeat', do you?" she rumbled.

"Die..." Hagall rasped.

And as Belldandy brought her foot down upon the demon's head, something slammed into her from behind. The goddess was flung forward, rolling on the broken ground before coming to rest ten feet away from Hagall. Where Belldandy once stood was a man of average height, dressed in a black suit and a green tie. "Whazza say?" he spoke with a thick accent, one that was similar to Urd's accent whenever she got off the phone with her mysterious friend. "Playah' three has entered thah game!"

"Who the fuck are you?!" Keiichi roared, leveling his rifle on the newcomer.

The man smiled, Belldandy's magelight casting odd shadows across his face that made the stranger look less like a man and more like a monster; a beastly creature of scales and fur and fangs. "Juz ya frien'ly monster, Cunt!" Around him, where the shadows were still thick, new people, more 'monsters' began to emerge, and Keiichi saw with growing apprehension that not all of them looked as human as they should have been.

"Durah, on Hagall." The rasping voice that arose was feminine and commanding, and Keiichi centered his weapon next on the blonde woman who owned it, perhaps the one of the ten newcomers who appeared the most human. "Tidnum, Midun, the Norn." From behind her two of the shadows, none of which looked human, darted forward, one with the wedge-shaped head of a bat with a jaw like a hyena, the other with what appeared to be some kind of fleshy cape that hid the majority of its body. "Edakua, Kili, the man. Akal, Am Rimu, the woman. Alad, the computer." More monsters split from the group, and Keiichi retreated as two of the monstrosities came towards him, two more breaking off towards Debra, who'd gone against Keiichi's orders to leave and instead hung by the door, staring at them all with wide-eyed terror.

"Back the fuck up!" Keiichi cried, yet the two monsters, the two _demons_ , ignored him, advancing on the man as if that was all he was-a man, a mortal, with a little toy that would do nothing to harm them.

"Boy, if you have any sense in that noggen a' yours, you'll lay down your weapon," the woman advised, and without a second glance moved to kneel down at Hagall's side. Grabbing a fist-full of hair, the woman pulled Hagall's head back, manipulating it to face her. Though her back was turned, there was no denying the pleasure in her voice. "Well howdy-do, Hagall-girl. Long time no see, little lady."

And there was no denying the whimper that emerged from Hagall's throat either. It was a weak noise. Sad and despairing, and something in its tone left Keiichi more alarmed than ever. These people were not Hagall's allies. "Who are you?!" Keiichi roared once more, and found the two monsters who'd come to his side-Edakua and Kili, one with an extra pair of arms like scythes, the other with no visible eyes but a muzzle like a wolf- snarling in warning.

"We ain't no one you need to worry your sweet little head over," the woman responded, letting Hagall's head drop to the floor as she rocked and rose to her feet. "You'll keep that toy a' yours off my men though." There was a definite warning in her voice now, one that Keiichi refused to acknowledge as he turned the rifle on her. The woman didn't so much as look his way, instead approaching Belldandy, who was once more attempting to pick herself up off the ground.

"Don't go near her!" Keiichi cried, and took a step towards the duo.

"Keiichi, stop-" Debra began, and she screamed as he was knocked off his feet, and the back of the SEAL's head hit the ground first, sending bright stars of red agony dancing across his vision. He moaned in pain, and for a moment heard nothing but the heavy rush of his heartbeat pounding in his ears. Something curled around his arms, and when his vision cleared he saw a taloned foot- like an eagle's foot, with five talons instead of four, wrapped around his right arm, his left arm caged entirely in the jaws of another. The two demons held him down, their grip firm but not painful; not yet. Instead they stood poised and ready to either bite down or tear him in half.

"Kei, don't move!" Debra cried once more. "Just-just stay where you are, okay? Don't antagonize them!"

"Keiichi!" That was Belldandy this time, and he glanced back at the woman, watching as the Norn stumbled to her feet and took a step towards him, only for the blonde woman to block her path. Belldandy's face contorted in rage. "Get your men away from him, you bitch!"

"Belldandy, stop!" Debra cried. "Just do what she says for now, all right?" Her words were ignored.

"You're in no place to make demands out of me, little _Din'gir_ ," the blonde replied. "Now how about you sit down and cool your heels a bit?" Belldandy lunged at her, and the newcomer, dressed in a matching suit of black and green like the rest of the more humanoid demons, stepped to the side, allowing the two monstrosities hounding the goddess to knock Belldandy to the ground. "That's your only warning, Norn," the woman warned. "Where's Urd?"

"Fuck off, Demon." Belldandy growled.

"Wrong answer," said the blonde. "How about this: Where's Thrymr?"

Without warning Belldandy launched herself up towards the stranger, and this time was met head- on by the blonde. A fist drove itself into Belldandy's gut, and as the goddess staggered the woman spun, using the momentum produced to drive a hammer fist down on the back of the Norn's head. Belldandy crumpled to the ground like a sack of bricks, and this time, did not move from where she fell.

Keiichi moaned in distress.

The blonde straightened, then addressed the two demons. "Watch her." Hisses and growls met her departure, and the woman made her way to Debra, who stared at the woman with a solemn expression. Her hands were raised, Keiichi's revolver dangling from her thumb by the trigger guard.

"You," the woman said. "Do you know who I am?"

Debra licked her lips. "You're... you're Urd's backup."

The woman nodded. "I am _Di'kur_ Mara of the _Kalbisharur zi Agu'Rimanis,"_ she introduced. "Do you know what that is, Child of Man?"

Debra's eyes darted to the two demons on either side of her. "No," she admitted. "I don't know what that means."

"It means I am like you," Mara continued. "Do you understand?"

"You're like me..." Debra trailed off, staring at the blonde in confusion. "You're like..." Her eyes widened. "Like a _detective?!"_

The demon grunted. "Will you cooperate now?"

Debra stared at the woman in shock, then at the two monstrous entities who stood guard on either side of her. "Then these guys..."

"Are part of my team, yes." Mara nodded. "We are here for Hagall. No one else. You cooperate, we leave you in peace, and _Gashan_ Hagall will face justice for the crimes she has committed."

Debra stared at the woman, rendered mute by the explanation before finally nodding her head. "Yeah..." she mumbled. "Yeah, okay, I understand. You're law enforcement. Alright. Fine. From one cop to another, I'll cooperate."

Mara's face broke into a smile, and Debra shuddered at the woman's visible fangs. "Good," she said, "Where is the demon called Thrymr?"

"Gone," Debra replied. "Not dead but... I don't know. Belldandy did some kind of magic and she just sort of... vanished." In a lower voice she muttered. "The two of them weren't exactly skipping rope together."

Mara grunted, then looked over her shoulder back at the fallen goddess. "Fuckhead," she muttered. "There goes one of our biggest intelligence sources down the drain... swear to Nidhogg, if she's fucking sealed..." The demon trailed off, then seemed to remember herself and sucked in a deep, cleansing breath. It was surprising, coming from a demon, given that all the other monstrosities Debra had fought had seemed of the type to lose all sense of reason at a moment's notice. This was almost... human. The demon looked back at the detective. "I'll deal with _that_ later. And Urd?"

At that Debra fell quiet. She stared at the blonde, and watched as the woman's face hardened in the silence. "She's... not here," Debra said, her words cautious in light of the new entities, the new _organization_ , that surrounded them. "The last I saw her was at a storage unit complex. We split up there- Urd and another woman and then myself, the man, Keiichi, and the goddess, Belldandy." She paused there before continuing. "Belldandy is convinced she is... gone."

"Explain." The woman didn't jump her like Debra half-expected. The most expression the detective caught on the blonde's face was her eyes narrowing, and that was all. Some part of her was grateful for that.

"We pulled into a gas station," Debra continued. "And Belldandy did a search for her sister. She couldn't... couldn't find her." She paused there, before adding, "Keiichi said she was facing down some kind of 'destruction program'. He tried calling her cellphone too, but... she never picked up."

A deep and rumbling growl emerged from the demon on Debra's left, and the detective jumped, stumbling away from the creature as it bared fangs the length of her hand.

"Akal." Mara's voice raised in warning, and with a snort the beastly creature stepped back, leaving Debra in peace. The blonde stepped closer to the detective, then, and in a lower voice rumbled, "You are certain of this?"

"Not in the slightest," Debra replied in an equally quiet voice. "I'm only saying what I think I know. Keiichi and Belldandy will say the same."

" _They will say less,"_ the demon on Debra's right growled, its voice deep and grating like tumbling rocks. " _They will not cooperate with demons like us."_ The creature turned its massive head towards Mara, regarding the woman it with one large, watery, brown eye. " _Your instructions,_ Daku _?"_

Mara crossed her arms over her chest and pursed her lips, her eyes growing distant and contemplative. Debra shifted uncomfortably on her feet, then glanced past Mara and to where Keiichi lay, watching her with wild eyes. _"Wait,"_ she mouthed, and hoped he would listen. It looked very possible that the demon holding him down might rip his arm off if he struggled, and right now Debra was fearing more for his safety than her own.

"We will take _Gashan_ Hagall and investigate Urd's last known location," Mara announced, and then looked down at Debra. It took the detective a moment to realize the demon stood a full head taller than her. She was tall. Tall like Urd. "You have been a boon to us." The blonde considered the mortal for a long moment, and then held her hand out in offering. "You have our thanks. Your aid shall not be forgotten, Detective."

Hesitantly, Debra reached out and shook the offered hand. It felt awkward; Mara had offered her left hand to shake instead of her right, and as a result Debra's grip was clumsy and weak. Her arm broke out into goosebumps when the demon's hand wrapped around her own as well. It wasn't human flesh she felt but something else entirely. Something rough like a large callous, but surrounded in short, bristly fur at the same time. It took all of Debra's will not to yank her hand back when Mara released her.

Mara turned away, her business with Debra done. "Alad, wrap it up!" she instructed, and as she left Debra the two demons who'd moved to guard the mortal fell into step behind her, lumbering off towards the rest of the group that surrounded Hagall. "The rest of you, rally up." Those demons near Belldandy and Keiichi joined Mara's gathering as she passed, and trembling, Keiichi sat up, rubbing his freed arm and looking visibly shaken. Debra ran to join him, wrapping her arms around him and helping the SEAL climb to his feet.

Together, the two mortals observed the gathering of demons, Keiichi breathing hard against Debra as Mara and her team gathered around Hagall. One of them, the demon that had knocked Belldandy away from Hagall, knelt down next to the fallen demon. While those gathered blocked their view, there was no denying the sound that arose around them- the sound of tearing flesh and breaking cartilage, and the accompanying moan that came with it. The man straightened and passed something to Mara, who once again parted from her team in order to approach the two mortals.

"A great wrong has been done here today due to a demon's meddling," she said as the demon drew near. "You, Boy. Keiichi, is that right?"

"I'm a man, thank you ever so fucking kindly." Keiichi wheezed.

Mara snorted. "Your woman is unconscious and we do not have time to dawdle," she said. "Give me your hand."

"Why?" Keiichi demanded.

"Kei, for the love of god, just do it," Debra breathed.

"Listen to the _Di'kur,_ Soldier-boy," said Mara.

"Fuck you, I'm a SEAL."

"Then give me your hand, Seal-boy."

"Keiichi... please just do what she says."

Scowling, Keiichi held out his right hand, and without warning Mara grabbed him by the wrist and yanked him close. "Now listen closely, Mortal. _Imma nustei, Imma shan."_ She caught and held Keiichi's eyes, and Keiichi found himself unable to look away. Something dwelt within those red orbs. Something clouded, something hidden, something that played at the very edges of his vision, like the long claws of something horrible; an eldritch being that he had no desire to see and so left him imprisoned in pits of the demon's eyes.

"You will open your hand and I will give you a gift." The demon's voice was rough, like a sandstorm in Iraq, rough and grating as it tore paint off sheet metal and sandblasted armored vehicles. "You will take that gift knowing it is not for you, but for the goddess Belldandy. And when we _Kalbisharur zi Agu'Rimanis_ depart, when your goddess awakens, you will give her this gift. You will not look at it. You will not fondle it. You will not keep it for yourself nor toss it away," Mara continued. "You will give it to Belldandy, and you will deliver to her these words." What next she spoke neither Keiichi nor Debra understood, for they were in a language heard only once or twice before, and that was the strange, sing-song language that Belldandy and Urd had spoken in a bathroom in another world above ground.

" _Imma nustei, Imma shan,_ do you understand?"

And Keiichi found himself nodding, the action strange and automatic and somehow unhinged, as though a pair of hands held him by the chin and forehead and forced his head up and down in compliance. Mara smiled, and Keiichi felt something slip into the palm of his hand. His fingers curled around it as Mara released him, stepping back once more.

Keiichi blinked and shook his head, as if throwing off the last remnants of sleep from his shoulders. He grimaced and rubbed his eyes with the back of his right hand (the hand holding the gift) and then let it drop to his side, never once acknowledging Mara's strange gift.

Still smiling, Mara turned and walked off, leaving the two mortals to regard her back. Without pause she called over her shoulder, "When next you see Skuld, tell her Mara sends the little _Sag'kal_ her regards."

The demon returned to her team, and in the same manner they appeared, so too did they disappear, Hagall, blood streaming down the side of her head, held under one arm by the first of Mara's team to greet them. He and Hagall were the first to vanish, disappearing into the darkness where they seemed to merge with it, and the others were quick to follow. Mara was the last, and she looked over her shoulder at the two mortals. "We'll be in touch." And then she too was gone, dissolving into the shadows as swiftly as she'd emerged.

For a long moment neither of the mortals moved. They stared at the area the demons had vanished into with wary eyes, half-expecting another monster, another beast, another demon to emerge from the shadows in a final act of terror. Yet nothing of the sort occurred, and the duo were left with only each other for company in the silence of the room.

It was Keiichi who finally broke the silence, braving the quiet stillness of the room in favor of action. "We should check on Belldandy."

Debra jumped against him, though Keiichi's voice had been soft. Her eyes lingered in the area where Mara had vanished. "Yeah..."

Together, the duo moved to the fallen goddess, and in the lull, it seemed neither mortal remembered their weapons; they seemed of little importance now that the battle, and all its danger, had passed.

Belldandy was out cold. Nothing they did seemed to rouse the goddess, though there was little either of the mortals dared attempt without knowing the full extent of the Norn's injuries. Yet there were no signs of broken bones or open wounds that might be cause for concern, and for that they counted themselves lucky.

"We still need to find Aiko." Debra rested on her haunches, observing the fallen woman in distress.

"We need to get out of here first," Keiichi replied.

"You don't think she's here?" Debra looked at him.

Keiichi shook his head. "I don't think so," he muttered. "Otherwise Hagall would have used it to spit in our faces."

"Belldandy was about to kill her, you know."

"I know," Keiichi agreed. "And then that demon came and knocked her out." The man sighed, checking the unconscious woman's neck where Mara had struck her. "She tried to give Hagall a chance but..."

"That's no excuse, Keiichi."

The man frowned. "I know, but..."

Debra stared at him, then rolled to her feet. "I'm going to check that computer Hagall was on. See if that group of demons left us anything we can use."

Keiichi watched her leave, and then sighed, rubbing his brow. His hand dropped, and he stared down at Belldandy. The lines that had been etched into her face over the course of their journey to Hagall had faded, and for the first time since they'd started their pursuit of Aiko, the goddess looked peaceful. "I wonder if that demon was aware of the irony behind her saving a goddess from killing another demon," he muttered. Though he would not say it aloud, part of Keiichi was grateful for the interruption by Mara and her team. First-hand experience had shown him what killing could do to another person, and Belldandy already had enough trauma on her shoulders to work through. She did not need the addition of another person's death on top of everything else. Not with Urd's death to work through as well.

He winced at the thought, and Urd's face flashed across his vision. His heart hurt thinking about the elder Norn; she was a new wound, still raw and bleeding, and the SEAL feared there would not be time to morn her passing for a good while yet. Not with Aiko still missing.

As if in reflex he dug into his jeans back right pocket, pulling out his cellphone and unlocking it. A part of him marveled that the phone was still unharmed after his romp with Thrymr, but the larger portion of him was disappointed. There was still nothing from Aiko herself, just more messages from his parents asking where he'd run off too. They had been sent over an hour ago, and from this deep underground, he could expect more messages once they returned to the surface and within signal range.

The thought of having to carry Belldandy up three flights of moldy stairs and back to the car made him wince.

He scrolled through his phone, searching aimlessly for something that his conscious mind seemed unaware of, his thumb scrolling through the various apps in his library before finally selecting one at what felt like random. He stared at it as the app's title screen opened up, trying to figure out why he had it on his phone. _TRAKMI_.

Why was this app on his phone again?

 _WHO DO YOU WANT TO FIND?_ popped up as the title screen fell away, and below it was a list of names:

 _CHEEBS_

 _BENGAL_

 _OLD FART_

 _PUZZLES_

Experimentally he touched the word BENGAL, watching as the screen changed once more.

 _CANNOT LOCATE THIS PERSON AT THIS TIME. PLEASE CHECK THAT YOUR CELLULAR SERVICE IS ON OR CONNECTED TO A WIRELESS NETWORK_

Keiichi's eyes boggled. "Motherfucker..." he breathed, staring at the screen in disbelief.

He had a tracking app on his phone.

 _He had a tracking app on his fucking phone._

 _Of course you do, dumbass!_ Some small piece of him screamed. _You get one with all your phones as soon as they started developing apps for it, remember? All of you did! In case something happened to someone and you needed to locate them fast!_

And he'd forgotten about it. In his fear over the forces of evil kidnapping his baby sister, he'd forgotten the fucking phone app _specifically designed_ to locate other people.

 _Jank, you dense motherfucker!_ Urd's voice rang in his ear. _We could have avoided_ all _of this shit if you'd stopped and thought things through!_ For a moment he imagined the Norn smacking him on the back of the skull, and winced reflexively.

 _I am not a smart man._ Keiichi thought.

"I can't find anything on the computer." Deb sighed as she returned to Keiichi and Belldandy's side. "I can't even get the stupid thing to turn on. I think those demons fried it before leaving."

Keiichi looked up at her. "Um, Deb?"

"What?"

"You know how in the past I've had little moments where I forget the obvious?"

Debra paused and looked at him, staring at the SEAL with narrowed eyes. "Keiichi, you better not say another fucking word," she warned.

"Uh..."

"Kei, I swear to god-"

"The thing is-"

"Don't say it Keiichi Morisato!"

Keiichi cringed. "Um..."

"Keiichi, I swear to god, if you're about to throw me some goddamned curve ball over where Aiko is, I will shoot you and leave you here to die."

"I... have a tracking app for Aiko..." Keiichi replied. "It, um... needs signal."

An awkward silence fell upon the duo, staring at each other with an unconscious goddess laying between them both.

"This is why I divorced you," Debra announced, and squeezed the bridge of her nose. "It wasn't the fights, it wasn't you almost killing me, it wasn't you not seeking help, it was _this._ You motherfucking, shit-for-brains, jump-to-conclusions _dumbass_." Her hand dropped, and the detective sucked in a deep breath. "We could have avoided _everything!"_

"I deserve that," Keiichi muttered.

Debra growled and tossed her hands up in the air. "This is why we can't get back together. And here I thought it was because of a crazy goddess who's trying to jump your bones. Nope! It's because of my ex-husband's inattention to detail," she ranted. "That's it. I'm out." With a huff, she turned and stomped back the way she came, leaving Keiichi in her dust.

Keiichi stared after her with fresh concern, then gathered Belldandy in his arms. "Hey, wait a second!" he cried. "Wait for me, Deb! We still need to find Aiko!"

And through it all, nestled against Keiichi's chest, Belldandy slept. She murmured only a single word; a name perhaps more wept than spoken, and that was of her sister, now gone but far from forgotten.

"Urd..."

* * *

 **A/N: Was pretty stuck on this fight for a while, hence the delay in getting it out. We shall find out what happened to Aiko in the next chapter, so stay tuned.**


	50. Chapter 50 - Contra Timorous

\- 50-

 _Recent review of the_ _Gidim'ku_ _has revealed an error in its coding that threatens the continued development and even the existence of the entity and its line. Despite the advantage presented through the consumption of_ Gidim _\- those creatures created by the_ Din'Gir _as secondary spirits that reside within their bodies and act as conduits for magic and spells- their manner of reproduction is problematic in the fact that the_ Gidim _is reliant on a host body for reproduction. Early studies have revealed that the_ Gidim'ku _most easily progenerate with a_ Din'Gir _that is victimized by this creature, often a_ Din'Gir _that has already had their_ Gidim _previously devoured. The_ Gidim'ku _will lay its eggs upon a host that has already fallen into a coma, and from there the eggs hatch downwards, the larval state burrowing into the host's body as an active parasite until the nymph has reached terminal mass and is able to survive on its own._

 _Yet while this has proven advantageous- in particular with regards to disposing of hostages, political prisoners, and enemy combatants- it also brings with it a tragedy that requires a work- around; the activation of the Doublet System and the resulting death of a_ Falkin _of unknown status and identity._

 _In the past, measures had been put into place thanks to a joint effort of Falkin military forces sharing information about_ Din'Gir _warriors: Their position, their true identities, where and when they joined their military branch, and narrowing down who could be a possible Doublet candidate based off those Falkin who underwent the Doublet ceremony in roughly that same time frame._

 _It used to be that the_ Din'Gir _were spread across the far winds and held true to their own domains without regard for each other, and that our true enemies- those who serve beneath the_ Din'Gir Lugal _title of_ Daitenkaicho- _were limited and easy to predict. However, recent times have led to a large increase in traffic across the borders of Asgard (_ An- Gal) _and an additional increase of_ Din'Gir _who would become residents of this land. This sudden surge of personnel, all of whom are required to serve two full terms of military service in Asgard to become a legal citizen, has led to unprecedented circumstances that are beyond our control. The increase in Asgard citizens on an almost daily basis has led to a spike in our own people obtaining Doublets, and a recent census compiled by our intelligence branch has revealed that we, as an organization, cannot continue to process the increased number of individuals without additional personnel and resources. This limits our capability to track_ Falkin _paired with_ Din'Gir _servicemembers and limits our ability to predict the loss of_ Falkin _in positions of power when the death of a_ Din'Gir _soldier activates the Doublet system._

 _As a result of this issue and because of the_ Gidim'ku _'s need for a host, other, alternate methods of rearing this creature must be considered. We have been attempting to introduce other species to the_ Gidum'ku _in the hopes that an entity not connected via the Doublet System may possibly act as a surrogate instead of a_ Din'Gir _, thus minimizing the casualties in Niflheim while still allowing for the procreation of the magical race. So far, no magical races on the higher planes have shown any kind of compatibility with the_ Gidim'ku _, however upon arriving on_ Ki- Gal _, the Plane of Man, we have made an interesting discovery._

 _The_ Gidim'ku _has shown an interest in a select few number of mortals who reside within this place._

 _We are currently investigating this strange phenomenon in the hopes of identifying what it is about these select individuals that has caused them to draw its interest._

 _It may be that we have found our work-around for the issue with the_ Gidim'ku's _reproduction cycle._

 _\- - An Essay on the_ Gidim'ku, _taken from a computer found with_ Gashan _Hagall upon arrest_

XXX

Her head hurt.

That was the first thing she felt as her mind began to rouse. Her head hurt. It felt like a migraine, deep and vile, throbbing in the back of her skull as though someone had buried an icepick into her brain and then drawn it forward. Colors of bright reds and oranges pulsed in tune to the pounding in her skull; bursting stars that seemed to represent the pain in her head, in her _brain_ , and with a moan, she opened her eyes.

Wherever she was, it was dark. Too dark for her to see, and for a second she wondered if she'd woken up back in her room. Yet the place smelled rank and metallic, a strange mixture of rust and ocean that awoke fresh stabs in her brain and made her stomach churn with nausea. "I'm going to be sick... " she mumbled, and her voice sounded raspy and weak to her ears. She grimaced at the sound and closed her eyes again, sucking in a slow, deep breath through her mouth. She could still taste metal, and a part of her wondered if perhaps that wasn't blood of some sort instead of iron.

 _But that's silly_ , a voice of disbelief slurred. _You'd have to be hurt to taste blood, and you're just drunk, right?_

Was she drunk though? What on earth had she had last night then? Vodka? Tequila? Some hard mix of both?

 _I don't remember going drinking._ She winced as another pulse of agony stabbed into her brain, this time holding such strength that it traveled down her spine and all the way to her toes and fingers, which tingled uncomfortably. The whole of her body pulsed and throbbed before dying down into an uncomfortable tingle, as though her body was asleep, and with a grunt she tried to roll onto her back in the hopes of finding some kind of relief.

She couldn't move.

A sliver of sharp fear cut into her gut, and in that instant Aiko Morisato was engulfed in a memory.

 _She and Morgan in the bathroom._

 _Morgan freshening up and checking her makeup, realizing her brush was missing._

 _Morgan rushing out, Aiko chuckling, a crash from the far stall as the bathroom door swung closed behind her girlfriend._

 _Investigating..._

 _A woman._

 _A pale woman._

 _A sick pale woman collapsed on the ground._

" _Are you all right?" Reaching out, brushing the woman._

 _White eyes._

 _No. Red eyes._

 _Red eyes filled with pain._

 _Pain._

 _So much pain._

" _You're not human... "_

 _A hand, hot with fever and swollen and pink, grabbing her wrist. The pale woman pulling her to the ground._

 _Pain. Her own pain this time. Pain that painted the back of her eyelids red before fading into black oblivion._

"I was... kidnapped?" Aiko asked out loud, and this time her voice returned to her, garbled and out of tune as it bounced off the surrounding walls. The voice sounded lost and scared, and Aiko winced, wishing she'd spoken softer. She didn't like the sound of that echo. She didn't know if she was alone or not.

With a frown, the young woman squinted into the darkness, straining her eyes in an attempt to identify her location. Far off to her right she thought she made out a faint glow which might have been a crack in a door, but it was hard to be certain. Everything else, though...

It was just so _dark._

She tried to move again. Slowly this time. Investigating. Using her senses to feel out her surroundings. She was lying on her side somewhere, in what felt like clothes or pillows or some kind of similar cushioning. The cloth smelled old and dirty and slightly rancid, like the scent that clung to clothes from a second- hand store or that perhaps had been thrown away in a dumpster. Aiko made a face, grimacing as she imagined what she might be lying on- a soiled mattress, bedbug- ridden sheets, clothes covered in mold and gunk from ages in a dumpster, bodily fluids. She shuddered and paid for it as another streak of agony soared from her head and down her spine to her toes.

 _That's not important right now._ That was her elder brother's voice, the voice she'd always attributed with sound reason. _Ignore it. You'll have all the time in the world to sanitize yourself once you get out of here. Focus on escape first._

 _Come on Bengal, think,_ Keiichi whispered. _What's up with your hands and arms? Can you move them?_ A little, yeah, but not a whole lot. Her arms were in front of her, but while she could move them she couldn't pull them apart. Something was wrapped around her wrists... maybe up onto her forearms too. It was tight, whatever it was. Not exactly rope or cloth, but still bound tight enough to dig into her skin.

 _What about your feet and legs?_ Keiichi inquired. _Are your feet bound? Can you get up and walk around?_ She tried raising her right leg to her chest and learned that her feet were bound too. Further experimentation revealed that it was only her feet though, and after careful consideration she maneuvered her hands to her ankles, feeling along the surface of whatever material bound her.

 _It feels like silk,_ she thought. _But... sticky? It clings like... I don't know, spider webs?_

Again, the sick, pale woman flashed across her mind's eye. _You're not human,_ Aiko had told her that when they'd locked eyes, wasn't that right? _Were you some kind of spider instead? Like Baby Mordred the Spider- Boy?_

Her arms broke into goosebumps at the thought. Aiko didn't like spiders. She, like most people she knew, had a distinct fear of them, although there was nothing to indicate the possibility that the Sick Woman might have been some kind of spider- monster in disguise. A _Jorogumo_ or _Arachne_ maybe? The thought that she still might have been bound in something similar to a spider's silk still left her dismayed.

 _Forget about that before a spider really_ does _come for you,_ Keiichi growled. _Can you free your arms or legs? Are there any seams along the silk, any knots indicating a tie, any broken edges in the fabric? C'mon Aiko, work with me here!_ She searched her legs but came up with nothing outside of a network of layered silk that clung around them in chaotic lumps. It was harder to feel along her wrists, but given that the material felt the same, Aiko was willing to bet it was the same.

 _But you can crawl, Aiko,_ Keiichi reminded her. _The situation isn't dire. Not yet._ _You aren't helpless. You can still crawl on your elbows and knees. You still have the chance to run even if you can't free yourself, understand? Remember that, but first check out the cloth you're on. Anything long enough to eat through the material? Enough friction will burn through anything, man-made or artificial, right?_

 _Right,_ Aiko thought back. She felt around on the cushioning beneath her. There were multiple strips of what felt like different clothing material beneath her, and her hand wrapped around something that felt crusty, which she dropped, another thing that felt damp and slightly slimy, which she also dropped. _Gross, gross, gross!_ she thought. _Oh god this is so nasty! What am I lying in!?_

A bubble of panic began to rise in her throat, and she bit down hard on her lip, a piece of herself warning her that if she let that bubble pop, then she'd dissolve into a stuttering mass of hysteria. She grabbed another item and felt something race across her fingers. With a whimper she dropped it and shook her bound hands, hoping that whatever it was had already vanished. _Take a deep breath_ , the Keiichi in her mind coached. _Thatta' girl, deep breath, in... and out... like when we have to meditate with Keima, remember? You're fine. Now try again._

She grabbed what she hoped was the dropped scrap of cloth and this time felt and heard things crunch and pop in her clenched palms. The woman grimaced and closed her eyes. _Oh god, Kei, I can't do this._ She didn't drop it though, instead maneuvering the strip around her palm. It encircled her hand once, twice, thrice, and then stopped half- way towards four.

 _You're doing fine, Bengal. C'mon, it's your turn to be tough as nails, okay?_ Keiichi asked, and she focused on his voice, trying to ignore the way her skin crawled as more tiny creatures skittered across her legs. She thought she felt something bite her, but couldn't be sure outside of a sudden sting on her left leg, and something long slither across her right; something large and with hundreds of legs, all feather- light against her skin, made all the more terrible by their non- existence. _Don't focus on it, okay? You gotta get out of here, which means you need to be brave for me. Just like Megs. Just like me. Just like Bell, understand?_

Right. She was a strong, independent woman who didn't need rescuing. She'd rescue herself because... because... _Because you're a BAMF._ Keiichi once more came to her aid. _You hang out with literal gods like it's nothing, remember? You've got a Navy SEAL for a brother, a sister whose part of a biker gang, and you know how to fuck shit up between the two of them, yeah?_

Right. Right... she... she wasn't some damsel in distress. She could get out of here. She _was_ getting out of here.

More somethings crawled across her legs and she had to fight the reflexive need to squirm. _Is it long enough?_ she asked the Keiichi in her head. _Will it be enough to burn through the bindings?_

 _You tell me,_ Keiichi replied.

She didn't bother with an answer. Instead, the woman slid her hand out through the wrapped cloth. She drew her legs up to her chest and felt down to her bindings, then slid one end up against her them. _You know things will get tricky because you can't freely move your arms or your legs, right?_ Keiichi asked, _What are you going to do to solve this?_

Aiko pursed her lips, then rolled onto her back. She could still bend her knees, still move her legs- just not her feet, which meant she could still create friction through motion. Gripping both ends of the cloth tight in both hands, the woman began swing her legs together in long, steady strokes, raising them up to the ceiling and then letting them fall back to the ground. She did the action continuously, as if she was doing leg raises as part of an ab workout- it certainly felt like one with how her abs began to burn- and listened to the constant saw of cloth on... whatever her bindings were made of.

She felt something fall off her legs and thump against her shirt. She ignored it. She felt the panicked skitter of tiny legs race down her legs and into her shorts. She ignored it. She felt more tiny things crawl up her legs and dance across her fingers. She ignored it. She felt something crawl down the front of her shirt and scurry between her breasts. _She ignored it._ Even when she felt something crawl across her face, something tug at her hair, the wings of something hovering near her ear, she ignored it. Though it pained her, though it terrified her, though she wanted to break down screaming and swipe at her arms and squash what was down her shirt, she ignored it all, because she _needed_ to. The stubborn will to survive had taken hold of her, and the terror that came from whatever surrounded her seemed somehow distant and far away in lieu of the focus on her bindings. The friction needed to be constant and steady to eat through the bindings, and to stop or slow at any point would mean to increase her efforts ten-fold, and right now she needed to free herself as quickly as possible.

The misery must have gone on for what seemed like five minutes before something gave. By this point, not only was her mind screaming, but her abs were screaming too, and her body had started to tremble and sweat with the exertion of pushing her legs up while bound. Then the sensation of something giving, a sudden slack as the cloth that had been used to burn through the binds fell on her chest, and Aiko could move her legs independently of each other. She let them fall to the floor with a pained gasp. Breathing heavily, tears seeped from the corners of her eyes as the muscles in her abdomen seized in a burning pain. _I need to go back to the gym,_ she thought. _The first thing I'm doing when I get out of here is buy a gym membership. Screw this._

 _This coming from the girl who runs marathons for fun._ Keiichi's voice popped up again. _Your legs are free. Save the cloth and work on your hands later. Next step is getting the hell out of here._

 _Don't have to tell me twice,_ Aiko told him. Grimacing, she rolled onto her stomach and pushed herself to her hands and knees. She got her feet beneath her and pushed herself off the ground, then immediately brought her hands up to rid herself of whatever creatures were running across her face and in her hair. She flapped her shirt in an attempt to dislodge whatever had slipped into her bra, then patted her shorts to get rid of the new denizens there. She felt a multitude of creatures fall off her and tried not to think about it as her hair stood on end. She shuddered, then carefully raised one foot and put it down, hearing a noisy _crunch_ beneath her sneaker. She grimaced, raised her other foot, took a step forward and was granted a similar sound for her trouble.

 _Oh god, they're everywhere._ Aiko thought, and in her mind's eye came an image: the ground, alive and moving with the sheer number of arthropods that lived in the room, their carapaces black and shiny, where cockroaches and beetles lived side- by- side with centipedes and spiders, and all of them bigger than her hand. Where only a small nest of soiled clothing rested in the room's center; an island of cushions for herself and that sick woman, who perhaps in her own way controlled the creatures. Perhaps they were her eyes and ears, or perhaps they were the things that filled her. Parasites maybe. _Like tapeworms. Only instead of living in the stomach lining they live in your head,_ Aiko thought as she took another step, making slow progress forward and trying hard not to imagine what was caught beneath her shoes. _They eat out the brain maybe. Like Deerworm in a Moose, and because the brain is wired differently from a deer's the parasite burrows through the wrong part of the brain, and the host turns into a zombie._

It was a terrible thing to think about given her current circumstance, and her imagination went wild with thought of tiny, microscopic worms slipping into her ears or burrowing up to her brain through her mouth or through her nose. _Maybe you're already infected, and don't know it,_ some dismal piece of her whispered. _Maybe that was patient zero and you're about to spread some new infection like in that game Keigo likes to play,_ The Last of Us _. Only instead of fungi it's bugs in your brain._

 _Gah! Stop it stop it STOP IT!_

She tossed her head as if to rid herself of the thought. It was too much, _too much!_ She didn't want to imagine... _that_ _!_ Not when her life was already riddled with peculiar divinities as is! Aiko wasn't certain she _wanted_ to dwell on what else might be out there when she was already interacting with literal gods. Especially when by all logic, if _gods_ existed, then demons and _oni_ and _youkai_ had to exist as-

 _Plop, plop, plop._

Several small 'somethings' fell onto her head. She felt their attempt to burrow through her hair, and at that moment all manner of calm resolve vanished in place of sheer panic. With a wail, she ran forward, her bound hands running through her short hair and feeling hard carapaces and something sharp pinch and sting her fingers. It did not dislodge the creatures but instead incited further panic, and her next scream was met with a low, dead moan that seemed to emerge from everywhere at once. In its wake brought rise to another sound, a _chittering_ sound, as if something else had been awakened by not only her cries, but the moan of whatever owned that voice. More things began to fall into her hair, and to her dismay Aiko realized it was _raining_ in the room; raining bugs or spiders or creepy crawlies or something worse, and that what she was stepping on was not a floor covered in those same creatures but a floor that was slowly being _filled_ with them. Every step now came with a slight rise, then _crunch_ as her weight destroyed the hard shells beneath her feet. She would sink, feel things crawl over the top of her sneaker, and her next step found her up to her ankles in the creatures. The one following, over her ankles, and Aiko came to the grim conclusion that she'd be wading through them soon if she didn't escape her prison.

 _Don't fall._ The voice of caution took the chance to raise its head. _If you lose your balance they'll strip you to the bone while you're still alive. Be thankful you chose today to wear socks._

She'd been right about the light near what'd she'd theorized was the door though. The glow from the door's perimeter was growing brighter, a vertical seam of light now visible along what had to be the rim of the door. It was broken on occasion by the creatures inside with her crawling along its surface, but it was an exit, to be certain, and one she'd gladly risk her hands for if it meant freedom. She could feel the bugs crawling over the tops of her shoes know, some grabbing hold of the cotton socks and crawling up her legs.

Throwing caution to the wind, she pressed her hands up against the door and felt multiple creatures beneath her palms, all scurrying to get out from beneath her. She bit back a scream and instead brushed them off as best she could, but more seemed to settle where the others were knocked away. Eventually though, her efforts were rewarded as her hands felt cool steel beneath the insects. She groped for a handle or a lever as her hands were engulfed in the swarm on the wall, and she could not hold back a dismayed cry as the swarm found her arms and began the trek up to her shoulders. "Get off get off _get off!_ " She cried, but didn't try to dislodge them- the door handle was too important. _Freedom_ was too important.

She was rewarded for her efforts as her hands bumped into a vertical metal bar, and as the invaders reached her elbows above and her calves below, she wrapped her hand around it, searching for the lever that would disengage the lock.

There was nothing.

Fresh, raw terror seized her heart. _There's no handle._ She thought. _No lever, no way to open the fucking door! It's all on the other side!_ "No, no no no no no _nono!"_ she cried, and pushed on the door. The door didn't budge. The insects crawling up her legs and hanging on her arms, began a panicked scurry at her sudden movements. In several areas, she felt her skin pinched and bitten and stung as the hitchhikers attacked her.

She could no longer hear Keiichi's voice of confidence. Hell, she could no longer hear her own thoughts; they were gone down the rabbit hole of fear, spiraling down into a cataclysmal abyss of despair and leaving her alone, alone with nothing but her voice and the bugs and the moans in the dark, and she'd be there forever, eaten away bit by bit, sucked dry and then consumed by those things that walked on six legs, eight legs, _one hundred legs_ , until not even her skeleton remained.

The bugs were up to her knees now.

Another deep, long moan arose around her, and this time she could feel it through the metal. With it came a nightmarish consideration: that she was not in some cell but was in fact in the jaws of a chthonian creature whose jaws imitated steel. _No, oh god, please no,_ she thought, and in a wave of desperation threw herself against the door, screaming. "Let me out, _let me out!"_ She felt the metal rumble as she collided with it, felt more insects rain down on her head, and fell back before throwing herself against it once more. _I don't want to die in here. Oh god, please, don't let me die in here! Keiichi, Megumi,_ Belldandy, _anybody, please, get me out of here!_

The metal gave another echoing rattle, and again, another moan encompassed the metal prison. _No, no, oh god no, please no, just... get... me... OUT!_ With her weight pressed against the door Aiko thought she felt something give, thought she felt the door budge just a little, and dared to hope that there might be a chance. Planting her feet as best she could (and hearing shells crack beneath them) she shoved herself against the metal. Insects swarmed her, crawling up her arms and her shoulders and spreading up her chest and down her back, crawling across her neck and onto her cheeks and slipping under her shirt and down her shorts. She felt them crawl across her scalp, poke at her ear canal, pry at her lips and dig into her nose, and the fear that gripped her chest grew stronger, her despair greater. Worse, for all her efforts, the door wouldn't budge, the door wouldn't budge, the door wouldn't _budge-_

With a metallic groan the door budged open, and sunlight- burning, blinding, _glorious_ sunlight- struck Aiko's face. A centimeter. An inch. Two inches. Three inches. Five.

It was slow, but the growing gap of sunlight gave her hope, filled her bones and muscles, and so Aiko ignored the bugs in her hair, ignored the bugs in her shorts, ignored the bites and the stings, the crawling and the buzzing, the prodding and the prying as the swarm hung about her nose and ears and eyes and mouth. It didn't matter. None of it mattered when freedom was a mere couple of inches away and growing closer by the second.

As soon as the crack was large enough she squeezed through, scraping a hefty portion of the invaders off in the process. Insects swarmed out of the room, which Aiko discovered as she fled was not in fact a room but a storage container. Beetles and roaches, bees and wasps, mosquitoes and flies, centipedes and millipedes and even more that Aiko had never seen before and couldn't hope to identify, came pouring out in a wave as if she had opened the floodgates, chasing her out as though missing her company. Aiko retreated from them in a rush, half running, half stumbling through the many creatures as she attempted to retreat to a safe distance, brushing those affixed to her person off as fast as she could.

Thankfully, with the doors to freedom opened, few of the insects held any lasting interest in her; though they swarmed, they swarmed away and around her, seeking shelter on wings and legs as they departed the area and leaving Aiko trembling in their wake. She watched them depart and tried not to squirm, instead braving back towards the door she'd slipped past and grabbing the outer door handle. She pulled it up and twisted it back with both hands, propping the lever that served as the door's 'handle' up against a jutting piece of metal. The vertical pole it was connected to, which acted as its locking mechanism, moved up and off the concrete it had been scraping against and had prevented her from opening it before. The door now swung open with ease. With a soft grunt, she pulled it open all the way, spilling the remaining mass of insects, and using the door as a temporary shield from the bugs she searched for a ninety-degree angle on the door's frame that might serve to sever the bindings on her wrists.

She found one in the form of the door's edge itself, and with the desire to free herself overcoming any fear of the insects she had awoken nestled up to, Aiko moved her bound wrists to the door's edge and began to saw them up and down. Now that she was outside in the light, the college student got a better look at what her bindings were, and they sight made her stomach roil. It looked enough like dirty cloth for her to suspect that at some point, the binding had been exactly that- a strip from a shirt or pants or even socks- but it was coated in some kind of strange, translucent material that reminded Aiko of mucus. Grimacing, she looked away, instead focusing on what she could gather of her surroundings. She could hear waves in the distance now that she was free, and was grateful for their sighs as they drowned out the sounds of the insects around her, and with it the smell of salt water was reassuring in that it gave her an idea that she was somewhere near the ocean.

 _A shipping yard?_ Aiko wondered, sawing patiently at the bindings while straining her ears for any signs that might indicate someone- or some _thing-_ unfriendly or otherwise. _It would explain the shipping container but... how did I get here?_ She'd been lucky; whoever had been kind enough to throw her in a storage container had been thoughtful enough to do it on the first floor. Now that she looked she saw more storage containers around her stacked five high in some places, and far off to her right she saw large, looming yellow cranes at rest. Had she been off ground level, it was very likely she would have slipped outside and plummeted to her death.

She felt something give in her bindings, and a moment later her arms were free. Wasting no time, she ripped off the remains of the bindings (and a layer of skin) and tossed them aside. She looked around as she wiped off the remaining bugs from her person and examined her surroundings for a way to leave the yard. She found that the only option presented to her was back towards the front of the storage container, heading right from there towards the yellow crane that might be near an exit. The container that she'd awoken in was pressed up in a corner of the shipping yard, and to her left and towards the container's rear was nothing but a long, ugly wall of rusting sheet metal.

She shuddered, muttered a curse, then carefully picked her way around the door and around the swarming mass that was still, _still_ pouring out of the container. _Why are there so many of them_? she wondered. _It's like somebody collected all the bugs in the state and threw them inside with me._ It had to have something to do with that sick woman. Maybe... maybe the bugs were drawn to her somehow. Like bees to nectar. Maybe whatever had made her sick had drawn them to one location. She hadn't been human, of that the student was certain, and so... maybe whatever the sick woman was didn't sleep in a human residence either. Maybe _this_ was her home, or meant to resemble something like it, and maybe she'd emitted some kind of... hormones? Pheromones? Something that drew insects to them like a smell, but not quite. Aiko thought there was a word for it but couldn't recall.

Regardless, she was free now, and the open doors must have aired the place out of whatever had drawn the insects. A second glance inside showed the storage container filled with so many bugs that the walls, floor, and the ceiling appeared to be moving as they made the slow pilgrimage outside. What they left in their wake was a long, filthy pile of tattered clothes and garments that looked similar to Aiko's bindings, laid out not only on the floor but along the walls as well, as if to provide some insulation against the steel.

And there was another person in there too.

Oh god... _there was someone else inside too._

It was a man. Aiko thought he was a corpse at first given his emaciated condition. He lay in the center of the container, perhaps close to where Aiko had initially awakened. Another one of those long, eerie moans echoed through the storage container, only this time it didn't sound like the moaning roar of a monster. This time it sounded very much human, and in agony as the man writhed in pain. She'd mistaken the man's pained cries for the moans of a monster.

 _He needs to get out of there,_ Aiko thought, and eyeing the remaining swarm, braved the bugs and ran back inside. She _could_ run now that the flood of the insects had ebbed, but decided against it. Her shoes pounded through roaches and beetles and onto the metal floor beneath, creating strangely crunchy, shallow stomps that in Aiko's mind, sounded a bit monstrous in their own right. As she neared him she saw just how decrepit a state the man was in; He was filthy, more so than Aiko herself, and dressed in an oddly bright, orange shirt and pants that in another time would have set off warning bells in Aiko's mind. Instead it went ignored in place of worry for the stranger himself. As she neared, she saw that every bit of exposed flesh looked somehow swollen, from his hands and arms all the way up into his face, pinpricked by dots of red that could have meant multiple stings or multiple bites from the insects holed up with him.

 _Oh god, how long has he been here?!_ Aiko thought. "Hey, are you okay?" She kneeled next to him and heard a muffled whimper in response. The man had his face buried in his hands as if to protect himself from the insects. A well thought out move, if Aiko was to judge; the man's hands looked absolutely shredded from the bites, stings, and claws of the many insects around them, with wounds ranging from swollen, simple pinpricks to larger, deeper gouges that either bled freely or had scabbed over. Some smaller, hungrier insects that Aiko couldn't identify had taken advantage of the injuries as a free meal, and sucked up the blood with long, curved proboscises that made Aiko's skin crawl.

"Come on, let's get you out of here," Aiko said, reaching out and touching the man's shoulder. "We need to leave before that... sick woman returns."

It was a mistake touching him. Not because of the insects, oh no, but because as soon as her hand touched him, the stranger began to scream. Not the cry of a man in pain, not the bellow of an angry man, but the harsh, despairing scream of a man faced against a nightmare greater than death. It was a horrible sound, and with a startled yell Aiko backpedaled, catching herself at the last moment before she could fall to the floor.

In front of her the man continued to thrash and scream, fighting off whatever nightmarish entity had been so awakened by her touch, his fear so great that words failed him, leaving him unable to even speak upon what seized him. His eyes bulged in their sockets, spittle foamed at his mouth like a rabid dog's, his fingers clawed the air in gnarled hooks, and in that moment Aiko realized she knew the man.

Aiko knew Stuart Holzkopf very well, unfortunately.

Sheer panic seized Aiko in that moment, as she stared down at the writhing man before her, both of them covered in insects, abducted, and locked away in a storage container together. _He'd been within touching distance of her in the dark._ The realization circuited her mind like a horse on a track, and though she tried to move Aiko found she could not. She was frozen, like a deer in headlights or a rabbit encircled by a snake, and _he'd been within touching distance of her while she was unconscious_ and he was bound, but that didn't change anything, he could have touched her, could have done anything to her while she was knocked out, and-

 _Nothing happened, Aiko._ She was surprised when the voice that came to mind was not Keiichi or even her own voice but instead Belldandy's. _Calm yourself. He is bound and cannot hurt you unless you approach him._ The woman's voice was stern but not without kindness, and Aiko felt she could have wept as she looked at Stuart again and saw that he indeed could do nothing. He was bound as she had been, and though he thrashed it was like the squirming of an unburied earthworm. He could not move his feet, nor free his hands, nor did he even seem to notice that Aiko stood over him.

Some of the panic began to ebb with Belldandy's voice, and for that Aiko was grateful. Yet it also presented to Aiko a new predicament. What was she supposed to do? The door was open and Aiko was free to leave at any time, but what about Stuart? Could she justify abandoning him when he couldn't defend himself? When there were signs that he had been abducted in the same manner as Aiko herself?

 _That sick woman might come back while I'm gone,_ she thought. _Even if I call the police and get somewhere safe... would she have already returned and moved him by then?_

That sick woman wasn't human, Aiko reminded herself for the umpteenth time. She didn't know nor want to know what that woman had in store for the two of them, but Aiko was certain that, when waking up in a nest swarming with insects and bound to prevent escape, chances were high it wasn't a good thing.

 _Leave him._ That was her own voice, not Belldandy's. _Just turn around and forget you ever saw him. Get out of here before that woman returns and sinks her claws into you again._

But...

 _Just leave him,_ the voice repeated. _This is karma for what he did to you. Let him rot._ She stared down at him. _You need to worry about yourself first,_ she thought as she knelt down beside him again. _That sick woman is going to come back and catch you._ She grabbed his flailing arms, still bound hopelessly together, and began to pull him back towards the entrance. _He'll rape you again when he gets free._ The man heaved a broken sob and stopped his flailing, weeping openly as if coming to terms with the idea that he was about to die or perhaps suffer some fate worse than death. _"_ Leave meee _,"_ he sobbed at one point. "Just let me _die..._ "

Aiko tuned him out, though it was hard. Part of her was too comfortable with the idea of giving in to his request.

He was surprisingly easy to drag. Perhaps the bugs beneath him helped with their glossy shells, acting like as a biological slide without intending to, or perhaps Stuart was just malnourished; his bones seemed to push against his skin, swollen though it was, and in the areas where his shirt was starting to ride up Aiko spied ribs that protruded against his skin. Again, part of her wondered how long he'd been imprisoned there in comparison to Aiko herself, however it was a passing thought; to dwell on it would bring rise to other, more uncomfortable questions that she didn't want to entertain at that moment, like why it was only Aiko _and_ _her rapist_ who'd been thrown into a storage container together and _why_.

It wasn't until Aiko reached the door that things began to take a turn for the worse; that Aiko realized that there was something wrong with Stuart, and something very wrong indeed. As Aiko dragged Stuart into the patch of sunlight given birth by the opened door, the man began to spasm, and then began to scream. _"Get away from me! Get the fuck away from me you cunt!"_ Frightened by the sudden fit, Aiko released him, retreating to the threshold in fear for her own safety. Her heart pounded in her chest in such heavy beats she feared it might burst, and readied herself to run at the first sign of danger.

" _My head is filled with holes you bitch!"_ Stuart raved. _"You filled my head with holes, and my life is slipping out! Get away, get away, get away or kill me_!"

Perhaps that was her first mistake, or maybe her second after going against instinct and aiding Stuart. For in that moment, as she stared at the writhing man, she saw him in a new light. As the sunlight touched his body, Aiko saw the true extent of the damage done to Stuart. Here she saw all the bites, all the sores, all the open wounds in their infected, swollen horror and more. She saw insects attached to wounds, crawling in wounds, crawling _out_ of wounds, his flesh rising in tumorous lumps that traveled up and down the length of his arms, his legs, his _body_ as the creatures moved beneath his skin.

And his back...

Oh god, how had she missed _that_? His back... it was alive. Alive and _pulsing_ with eggs. Some small and round and translucent, more large and white and oblong, all of which had torn through the back of the dirty orange prison shirt Stuart was wearing. It was a disturbing sight. One that made her skin crawl and she could not hold back the scream that came at the sight laid out before her. Terror of a fresh sort filled her to the core, and a thought occurred to Aiko in that instant: _That could be me. That might_ still _be me._

 _I need to get out of here._

Unable to bear it any more, Aiko turned and ran, abandoning Stuart to his injuries and his insects and his eggs, panic for her own well-being- and what might be on her, hell, _inside_ her- sending her further into the storage yard without thought as to where she was going. All that was important in that instant was that she get _away._

" _Kill me!"_ Stuart's voice chased after her, desperate and afraid. _"Just fucking kill me already! Don't let the babies hatch!"_

She didn't stop running until the sound of Stuart's screams- and any indications of the bugs from the container- were well out of her range of senses. Only then could Aiko say with any confidence that she was good and thoroughly _lost;_ the storage containers that resided within the shipping yard rested in disorganized and disproportionate piles around her- perhaps made that way to secure ease of access to specific areas while maximizing the amount of space for those metal tins designated to go overseas. For the local worker, it was probably an easy maze to navigate, yet for someone like Aiko- alone, afraid, and lost even before finding her way out of the storage container- her surroundings proved daunting. Fear made it more so, and the scent of rust, metal, and salt water was almost overpowering, and Aiko could feel the return of her headache as it began throbbing in the back of her skull again.

Yet it was a negligible issue, and went ignored, the scare from Stuart's condition still pumping adrenaline throughout her body. Her senses were alive and screaming, making even the crashing waves off in the distance seem near-by. And that brought with it its own predicament: there were no people around. Stuart's screams had been loud, as had her own, yet even now Aiko could hear no signs of life, no signs of activity... no construction, no cars on any nearby roads, no people shouting orders or any other general signs of life that she could run to for help.

Aiko was alone.

The college student ignored the thought and the possibilities made real because of it. Instead, with no one to watch her, Aiko tore her shirt off, tearing off and crushing the remaining insects while examining her shoulders, her chest, her waist, for any open wounds that might imitate those visible on Stuart. She found her shoulders covered in a red rash that might have been an allergic reaction to a specific venom, and her breasts and belly both were dotted with red pinpricks from various other bites and stings. She identified flea bites and mosquito bites and even several spider bites among the lot of them, interwoven amongst even more markings she couldn't identify. None of them were serious, however, and none of them showed the potential for opening up into sores or open wounds. She dropped her shorts, then her underwear, and repeated the process, taking extra care around her pubic region, while images of the insects lying beneath Stuart's skin haunted her mind's eye.

All free of sores, give or take the bites and stings that covered her body.

A relieved sob snuck its way out of her throat, and the woman leaned up against one of the steel container walls, her strength abandoning her in that moment. _I'm okay, I'm fine, I don't have any bugs inside of me, oh god, oh thank god, I'm okay._ Sucking in a trembling breath, she began to redress, her hands shaking with relief.

 _Your back._ A voice of doubt rose in her mind as she began to pull her shirt over her head. _What about your back?_

The sudden and intense relief vanished in an instant, and Aiko froze, her eyes widening as the voice grew stronger. _Are there any eggs? Any eggs like Stuart? Check your back. You need to check your back._

 _I don't want to._

 _There might be eggs on your back._

 _There's nothing there. There can't be, I'm sure of it._

 _You don't know that until you check._

A hand slowly moved behind her, and Aiko could feel her heart jump into her throat as she touched the skin of her lower back. She felt bumps of raised flesh- more bites, because she felt skin and she felt her finger tips, and when she pressed into it she could feel her muscles beneath. And yet... _there's nothing there._ She told herself. _Oh god, please, let there be nothing there._ Her hand worked its way up, feeling, touching, pressing, massaging, _Please, anyone who's listening. Belldandy, Urd, please don't let anything be there._ She felt skin as her fingers crawled higher. _Skuld, Lind, Nebo, please, PLEASE don't let there be anything there._ She felt something hard and smooth and slightly round. _Oh god. Oh god no. Please no. Izanagi, no. Izanami, no. Please no._ She picked at it, but found it would not move, she pressed down on it, and felt something dig into her skin between her flesh and her finger. The hand crept higher and she found another lump of the same type, and another, and _another._

 _Somebody save me. Please. I know you're out there. Belldandy, please tell me you can hear me. I need help. Please. I know you're out there. Help me. Belldandy, Urd, Skuld,_ somebody _, I know you're out there, please help me, Belldandy, I need your help, please, please,_ please!

 _She can't help you now._

It was a strange thought, one that, while in her own voice did not feel like one of her own thoughts.

And it was through such a surreal sensation that Aiko came to realize that she was no longer alone.

 _Hello?_

The student heard nothing else in her head that might represent the new, strange presence. However, that did not mean she heard nothing. From high above her head came a strange _wharp_ as something heavy came down on top of one of the steel containers. Aiko's head swung up towards the noise by reflex, and the woman grimaced as she was blinded by the light of the sun. Shielding her eyes, she looked away, but not before seeing the human- like imprint left behind by the sun's glare.

 _It's Stuart-_

 _No._ Again, not her thought but someone else speaking in her voice. Blinking through the sunspots, Aiko became aware of something landing near her. Again she was reminded of a human, yet as she looked towards the shadow Aiko realized just how mistaken she was.

The puma was enormous; at least the same size as Aiko herself from shoulder to paw. It stared at her with eyes that blazed like the sun from within a wedge-shaped head, and in those burning eyes Aiko saw an intellect that went well beyond human and into the realms of something indefinable. Its coat was a tawny, almost burnt brown, as if the powerful muscles in its legs had sent it sailing too close to the sun and it had returned to the world scorched. And it wore _jewelry._ Earrings were clipped to its short, round ears and beaded necklaces of turquoise and silver dangled from its neck. It stared at Aiko, stared _down_ at Aiko, its long tail swaying as its tip twitched on occasion.

Aiko stared up at the creature, frozen by its majesty. _It's a god,_ she thought to herself. _It's Amaterasu, come down from the sun and guised like one of this land._ She didn't know where the thought came from nor why it was Amaterasu she thought of; the sun goddess from her parents' homeland was all the way on the other side of the ocean, and the woman had never devoted any time or devotion to the Shinto deity beyond that of any other mythical character from her childhood.

Yet as she stared upon the great puma with its dark coat and blazing eyes, its jewelry and its size, that was all Aiko could imagine: that the great cat before her was Amaterasu disguised as a puma or at least a god similar to her, and that maybe there was some truth to the stories of old and their shapeshifting deities.

She did not speak this thought out loud. In the presence of the overpowering figure, Aiko found herself rendered mute, meek, and shy. Instead, her hand went to her chest, where the small pendent Keima had crafted for her in her youth dangled by its silver chain. Her puma baby.

 _You called for aid. I am here._ The voice once more rose in Aiko's mind, still in Aiko's own but not of her own thoughts. Aiko swallowed, then licked her lips, nervous as she looked up at the creature and finding herself unable to hold its gaze. She looked down and saw that its paws were light and somehow transparent, as if the creature was not fully present on Aiko's plane of existence.

"Are- are you a god?"

The puma didn't answer her. _You are contaminated,_ it said instead, in that same not-Aiko voice. Aiko's hair stood on end. _Like the other one._

"What- wait, _what_?!" Aiko stammered. "What- what do you mean con- contaminated? Contaminated with what?!"

 _You know the answer to that already,_ came the puma's response.

"No I don't!" Aiko cried, yet she could feel now, literally _feel_ the eggs weighing down on her back, their weight tugging at the skin they were attached to in a way they hadn't minutes before. Had they grown somehow? Just how deeply were they embedded in her flesh? She bit her lip, and before her the puma did not move, observing her with a patience that seemed at odds with its blazing eyes. "I—can't I get rid of them? The eggs?"

 _They have already begun feasting on your life's essence,_ said the puma. _Soon you will waste away like the other one, and then you will die._

"Like Stuart?" Aiko cried, and felt her heart beat quicken. "I- I'm going to waste away like him? Can't you do something?!"

 _I am here to halt the spread of the_ _foreign_ _contaminant across the Third Plane,_ the puma replied, and Aiko felt a well of fresh dread- and fear- twist inside her gut. _This land must be purified before the creatures inside those eggs hatch and find new hosts to spread to. And_ you _will aid me._

Aiko took a step back, the hair along the nape of her neck raising in alarm. "Me?!" she asked. "But why- what if, what if I don't want to?!"

 _You are destined to die regardless,_ the puma reasoned. _And this form of mine can only do so much on the material plane. I need a vessel, and I have determined that to be you._

"But-"

 _Would you rather die cowering in fear like an animal that runs from its death?_ the puma interrupted her. _Or would you rather die on your feet preventing the spread of an infestation that would destroy your race?_

"I don't want to die at _all!_ " Aiko shouted, her hands flying to her ears as if to drown out the voice. "I want to _live!_ I want to get out of here!"

 _Then you would damn your race?_ The puma's voice still rang through her head, as clear and crisp as ever. _Must you be so idiotic?_ The puma bared its teeth at her in a snarl, and Aiko cringed away from it, terrified by the danger those long fangs presented. _You will fester and you will rot on the inside as those eggs develop. They will steal your life from you, feeding on not only your body but your life force as well. You will leave here infected, and return to your family, and when those eggs hatch, you will infect them as well. You will die screaming, and in your last moment you will watch as they will fall screaming in turn: your mother, your father, your brothers and your sister._

An image enveloped Aiko then, as clean and clear as the waking world around her: that of herself, her body twisted and contorted and swollen with the parasites on her back, surrounded by her family as she was rushed to a hospital's ER. Of her body bursting as she screamed, releasing those monsters held within, and watching as shadowy creatures- these and only these blurry to her mind's eye- emerged only to attack those closest to her. "No…" She watched Takano go down first, screaming and crying as she reached for Keima, who turned to his wife's shout and followed her into death. "Stop it…" She watched Megumi fall next as she, and the life growing inside her, were blotted out by the shadowy creatures. "Don't show me this…" Keiichi was next, grabbing Keigo, still a pre- teen, and throwing him across the room to Morgan before the SEAL was consumed. She watched Morgan grab Keigo and run, watched Keigo trip and drag them both down, and watched as their lives were lost as well.

 _Do you understand now?_ The puma demanded, and the vision changed, expanded, sending Aiko out of the room that was her death and into the hospital that had admitted her, watching as the shadow- beasts grew and expanded as they victimized patients, nurses, doctors, and guests. She watched their numbers grow as humanity fell, and as they encompassed the hospital her view expanded again, leaving the hospital as it was consumed and neighboring buildings were infected. _Do you understand what is at risk?_ The legion grew to encompass the city, the county, the state. Her vision expanded further and Aiko screamed, watching as the black plague of monsters devoured the nation, the country, the continent and more.

"Stop it!" Aiko begged and closed her eyes, her hands digging into her hair as she shook her head in denial. "Please, make it stop! No more!" Yet the cougar wasn't done yet, wouldn't be satisfied until the plague traveled south to South America, to Antarctica, traveled north to the Arctic, then east and west to Russia and Greenland and all the neighboring countries. It consumed China, the Koreas, India, Japan from the west, Italy, the United Kingdom, the Nordics from the east, and spread further north and south into the middle eastern countries Aiko could only identify from Keiichi's visits there: Afghanistan, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Yemen. Down into the African counties of Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia and Kenya down to South Africa, west across Libya's deserts and through Mali to the coastline of Liberia, one of the last areas to fall.

 _All of them will be damned by your foolishness, and because of your willful ignorance there will be nothing for you in death: no afterlife, no incarnations, no successors. Your ancestors will shun you, for you will bring ruin in your wake. Your soul will be twisted into a thing black and unrecognizable, and you will be banished into the depths of the Void with nothing but dirt to fill your aching belly._ The puma's eyes, golden and raging and burning, appeared through the blackness of the desolate planet. _You shall be the one to end your race if you do not decide. We must all meet our end someday, but few of us are given the opportunity to decide how._

 _Now tell me once more: How do you want to die, Child of Man, Aiko Morisato? By cowering and crying like a scared animal or on your feet fighting?_

"I'll fight, _I'll fight!_ " Aiko shrieked, and was saved from any more visions of wretched plagues or burning eyes as the image that haunted her mindscape vanished. She found herself instead on the cement covered ground of the shipping yard, her body curled in a tight little ball on its side. Her hands were balled in tight fists against her skull, and her scalp pounded with pain from where they'd tried to rip the hair out of her head. Her heart pounded with such urgency that her vision pulsed with it, and as the college student looked once more up at the puma, it seemed to her to pulse as well; pulse with an energy she could not see, but which rippled the air around it to the rhythm of her heart.

She was afraid.

"I'll fight." The words came out in a broken sob, and terrified by her own decision, Aiko burst into tears. "God help me, I'll fight."

 _And I will give you all the help I can, s_ aid the puma, and for a moment it almost sounded as if the creature pitied her. _On your feet, Aiko Morisato. We are to Union._

The words made little sense to Aiko, yet she followed them none the less, scrubbing her eyes with the back of one scratched, bitten, and stung arm and crawling to her feet. Her legs felt like jelly, and gave out beneath her on her first attempt; the raw fear that consumed her having robbed her of every bit of strength left to her. She fought through it. She thought of Keiichi and tried again, failed again, then thought of first Belldandy, and then finally of Morgan. The idea of abandoning her girlfriend to the fate that awaited her left the college student angry and dismayed, but it lent her enough resolve to get her on her feet. She wouldn't let that plague get Morgan. Even if they did overtake Aiko… so long as Morgan was safe. So long as Morgan could live and move on and find happiness… could find…

The woman squeezed her eyes shut, feeling fresh tears overtake her. She took herself off that path. Morgan and her family would be safe. That was what was important. _They'll never know…_ A voice echoed in her skull, and Aiko grimaced.

 _Belldandy would_. She told it, and wondered why she was so certain in that claim. _And she'd remember. Maybe she'd tell them I went down a martyr. A martyr for humanity._ A laughable thought. _Fuck, what a crock of shit. They can keep their martyrs. I just want to go home with Morgan._

 _I don't even get to say goodbye… not to her, not to Kei, not to Carrie…_ a wave of sadness hit her all at once, and a whimper crawled out of her throat as she finally made it to her feet. _I'm sorry guys. God, I'm so sorry._

For a brief moment her thoughts came back to the goddess she'd met. The woman who had changed not only her brother's life, but her life and her understanding of the world in general. She wondered if Belldandy would be as frightened as she was if presented with this same dilemma and came to an understanding of herself in that moment: Aiko admired Belldandy. She admired the Norn's strength and the Norn's character, and in that instant wanted nothing more than to imitate the deity's steel resolve.

For the first time since her rape as a child, Aiko prayed. _Belldandy, give me the courage to face my end._ The college student looked the puma square in the eyes.

"I'm ready."

The puma leapt. She saw it sail at her, and to Aiko the world seemed to slow to a crawl where she saw everything at once: the shine of the cougar's coat against the sunlight. The wicked gleam of its claws, curled and extended as its forepaws reached for her. She saw its raging eyes and saw within them the core of the sun above her head; molten plasma that looked stationary only from a distance, but whose inner depths churned and coiled with energy, with power, with life. She saw the great muzzle of the beast slowly open, saw the long fangs draw near, and unable to bear it the woman closed her eyes. She felt the tips of fangs touch her throat… and then felt something tear into her.

Not her throat, not her flesh, but something else. Some basic, primal essence of Aiko that she could not give name to but suspected might be her soul, her spirit, her life.

Then came pain.

Pain.

So much _pain._

It was excruciating, like nothing she'd ever experienced in her life. Not even Stuart, nor the trauma that followed it, came close to comparing to the pain that seized her body. Her blood boiled, her eyes smoked, her flesh bubbled and blistered as her breath blackened the air. She smelled fire. Fire like a volcano, fire like the sun, fire like she'd been plunged into the earth's core and sentenced to burn for eternity. She knew she was screaming, her cries harsh and ragged, yet it all sounded distant and unimportant in the wake of such fresh agony. It was energy, power, pure and simple and on a level of a god. No human was designed to withstand such abuse, no mortal could hold such might within their weak flesh, and Aiko now realized that it was this that would kill her, not the eggs attached to her body. Suddenly she wanted to die, wanted to very much, if only to end her suffering and knowing already that it was too late, that she'd made her decision and that the puma was moving in, engulfing her as it took over her mind, her body, purifying her very soul as it seared off the eggs attached to her spirit and-

 _And she is trapped. She'd made a mistake with the puma and now they are locked together, wandering the landscape as the cougar's instincts try to fend her off and… it isn't a regular puma, it's a spirit, and the Union between them had been made for a mortal, and is not strong enough to bring the puma to heel... forests, so many forests, and the natives hold no love for Aiko. She is too different, though the puma hides it well, but the natives still see through it, and everywhere she wanders she is chased away… a man in the woods, his aura is strange… there are non- native gods in these woods… the west wind blows a somber breeze. It smells of death and disease… And Aiko follows and finds the source of the disease, and she watches from a distance as two women confront it, urging the puma she's locked in Union with to approach but the cougar's instincts stop her at every turn. 'This creature is death', says the cougar, and though she pushes and shoves and fights, the instincts of the mountain lion win out, and she watches from afar as first one, then the other woman falls before she allows her host to turn away. 'This cannot continue' she thinks to herself, and against the lion's will tracks down the nest of the monster. She sees herself looking up at Aiko looking down, and now the puma's instincts have joined with Aiko, with the symbiotic presence, this Will of God that has taken over first a cougar spirit and now Aiko herself, and for a small eternity Aiko is the lion, Aiko is the god, Aiko is herself, and none of them, and all of them at once and she can no longer define who or what 'Aiko' is or the boundaries where 'Aiko' stops and the puma, the god, begins._

The pain was gone.

The screaming abruptly stopped, and in its place the woman stood stock still, her hands still buried in her hair, her head craned back, mouth yawning open as if in agony or ecstasy, a determination impossible to make by a simple observance alone. The glazed look, the crazed look, faded from her eyes, and for a moment the light played with her irises, making her brown eyes for a moment appear golden in the light. Yet it was merely a trick of the sun, and with a deep, cleansing breath the creature that had once been Aiko Morisato unclenched her hands from her head, loosening the curled digits and letting her hands drop to her sides. The pain was gone. The fear was gone.

All that was left was resolve.

Her head fell forward, and for a moment her vision blurred, the edges tinted red. She blinked rapidly, trying to clear her vision, and felt moisture trickle from the corner of her eyes. She wiped them and saw it was blood. _Need to move._ _Won't last long._ A voice whispered. Perhaps it was the presence once known as Aiko. Perhaps it was the god that was the glue holding her together. More liquid began to drip from her nose. This she ignored. It's time to hunt.

She took a step forward… and fell flat on her face.

Two- thirds of her was unaccustomed to walking on two legs after so long on four. Hell, one- third of her couldn't walk on two legs at all.

Thankfully, not even the gods were around to see her lack of grace, and so the blue-haired woman once more picked herself up.

 _Hunt!_ Screamed the cougar part of her.

And so that was what she did.

The smells and sounds of the area were sharper now in a manner they hadn't been before. She heard groans that were inaudible to the human, alien to the cougar, and what the god assured them was metal moaning in wind. She smelled the sharp scent of… rust, blood, Man, and oil. Beneath it were other smells, older smells that the human and the cougar couldn't place but that the god identified as spiritual residue; not from the monster they hunted, but from those native creatures who'd come and gone before Man had built his land on top of the old. _That's why this place appeals as a nest to the monster,_ the god reasoned. _It rests on a Ley Line, where the rules may be bent to suit its needs._

A growl emerged from her throat. Her hackles rose. _Bad,_ said the puma. _Dangerous. Need to leave. Want to go, bad bad bad_ other part of the woman stirred at the mantra, the Human's very real fear of what they were about to walk into, and she felt her stomach cramp with fear. _It's bad and evil and scary. I'm scared. I want to leave. I don't want to face it. Please don't make me do this. Oh please oh please oh please oh_ please.

Yet face it she would, as the deity that ruled atop both the puma and the human urged the body on. The first steps were clumsy and unsure, yet as the three personalities settled into their respective places within the body, the entity gained grace, and by the tenth step broke out into a run, sucking in easy breaths and feeding oxygen to a heart conditioned for marathons. She loped through the maze of shipping containers as if the path was mapped out to her, retracing her steps with an ease that would have defied the Aiko of old.

She found the nest easily enough, greeted by those insects still fleeing the shipping container. She ignored them, though her skin crawled as they began to gather in mass- a reflexive response from Aiko brought on by her most recent memories. They fled around her now, as though sensing through some insectoid sixth-sense that she was a creature to avoid.

Stuart was as she left him, bound and in pain, though he'd managed to crawl to the shadows of the nest in her time away from the container. The man looked even worse now than when Aiko had first left him; evidence of the eggs, the _disease_ inside of him devouring his life force. _The parasites don't like the light,_ the god whispered. _They respond negatively to it._

 _And that is how we'll defeat them._

She walked forward, and Stuart must have sensed her presence. Not Aiko but whatever chimera Aiko had become- god, spirit, and mortal all wrapped up in one tiny little package. He raised his head to look at her from where he'd dragged himself out of the light, and despite the distance between them Aiko could see his eyes easily. They were bloodshot and red from weeping. One of the vessels in his left eye had burst, painting the white sclera a watery red.

He burst into fresh tears at her approach. "Don't..." he warned. "Please, my head is filled with holes. I'll kill you, my head is filled with holes, I can't, I _can't..._ " He squeezed his eyes shut, lips pulled back in a snarl of pain. "I'll kill you, I'll kill you, I'll _kill you!"_ he raved. "They're coming for me, she's coming for me, they're in my head and in my mind and I want to die, I can't die, _they won't let me die_!

 _Does he see me?_ the mortal in her wondered. _Does he know who he's speaking to? Or does he see something else?_

 _It doesn't matter,_ whispered the god. _He's beyond saving. All that awaits him is death._

 _Kill it! It's a threat!_ Screamed the puma.

She approached the entrance to the nest, eyes gleaming, and still bound, Stuart crawled away from her. "Stay back, _stay back!_ " he shrieked. _"_ I'll kill you, they'll kill you, _I'll kill you!"_

Yet Aiko ignored his warnings and approached him. Stuart grew quiet, and gazed up at her with eyes that bulged in terror. Terror of _her_. Terror of _Aiko._ Terror of the child who, once upon a time and long, long, ago, he had raped in a moment of opportunity. It made her pause, and she drank in his fear, some part of her- some sick little part of the mortal that the human personality never wanted to acknowledge- felt a substantial amount of glee in that fear.

Stuart Holzkopf then uttered a single sentence.

"I'm sorry."

Something ruptured from his body. A long, tumorous tendril of flesh, its tip ending in a gory, chitinous scythe like that of a mantis. It lashed out at Aiko faster than the mortal's eyes could follow, but to which the puma reacted instinctively. Aiko sprang backwards with liquid fluidity, landing lightly on her feet outside as the tendril impacted the storage container's floor. A metallic shriek rose with it as the metal was punctured and torn, and the fleshy tendril recoiled back to Stuart like a whip.

Stuart buried his face in his hands. His body shuddered as he sobbed noisily, and from his sides, from his chest, from his shoulders more of the cancerous tendrils ruptured from his body. He wailed in agony, then clawed at his throat. Something bulged along the seams of his neck, crawling up his throat and forcing the man's head backwards at a sharp ninety-degree angle. A new monster, different from the cancerous appendages emerged, its head long and cylindrical like that of a leech. It had no definable eyes; its head was instead composed of nothing but a long, circular mouth lined with teeth set like an iris. They gnashed at the air. Stuart began to seize as more grotesque growths tore apart his body. More of the heads, more of the limbs, and to Aiko and all the entities trapped within her it was a sight that pressed the need for flight; this creature was _wrong_ , this creature was an _abomination_ , a horrible mishmash of the larval insects growing within Stuart and the mortal himself.

It seemed the experiment of progenerating with a mortal host had failed spectacularly. The eggs, and the larvae held within, had merged with their mortal host completely, incapable of separating themselves from the third- dimensional body that had housed them. Without the higher-dimensional borders provided by an Asgard host, the shared DNA between the host and the parasite had fused together, leaving the creatures trapped and underdeveloped within Stuart.

Now though, those creatures seemed to sense a threat in Aiko's presence. As if somehow connected to Stuart's thoughts and sensing that the woman's presence portended death, the creatures had emerged before they were ready. There had to be five of them in total, all in a range of various sizes and stages of maturity, and as if sensing the presence of the deity within Aiko they screamed as one. It was a horrible sound, one that made Aiko flinch, and one piece of her ( _the god? Why the god?_ ) even felt close to falling into panic at the sound, where imagined fingers clawed at the walls of her mental landscape.

For a moment it left her paralyzed. Paralyzed with horror and shock at this affront to Life, and it was only the cougar that kept her from Death's embrace as once again a fleshy tendril of chitin and skin whipped out towards her. This time she retaliated, leaping out of the tendril's path and out of the shipping container, where her hands, curled into talons and glowing with an inhuman red light, shredded the chitin scythe into ribbons.

The energy cut through the limb like it was Papier Mache, and within the shipping container Stuart let loose a bellow of pain, the monsters, the deformed nymph _rabishu_ shrieking alongside him as if sharing the pain amongst themselves. _Kill it!_ Rage blossomed in her chest, in the chest of the puma, and Aiko's lips peeled back in a snarl of such savagery it could not be called human. _Kill it! Monster. Abomination. Enemy of my land and my people! This is_ my _territory, not yours! You prey on my prey, you nest in my nest, you invade and steal that which has been under the watch of my family for generations, and for that you will die!_ Not the deity but the puma spirit, who surged forward and kicked the trembling, cringing deity out of the driver's seat as the mortal cowered away, leaving the cougar in full control. A red aura, filled with deadly intent, gathered around her, and Aiko screamed, the sound akin to a woman being murdered.

She charged back inside, hunched over, almost charging it on four legs instead of two, and the _rabishu_ nymphs screamed once more in unison. Yet for all the wretchedness of the scream, it did nothing to the puma. The puma was not mortal and terrified by monster before her, was no deity victimized by the creatures' screams. The puma was Rage. The puma was Courage. The puma was the weapon that would end this thing on its own terms if those it was imprisoned beside would not aid it in battle. More tendrils shot at her, and she avoided each with the deadly grace of one who played with snakes for a living. She severed each with a swipe of her ( _hands_ ) paws, and with each limb loss a chorus of shrieks met her ears, while the deity and the mortal retreated further into the recesses of her mind.

Yet the puma spirit screamed right back at them, stealing the deity's power even as the deity had once stolen the cougar's body. Three outgrowths swept towards her. She ducked beneath one, ripped through another, and dodged the third. A forth smashed into her before she could slip past it, and it hit her with such force that the mortal body she was in crashed through the sheet metal of the shipping container. The blow should have killed her, should have broken every bone in her body and destroyed her organs, yet the woman climbed back to her feet with no sign of injury.

She emerged from the destroyed wall, and found the monster had abandoned its nest in fear of its life, the multitude of limbs dragging its thick ruined body out into the open. It was crawling towards one of the walls, fleeing the woman whose presence meant its death. _No,_ the puma growled, _Aiko_ growled, and perhaps her teeth looked a little less human and a little more feline against the fearsome aura that engulfed her. _No, you don't get to run away,_ she snarled, and the thing that had emerged from Stuart's mouth twisted his head to look at her. She saw he was still alive. Alive and conscious and _aware_ worst of all. His eyes bulged in their sockets, huge and begging for an end to the nightmare that had taken his life. Something stirred in her chest looking at him- the mortal's pity, she presumed, and another voice rose in her mind. _He's suffering. No one deserves this, not even a rapist._

 _He dies like the monster,_ the puma told it. _Everything must die. Not a scrap of it must escape. I won't risk it spreading._

 _Then let's kill him first,_ the voice, which she was only starting to distinguish as the mortal's, agreed with her. _Those things are attached to him, right? They need him to survive. If he dies, logic dictates that they'll die off soon afterwards._

A peculiar idea, and one that had never occurred to the puma. _Ignore the tumor-things,_ the mortal continued. T _hey're just distractions. Just... like... feathers. Feathers that look like eyes to hide the actual head. You're a puma, right? Then stop going for the legs and crush his throat instead!_

It was surprisingly sound advice, especially coming from a consciousness that had been on the verge of hysteria moments before. Kill the man, the rest will follow him. It seemed better than merely snapping at the quills of a porcupine, as she'd been doing with the outgrowths, and so putting that logic into play, Aiko rushed the monstrosity once more.

Again, the tendrils came sailing at her, and in the light of the sun they gleamed wet and red with their host's blood. The nymphs screamed, the deity screamed, and the puma felt a peculiar sensation as the mortal who was her head-mate reached past her and grabbed the spirit's aura. She felt power surge through her, the deadly aura soaring to such levels that even the puma was left afraid, and then watched as the limbs disintegrated as they touched the energy. A fresh chorus of screams sang to the heavens, all wild and mad with agony, and the puma- or perhaps the mortal- felt a thrill of excitement jump in her belly. _This_ was how they would defeat him. Through the power of a god, the speed of a puma, and the madness of a human.

She drew closer and the monster scuttled faster towards the wall, recognizing the disadvantage it was facing against the entity that was Aiko. One of the long leech-heads lunged towards her as she drew close, and it, like the other limbs, was disintegrated in an instant. In its wake was a seeping stump of flesh, and seeing the advantage in her new state Aiko leapt at the thing. The aura worked its magic like a charm, destroying Stuart's right leg, two of the appendages that had erupted from it, and a head that had ruptured from his hip in a mass of gore and blood.

The monster recoiled, letting loose a peal of shrieks so outrageous that the clamor made Aiko's ears ring. It attempted another attack, anything to get her away from it, yet with the aura at its peak the monstrosity couldn't touch her, couldn't even slow her _down,_ and with a roar Aiko began tearing into it, ripping into the abomination's ( _Stuart's)_ soft belly. More tumorous growth surged as if in defiance to her action, and just as many were destroyed as they impacted the aura. She ignored them, no longer concerned by any threat they might have once presented. The mortal had seen to that, and now all that was left was to cut off the head of the monster, to end it before the creatures fused to him could gather in mass and try again.

Her hand reached for his throat, and in the last second Stuart- not the nymph stuck in his throat but _Stuart_ \- turned his head to look at her. _Do it,_ his eyes begged. _Please, let it end._

 _I'm sorry I couldn't save you, Stuart._ Aiko's voice, sad and filled with regret, rang in the puma's head. _No man, regardless of his crimes, deserves a sentence like this._ Her hand wrapped around his throat, and the aura's energy sliced through it, ending Stuart's life- and the life of his misbegotten children- in an instant.

Aiko- the spirit, the mortal, and the deity- watched in silence as the light went out in Stuart Holzkopf's eyes. Attached to him, the nymphs began the final assault- one dredged up from desperation and fear, like animals fighting their death- and each fell dead as they battered themselves against the aura, ending their lives before the connection made real by their surrogate bled dry.

In the span of seconds, Stuart Holzkopf, Patient Zero of the infectious parasites of the _rabishu_ , lay dead at Aiko's feet, barely recognizable from the human he once was.

 _Burn it._ For the first time since the _rabishu's_ nymphs had begun screaming, since the true battle had begun, the deity raised its voice in something other than a shriek. _Burn it all._ It sounded exhausted. Weak almost in aftermath of the fight against the abomination. _Let not a single strand of DNA survive this place. Burn the corpse, burn the nest, burn this_ place _. Cleanse the land so that nothing can be recovered, either by man or beast or demon. Nothing must remain._

Energy gathered in her left palm, and Aiko- puma or mortal or god- looked down at it. It was awash with fire, though the flames did not burn her. It was warm though, and held a tangible presence. She looked back to the corpse at her feet, then tossed the magical flames on the corpse experimentally. They took hold of the body in an instant, and within seconds the small handful of flames engulfed the remains completely. A pungent, burning scent began to fill the air, and black smoke rose in heavy plumes from the body. Aiko made a face, retreating from it and turning her face away from the body. Tears came to her eyes, and she blinked through them, then proceeded to the nest that had been her cage and repeated the process. The flames consumed the matted nest like a wildfire in the brush, and the woman needed to retreat from it quickly lest she be caught in the flames that arose from it.

The fire took hold of everything with a will that otherwise shouldn't have been possible. It spread up the walls of the shipping container, spread up to the second level, and then the third, where the metal grates began to bend and warp beneath the heat. It jumped to the next row of shipping containers as if the entire yard was doused with gasoline, and sensing the danger housed in the magic Aiko quickly made her exit, leaving the scene at a sprint as the flames chased after her.

It was a mystery how she managed to escape the facility. The black plumes of smoke were billowing in huge, thick clouds now, making it almost impossible to navigate, yet navigate it she did, guided by some sixth-sense that might very well have been magical in nature, to the entrance for the facility. A huge, black gate barred the way to freedom, yet she somehow managed to scale it, shimmying up the black bars with an ease that would have escaped the mortal any other day and leaping down to the other side with feline grace.

She ran then. To where or how far she couldn't be certain, for it was without direction or thought- just enough to get her away from the burning facility and the poisonous smoke that consumed it. She ran through a chunk of woods, and in the distance, she heard sirens screeching as first responders made their way to the abandoned facility. She continued her flight, and didn't slow until the air smelled clean of the smoke she'd left behind, where she slowed her pace to an easy jog. She heard a car approaching nearby, its engine revving with an urgent speed, and with a nudge from the mortal the woman made her way towards it. The forest cleared, and a road took its place next, a single lane road empty of traffic running parallel to the route she'd been jogging. The car was hidden from sight by a bend along the tree line, and Aiko waited patiently for its approach, taking her cues from the mortal in her head to signal for a ride back to the city.

With the abomination and its nest destroyed, the aura and the magic that had fueled her up to that point had abandoned her. With it came a wave of exhaustion so mighty that it blanketed the adrenaline that had initially kept her alert. Her head felt heavy, and so the woman sat on the edge of the road, holding her head up with both hands as she closed her eyes and breathed. _Spent too much energy._ The deity grumbled. _Foolish. Excessive waste of power._

 _You weren't exactly helping,_ the mortal retorted.

The puma spirit seemed to agree with her. _Welcome to my life._ It grumbled.

The car was getting closer, but at this point Aiko as a whole was beyond caring. Black spots were appearing in her gaze now, and when she closed her eyes those spots flashed a bright red, pulsing with an erratic pounding of her heart, which beat an uneven tempo that left her breathless. She could taste blood in the back of her throat, and smell it on her person against the crisp scent of the forest, and knew that she'd pushed this body too hard. Her chest felt unusually tight, like a vice was constricting around her ribcage, and the woman grimaced, uneasy. Her heart was starting to fail. _It won't be long now,_ one of the voices mumbled.

 _It'll be peaceful,_ another voice muttered. _Like going to sleep. You just won't wake up again._

 _All things considered, it's preferable to going how Stuart went._ The voices were all starting to blend together now, and it was getting harder and harder to differentiate between the god, the spirit, and the mortal. _What happens when this body fails? Are the puma and the deity going to leave before then?_

 _We can't,_ said another voice. _Too much energy was expended during the battle. We're all stuck in this fading body together._

 _What happens after it passes?_

 _Then the mortal moves on and the deity and spirit separate. The Union dissolves._

 _So the mortal won't face its death alone?_

 _No. And even if we could separate, the deity at least would remain to see the mortal off. It is the least that can be done to honor the life sacrificed this day._

 _The puma would stay as well._ The voices continued. _The Man-child was like a fox, sly and clever. This one would see it pass in peace as well._

 _I see._ Though she didn't realize it, Aiko was smiling. It was a peaceful smile, one filled with ease despite the fatigue that weighed so heavily on her face. _Thank you._ She sucked in a deep breath, noting how it took effort just to fill her lungs with air. Maybe if she just closed her eyes for a little while...

"A... "

"... ko... "

Her ears twitched- something brought on by the puma's reflex than the mortal's.

"Ai... ."

"... iko!"

 _Is that you, Child?_

One of the entities in her head forced her eyes open, suddenly alert to any signs of danger. The puma then. She saw a car parked on the side of the road, and two people were racing towards her. One she thought she recognized- the man, though the smell of blood and demonic energy was almost overwhelming on his person. It made the woman's hair stand straight, putting her on guard as memories of the storage facility and its mixed scent of demon and _rabishu_ filled the complex.

 _Threat?_

 _No. No, that's not-_ one of the voices began, and was ignored as the woman rolled to her feet.

The other person racing towards her, a woman the puma at least didn't recognize, came to a sudden and complete halt, grabbing the man by the arm as he continued to run and almost knocking them both off their feet. "Kei, stop!" the woman shouted.

"Deb, what are you- let me go, it's Aiko!"

"Keiichi, that's not Aiko."

"Bull _shit_ it's not!" The man was screaming, his voice on a level of panic that did little to soothe the puma's nerves. "It's Aiko, right as rain! Who else do you think it is?!"

"I don't-" The woman pursed her lips, then looked back at Aiko. "Kei... there's something... that's a mountain lion, Keiichi."

"Are you fucking _high!?_ "

"Are you fucking blind!?" the woman retorted. "That's not a human, Keiichi."

"Deb, let me go." The man's voice dipped into a low and aggressive tone. Aiko bristled. So did the woman. "That is _Aiko_. That is my baby sister. Where the fuck are you getting the idea she's a god damn _mountain lion_ from?"

"Keiichi, I'm serious!"

"So am I. Let me go Deb."

"No."

As Aiko watched, they continued to bicker until the sound of a car door slamming drew everyone's attention. They saw a platinum-haired woman who looked like she'd seen her own fair share of combat stagger away from the vehicle. She stumbled and swayed, almost as if drunk, her eyes half-lidded and strangely glazed in the light of the late-afternoon sun.

 _Belldandy?!_ exclaimed two of the voices.

"Belldandy?" the man called. "You're awake!"

Yet the woman didn't answer him, did not so much as spare him a single glance as she walked forward. Something in her strange, platinum hair and unsteady walk set Aiko further on edge, yet the puma recognized her. The deity recognized her, and sure as sin the _mortal_ recognized her, and all three of them kept Aiko stock still, staring in confounded curiosity as the Norn stumbled towards her.

 _What is she doing?_ one of the voices inquired.

 _She's not awake,_ said another.

 _Why is she approaching us then?_ The woman stumbled past the arguing couple and towards Aiko, who observed her and, in a rather feline gesture, chuffed at the goddess.

 _She does not look well._

 _None of them do._

The goddess came to stand before Aiko, and for a brief moment in time Aiko was made aware of just how much taller the Norn was compared to her. She had to crane her head back to meet the woman's eyes, and found that they were still half-lidded and glazed, a sure sign of a sleepwalker.

The woman swayed unsteadily, muttering something under her breath.

And then she said two words.

"Go away."

Aiko stared up at the deity in confusion... and then the Norn _twitched._ Before Aiko, hell, before even the _cougar_ could react, something slammed into her solar plexus. The wind was pushed from her lungs, and with it Aiko felt a strange sensation of something else being pushed out of her body... something invading her from the gut and shoving something else out, and oh... god... her body was burning again, her skin was on fire, and she could feel more energy than she thought she could stand pouring into her from where Belldandy's left fist had buried itself in her stomach.

Behind Belldandy both Debra Johansson and Keiichi Morisato screamed. "Is that a fucking _cougar_?!" screamed the dark-haired man. And Aiko- _Aiko_ , the mortal, the woman, the lone college student who'd been first kidnapped and then bound to gods and spirits, felt the world spiral back to her as those entities who'd come to dwell with her spirit were forced from her body.

"Jesus Christ, Keiichi!" Debra screamed. "She just punched a puma out of Aiko!"

Yet Belldandy didn't respond. Instead Aiko had just enough time to note the woman's hair changing from silver back to brown, the world spinning around her, and then first Belldandy's collapse, followed by her own as Aiko's legs gave out beneath her.

A final thought came to Aiko before she slipped into unconsciousness. _One hell of a way to go, I guess._ And then she knew no more.

* * *

 **A/N: Hopefully once the holidays are done we can get to a more even cadence on the chapter releases. Still a long way to go with the overall story. Not so much with this arc, though.**

* * *

 _Comments of a Madwoman: The moral of this story: Don't let gods or spirits or_ rabishu _possess you. It's bad for your heart._


	51. Chapter 51 - Hotel California

-51-

 _Interlude: Hotel California_

" _You can check out any time you like,  
_ _But you can never leave!"_

 _The Eagles_

XXX

Mara stared down at the body before her with wild, pinprick eyes that glinted in the evening light. Before her, Edakua wiped his hands on a handkerchief and straightened, careful not to soil his boots on the blood-soaked ground around him. "Anything?" Mara demanded.

The man looked at her and shook his head solemnly. "Nothing," he said. "The body's too old. If it'd been fresh maybe, but this old..." Again, he shook his head. "Once the body cools the spell doesn't work." He hesitated, then met Mara's eyes. "Say sorry, _Sizkur'mash."_

"Don't apologize for what's beyond your control," Mara advised, and around her the demon sensed the rest of her _Wilder-ken_ fall in around her, waiting for her next order. She pursed her lips, her gaze once more drawn back to the body before her, her hands clenched into such tight fists that the knuckles were white. Rage surged through her veins and painted the world through a red sheen, and she knew that by now her eyes would be starting to glow in the fading light. Her men were on guard now, as was typical of any demon around someone fighting to control their bloodrage, but Mara's time around the _Damkianna_ and her kin had taught her nothing if not anger management. She sucked in a long, deep breath through her nose, relaxing the tension along her shoulder and back muscles and releasing the tight fists her hands had curled into. She let her lower jaw drop as she breathed out, focusing on what to do with the new information presented by the body- _bodies_ , there were two of them- before them.

"The _Damkianna_ will need to be informed of this." She spoke her words slowly and carefully to avoid the tremor that wanted to take over her voice. Not of fear, but of _anger._ "Durah, grab three people and start documenting everything you see. I want earth samples, blood samples, air samples, the works. Am Rimu, grab the rest and get images of this area. I want a tenth-dimensional image of this entire area for further analysis back in the lab. Report to Kili when both parties are done and then burn the rest. Leave nothing behind that can be used to link this back to Niflheim, understand? _Nothing_."

"Aye, _Sizkur'mash,"_ Kili murmured.

Mara turned and walked away, still fighting to maintain a level of calm. "I need to report back to the _Damkianna._ "

XXX

Keiichi and the others didn't return to the hotel until late that evening.

With Debra's prodding, he managed to call Megumi and inform her that they'd found Aiko, and that due to a combination of distance and traffic, it would be a couple of hours before they returned to the hotel. For the most part, it was a lie- Aiko had been found about a ninety-minute drive north from Treasure Island, in a small chunk of land called Skagg's Island in Sonoma County. Even with traffic, it wouldn't have taken long to return, however Keiichi and Debra needed time. Time to ensure Aiko was okay, time to allow Belldandy to wake up, and most of all, time to get their stories straight.

They took it for themselves, and at Debra's prompting pulled into a Walmart just outside San Francisco's city limits. Keiichi waited in the car with the resting Belldandy and Aiko while Debra ran inside. It was around that same time that Aiko awoke, haunted by nightmares of monsters, pumas, and most disturbing of all to Keiichi, Stuart Holzkopf. It took him time to calm her down, and by the time Debra returned with a cart full of shopping bags, Aiko had moved to occupy the passenger seat, clinging to Keiichi with a ferocity she'd not displayed since her childhood.

Keiichi held her just as tightly, the SEAL's face a grimace of such raw emotion that for a moment Debra couldn't bear to look at it. She looked away, feeling as though she was intruding, and debated about taking a leisurely stroll around the parking lot to give the two a bit of privacy. Yet the opportunity was lost, for just as the detective was about to turn away Keiichi caught her eye. He looked up at her through the passenger's side window, and his eyes dropped to the bags on her arms. He squeezed Aiko, kissed her brow, then tousled her hair before releasing her. Aiko looked up at him, then looked over her shoulder at Debra, who felt her heart wrench when their eyes met. _Something's aged her._ She'd seen a similar look on only one other person in her entire career, that being from a young, ten-year old boy who'd stolen his father's shotgun, loaded it with two shells of birdshot, and had then used it to spray his uncle's guts across the far side of his house before calling the cops. The boy had explained to her and her partner at that time that his uncle used to beat him and his younger brother, sometimes so severely that neither of the boys could move, and that the last 'lesson' as he'd called it had almost killed his brother. _The look of a person who's made a decision too far out of their league and is perfectly willing to accept the consequences,_ Debra thought, and then remembered the puma.

She'd seen nothing but a mountain lion at first when she'd signaled Keiichi to stop the car. Even with Keiichi's claims that the creature on the embankment was Aiko, Debra hadn't seen it. In fact, she hadn't seen Aiko Morisato until Belldandy had stumbled out of the car and literally punched the cougar right out of Aiko, and what a sight _that_ had been: A mist, shimmering like diamonds that seemed to shatter the image of a puma, perhaps even shattered reality itself for that moment, before reforming into a strange white miasma that vaguely looked like a puma. Debra had thought she'd seen something else in that miasma too, something that was vaguely human in shape, but the puma had overshadowed it, and Debra had tentatively dismissed it as a trick of the eyes.

Still... what had it been? What had possessed Aiko in those few hours she'd been gone, and what had she gone through? There'd been a fire a couple of miles away, and Debra could remember the scream of the emergency responders' sirens but...

A smile broke out on Aiko's face, breaking Debra's train of thought, and the college student opened the passenger door, leapt out, and almost tackled the detective to the ground. Debra promptly forgot about the puma, and as Aiko embraced her she hugged her back, her own feelings of relief that the older woman had fought so hard to ignore engulfing her as the two gripped each other. "Thank god you're okay," she murmured, and felt Aiko squeeze her a little tighter.

"Sorry, Deb." Aiko's voice wavered. "Oh god, I'm so sorry. I thought I'd never see you again, god, I shouldn't even be alive right now. I'm so sorry."

"Don't apologize. Nobody plans on getting kidnapped." She held the younger woman at arm's length, looking her up and down. Aiko sniffed, and for a moment she looked like the same scared, vulnerable little girl Debra had grown up with. "Come on. Let's get everyone cleaned up."

Debra had returned laden with close to one hundred dollars worth of clothing, medical supplies, baby wipes, and food and water. In some ways it was the highpoint of the day, minus recovering Aiko: nobody had consumed anything since the initial kidnapping, and everybody, to include the sleeping goddess in the back seat, was filthy. Between the three of them alone they went through two packs of baby wipes, removing everything from generic filth to blood and ash from Keiichi and Aiko. They exchanged stories as they cleaned each other up, Aiko starting with her waking up in the shipping container surrounded by bugs before Keiichi and Debra shared their story together. The car was parked far enough away from the Walmart's entrance that the group was gifted with a small bit of privacy while they worked. In reflection it was like a pair of legends from a story book: a young woman possessed by not only a god but the fierce spirit of a puma as well, going to war against a cursed man sentenced to destroy humanity. Two regular humans guided by a goddess infiltrating a nest of demons and defeating them one-by-one, aided only in the last minute by a demon sent to retrieve the last one they'd fought against for some sort of punishment.

Aiko eyed Keiichi keenly, "And you still have that gift?"

"What gift?" Keiichi was in the middle of pulling off his soiled shirt, replacing it with a slightly larger, cleaner, bloodless green tee. The sleeves strained around his biceps, indicating that the shirt Debra bought was a size too small. It had been a while since she had seen him, after all.

"You don't... that gift Mara gave you," Debra reminded.

"I wasn't given any kind of gift." Keiichi stared at them blankly. "That crazy bitch just growled at me and let me go, see?" His hands went to the pockets of his soiled shorts, which he'd yet to change out of, and he pulled them inside-out. Nothing outside of his cellphone and wallet came from it, but the left pocket liner was dark and chunky with blood.

"Then what's in your right hand, Keiichi?" Aiko looked at the man in confusion, watching as he set his phone and wallet on the car's dashboard with his left hand, while his right clutched something else tightly.

Keiichi stared at her in confusion, then stared at his hand, transferred whatever the object was to his left hand, then opened his right, revealing nothing. The man said as much. "I don't have anything in my right hand."

Aiko and Debra shared a look.

"Open both of your hands, Kei." Debra requested.

Keiichi stuck his left hand in his emptied pocket, then pulled it out and opened both hands for the women to view. "Guys, what are you looking for?"

"You realize you suck at sleight-of-hand, right Keiichi?" Debra asked.

"I don't do parlor tricks," Keiichi growled. "What's this all about, guys?"

"Damn." Aiko looked between Keiichi and Debra. "Kei got hypnotized like a little _bitch_."

"Hey!" Keiichi exclaimed, sending a hurt look to Aiko. "I did not!"

"Leave it alone, Aiko," Debra advised. "Whatever it is, it's for Belldandy, not us." She looked back at the car's backseat, where the goddess rested curled up under a small fleece travel blanket that had been part of Debra's purchases. "She's still not up..."

"She expended all her energy," Aiko said suddenly. "Both in the battles against those demons and on me with the god and the deity. She could be out for just a couple of hours, or as long as a week."

Both Keiichi and Debra sent her a peculiar look, and the college student fidgeted beneath their gaze. "What?"

"How do you know that?" Keiichi asked.

"Um..." Aiko paused, and the look of discomfort grew. "I don't... know?" she said. "It just kind of... came to me?"

Debra sucked in a long breath. "You know what? Screw hanging around gods. This shit makes people weird."

"Try being possessed by one," Aiko muttered, hugging herself tightly as she stared at Belldandy for a long, thoughtful moment. "I saw Urd fall," she said after a moment. "Urd and Lind both. The god showed me. I don't think it was intentional, though."

"So she really is..." Keiichi lapsed into silence, and the atmosphere grew solemn.

Aiko hesitated, seeming to gather her will. "What do we do?" she asked. "I mean... Urd and Lind... they're both... their _bodies_ are..." She bit her lip, and in a lower voice, whispered, "We can't just _leave_ them there."

Keiichi and Debra shared a look. Aiko had brought up a good, if not grim, point. They'd lost two of their own, yes, but they'd died fighting a monster in _California._ Not some small war-torn country. Not even in some gang-ridden city where murder left the local cops jaded. San Francisco, in broad daylight, too. Where anyone could stumble upon them and the remnants of whatever they'd been fighting and...

"We can't just... go back for them though," Debra announced. "I mean... Keiichi... we have a bag stuffed with a bunch of bloody clothes and a missing person who started a supernatural fire with us. We can't just..." She made a face, disliking what she was saying, and her voice dropped, as if attempting to avoid the ears of any gods listening. "We can't just go back and, and put a pair of cadavers in the car with us."

Keiichi sucked in a deep breath, running his fingers through his hair. "So what do we do?" he demanded. "Tip off the police and then file a missing persons report that matches them? Wait for them to call us in and identify the bodies?" It seemed disrespectful. Abhorrent, even. They were... they were _responsible_ for Urd and Lind.

"Unless you know of some kind of god-police that a bunch of lowly humans like us can reach out to, yes." Debra replied. "I don't... I don't like it either, Keiichi, but this is something out of our control. We have to play by _our_ rules now. This isn't a battlefield. This isn't a warzone. This is California, Keiichi. And for lack of any other evidence... what happened to Urd and her friend is going to look like a murder." Keiichi and Aiko both winced. "I'm sorry guys, but it's true. Unless something... different happens to gods when they die, it's going to look like two women murdered at the scene of the crime, with forensics scratching their heads over the finer details."

"Does Skuld know?" Aiko suddenly spoke up.

"Oh Christ," Keiichi recoiled, burying his face in one hand and shaking his head. "No, I don't think she... oh fuck. I can't believe I never thought about... god damn it."

"Who..." Debra looked between the two warily.

"Belldandy and Urd's younger sister," Aiko supplied. "I... she and Urd were close. Like... me and Kei close."

"Can you contact her?" the detective asked.

Aiko shook her head. "She's a god like the others so... no. Um... Belldandy can though." She looked back and the Norn in question. "Whenever she wakes up."

Keiichi massaged his brows with both his hands. "I need to tell her," he grumbled. "She needs to know." He sucked in a deep breath, his face strained with deep lines of weariness, and both Debra and Aiko were struck with a sudden insight about Keiichi: while this was not the first battle he'd lost both an ally and a friend, neither was this the first time he'd reached out to next of kin to inform them of their passing.

It was a tragic realization, and it made Keiichi look old. Old and tired and even a little defeated. Aiko reached out and hugged him. After getting past her initial hesitation, Debra did as well. Keiichi did not fight either of them off but in fact drew them both close, wrapping his arms around both of them as his face was painted in a grimace of mournful pain. There, together, in the wake of a battle that involved gods and demons, monsters and spirits, the three mortals drew comfort from each other.

Comfort taken in the shadow of dead gods and the bleak responsibility that came with it.

XXX

Dinner that evening consisted of power bars, trail mix, and Gatorade. Nobody had much of an appetite, but Keiichi coaxed everyone into eating anyways. The food was bland and unappealing, yet after the first granola bar had awakened hunger pangs, the three of them polished off two boxes with little effort. The battles of the day, battles physical, psychological, and magical in nature, had taken their toll on everyone in more ways than one. Keiichi had to set the last box of energy bars aside for Belldandy, lest she awaken as ravenous as the rest of them with nothing to ease the hunger. Aiko's thirst in particular was almost as great as her hunger, and the woman downed two large bottles of Gatorade as blue as her hair before Keiichi or Debra could stop her.

She finished the second one with a gasp. "Fuck possession," she rasped. "And fuck fires too."

Keiichi stood on watch while Aiko and Debra changed behind the car, then switched to allow Keiichi a chance to change. When he was changed, Debra took the soiled clothes and stuffed them in one of the remaining plastic bags. "What will you do with them?" Aiko asked. "You can't throw them away, they're all covered in blood."

Debra shrugged. "I know a thing or two about analyzing DNA samples from blood stains," she admitted. "I'll ruin them enough that nothing can be collected, then toss them in a garbage bin, no harm no foul."

"Until some hobo finds them?" Keiichi asked.

"Won't matter," Debra said. "If someone finds them, someone finds them. Police won't be able to use anything off of it and so can really only make small guesses." She frowned, and her face darkened. "The amount of crime this state has is pretty bad for the cops living here. They can only do so much with what they have."

They left the parking lot after that, Keiichi and Debra up front after Aiko volunteered to cram in back with the resting goddess. Conversation, bleak as it was, detailed how to explain Aiko's disappearance to police investigators, as Megumi had sent word to Keiichi that they'd filed a missing persons report. While the two up front went back and forth over what to do, Aiko kept quiet in the back, using baby wipes to clean the blood off of Belldandy's exposed skin.

They hit heavy traffic coming back into San Francisco. A cloud of thick, black smoke was billowing from the east, and screaming sirens could be heard wailing in the distance. All three of the mortals in the car stared off in the direction of the smoke.

"I didn't do it." Aiko's weak attempt at a joke was met with silence.

Debra pulled out her phone and unlocked it. After a few minutes, a news broadcast permeated the silence of the car.

" _...local firefighters from all across the Bay Area are pressed thin in an attempt to combat not one, but two fires that have broken out within hours of each other."_ A male reporter's voice rose from Debra's phone. _"Police are working with firefighters to investigate the cause of these incidents, as so far there have been no reports of possible explosions in the area that might highlight a possible terrorist attack. Locals are encouraged to work with police in reporting any suspicious individuals seen in the area of the fires, the first being a shipping yard in Skagg's Island, with the second one occurring an hour later at a storage unit in San Francisco. It is uncertain at this time if these two events are coincidental or possibly linked..."_

Debra looked over at Keiichi, who listened in stony silence, his lips pressed in a thin line. "That was where we left Urd and her friend," she said, her voice soft. "...What now?"

"We go back to the hotel," Keiichi replied with a heavy heart. "There's nothing else we can do."

XXX

At the end of the day nobody made their flights back home.

Instead Takano, through a strange combination of Morisato magic, urgency, and pleading, managed to pin on an additional day to their original lodging in the hotel, explaining to the hotel manager that there had been a sudden family emergency that required those who'd been about to check out to stay. The staff had been sympathetic, Keiichi learned, and for that he'd been grateful. They'd required them all to juggle rooms because of past reservations, of course, but otherwise the hotel staff had worked hard with the last-minute request to fulfill the Morisato family's needs. Those who'd remained behind in Aiko's absence had cooperated willfully with both the hotel staff and the police who'd been called to fill out a missing person report. They had been placed hodgepodge in available rooms scattered across the hotel for reasons the staff couldn't help, and Megumi had requested a two-bed room she could share with Debra to help put some ease on the manager when he confessed there were no single bed rooms left. There was a bit of difficulty with Keiichi, but Keima and Takano made it clear their son could sleep in the same room as them if they got a two-bed suite.

They only found out later that night, with the return of Aiko, Keiichi, and the others minus one that they didn't need to bother.

And in the relief of Aiko's return, no one thought to question what had become of that missing person.

Keiichi carried Belldandy to the new hotel room, the blanket hiding her battle suit as well as the blood stains that covered it. With the goddess safely tucked away, he returned to his family and joined Debra and Aiko for the bombardment of questions from his family. Debra surprised him in taking the lead on it, maintaining a level of composure and displaying a level of patience that left Keiichi in awe and reminding him of Debra's history dealing with similar- though never personal- interrogations by other families. Both he and Aiko allowed her, listening in silence as Debra explained how Aiko had been abducted by an unidentified woman ( _She was sick," Aiko said. "That's all I really remember.")_ and finding out she'd been in league with Stuart Holzkopf _("It looked like him, anyways," Aiko continued, shamefaced. "I don't want to say for sure, though."_ )

About how Keiichi and the others had all tracked down Aiko through the tracking app on Keiichi's phone, and how they'd come across a woman matching Aiko's description of the sick woman on Treasure Island. How Urd had confronted her, and how the woman had run off with Urd on her heels, both of them up and over a fence labeled with nuclear hazard warning signs. _("We don't know what happened to her after that, and... we couldn't waste time searching for her." Keiichi refused to meet anyone's eyes as he spoke, and it appeared as if the decision weighed heavily on him._ ) How Aiko had awakened in a shed on a pier and had managed to escape through a loose board in the floor, slipping out and swimming to shore, and how she'd almost drowned because she'd needed to stay a good distance from shore to avoid being seen. ( _"Is that why you're trembling, Aiko?" Morgan asked, holding her girlfriend tight. If she noticed that Aiko smelled of smoke and fire rather than sea and salt, she said nothing. For that, Aiko fell in love with Morgan all over again, though she knew that there would be words in private._ ) How Belldandy had spotted her in the distance, how Keiichi had swum out to rescue her, Navy SEAL that he was, and how both Belldandy and Debra had met them as they returned to drag them back to shore before fleeing.

How there had still been no sign of Urd, despite their searching, and how Belldandy had risked it all to hop into the restricted area only to return later in grief; the area beyond the fence was too large, she'd said, and despite her best efforts, she could not track down either her sister or the sick woman. "She's fearing the worst right now," Debra wrapped up. "After we got Aiko, we went to the police to let them know what happened. We filled out another missing person report for Urd and there's a BOLO alert out right now for Stuart Holzkopf and that sick woman." A half-lie. During Keiichi's initial contact with Megumi after finding Aiko, his older sister had come across a report from a local news agency that was advising people who lived in the vicinity of San Quentin to lock their doors because a rapist had escaped. That rapist had been Stuart, whom police were still searching for. They would never find him, of course. Not after Aiko's puma.

It was a horrible thing to say to the family, as it brought no closure to anyone outside of Keiichi's little group. Words said knowing that no one in the family, not Keima, not Takano, not Megumi, not even Morgan, would be able to find closure knowing the fate of Stuart Holzkopf. For them, he would always be out there, creeping behind bushes, peering through windows, and preying on children. His face would be the first to always pop up into their minds whenever word came of a child who had vanished, a sexual predator touching the evening news, or a local warning advising people to escort children for fear of some new deviant out preying on the young. And the police would be ever searching, ever seeking, and never finding any additional evidence that might point investigators in the direction of where Stuart Holzkopf had vanished to.

Keiichi and Debra had gone back and forth on the topic for close to an hour while stuck in traffic. Yet there was no other way that would allow them to explain their cover story. For the remaining family members in this room, Stuart Holzkopf would live forever as a shadow in their hearts.

And as a family was reunified, a goddess dreamt on...

And on...

And on...

And _she was back in the storage yard behind a line of yellow warning tape. She sees Lind on the ground, writhing in pain as blood pools around her, staining her pristine white uniform a somber red. Her eyes are drawn to the wretched movement, and a dull horror pulses in her chest, rich with tension yet dull with shock, and part of her fancies, as she watches the thrashing slow, that perhaps she is dreaming._

 _She looks past Lind and sees Urd, unwounded but gripped by seizures that are painful to behold, and as she turns away from the two her eyes are instead drawn to their angels, mere feet away. She sees the twins huddled around a distorted, jerking form, and realizes that the seizures her sister suffers are brought on by her injured angel and not a physical manifestation._

 _One of the twins, Cool Mint as identified by her right wing and red eyes, grips World of Elegance, her face cast in mindless panic as she looks down at the wounded angel, then over her shoulder at her host. The expression is clear:_ What do I do? I don't know what to do! _Yet her twin does, and as Cool Mint stands frozen by indecision Spear Mint acts. She shouts something that Belldandy cannot hear, even in this realm of dreams, and the Norn watches as two white pouches materialize in thin air. They match Lind's white, now red uniform, and hold unique sigils on the front that identifies them as EMKITs, emergency medical kits, which Belldandy recognizes from her mother's time in service._ But there should only be one, _Belldandy thinks to herself._ Valkyries only deploy with one EMKIT at a strictly for the Valkyrie, containing everything necessary to aid both the injured warrior and the injured angel. _Yet Lind has two, one for each angel, that are labeled with patches on the side; one a spear, the other an ice cream cone. For some reason, with everything that is happening in that moment, that is what will stick with Belldandy more than anything else upon waking: in the midst of the tragedy that surrounds her, here is a spark of innocence not often portrayed by a simple patch by which to label her newer angel._

 _Spear Mint grabs both pouches. Keeping her own, she tosses Cool Mint's ice cream patch EMKIT to her. She points to World of Elegance, then sprints off towards Lind, and as Cool Mint, now with direction, rips open the pouch to aid the wounded angel. Belldandy realizes that if not for her strange deformity that had led to two angels, the Valkyrie would only have a need for one EMKIT. One EMKIT which would go straight to Lind, as per Valkyrie code, leaving World of Elegance to fade in silence. Yet because of her two angels- EMKITS could only support one angel and one Valkyrie at a time, wasn't that right?- she has two EMKITS capable of supporting two deities. By some miracle the planets had aligned just enough in favor of those who lay injured before her._

 _She thought she could love Lind for that. Perhaps even kiss her for it, if only for the sheer fact that all angels partnered with their Valkyrie hosts underwent the same medical field training as their hosts- all of them, even those fresh to the scene like Cool Mint- and she watched with feelings she could not put to name as both angels treated the injured._

 _Spear Mint tears open the back of Lind's shirt, where the injury is deepest. She removes a slim packet that reads KWIKLOT in big, bold Asgardian script, and tears it open, dumping a white powder into the puncture wound. She tosses it aside without much thought and then grabs another, slightly larger packet, tears it open, and removes a field dressing. The angel presses it hard against her host's back, and for a moment she appeared to stumble as if her hand has accidently slipped straight into the wound, and Belldandy recognizes with fresh horror that Spear Mint is dematerializing, the connection between Lind and her angels weakening as the Valkyrie begins to fade closer to death._

 _She sees a rare moment of startled panic slip across Spear Mint's face, sees it vanish in place of steel-eyed determination, and watches the angel cease her actions and instead withdraw two syringes. One holds a pair of wings- angel wings- imprinted on the side, and the other is embellished with a pair of crossed axes that are the standard sigil for Valkyries everywhere. She shouts something to her sister-possibly instructions to do the same, and then holds the syringe up before her. She is hesitant, and Belldandy is startled by the look of honest, open fear that seeps into the stoic angel's eyes as she observes the syringe, then watches her remove the cap from the needle, and brings it to her inner elbow. She closes her eyes and grits her teeth as she injects it, a snarl of defiance that Belldandy did not understand upon her face, then tosses it aside and grabs the second syringe. She rolls Lind onto her back (revealing another large hole in her chest, Belldandy notes), tears open the front of Lind's blouse with fresh ferocity, and slams the device down onto the Valkyrie's chest, plunging the needle into Lind's heart._

 _Lind's eyes fly open. Her back arches upwards with such painful intensity Belldandy has to look away. The Valkyrie sucks in a loose, watery breath that she chokes on. She coughs next, and the sound is gargled and sodden like a person drowning. The Norn finds herself looking back despite this, as is the manner of dreams, and sees Spear Mint's face now speckled with blood, Lind clutching her chest as she stares up into the eyes of her angel with bulging, unfocused eyes. Her arms begin to flail wildly, and as they do Lind coughs again, and the spittle on her lips is pink and frothy. Belldandy grows keenly aware of a new sound then, unique only in its quality and pitch that makes it stand out from the other sounds in the area. It is an odd, quiet sucking sound, one out of tune with Lind's gasps and coughs and made all the worse as Belldandy's eyes drift to the hole in her chest._

 _She looks away as Spear Mint fights past her host's flailing limbs to treat the other half of the injury, and her eyes are drawn instead to Cool Mint and World of Elegance. Cool Mint looks scared and inexperienced next to the injured Elegance, and for a brief moment Belldandy sees not the angel but instead a child, one handed a medical kit in the midst of chaos and instructed to sink or swim. It is there and gone in an instant, but its lingering effects are enough to touch Belldandy, awakening memories of the children in Japan, the children she'd aided, from those old and jaded souls to the new ones who'd looked so much like Cool Mint in that brief moment. She finds herself walking towards the two angels without realizing it, and has to force herself to stop, for in this realm of dreams, regardless of its proximity to reality, she cannot interfere. She is an observer here. Nothing more, nothing less, and would be unable to interact with the two of them even if she breaks that unspoken rule._

 _Cool Mint kneels down at World of Elegance's side and stares at the writhing angel, her eyes large and frightened, captured by the sizeable hole in the elder angel's back. She jerks back when one of Elegance's wings smacks her, and shakes her head before looking back over her shoulder at (_ Belldandy _) Spear Mint. Yet Spear Mint is too preoccupied saving their shared host to notice her sibling's deer in the headlights gaze, and so Cool Mint looks back to World of Elegance. She fumbles with her pouch, finds the pull tab, and yanks it open with enough force to send the contents flying. She stares at the disorganized mess in growing distress, looks at World of Elegance, and then rummages through the parcels around her. Even without a connection to the angel, Belldandy can tell Cool Mint doesn't know what to do. All her training has abandoned her with the rise of panic, and the angel looks close to weeping in despair and defeat as she picks up a pack, looks at its label, then tosses it aside before reaching for the next. She does this with six different items, and each one she tosses away with a bit more force every time._

 _Belldandy clutches herself, watching this scene play out with grievous anticipation. She feels nauseous, her stomach twisted into knots, and she feels she may scream if this continues._ Find something, _she urges._ By the life of your host, _find something_! Don't let Urd's angel die. _Please!_

 _And as if hearing her plea, Cool Mint picks up her next package and glances at it, then readies to toss it. Yet she pauses mid-swing, and instead brings it back in front of her face for a second read. In that instant everything seems to click for Cool Mint, and the worry on her face begins to melt away in place of confidence as she springs into action. She tears the package open and brings it to the injury on World of Elegance's back, yet is dismayed to find she is already too late. Something is happening to World of Elegance, something is happening to_ Nimiàiaq ( _Belldandy does not know where this name comes from nor what it means) and it is something that sends Cool Mint stumbling away from the_ gudan _in fear of her own safety._

 _It is enough to spur Belldandy to move, yet she only has time to notice something strange sprout form the angel's back- a tumorous growth, a cluster of hard, jagged flesh almost reptilian in nature- before World of Elegance begins to writhe in earnest. Whereas before the angel had merely squirmed in pain, now she began to thrash, and an odd thought flashes through Belldandy's mind in the middle of it all._ She's mutating. As a way to protect herself... she's mutating to protect her injuries. _And oh, what an alien thought it is, and oh, what a terrible thought it is, yet she cannot shake the thought from her head from where it plants itself, repeating over and over and over in her mind;_ The Black Wings are mutating, that's why they're so different. They're closer to the _Ssaratu_ from which they emerge, and their form is unstable, and so they mutate like the _Ssaratu,_ mutate like the Ancient Ones, mutate like the Chaotic Flame that is the _Ssaratu's_ very nature, and can't you see? Can't you _see_? Look, her arms are beginning to scale, and look, there are fangs against her lips, and look, look _look!_

It is _Nimiàiaq, a voice whispers in her ear, and Belldandy discovers that Holy Bell has followed her into this dream, this nightmare, and that the angel is shuddering from within her breast._ It is _Nimiàiaq, the angel repeats,_ awakened by necessity, born of instability like that of her host, of two worlds not one. _And then, words that touch Belldandy's heart and leave her filled with dread._ She will be hunted for this.

What do you mean? _Belldandy calls, yet her angel goes silent as before her the scene continues to play out. World of Elegance arches her back, her mouth open in a scream of such intensity that it almost appears as if her jaw has unhinged. Yet the scream she hears is from Urd, and it is a sound that will haunt Belldandy for the rest of her life, a sound like the scream of a mountain lion, the scream of a banshee, the scream of a woman not only being murdered, but having her soul ripped to pieces while she is still alive. The sound is almost enough to send her retreating back into the waking world, for suddenly she can hear voices- Keiichi's voice, Debra's voice, perhaps even_ Aiko's _voice- yet she pushes them aside, banishes them back into the depths of some other piece of her, and feels the waking tide ebb and fade._

 _She looks to Urd, unable to stand to watch the mutation as it plays havoc on World of Elegance's body, and finds now that Spear Mint is holding onto Lind, compressing the Valkyrie's chest while she sets a bandage that is a quick fix, a temporary fix, but will not heal the hole in her body. She sees Lind, awake and alert, though ashen and shaking, watching Urd with bright, fevered eyes that glint with gold, and needs to do a double-take, for in that moment Lind looks so much like a white northern bear that it is terrifying and unnatural._ She'll kill her. _Belldandy thinks to herself, and her heart leaps into her throat as she runs forward, no longer caring about what she can and cannot interfere with._ The Valkyrie isn't in her right mind, she'll kill her!

 _And as she predicts, the Valkyrie lunges for Urd, and Spear Mint does little to stop her (why would she? They are united, one heart, one mind) as the Valkyrie half-tackles, half falls on top of the howling Norn. For a moment Lind's eyes roll up in her skull as her body slackens, and then the flash faint passes as the warrior regains consciousness once more. "Gri...grindhiminn ór Ne-Neboheim..." She grinds out, and as a light begins to consolidate around them Lind passes out once more, leaving her body limp atop of Urd's._

 _Belldandy recognizes an emergency gate extraction when she sees one, having borne witness and even accessed them herself in the past in times where she's run afoul of demons between contracts. She watches Spear Mint move to grab her host, and is startled to see her grab Urd by the shirt as well, though she is careful to mind her distance. A glance at Cool Mint reveals much of the same, and it appears that neither Urd nor World of Elegance are aware of the angels or lone Valkyrie around them, nor the light of a gate that is about to take them back to the heavens, back to Asgard, back to the very place they have been banished from; they are both blind to the light, blind to the people, aware only of the pain that wracks them both as the mutation continues its slow spread across World of Elegance's body. Feathers are falling from her wings now in clumps, and the sight makes Holy Bell recoil in abject horror._

 _They all vanish in two separate groups, leaving nothing but fading feathers, blood, and the corpses of their enemies to show their passing._

No... _Belldandy thinks to herself, staring down at the blood stains on the ground and the feathers slowly dissolving into dust._ No, take me with them, I need to go with them! _She screams, and for a moment nothing happens, for a moment she hears voices once more speaking around her and calling her back, and as the scene around her begins to waver and warp she kicks and she screams and she flails with an intensity borne of desperation._ I can't go back yet! _She tells herself._ I need to follow Urd! I need to know what happens!

You will regret this action. _A voice comes from deep within her mind. Not Holy Bell but her own voice, her subconscious, warning her of the upcoming consequences._ This will have lasting, unpleasant affects. Are you sure you want to continue? Absolutely _certain_? Because once the decision is made there is no going back; you will have to live with your actions.

I am certain, _Belldandy tells it._ Now take me to Urd.

 _The world around her begins to waver, but the voices fade as a vibrant, dangerous pain wracks through her brain, sharp and staggering like an icepick being driven through the center of her skull. It is enough to be dizzying, to almost knock her past the realms of dreams and into the black darkness of unconsciousness, and in the waking world Belldandy's nose begins to bleed. When she awakens in some future time she will find a rusty crust on her pillow but think nothing of it. The results of this action will not fully reveal themselves until later, much, much later when she returns back to Virginia and can see the damage done to herself in its entirety._

 _Yet the world around her changes to her will, and next she finds herself in surroundings she does not recognize, staring not at one, but_ two _familiar faces. It is not Urd nor Lind she sees but her grandfather, Odin of One-Eye, sitting and holding a discussion with Nebo in a room that reminds Belldandy of a doctor's office. Their conversation is jovial, the atmosphere relaxed, like a pair of old friends visiting each other. And with a start, Belldandy realizes that is exactly what it is: Odin is talking about his life, his family, and more importantly his grandchildren, whom he speaks fondly of. It is not of the Norns specifically that he speaks of, but then the Norns are not his only grandchildren. The conversation drifts to angels, and Nebo requests to see Odin's, revealing the true reason behind the visit. Odin agrees, and the angel that emerges comes not from his back but from his hand, its shape alien and strange to Belldandy's eyes._

 _She has heard the tales of her grandfather's beloved spear, Gungir, yet she has never seen it personally, nor ever been aware that it also serves as his angel. It materializes in the form of a majestic spear, one that glows with pure, bright light and with the Elder Furthark, the magical language crafted by Odin himself, inscribed in bright blue runes along its staff. Four pairs of diminutive wings flutter restlessly along the staff: one larger pair near the spearhead, a second, smaller pair a hand's length behind it, and further down to the lance butt with a second set of equal size. She sees eyes within the wings, multiple eyes, all looking everywhere at once, and for a moment it even seems that one of the many eyes on the wings stares directly at Belldandy herself, which unnerves her._

 _Odin hands Gungir over to Nebo, who takes the spear, the angel, the living weapon, with gentle hands. He is careful of the wings, and holds the entity with careful consideration, like handling a fragile item made of glass. Belldandy knows better, however, having been regaled with stories of her grandfather's prowess with Gungir since early childhood. Though it is beautiful, there is not a feather or eye on that spear which is delicate and has not been doused in blood._

It is not Gungir's fault, _Holy Bell whispers in her mind._ Gungir was fused with the spear crafted for Odin by the dwarves. He had no use for an angel in a form like ours. He fused Gungir with the spear without Nebo's knowledge and without Mother's consent, and Nebo almost attacked Odin in his anger when he later found out. This was a long time ago though, when Odin was still young and had not yet sacrificed his eye for wisdom. We were new too, back then. Gungir was one of the angels who had just made it past the prototype stage, and the gods were still uncertain on what we could and could not do. It was a difficult time for angels.

How do you know all this? _Belldandy asks._

We share our knowledge and experience with each other when we sleep, _Holy Bell reveals. There is hesitation in her voice, and then the angel continues._ We know many things about many gods. That is why we are both angel and nemesis and _Ssaratu_.

 _This revelation brings questions to Belldandy's mind. Questions she cannot entertain, for even as the questions rise to her lips, the scene before her continues. As Nebo is observing Gungir the air around their head begins to warp and waver, and Belldandy realizes what is happening even before Lind and Urd and all their angels manifest._

 _A single thought, so quiet that she cannot tell whether it emerges from herself or her angel rings though her mind;_ This is bad.

 _And indeed it is, for as the two injured deities materialize overhead, they come crashing down into the room, crashing down on top of Nebo, on top of Odin, on top of Gungir, whose eyes at once focus on World of Elegance._ This is bad. _The pupils of the many eyes, and by the heavens, there were_ so many _eyes, dilate upon seeing the mutating angel, on the mutating angel's black_ wing _, and it makes Belldandy's hair stand on end. Yet in the arising clamor its focus goes unnoticed, for Urd is still screaming and Lind is still bleeding and the twins flock to Nebo for aid, throwing hand gestures that spin too fast for him to follow as he tries to escape from beneath the two deities._

 _His focus finds Lind first, and the color leaves his tan face as he sees the blood soaking her uniform. He cries for his_ Ssaratu _but doesn't need to, for Luna Spirit has already manifested within the room, moving to World of Elegance's aid in a terrible visage of a monster moving in for the slaughter. Yet the massive talons that look capable of shredding World of Elegance are gentle as they move her, and as the_ Ssaratu _tends to the mutating angel Nebo is freed to treat Lind. He calls to Odin for assistance, who is familiar in the ways of battle, magic, and medicine from his many years of service as a war god before retiring as Daitenkaicho. Yet Odin is distracted and does not appear to hear Nebo's voice, and Nebo is too focused on Lind's grievous injuries to bother with a second call, nor even wonder as to why the ex-Daitenkaicho is ignoring him._

 _He picks Lind up, and though they are almost of the same size Lind appears small and delicate in his arms, and moves her to the long medical chair in the center of the room. He adjusts it to lay the woman flat, and with a speed that belies his frame rushes to collect medical supplies from around the room, yelling to Lind to_ hold on _Kyz_ , just hold on a little longer! _He shouts to Odin to tend to Urd, who is his granddaughter and whose injuries are not as apparent to Nebo, but then Nebo is a TIC of angels, not of gods._

 _Still though, Odin does not move, and Belldandy can feel the ball of dread in her gut fester into something worse as she sees the expression on his face. His attention, like Gungir's, is on World of Elegance, is on World of Elegance's black wing, and it reminds her of a wolf that has stumbled upon an injured and bleating sheep. She remembers now the stories of her grandfather. The good stories and the bad stories and the scary stories- above all the scary stories- of Odin in his prime. She remembers the rumors of angels with black in their wings and the rumors of the madness contained within them. She remembers how those rumors used to circulate, to transform, to evolve, to_ mutate _into rumors of how they became dangerous, of how their_ hosts _became dangerous, and how they were hunted, hunted, hunted in the Wild Hunt by Odin and his hounds. And here is one now, one with not just a little black in her wing but a lot of black, a full black wing that is injured, and is making her host scream like mad, and who is mutating, who is_ evolving _into something never before seen._

He doesn't see Urd, _Belldandy realizes, and it hits her like a sack of bricks, forcing the air from her lungs and leaving her lightheaded._ He doesn't see Urd, all he sees is World of Elegance's black wing and-

Gungir is thirsty, _Holy Bell whimpers._ Gungir is thirsty and I can hear his voice. It sounds like a howl. Like the howl of Odin's hunting dogs. _Her fear trickles through their link to Belldandy, and the goddess is left trembling, her heart fluttering weakly in her chest._ Urd, get up. Get up for the sake of your angel, Gungir is coming for her! Get up Urd!

 _Belldandy joins her voice with Holy Bell's, and for a moment the two are unified._ Get up Urd. You need to protect World of Elegance. Urd, please, your angel is in danger. Your _soul_ is in danger. You need to get up, please! Odin is grabbing Gungir, get up Urd. Odin is moving towards World of Elegance, _move_ Urd, you need to _move_! They'll call the hounds and then they'll slay Mooney for getting in their way, and then they'll slay World of Elegance and hang her wing by a weapons mount and _for the love of your angel stop him Urd!_

 _Odin looms closer as Nebo is distracted, the One-Eyed Death, and then the twins are before him, barreling into his large frame with enough force to knock him off his feet. They know, like Holy Bell, what is about to happen and both refuse to let it transpire, and though Odin is a prior Daitenkaicho, though Odin is a founder of the Valkyrie military unit that Lind now serves on, though what they are doing could be perceived as borderline traitorous to stand between the ex-Daitenkaicho and the black-winged angel, still they stand in defiance before the elder god._

 _Nebo looks up as Odin falls and sees this latest bit of madness about to occur yet is too late to stop Odin's anger from manifesting. Magic, ancient and powerful, crackles and sparks around Odin in great blue bolts of lightning, and it is all Nebo can do to raise a barrier around himself and the injured Lind to prevent the sporadic bolts from causing further harm. The magic is dangerous, and wild, and several stray spears strike shelves cluttered with vials and potions and sensitive lab equipment designed specifically for angels. Several of the bolts come close to Urd, and though she is not their host both of the twins attempt to shield her, for she is defenseless and suffers just as her angel does. More come near Luna Spirit and World of Elegance, and Mooney shrieks when one spectacular bolt of blue energy strikes her flayed back; a bolt meant for Elegance and not the_ Ssaratu _that is protecting her._

 _It angers Luna Spirit, and the shriek is quick to become a mental howl of a magnitude even worse than its screams back in Virginia, and Nebo looks on in terror as the_ Ssaratu _falls into a frenzy. He fears for Lind, he fears for Urd, but above all he fears for the angels that are within this room, which has gone from a house of healing to a mocking battleground, which he will not stand for. Though he dislikes striking his friends and allies, Nebo recognizes the danger presented by everyone within the room, and concludes that one must go in order to save the others._

 _A spell comes to his lips, and Belldandy fears for the worst, certain he is about to strike Urd or World of Elegance. Yet her fears are misplaced, for as the spell reaches completion, as long tendrils of black magic emerge from the shadows to envelop Odin, she remembers that, above all, Nebo is as much a healer as Odin is a warrior, and the women who've literally fallen into his office are of the ilk desperate for help, not the sort to seek battle._

 _The tendrils of shade consolidate into inky tentacles that grab Odin. Not to harm- never to harm- but to bind in an attempt to stop any further onslaught. Yet just as Nebo is a healer, Gungir is a weapon, and one that will not be bound by a god not his own- even if Nebo could be called his sire. The weapon glows a blinding blue, and the black magic dissolves, freeing not only Gungir but Odin as well. Odin, angry and irrational in the presence of a black-winged angel, lets loose a turret of blue-white energy at Nebo, who screams and throws everything he has into his barrier. It holds, but barely, and Luna Spirit barrels to his aid, abandoning World of Elegance in a suicidal affront towards the ex-Daitenkaicho._

 _Belldandy feels a scream crawl its way out of her throat, and she cannot say for certain for whom she fears: Holy Bell fears for her mother, Belldandy fears for her grandfather, and the combination is enough to leave the Norn rattled and shrieking. Odin stares up at the_ Ssaratu _with his one good eye, and hesitates, as if uncertain of what he is beholding. The hesitation is all Luna Spirit needs, and a massive paw as large as Odin himself collides with the man's body, knocking him through two walls and out into Sana District's light._

 _Startled and dismayed screams permeate the area as those native to Sana witness the casual destruction. Many freeze, trying to discover the source of the explosion while others flee for safety. More run towards it, and from the debris Odin rises with a roar, and in the far-off distance rises the pealing howls of hunting dogs. It is then that Belldandy discovers that she has not walked into a dream, but a nightmare, a perfect tragedy that is about to befall one of the largest healing districts in Asgard._

 _For Odin senses a threat in the angel with the black wing. Has always sensed a threat in those angels with black and those hosts connected to them, and he has created specialized units to hunt down those select individuals and others like them. He's bred hounds to track them down, has led the charge in manhunts himself, and has been among the first to strike down if not those angels, then those deities who house them. One more in his twilight years will not stop him now, not with the baying 'Godhunters' that look more like wiry-haired wolves than actual hounds approaching in the distance._

 _Now, he gets to his feet, Gungir pulsing in his hands, and throws himself back towards Nebo's clinic. Luna Spirit is at the threshold of the hole she's made with his body, and Gungir, unlike his younger sisters, holds no qualms with injuring his mother. Gungir tears through Mooney like a spear of light through the darkness, and the resulting shriek sends up a choir of screams as those deities within range are caught in the feedback of Mooney's mental agony. Yet Odin doesn't care, and he pushes past the_ Ssaratu _as Luna Spirit collapses._

 _Inside Nebo has collapsed as well, and Lind, filled with whatever adrenaline-like drug Spear Mint has stabbed her with, struggles to rise to the angels' aid. Her eyes glow with a distinct golden hue, that special Golden Eye technique discovered with her angel's life at risk a long, long time ago. Her angels flock to her, sensing the danger presented to their host in the form of Odin and all too aware that Lind is hanging to her life by a thread. For her to sustain any additional injury now, be it wounds re-opening, shock, or even a wild, misplaced blow, then not only will she be dead, but the twins will be gone too. They cannot afford to lend any more strength to Urd, who is past the point of screaming and now lies panting, motionless, on the floor. They cannot spare a hand to World Elegance, who, even with a hole in her back, senses the danger to her life and is attempting to creep away. They cannot afford any aid to Luna Spirit, who does little but groan in pain. All they can do is cluster around Lind and pray that they do not catch Odin's eye, for in his eye is not wisdom now but the destructive madness of a War God in battle._

 _The sound of hounds grows louder from outside, and Odin enters, his one eye glinting with malicious intent. It falls once more on World of Elegance, and the man hefts Gungir in his right hand, readying to throw it at the angel. A death sentence if ever there was one, for Gungir is a spear that never misses, for its eyes see all and even with a bad throw, so long as he is airborne Gungir can guide himself to his target. The prior-Daitenkaicho's focus is so great that he misses Urd, who is slowly dragging herself towards him, creeping along inch by inch in such a slow, methodical manner that she seems to float across the porcelain. Odin's arm pulls back, and the muscles in his arms and shoulders bundle up with coiled power. It is now that Urd strikes, curling around him like a viper in the bush, and just like the serpent she bites him, bites him hard with all her might in his right calf._

 _The Norn draws blood, which flows in twin red trails down the back of his leg, and Odin howls a scream so savage that Belldandy wonders if Urd hasn't destroyed an artery. Yet it succeeds in preventing Odin from attacking World of Elegance, and perhaps, in that moment, Urd's eyes have a little bit of gold in them too._

 _The plan backfires, however, as rather than attack the angel that cannot fight back, Odin instead targets his aggression on the source of his pain. The spear meant for World of Elegance instead comes down on Urd, and it is here, in the midst of watching her grandfather murder her sister, that Belldandy cries for release._ No, no, _no!_ Wake me up. _She pleads._ I cannot watch any more of this, I beg you, let me awaken! _Yet the voices of the mortals she has surrounded her waking self with do not arise, and to her ongoing despair Belldandy realizes she can do nothing but watch this upcoming act of filicide; a prisoner, sentenced to observe but not to interact, and some horrible little voice from the deepest recesses or her soul whispers,_ This is punishment for abandoning Urd. Bear witness, Norn of the Present, and despair.

 _And she does bear witness, as Gungir splits open Urd's brow, and she does despair as an expression of the utmost shock befalls first Urd, and then Odin as he sees who he's brought his weapon down upon. The man gapes in open horror as he stares down as his grandchild, and the bloodlust is broken as he speaks a name with tender hesitation: "Urd?"_

 _Yet Urd does not respond;_ cannot _respond with how Gungir has split open her brow, and her pupils contract and dilate as they weave in and out of focus, and her irises appear to drift between three different colors: violet to gold, gold to red, red back to violet, and the pattern repeats itself. The irises drift between the three colors at a continuously more rapid pace, becoming a frantic blur of color and motion that is hypnotizing to behold. It is in this moment that the unthinkable happens, as Urd's head explodes with violet light._

 _There is power with the light, and in the brilliance that follows comes a screech that is not human. Belldandy thinks she can see things within the light; monstrous things of fangs and claws and heated violet eyes, but cannot be certain. If anything, she wants to dismiss them, for to admit they exist would mean to claim that they emerged from Urd's head, that they were born of Urd's injury, and for a creature like Urd, both of the Heavens and the Hells, such beings are a frightening prospect to consider._

 _Odin is thrown back by the light, lending probability to Belldandy's beliefs that it holds a physical presence, and Gungir is thrown back with him, the spear head and feathers coated in blood. As the brilliance fades Belldandy sees a shape form at its center, yet it is not Urd as she had been but something else, something worse._

 _A great, luminous feathered serpent._

 _It looks almost like a serpentine dragon in its majesty, with scales of a deep, shiny black that show rainbows and brilliant white feathers that contrast greatly against its hide. Its talons are long and hold a wicked curve, and upon its brow rests a broken crown of jagged horns. The jagged horns trail down the Tendee's back in twin trails, with smaller lines of horns emerging in similar trails beneath the feathers around it. And from its shoulder blades emerge perhaps the most frightening aspect of it: a pair of large, curved, bony plates sprout like wings, their edges like the broad edge of an axe head. The crown bears the broken likeness of an injury, with bright, blinding violet light emerging from cracks within the many horns that pulses intensely. By luck it is this that is broken instead of Urd's head, and though the Tendee entity thrashes and screeches in a frenzy, it-she-is very much alive._

 _Alive and berserk, blinded by the pain that has engulfed her crown. Light seeps from her jagged horns like brilliant blood, and as the Tendee writhes she leaves a trail of destruction in her path. Everything in her proximity is destroyed by the sheer power leaking from her brow, surrounding her like an aura of destruction. Vials shatter around her, equipment explodes, the tiles beneath her crack and chip and it all comes to hover around her, orbiting around her like an asteroid belt._

 _The pain drives her to anger, and she lashes out at whatever is near her, a deity in her chaos-nature whose purpose has ceased to be creativity and has drifted into its negative Destruction-aspect. There is danger in this form, and as the devices around her short-circuit so too do the walls begin to crack and crumble, the rubble and debris joining the orbit of destruction that surrounds Urd. The roof begins to break and collapse, and the baying hounds grow louder still as sunlight strikes the insides of the room._

 _Urd, in her destruction-aspect, appears to hesitate for a single moment at the cry of hounds, and then dives through one of the holes in the wall, ignoring all else in her flight. Belldandy cannot tell if she is running towards the hounds or away from their call. Shrieks hail Urd's revelation in Sana, and the large gathering that had been clustering around the hole in Nebo's clinic now run fleeing, for a Destruction-aspect Tendee is a dangerous creature to approach, and in a place filled with healing there can only be tragedy._

 _Odin seems to know this and chases after Urd, leaving behind the unconscious Nebo, the wounded_ Ssaratu _, and oblivious to the black-winged angel that had previously stolen his attention. He ignores Lind, who is supported by her angels and dragging herself-almost crawling if not for the twins supporting her-towards the same wall he is fleeing through. Belldandy notices the woman yet pays the Valkyrie no mind, as she chases after first her sister, then her grandfather._

 _Valkyries are present now. Valkyries from Lind's home base of Camp Uruku, drawn to the panic of the masses around them. They locate the source easily enough, and see not a wounded goddess but a threat to those in Sana in the form of a destructive Tendee. Right now there are only three, but soon there will be more, summoned by calls for aid and cries for help amidst the devastation that is about to propagate._

 _They are quick to see what they believe as the source of the mayhem, and swoop towards the Tendee without hesitation, as a deity that chooses to utilize their Tendee in such a populated area is committing a criminal offense regardless of the circumstances. Behind them the baying hounds grow ever louder, and off against the horizon Belldandy sees a rising dust cloud as Odin's hounds grow closer._

 _Odin bellows for the Tendee's attention outside the clinic, and Urd turns towards it with a snarl so twisted and filled with rage that it lacks all reason. She lunges for him, and he skips out of range with the subtle grace of an experienced warrior. Behind Urd, the Valkyries, hovering with the sun to their backs to mask their approach, plummet towards the deity while she is distracted. One Valkyrie's spear is thrown towards Urd's back, but a last-minute move sends it bouncing off the cruel blades that emerge from her shoulders. Another Valkyrie has more luck, and the sword she wields cleaves deep into the serpent's haunches. The Tendee shrieks, and a gout of blood stains the feathers around its hind right leg. It wheels on the Valkyrie, jaws snapping, and pays for it as an arrow from the third almost steals her left eye. It hits her upper eyeridge instead, and there it protrudes like a silver splinter. Urd releases a bellow of equal parts pain and rage, and the howl is of a magnitude so powerful that it stuns not only the Valkyries but those within proximity as well. Patients, doctors, and residents around her fall to their knees as they clutch their ears, and only Odin withstands the affront. He shouts Urd's name, pleads with her now, begs her, apologizes, yet she is too far gone into her destructive-aspect; Reason cannot find her here, and relief will only come after her rage has been spent and the destruction has been wrought._

 _Instead, Odin's cries do nothing but draw Urd's attention, where he becomes the focus of her rage. Perhaps that is his intent, for he takes off in a run when Urd bares her fangs at him, and leads the Tendee away from not only the Valkyries attacking her, but those bystanders in Sana as well. He instead leads her down tight corridors between closely packed buildings and through a maze of intersections where the Valkyries lose track of them; the women are no Manhunters, for such a unit is not stationed at Camp Uruku. Yet though the Valkyries are quick to be lost in Sana's darker and more decrepit section of town, the baying hounds tell a different story: they let loose a chorus of howls, and it is a call that makes the hair on Belldandy's arms stand straight and for Urd, even lost to her rage as she is, to stop and look back towards the source. The feathers that coat her body bristle, making her look twice as large and imposing as before, and it is only then Belldandy learns that Urd fears the hounds._

 _And why wouldn't she? Why_ shouldn't _she? Has she not grown up side-by-side with Belldandy, listening with rapt attention (_ and fear, _Holy Bell whispers) as their relatives told them stories of the Wild Hunts Odin has gone on? Those hunts for men, those hunts for_ gods _with black in their angels, black in their_ souls, _and brought them down in an act of imposed mercy? Was it not because of Belldandy's endless prodding that Urd approached Odin asking for the truth in his stories (_ they're just fairytales, Urd. _The vocie of childhood calls,_ Grandpa never _really_ killed anyone.) _Did Odin himself not warn his grandchildren away from the hounds he bred, he reared, he trained to hunt other deities for that express purpose? Is that not what they are doing now?_

 _There are snarls and barks now amongst the baying, and as Urd looks behind her the shadows beckon in a jumbled, inhuman mass. There are many legs in the shadows. Many legs and many heads, and many, many teeth within those heads. Urd hisses and bolts, and this time not even Odin's cries hold her attention. The hounds have her scent now, and no matter where she runs to-be it Midgard, Niflheim, or some realm in between-the hounds will hunt her; will chase her until the very ends of the universe, as they were bred to do, for once they happen upon a trail not even Odin can stay their instincts. They have been crafted from Fenrir's fur and blood, stolen from the great wolf when the beast was tricked into binding itself with Gleipnir, Tyr's angel, that had been fused like Gungir to dwarvencraft in an attempt to halt one of the original Ultimate Destruction Programs. Tyr had suffered greatly on that day, having lost both his right hand and severed the link to his angel in that same day, but the binding of the UDP had made it a worthy sacrifice._

 _The Godhunters, crafted from the UDP's DNA and intermingled with tamer, gentler dogs that Odin's kin bred, held their sire's ferocity when it came to the hunt, however, and though they are good at what they have been bred for-a secondary line of defense against those Wild Gods who fall to their Destructive-Aspects in times of peace-they are not known for their restraint. One of the hounds appears around a corner of a building, and it is a wretched beast; all black and curly hair that is tough and spiny, with jaws long enough to bite off the length of a grown man's arm in a single bite. Lupine yellow eyes glare madly at the world from within a wedged-shaped head, all framed upon a muscular neck and a wiry body that ripples with power. Its tail is raised in aggression, and a deep, ominous growl rumbles from within its chest as it sets its eyes on Urd. Its lips pull back in a snarl, and with a bellow that is unearthly it charges at the Tendee._

 _Odin attempts to intervene but fails; he's bred the Godhunters too well, and they are as nimble as they are powerful, and this one avoids each blast of magic, each thrust of Gungir, despite Odin's best attempts. He is lucky; it is only through intelligent design that the creature does not attack the elder god, recognizing Odin as its master but in the heat of the hunt forgetting that he is also its alpha. It lunges at Urd, and the Tendee slips out of its range, hooking her curled talons into the side of a building and climbing for safety. Yet as more hounds appear it proves a futile feat, for the creatures hold a cruel intellect when hunting and find ways yet to pursue her: one leaps upon a dumpster and uses its gathered momentum to leap from a wall onto the adjoining roof, another, with paws almost like hands, climbs a drainage pipe with ape-like agility, and two more run straight up the wall and onto the roof._

 _The black hound leading the hunt begins to nip at Urd's heels, and it avoids the long, muscular tail with the same grace it used against Odin. It leaps, and Odin reaches the rooftop just in time to see it bite down hard on the Tendee's left flank, inciting a scream of impotent rage as Urd wheels and sinks her fangs into the hound's haunches. Both creatures draw blood, but Urd's bite holds poison; the dog will be dead within minutes. Yet its death will be a hindrance to Urd, for now that the beast is ahold of her it will not let her go, even in death, and its added weight will slow her down for the others to attack._

 _Yet not all hope is lost. A gust of heated wind, peppered with sand, strikes the hounds as Urd flees, and the tiny grains get in their eyes, blinding them as they bellow in anger. A voice, agonizingly familiar, calls to Urd, and the Tendee, still primed and ready for destruction averts it course towards it. Skuld is calling to her sister, gaining her attention as she hops and waves at Urd from a rooftop farther off, and standing next to the young woman is, against all odds, Tyr. The man brings his left hand to his lips and lets loose a sharp whistle, and the pitch is of an intensity that sends the hounds into a fresh clamor and sends Urd charging towards them. The whistle ignites the hot, sandy air into bright blue flames-Tyr's signature magic- and it is enough to send the hounds on a temporary retreat as the Tendee draws near._

 _Yet there is still violence and anger within the Tendee's eyes, and though Skuld doesn't see it Tyr does. He grabs his youngest with his left hand and pitches her onto the next rooftop over as Urd lunges, and brings up his right hand to protect himself as the great serpent lashes out. She pounces on the man with enough force to send them both falling off the rooftop, and Skuld screams and she scurries to the edge to watch them fall. Yet Tyr is every ounce the warrior that his father is, and with Urd's fangs imbedded into the metal of his false right hand he twists in the air. Urd curls around him, less by choice and more by force as he jerks his hand, and though they hit the ground with Urd's back first, both are unharmed._

 _Tyr attempts to grapple the creature now that they are on ground level, and on the rooftops Odin recruits Skuld into fending off the remaining hounds. Though she looks scared, it appears more fear for Urd than herself, and with dogged determination she utilizes every technique she has against the beasts. The_ Anzu Kibaltu _work well against them, for there are too many tiny beads for the hounds to track at once, and it instills wariness within the creatures after Skuld fills one of the beasts with holes and kills it._

 _There are two left now, one for Odin and one for Skuld, and while they keep the hounds at bay Tyr is unable to subdue Urd. But then, Tyr was never a grappler, and some deep-rooted instinct in Urd is still calling into practice the techniques she learned from Team 12, even with as inhuman a form as her Tendee Destruction-Aspect. She ducks and weaves and slips free of his grip multiple times, and it is only the fact that one fang is still buried within Tyr's glove that he manages to keep his hold on her._

 _At some point his left hand grasps one of the broken horns comprising the crown on Urd's head, and both Tyr and Urd scream from the pain it produces; Urd from the fresh injury, still raw and untreated, but Tyr from the injury itself, which radiates a vicious, aggressive aura that mauls his good hand. It sends Urd off into a run once more- but Tyr, like all his daughters, is a stubborn and tenacious man, and though he is in pain, though he watches as sections of his hand rupture in blood and bone, he holds on. To release now would be to not only lose his hold on Urd, but to potentially be dragged behind her like the corpse glued to her flank, or, worse yet, to rip out the fang still buried in his glove and lose her completely amongst the buildings._

 _Urd is racing back towards Nebo's clinic now, screaming and kicking and thrashing as she tries to dislodge Tyr. Tyr grows anxious as they draw near, for this is where the civilians are, this is where the Valkyries are, and he does not wish to see his daughter slaughter and be slaughtered in turn. He bellows warnings to the setting sun, and his voice, that of the Daitenkaicho, reaches the ears of everyone in proximity. Deities begin to retreat from the area per his instruction, even as the sound of one final hound begins to arise from behind Urd once more. The last hound, a gray beast with a unique, striped coat, has made its way past Skuld and Odin despite their best efforts, and is gaining ground fast with Urd distracted. With both his hands tied, Tyr cannot summon his magic, and his angel has long since gone to Fenrir's binding, leaving Tyr a prisoner along for the ride._

 _But that is fine. So long as he can wear his eldest daughter out, so long as he can outlast her and bring her to heel, so long as he can save her-_

 _They come across Nebo's clinic and there is a woman there. A woman Tyr only vaguely recognizes and he shouts at her to leave. Yet she shows signs of injury, teetering back and forth on unstable legs as she moves into the path of the oncoming Tendee, and as Tyr sees the blood seeping through her uniform he recognizes her as Lind._

You're the one who was supposed to kill her. _He thinks to himself, but the thought is privy to Belldandy as well, who hears it and shudders. Lind stands tall and prominent before the Tendee, and looks at it with the cloudy eyes of a person on Death's doorstep. She does not appear to notice Tyr, though he calls out to her and demands that she move, and indeed the_ Daitenkaicho _wonders if she sees anything beyond Urd herself._

 _The Tendee's eyes burn bright with chaos as she draws near, and Urd rears her head back as if to strike. If she does, Tyr thinks to himself, then the force may be enough to loose his grip on the Tendee. Yet Lind still does not move, still does not flee, still seems blind to the inevitable danger set before her, for Urd's bite holds a deadly cocktail of all the venoms from all the snakes of all the lands, and all it will take will be a single drop of the venom to bring Lind down._

 _Yet Lind does little but hold up her left hand, as if asking the beast to stop, and in the fading light small rays glint off the tiny shells of the bracelet that dangles from her wrist. The other hand is glued to her chest, compressing the wound tightly._

 _Urd comes to an immediate halt as the light glints into her eyes, and Tyr is left baffled, but relieved. The sound of the lone hound grows louder, however, and an animalistic snarl jumps to his ears that makes him turn. He sees the Godhunter is closer than he thought, close enough to attack, and now it races past Urd's tail, ignoring its dead brethren, and instead bites into Urd's softer, exposed underbelly._

 _This time the scream that arises from Urd is one of pure pain, and something in its tone frightens Tyr into action. He releases his hold on Urd's crown, half-falls, half-slides off of Urd's back, and unlatches the right gauntlet from his arm via a lever with his teeth._

 _He swings towards the hound with a roar of unimaginable fury, and embraces the beast with both arms while it tears into the Tendee's form. He speaks one word: "Die." And the beast explodes in a hail of blood and bone._

 _Urd is still screaming, and the Tendee's cries sound almost human in that moment; like a woman's scream._ Like a cougar's scream, _Belldandy's mind whispers, and Tyr turns his attention to the wound. Thick gouts of blood are seeping through the holes in Urd's side, and calling upon his magic, he presses his injured left hand to the wounds. Blue flames, hot and agonizing, sear and cauterize the wound, and Urd screams with fresh pain that brings misery-not in the physical sense but the misery of a father forced to hurt his child to save her-to Tyr's face. Yet he wastes no time, for time is not on his side, and with the scent of burning flesh and blood following him, he races to Lind._

 _He grabs the woman by one shoulder, rests the stump of his right hand on her other, and looks deep into the woman's eyes, searching for any conscious sign of the Valkyrie assigned to watch his daughter through these past ten years. "You need to live a little longer." He tells her. "Just long enough to tell me where you want to die."_

 _The Valkyrie, bless the poor child for her servitude, looks at him, and he sees what might have been a small glimmer in her eyes. "Home," she croaks._

" _Where is home for you?" He asks her. "Tell me where home is for you and I will take you there, and I will take Urd there, and I will return you to your family. This is my promise to you as the_ Daitenkaicho _." Yet he can see she is already starting to fade again, and so grips her tight, sending a breath of his own life into her. "You must live! Just a moment more!" He cries. "Tell me the name of your home, this is your final order as a Valkyrie. Tell me the name of your home and you can rest!"_

 _Lind speaks a single word, "_ Chu...gach..." _before the light goes out in her eyes, the breath lent to her is released, and the Valkyrie begins to fall. Tyr catches her with his right arm and hoists her over his right shoulder, where he feels moisture begin to seep into his robe._

 _He turns back to Urd, who watches him with frenzied eyes that lack energy, for the fight has left her in place of pain. Her hind legs buckle, and the Tendee collapses before him. He rests his ruined hand on her forehead, well away from the broken crown. "I won't let you die," he tells her, "visions be damned." And then they are gone; Daitenkaicho and Tendee, Valkyrie and dead dog, all in a burst of light._

 _It is here that Belldandy's dream nears its end, as Skuld comes to stop, panting at her side. "Too late." Skuld mutters, and there are tears in her eyes. "I was too late this time..." She looks to where Belldandy is standing, and to Belldandy's shock the woman's eyes settle not through her but on her. "I called you but you never picked up. Why didn't you pick up the phone, Belldandy?"_

 _And as a choir of angels consisting of the twins and something that might have been World of Elegance cluster around the_ Ssaratu _that is their broken mother, Belldandy awakens._

XXX

Belldandy awoke to tears sliding down her cheeks and soft sobs slipping past her lips as she was finally released from her dream. She blinked through the watery gaze, and pulled the soft fleece blanket that was wrapped around her a little more securely. Now that she was awake, the sobbing came in earnest, and try though she might Belldandy could not quell them. _Urd. Oh Yggdrasil, Urd..._ She screwed her eyes shut, but it did nothing against the soft whimper in her throat, and against the blackness of her eyelids Urd's face came back to her once more. She sucked in a trembling breath, and against her will Skuld's parting words returned to her. _"I called you but you never picked up."_

Had she really...?

The Norn grimaced, curling into a tighter ball on the bed. _Let that part be imagined._ She begged herself. _Please...Skuld never called me. I would have heard it. The phone was on me the entire time. She never called me._

Yet the possibility that Skuld might have... that Belldandy could have played some part in preventing the injuries inflicted on Urd... even though nothing said it could have happened, the grim possibility that she _could_ have brought fresh anguish to her, and Belldandy began to weep in earnest, unable to stop the tears any longer.

The room she was in was dark, for the most part, though there was a gentle glow from a light somewhere behind her. _It's not Urd._ She thought to herself, and whimpered. She felt the bed bow beneath her slightly as something came to sit beside her, and then felt a hand run along the blanket she was bundled up in.

"I'm sorry Bell." A voice mumbled, and it took her a long, long time to recognize it as Keiichi's. "I'm so sorry, Belldandy." The admission, though Keiichi was not to blame, brought with it a fresh wave of grief, and it left her feeling sick, left her feeling as though her insides were rotting, left her guilty and angry and above all else sad, for the reality of the situation was that Belldandy had failed Urd, had failed Urd in a big way, and it had left her sister suffering injuries and trauma that Urd didn't deserve.

She turned into the pillow and buried her face into it, screaming into it with all her might. Keiichi stayed by her side, continuing to stroke her back, and though it was marginal, his touch brought comfort. The scream died to a moan as she released the air in her lungs, and then even that faded into silence. Keiichi continued to rub her back, and after some time Belldandy raised her head enough to look at the SEAL.

There were bags under Keiichi's eyes, as if he hadn't slept in days. His eyes looked red and irritated, and when her own eyes met his he held her gaze. There was sadness in them. Guilt too. Like her guilt reflected back at her, and Belldandy was uncertain if she felt better or not for the exposed emotion within them. She tugged the blanket close, and Keiichi scooted closer, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and drawing her close.

The Norn fell into his grip, and felt her lip tremble with unspent emotion. "I failed her," she choked out, and swallowed once more, her throat making an audible clicking sound that seemed loud in her ears. "I –we-we never sh-should ha-ha-have left her." She stuttered, and hated herself for the weakness.

"We all failed her, Belldandy," Keiichi mumbled, and drew her into a tight hug, rocking her gently in a manner that was so much like her sister (did he even realize it? Or was it something inherent in all older siblings?) that she broke into fresh tears again.

"It's-it's all ma-ma-my fault!" she wailed, and buried her face in his shirt. At some point Keiichi had taken a shower, and he smelled like Head and Shoulders and Old Spice. Keiichi's scents. Comforting scents. She breathed deep and searched for that comfort now, and found some small trace of it that she latched onto like a woman at sea to a lifesaver.

"It's not your fault," Keiichi reassured her. "Words got said. Mistakes got made. But it's _not_ your fault, Belldandy. We're all to blame. Even Urd, even Hagall." He paused for a moment. "Maybe especially Hagall." She felt lips brush her brow, and felt Keiichi hug her a little tighter, as if in doing so he could shield her from all the blame in the world, and Belldandy found that it was a comfort, though deep down in her heart of hearts she still knew that the blame rested with her and her alone.

But still...

She closed her eyes and rested her head against Keiichi's chest, listening to the beat of his heart and hoping its rhythm might guide her to peace.

They stayed like that for the rest of the night, sitting on a lone hotel bed and holding each other, and well into the following morning, which would bring with it its own fresh trials.

A demon's message not yet passed.

A phone left untouched yet filled with divine messages.

Trials that they would both be forced to face, be it together or apart, in the midst of a rising sun.

* * *

 **A/N: Happy New Year!**

* * *

 _Comments of a Madwoman: A surprisingly heavy chapter to write, with an introduction of some new characters who chose to write themselves rather than let them be written by the author. Let it never be said family doesn't care for each other. Even with a black sheep like Urd._


	52. Chapter 52 - Hotel California

-52-

"I must make a final request of you now that we are no longer bound together, _Mshibzhiw_."

" _After finally freeing myself of you and your own errant magic, you would dare yet to beg my favor?"_ A growl, deep and insulted, filled the night air, and its owner narrowed its golden eyes, the pupils constricting to mere slits.

"I would," the cougar's company replied, and there was iron in the voice. "You know why I am here. You've journeyed through my mind just as I've traveled in your body."

" _So I have,"_ the puma agreed. " _At one point I might have been sympathetic towards your plight, yet you destroyed the prospect of willful aid in your foolhardy attempt to dress in my skin as though I were a trophy taken by your people in the old days."_

"That was never my intent."

" _No, but it is what became of us none the less,"_ the puma hissed. _"If not for the mortal you would still be wearing my skin with me but a prisoner locked up and caged within my own body. You are no friend of mine. I am tempted to call you my enemy and cry to my kin of your presence, so that they may be made aware of your evil and chase you from their dens."_

"I apologize," the voice said softly. "I did not mean for the spell to go awry."

" _And had it not I would still be a prisoner, and you would come and go as you pleased with nary a 'thank you' or so much as a sacrifice for my labor."_ The puma's breath steamed the air, its curved claws flexing within the pads of its feet.

"Then how may I appease you?" the deity asked. "I acknowledge that I have done you a disservice, and wish to alleviate your grievances towards me."

" _And in doing so request a boon?"_ The mountain lion sneezed, and to the deity it sounded like a scoff. " _I would sooner see you eat poisoned bait than grant you any requests. You have done me, and my people, a great evil in your thievery of my body. I may not reside within the same realm as you, yet that does not make us any less equal."_ The beast sneezed again. _"In some ways, I am older than you. Older than you by far, for I helped shape this world, this land, this country you now tread on, under the instruction of Raven and Coyote and the guidance of the Father in the Sky and the Mother in the Earth. And you? You have done nothing by comparison. I have raced through your mind, yes, and what I have seen has not inspired any fondness of you. All you do is kill. All you do is meddle. You guard no Direction nor pass on the lessons entrusted to you by the Old Ones. You are an insult to me and all I represent."_

"You're comparing apples to oranges," the deity replied. "And while I freely acknowledge that I have wronged you, comparing me to those aspects you govern versus what I govern says nothing of what I have done to you. I am requesting what I must do in order to end this feud between us and, in doing so, procure a simple blessing from you before leaving you in peace."

" _And I say you are a fool, Selfish One,"_ the creature rumbled. " _You have come to me when my anger burns brightest, and its target is you. What possible blessing would you dare request as I stand before you burning like the sun in the sky?"_

For a moment the deity was silent, in that moment, recognizing the danger presented by the mountain lion. Even a peaceful cougar could be dangerous with one's back turned, and an angry puma would charge a man without half as much care. There was considerable danger here, and the god's next words might yet entice the spirit to violence. "I request to borrow your form for a little longer." The words came out in a slow whisper. "Not your body, just your form... that I might continue to travel in your aspect in this land." There were few creatures in North America that would bother a puma. Few creatures other than Man, and for them, the god could rely on other senses.

The puma's eyes constricted into a pair of thin black slits. _"You would dare?!"_ it snarled, and for a harrowing moment it seemed the cougar might attack the deity right then. Its fur bristled, its muscles rippled, it claws flexed as if readying to propel itself into motion. Yet the deity didn't move, and was perhaps saved by that, for fleeing would surely have prompted the cougar to give in to its instincts, to hunt, pursue and kill. " _You wish to bear my likeness!? That is your request!?"_ There was contempt in its voice now, contempt and _rage_. Like wood to a fire the mountain lion seemed to grow, its body expanding, lengthening, and shadowing the great, lumbering redwoods that was their meeting place. Great, curled horns expanded from its head, and hard, bony scales formed along its spine, nestled around a bed for feathers. Its fangs alone stood taller than the deity, and its eyes were two smoldering suns that gleamed with wicked intent.

A single thought occurred to the deity in that moment. _This was a mistake._

" _You wish to bear my likeness!"_ the puma roared, and though its words could not be heard by the ears of Man, birds scattered in shrieking flocks from the treetops. _"Then you shall have it!"_ A massive paw similar in size to a pickup-truck came barreling towards the deity at an impossible speed, and though the deity retreated, it was too late; the paw was not aiming for the deity in question but in fact into the ground between them, and the great curved talons carved into the earth, sending a wave of dirt and debris that went higher than the deity's head crashing down onto the entity. The deity raised an arm in protection, yet the magic that should have afforded protection died as soon as the dirt washed over.

The cascade knocked the deity flat, and as the soil settled on top, a new form shook itself free. " _Your boon has been granted,"_ the puma _Mshibzhiw_ rumbled, and its body began to dissolve like smoke in the air. " _Live in my likeness. Hunt in my likeness. Die in my likeness. That is my curse, which I lay upon you, who would dare be so arrogant as to beg my favor."_ As the strange visage faded, that new creature, that new cougar, shook the dirt from its pelt as it watched the Great Spirit vanish.

A new, single thought traveled through the reborn puma's head. _Oh... shit._

XXX

"So that's why you smelled like a campfire," Morgan mumbled, then pulled Aiko once more into a tight hug. Aiko almost felt her legs go weak with the relief that cascaded down upon her, and she leaned into the embrace, knocking Morgan off-balance and sending them both falling onto the bed they were pressed up against. Any other time the act would have left the two lovers in a fit of giggles, yet after Aiko's story; an abridged tale that made no mention of gods or pumas or monsters but made full use of the fire at the shipping yard, neither felt any humor.

Instead, Aiko rolled on top of her lover and kissed her deeply, as if in doing so could burn away the memories that were still too fresh in her mind- like the puma had burned away the monster's eggs- and felt some of the tension leak from her bones as Morgan's grip on her tightened.

She'd been scared. God, she'd been so scared. The idea that she'd never see Morgan again, that she'd never have- never have _this-_ had been a terrifying prospect to try and accept, and the respite granted to her upon awakening in a car with Keiichi and the others had been overwhelming.

This was overwhelming too though. Overwhelming in a different, but not entirely bad way. Morgan hadn't prodded her about what the real story was but had instead allowed Aiko to open up to it in her own time, demonstrating a level of support and calm that Aiko hadn't realized she'd needed up until that point. Kei was good. Her parents were fine. Hell, even Belldandy with her angel were good but... this was _Morgan._ A person who had changed Aiko's life two years ago, and whom it now felt almost impossible to let go of. Morgan was her best friend. The person who shared her hobbies and had the same sense of humor, who managed to look at the world with wry wit and sarcasm, and who had demonstrated on several occasions her willingness to step up on Aiko's behalf. She was a realist who tried to keep herself out of picking sides but could jump anyone's shit if she got riled, who could make abominations out of foods and then have the audacity to call it art, and was currently clutching Aiko so hard and with such force that the young woman was starting to overheat.

She gasped, ending the kiss as she came up for breath. Morgan's response was to roll on top of her, plant her lips against Aiko's neck, and blow a long raspberry that left Aiko shrieking. "Lemme go Morgana!" the woman cried.

Morgan's response was to blow another raspberry against Aiko's neck in a firm refusal to let go. "No," she grumbled, her lips right next to Aiko's ear and somehow absurdly loud. "Not gonna let you go again until you promise not to get kidnapped anymore. I'm sick of you vanishing on me." Though her tone was light, there was hidden depth to it that weighed on Aiko like a physical presence. "Not gonna lose you again. You're the only person who tolerates me."

"Love you too, Mor-ga-naaa," Aiko drawled, placing emphasis on the syllables of Morgan's nickname and being rewarded with another long kiss instigated by her girlfriend.

They lay like that for a time, curled up in each other's arms with little, if any, talk between them. At this point there was little that needed to be said; the comfort each drew from the presence of the other was enough. Though the room's air conditioner was on full blast, the two remained warm and even cozy in their closeness. Aiko could hear Morgan's breath start to slow as the exhaustion of the day took its toll on her. A fond smile crossed her face, and with the excitement of the day passed- the good, the bad, and the ugly- Aiko considered that perhaps she might be able to rest a bit as well.

She made herself as comfortable as she dared while still wrapped in Morgan's arms, holding no desire to rouse her lover by accident, and closed her eyes, allowing her mind to drift as she willed her body to relax. She could feel herself starting to drift off as well and sighed. It would be good to return to North Carolina. To put all this business of gods and spirits and monsters behind her and return to her regular life as a college student working on her bachelor's degree.

Her thoughts drifted. Words and images from earlier in the day ran a slow and foggy course through her mind, none of which held long enough to stick but just enough to acknowledge. She heard Urd's voice in her head- now a memory for the rest of eternity, and saw small, brief flashes of Belldandy as well. She heard and saw a shadowy and dim visage of Kei drift through her mind's eye, and at some point some half-awake part of her was convinced she conversed with a shadow whose form was like a coyote and whose voice was like Skuld's. What they spoke of, Aiko would never recall, and their time was so short it was negligible after the shadowy coyote melted into the golden eye of the mountain lion. _Her_ mountain lion. Her puma-baby, that had come to her aid when she'd cried for help and had promised to stay with her until her death.

 _And that was no lie, Child,_ the puma said, and though its form was strange and frightening, Aiko was unafraid. This was closer to the cougar's true appearance, she knew, and the true image of a god could be a frightening sight to behold if one was ignorant to that fact. Yet Aiko had been in union with the puma. Aiko had been in union with the god, and her spirit had been touched by the divine. And so when the cougar came to visit her she beheld it in all its glory, with a coat singed by the sun and scorched into scales, blessed with feathers and horns as it took up its mantle at the threshold to the underworld. This it let her see, and it gifted her its secret name, which she promised she would remember but would likewise forget upon awakening. _You belong to me,_ it told her. _For you were chosen for death and escaped my claws by a hair's width. You who was born on the earth of Old Mother and beneath Father Sky's blanket, and who differ from your kin who hail from distant territories untouched by our many tribes._

"What if I don't want to belong to you?" she'd asked it, braving its wrath after having touched its spirit back at the shipping facility. "What if I want to belong to a different god? Like the god who forced our Union or Belldandy or someone else?"

The puma chuffed, and she could smell rancid meat on its breath. Meat and tobacco, and it was a strange and somehow comforting smell coming from the spirit. Its eyes danced with laughter like a candle's flame against a breeze. _You may worship them, if that is what you wish. It changes nothing. Your life belongs to me, and in death, you will return to me._

"What does that mean for me?"

 _Nothing, for now,_ the puma replied. _Go and live your life. Stay here in California or return to your territory in North Carolina, it makes no difference to me. When I have need for you I will come... and likewise, should you have need of_ me _, I shall come._ It walked to her, first on the four legs of a beast, and then on the two legs of a man, and the face it showed her then was one she would only recall in her dreams. It pressed something into the palm of her hand. _This signifies the bond born between us,_ it said, _keep it near so that I may know you, and know of me as you would your kin._

And then like all the other divine entities she'd come to know over the past three months, the spirit was gone, and her dreams became deep and black and unforthcoming.

Yet when she awoke the following day, her mind recalling only the dim fabrications of her subconscious, she felt something hard and jagged in her closed hand. When she opened it, she found the large, curled claw of some kind of big cat. She considered it in the early morning light for a good many hours, and did not move to pocket it until she sensed Morgan stirring as well.

After covering her lover's face with gentle morning kisses after Morgan began to rouse in full, Aiko asked her girlfriend a single question. "So, you know how I was thinking about getting a tattoo... what do you think about me getting a puma?"

XXX

At close to three forty-five in the morning, Belldandy awoke from a black and dreamless sleep. She awoke with a slight gasp, to the feeling of a pair of arms around her and a shadowy visage holding her securely to its side. For reasons her sleep-addled mind could not yet fathom, Urd came to her mind, and then just as quickly was dismissed. _You never picked up,_ Skuld hissed in her ear. _Urd is gone because of you._

She winced reflexively, and tried to adjust, her right arm tingling uncomfortably from where she'd fallen asleep on it in the bed. The shadow she was next to grunted at the act, then pulled her a little closer, where she caught a hearty whiff of Old Spice. In moments, the events of last night returned to her, and the goddess bit her lip, wondering when she and Keiichi had fallen asleep against each other.

 _I dreamt of Urd..._ she thought to herself, and again beheld Urd in her mind's eye; the human-Urd, the Urd she'd abandoned at the storage complex, her expression wounded as Belldandy snapped at her. Guilt followed it, and the Urd in her imagination shifted to the one of her dream: the Tendee Destruction-Aspect, with frenzied eyes that glowed with fury and violence. Guilt knotted in her chest, making it difficult to breathe. _It's because of me,_ she thought. _I never should have... Had I stayed with her..._ Her eyes began to burn with unspent tears, and with a grimace she bit down hard on her lip, denying herself the opportunity to weep.

Awake now, with all chances of sleep abandoning her, Belldandy looked over at the man resting beside her and wrapped her free arm around him. She hugged him tightly, grateful for his presence, and heard him grunt in his sleep, rubbing her back with the arm still wrapped around her as if in reflex. It was a comforting motion, and the sheer fact that the SEAL's first action even while asleep was to attempt to ease her pain was almost enough to make her break down and cry all over again.

She held back, however, instead kissing his brow in thanks before carefully unwrapping herself from their shared grasp. Part of her moaned at the act in protest, mourning the comforting weight of Keiichi's presence as she freed her right arm. The larger part of her began to moan as that same arm began to tingle with pins and needles, and shaking and flexing it to try and get the feeling back, Belldandy slipped out of the covers and off the bed. Keiichi seemed to miss her company in his sleep as well, and though he remained asleep, he groaned loudly and grabbed her pillow, hugging it close to his chest as if he were a young boy with a teddy bear.

It was an endearing sight, and for a long moment Belldandy stood at the bedside, staring down at him with a refreshingly vacant mind as she massaged the feeling back into her right arm. Then thoughts of Urd returned to her, and Belldandy turned away.

She went to the bathroom and locked the door behind her, then turned to examine herself in the mirror. Someone had been kind enough to remove most of the blood on her face and hands, but her nose had a trail of dried blood coming from it and the knuckles of both her hands were scabbed from where they'd been split open in her battles against Hagall and Thrymr. Her hair was back to its more regular almond-brown shade, but she was still dressed in her combat uniform, the clothes soiled with blood, sweat, and long smears of dirt. _Like someone mopped the floor with my body,_ she thought, and rubbed her brow. Her head hurt, as if from eye strain.

She ignored it, then undressed and hopped into the shower. Keiichi had left his bottles of _Head and Shoulders_ and _Old Spice_ body wash in the shower, and ignoring the tiny hotel bottles of shampoo and soap, Belldandy washed herself twice with his products. In the heat of the shower, her injuries were made more visible, and the Norn winced reflexively at the heavy bruising that covered her body in painted splotches and the large assortment of scrapes, cuts, and scratches she'd obtained from her fights with the two demons. There was a particularly bad laceration along her inner thigh that she didn't remember getting, and which bled freely in the shower; so much so that she grew light-headed and needed to sit in the tub.

She left only after the hot water beating on her began to cool, by then in the process of washing her hair a third time, and stepped out and dried herself with one of the hotel's white towels. She looked down at her soiled uniform with a frown, but couldn't muster the energy or the effort to demolecularize it and return it to its gravity storage container. Instead she bundled it up with one of the face towels and carried it out of the bathroom with her.

She found a pile of clothes that looked to be around her size on a chair next to her bed, and wondered if it had always been there or if Keiichi had perhaps left it out for her to find while she was showering. A glance towards the sleeping man told her nothing, as while he'd turned his back to her in his sleep he hadn't left her bed, and so instead she grabbed the clothes and changed into them. The dark blue shorts were two sizes too large for her and hung awkwardly on her hips, and the matching blue blouse was one size too small, leaving it tight against her chest. She sighed but looked over at Keiichi with a half-smile anyways, appreciating the gesture, then crept over to his luggage bag and unzipped one of the compartments, stealing a belt she'd seen Keiichi throw in on a whim when they'd originally been packing to visit California.

The belt was too large, like the pants, but the clasp did the job of securing the shorts to her person. While it felt a little strange going commando, it wasn't the first time she'd done it; just the first time in... months now. A while. A long enough time where the sensation had ceased to be the norm and had instead become strange and unfamiliar to her. A strange revelation in those early hours, but one that brought her an absurd feeling of freedom, for it also meant that Aoshima's memories were becoming abstract and strange as well, which she welcomed with more warmth than the dream- the _nightmare_ \- of Urd.

Ah, but there she was again, like a long-time friend, and scowling to herself Belldandy grabbed Keiichi's sandals, which were several sizes too large, slipped them on, and stepped outside. She got herself turned around in the hallway, finding that the room she exited was not oriented in the same way or even on the same floor as the hotel room she'd previously occupied.

It was pushing close to five by the time she navigated to the elevator leading downstairs, this accomplished by following a fellow denizen who was leaving his room with a luggage cart and heading to check out. From there, in what was becoming an all too familiar lobby, Belldandy drifted, lost in her thoughts. She ignored those gathering in a slow but steady mass at the checkout desk, and wandered back and forth without purpose between the coffee machine and the lobby she'd had her initial conversation with Takano and Aiko in. Any hopes at sleep now seemed like a far-away dream, and so resigning herself to her fate, the Norn grabbed a cup of black coffee, ignored the cream and sugar, and proceeded into the lobby room area where the television was broadcasting a mixture of the local morning news and a weather forecast. Nothing but blue skies and sunshine for the whole week, and goodness, what a time to have no rain when there was not one, but _two,_ count 'em _two_ fires burning blazes in California? What a shame that someone's idea of a prank got so out of hand, and didn't people understand how dangerous fires were in California, surrounded by its forests with its great big redwoods as it was? A damn shame, I tell you, a _damn_ shame.

Belldandy drifted back and forth between listening to the news broadcast and listening to people converse softly amongst themselves as they came and went. She sipped at her coffee and found it hot, but lacking in any flavor other than That Bitter Shit.

"You're up."

The goddess jumped at the voice, low and solemn, and almost spilled That Bitter Shit all over her shorts. She glared up at the speaker in question, but Debra looked neither amused nor irritated by the goddess. Instead she looked tired, and the woman plopped unceremoniously into the chair placed on the other side of the table she was at, a cup of her own coffee that smelled a little too strongly to _just_ be coffee in her hand. Belldandy grunted something indecipherable and went back to her cup, her thoughts too black that morning to entertain the mortal woman before her.

Debra seemed content to let her be, for the moment, instead choosing to take a long sip of her own coffee as she watched the morning broadcast with uninterested eyes. After about five minutes or so she finally asked, "How long have you been awake?"

"An hour or two," Belldandy muttered, peering into the open cup of her coffee. Her reflection, tired and in pain, peered back at her. "You?" It seemed safe to make small talk. She had no interest in an argument, and it sounded like Debra didn't either.

"Didn't sleep much," Debra muttered. "Too many nightmares of... what happened. Too many spiders." Belldandy looked up sharply, but the detective didn't seem to notice. "Keiichi fill you in?"

"Still asleep."

"Ah." More silence. "We found Aiko. She's safe."

"Aiko?" Belldandy looked up at the woman before her with a start. The goddess realized with shame that she had forgotten about the young woman after the dream of her sister, and the college student hadn't even so much as grazed her mind in her waking moments. Now however, her mind took her on a race down memory lane, speeding back to her final waking moments as she shouted demands at Hagall for Aiko's return. And then those interlopers had appeared and-

"What happened?" Belldandy asked. "I... only remember up to the new pack of demons arriving."

Debra pursed her lips, observing Belldandy with sharp eyes. She leaned back in her chair as though in careful consideration of her words, before finally saying, "They were... law enforcement."

"Law enforcement?" Belldandy repeated, staring at the detective as though she'd grown another head.

Debra nodded. "They... came to arrest Hagall," she said slowly. "The one in charge promised to leave us alone if we cooperated with her and her men." The woman fell silent a moment. "She kept her promise."

There was more to it than just that, of course. Belldandy could see it in the woman's eyes. "What aren't you telling me?"

Debra stared at her, her fingers drumming the armrests of her chair. "You didn't know those demons, did you?" she inquired, which only further off-balanced Belldandy.

"No, of course not," Belldandy replied. "Up until just this moment the very idea that demons would have a law enforcement branch never even occurred to me. Hagall was the only demon I was familiar with and that was... not because we were on friendly terms."

The detective nodded, grabbing her chin as she observed the Norn, her fingers covering her lips. "Out with it," Belldandy snapped. "I'm in no mood for games."

"Were you aware that Urd had demonic associates?" Debra almost blurted the words out, and Belldandy wondered if she hadn't accidently pulled them from the woman in her irritation. It caught the Norn off guard, and she stared at the detective in open shock. "Those demons who came, those um, law enforcement demons. Their leader at least knew Urd." The blonde's lips twisted into a grimace as Belldandy continued to stare. "I'd... seen them speaking together and... Urd confirmed that they were... back-up."

The detective winced in reflection. "I'm... sorry," she muttered. "I-I shouldn't be bringing Urd up like this. Especially after she-" The woman lapsed into silence. "Sorry."

"No!" Belldandy exclaimed, perhaps a bit too loudly. Debra flinched, and a handful of people looked over at them. "No..." she repeated in a softer voice. "Please, don't apologize, it's... you are not in the wrong, I was..." She fell silent as well, her mind awash with what to do with this new information. She knew her sister. She knew Urd's past. She'd learned hints of the lengths Urd had gone through to discover and rescue Belldandy and what her sister had been willing to sacrifice to achieve that goal. It would be foolish to assume that Urd had completely turned her back on her heritage and the people she was connected to back there but... to use her position, her connections, to find Hagall? And law enforcement? Demonic _law enforcement?_ Had her sister gone so far out of her way to see Hagall brought to justice, infernal though it was? Or had it been coincidence based off her own connections back in Niflheim?

The revelation brought more questions than answers to Belldandy, and the woman looked down into her revolting drink, unable to look Debra in the eye. _Even now, Urd is watching out for me._ A lump settled in her throat.

At length Belldandy spoke once more. "Urd was... _is_..." She trailed off, and her eyes flitted back to Debra's face. There was guilt there too, and it was a strange sight to behold; a woman, a mortal, who felt responsible for the fate that had befallen a goddess of whom she knew little of and worshipped not in the least. _No, it's not that,_ Holy Bell whispered, _she feels guilty over someone she perceives as another_ person _. Divinity has nothing to do with it._

The goddess took a deep breath. "What will you do now that you have experienced what you have?" she asked. "Will you keep your memories or request that they be removed?"

Debra looked at her with some surprise and a whole lot of trepidation. "Why do you ask?"

"Humor me."

The detective stared at her, eyes imploring. "I'd request they'd be erased," she confessed after some time.

"May I inquire why?"

The mortal frowned. "How can I be expected to return to society as a functioning adult after this?" she asked. "After seeing the things I saw... doing the things I did... learning what I know now..." She shook her head. "I'm a detective, Belldandy. I'm required to question everything I see, everything I do, everyone I meet..." The woman pursed her lips. "What happens when I start questioning whether or not the murder that just happened was the result of some kind of feud between the divine and the damned? What happens when a suspect is brought to me, and their behavior kicks my instincts as a detective up to eleven and makes me wonder if they aren't some kind of demon or god or spirit in disguise?" She leaned forward, clutching her cup tightly as she stared down into the wood grain of the coffee table. "What happens when I start questioning myself?" she asked quietly. "When I have a breakdown because everywhere I look I see nothing but signs of the supernatural, and people start looking at me like _I'm_ the crazy one? What happens when the shrink I end up visiting tries to convince me it's all in my head, that everything I went through with you and Keiichi was all one big dream trying to make up for some past trauma?" She looked up, catching Belldandy's blue eyes with her darker brown ones. "How am I supposed to keep on living when I start questioning my own sanity?"

Belldandy looked away. "I see," she said quietly, and inhaled deeply. "Then as you choose to forget regardless, I will reveal to you a small truth about Urd, which I will tell you only in thanks for your aid in combat against those demons and the knowledge you have provided me." She rubbed her brow, then took a long sip of That Bitter Shit. "Urd was once a demon. And while I will not go into the details... I suppose it should not surprise me that she would keep those contacts made in Niflheim nearby."

Debra looked at her with a face that was suspiciously neutral. "That would explain some things." Her voice was quiet. "She must have been pretty high on the food chain. When I first saw her with that demon... it was almost like watching a subordinate report to some high-ranking officer."

Belldandy said nothing.

"Does Keiichi know?"

"No," the Norn replied. "And I would prefer he not know. Urd was good to him, and I have no wish to see his image of her sullied by what she _was_ and not what she became."

"I understand." Debra sucked in a long breath. "So then is it the same for you? I thought you two were sisters."

Belldandy shook her head. "We are half-sisters. Urd's mother is a demon, my mother is a goddess. We share the same father, who is a god."

The detective grunted. "Guess that explains Keima's ' _Jigoku no Musume.'_ " She picked up her coffee and took a deep gulp of it. "We tried going back for her, you know. Urd and her friend. To recover... anyways... there was a fire that prevented us from getting there." She sent a side-long glance at the Norn. "Just... in case you wanted to go back. Needed to go back." The woman hesitated. "Keiichi wanted to tell someone called 'Skuld' about what happened too."

"I see," Belldandy murmured. "That is not his responsibility. I will be the one to contact Skuld, though I fear she already knows." Her hand reflexively reached for her pocket before she remembered the phone had been de-molecularized with her original outfit during her fight with Thrymr. She'd have to retrieve it later.

The two lapsed into an uncomfortable silence.

"Watch out for Keiichi."

Belldandy looked up at Debra, but found that the woman would not meet her eyes, her attention instead focused on the black plastic lid on her coffee cup. There was a small, disquieted frown on her face. "I'm not... I'm not just saying that to-" She fell quiet once again, and Belldandy waited, curious as to what the woman might say. "Keiichi is... he's a good man," Debra continued, and her brow knitted together as she fumbled with her words. "It's just- _he's_ just..." She sighed, frustrated with herself. "He tried to kill me Belldandy." The woman spat the words out as if they were poison, and then appeared to regret it as she looked up at the goddess from beneath her brow.

"Yes," Belldandy said slowly. "I have heard... snippets... mentioned." She chose her words carefully, wary of what the detective was getting at. "I was told he was not of a healthy mind at the time."

"He wasn't." Debra looked away, her gaze drifting towards one of the windows that was showing the approaching sunrise. The world outside was dark still, a dark blue that was starting to lighten, and would soon elevate into brighter hues of pink and yellows.

"He's changed since then, you realize."

"Of course I do!" Debra snapped, and then looked chagrined by her own outburst. "I know," she repeated. "That's why I came..." She trailed off with a grimace.

Belldandy watched her with keen eyes. "What point is there in bringing up such old wounds?" the Norn asked. "Keiichi has grown in the time since you abandoned him. He has improved himself as a person. He is a better man than the man you once knew.

"Aband-" Debra straightened in her seat, staring at the goddess with shocked eyes. "Is _that_ what you call it? _Abandoned_? As in, I left Keiichi hanging after he tried to _murder_ me?" Her voice began to rise, drawing the attention of one or two denizens who looked towards the two women in irritation.

Belldandy held her calm, staring at the woman with no small amount of accusation. Perhaps it was the stress of the past twenty-four hours that sharpened her tongue, drawing ill-held misbeliefs to the surface and maybe even feeding a bit on that familiar old insecurity that Belldandy still bore in her chest. Whatever the reason, her next words cut deep. "Is that not what you did though?" Belldandy demanded, and though Debra's voice rose Belldandy's remained soft but firm. "Did you not abandon him when he needed you most?" There was accusation in her eyes. Accusation and _fire,_ and Debra recoiled from it as though it held a tangible presence.

The woman stood but did not face the goddess, would not even look at her. Yet Belldandy could tell she was seething in rage. "So," she bit out. "After all that we went through in the last couple of days, it's back to that." She clenched and unclenched her fists as if she were contemplating whether to just walk away, or turn and ignite a brawl. A moment later, the goddess had her answer. "You weren't there, you don't know what I endured," she said simply, then turned to look at Belldandy. "I'm done with this and I am done with you." Abruptly she turned and stormed away.

Belldandy sat there shell-shocked, not knowing what to do. She glanced around, and noted other people in the lobby turning their heads to hide the fact that they had been eavesdropping.

It was Holy Bell who broke her out of her daze. _You fucked up again, Carrie._

"I know," Belldandy hissed through clenched teeth. Her chest felt tight as tears continued to fall. She felt ill. "I _know."_

 _Go after her. You need to make this right._

The goddess nodded, and nearly sprinted after the woman who had gone out the lobby's front doors. She stopped at the entrance, not knowing which direction she may have traveled. Since she had been unconscious when they had returned, she had no idea where they may have parked. Frantically, she ran in the direction of the main parking lot, but did not see her quarry. She stopped, glanced around to ensure that no one was looking, and then chanted. " _Make thyself known to me o person of interest. Heed my voice and show me your direction of travel!"_

There was a chirp behind her, and she turned to see a small sparrow sitting on a branch. She listened for a moment as it sang to her. For some reason she found it difficult. "I'm sorry, could you repeat that?" She asked it. The tiny bird turned its head to observe her with one beady black eye, and then chirped again at a slower pace. "I apologize again... something about seeds? No, worms?" She looked at it, squinting. "No, not that... cars! Ah, I see now! Thank you!" she replied, and rushed off in the direction of the parking garage, which was on the opposite side of the hotel. She passed a small, black cat that was sitting next to the side entrance. It meowed at her, and she nodded her thanks as she raced past the parking garage entrance, paused, and then raced back to the cat. "...Which way did you say? I fear I might have misheard you." The cat's tail flicked in irritation, and with a yowl it moved to its feet and trotted off inside the parking garage. "...Oh." Belldandy said, and then chased after it, muttering under her breath, "How did I mishear _that_?" She ducked inside and to the stairwell, where she rushed down to the second sub-level. The goddess scanned the area and saw who she was looking for, and started running towards her. "Debra!" she cried as she approached.

The woman turned. The rage was still there in her eyes, tempered only by the hurt that she must have also been feeling. "What the fuck do you-"

Debra came up short when Belldandy stopped and immediately offered a deep bow. "I'm sorry!" she wailed without rising. "I… I chose my words poorly, and because of that, I have deeply offended you. I wish for this poison between us to be cleansed."

The woman stared at the goddess for a moment before letting out a heavy sigh. "Get up, please. You're making a scene."

Tentatively, Belldandy straightened and glanced around. A group of men off to one side of the parking structure were staring, and the goddess turned red from embarrassment. Debra turned, and started walking, and for a moment, it seemed as if she was going to ignore the apology. But then, after a few steps, she opened the door of the car Belldandy recognized as her rental, and beckoned the goddess to get in, which she quickly took her up on.

After getting into the passenger seat and closing the door, Belldandy watched as Debra did the same on the driver's side. Together, the woman and the goddess sat in tense silence for what seemed like an eternity. It took some additional prodding from Holy Bell to spur Belldandy to break it. "I'm sorry," she repeated. "I… I didn't used to be like this. I went through a very traumatic time in my life that I was only recently able to get away from thanks to Keiichi."

"You mentioned that before," said Debra before turning and looking at the goddess. "Look, I don't want to get into a dick measuring contest over who's more traumatized. I'm glad that Keiichi is…" She trailed off when she saw a worried look on the goddess's face. "What?"

Belldandy looked ashen as she bit her lip. "I'm sorry, but I don't have a dick to measure," she said as she poked the index fingers of her hands together nervously. "And… I would certainly hope that you don't either, otherwise I may have to have a talk with Keiichi about his… preferences."

All Debra could do was stare at Belldandy in bewilderment. After a moment, she burst out laughing, pounding the steering wheel in her mirth. It took her a moment to compose herself before she could say anything. The goddess remained silent. "I don't know if you are serious or not," said Debra finally. "Look, I know that when you go through things, especially when they are fresh, that they can seem so big, so awful that you can't imagine anybody ever going through anything even close."

Belldandy gave her mortal companion a wan smile. "Thank you." Her look grew more somber as she turned and stared out the windshield. "I have to apologize again for what I said. I am sure you felt that leaving Keiichi was the only thing that you could do to be safe." She sighed and shook her head. "But my experience was different." She turned and looked to Debra again. "You see, Keiichi did not leave me under similar circumstances."

The woman's mouth fell open as she stared at the goddess in shock. Her look turned to worry. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that Keiichi suffered a similar incident," Belldandy said, almost having to choke the words out. She glanced around as if searching for the right words to say, then turned back to Debra. "I… I have not spoken of this to anyone. Keiichi knows what happened not because I told him, but because he saw the evidence, and… experienced it firsthand." She took a shuddering breath as she turned away again, no longer able to meet the detective's eyes. "I… I was chained to a mortal that I was powerless to oppose. A wretch whose depravity knew no bounds. He… he raped me. For ten years, he raped me and tortured me and made me do things that…" she shuddered, unable to complete her thought. She turned again to face Debra, now with tears staining her cheeks. "Keiichi saved me. With the help of my sisters, and at great personal cost to Urd I might add, he saved me." She let her head fall, and her tears began to fall into the cup holders between the two seats.

"And do you know how I repaid him?" asked the goddess without looking up. "In a moment that should have been the most intimate expression of our love, I…" She stopped and raised her head while she sucked in a deep breath as if she needed to ready herself. "I killed him Debra!" The tears, which had been coming as a trickle, now streamed out in force as she was wracked by sobs. "The man I love… The man who saved me… I killed him!"

Beside Belldandy, Debra recoiled in shock, her hands coming to her mouth. "But… but he's here!"

"Only because of Urd," replied the goddess after taking a moment to recompose herself. She bowed her head as she could no longer bring herself to look at the woman. "I held him by his throat, and I felt his life force leave him. If it were not for the intervention of my sisters, Urd especially, he would not have made it."

Finally now, Belldandy raised her head and looked at Debra. "I… I am Goddess First Class Belldandy, and I am not worthy of this mortal." She sniffed to clear the snot that was gathering around her nostrils. "I am not worthy of him because in spite of what I did to him, in spite of the fact that I literally killed him, he has not left me!" She leaned back in her seat and wiped the tears out of her eyes, which proved to be a futile gesture as more came in their place. She turned and looked out the passenger window. "So you see, my views of what happened between you and Keiichi are colored by my own experience of what happened between him and myself." She shook her head disdainfully, embarrassed by what she had said and what she had done before. "And for that, I apologize."

For the longest time, there was silence. It was uncomfortable, almost unbearable. Belldandy debated on whether she should get out and leave, or allow Debra the satisfaction of telling her to. So thoroughly had Toshiyuki Aoshima beaten and raped the trusting nature out of her that even now she waited for the ax to drop and for Keiichi's ex to throw her out on her ear. Certainly she deserved it. Her actions had not been befitting of a goddess of her stature, traumatized though she was. So, when she felt Debra's hand reach out and take hers, she flinched.

"I accept your apology, Belldandy."

Even after so many months and after receiving so much kindness and acceptance from not only Keiichi but his friends and family, it still came as a shock to the goddess that someone would simply forgive her for her transgressions. Tentatively, she turned back to Debra. The woman had a stern look on her face, but there was no animosity that she could detect. The woman only shook her head. "That… that sounds so much like the Keiichi I married," she said after a moment. "You're lucky. When we were dating and when we were married, he would always take the blame for anything that happened between us. Any argument that we had, the big bad Navy SEAL would say 'I'm sorry', and that would be that. Even when it was my fault."

Belldandy turned back to Debra as the woman looked off in the distance as if reliving some memory. "I loved him for that," she said. "Loyal to a fault." She turned and looked Belldandy in the eyes. "But that man was lost to me after Afghanistan. The man that came back was a shell of his former self." Debra reached up and pulled down the collar of her blouse. "He chased me through the forest behind the house and hunted me down like I was some kind of baseball card terrorist." Belldandy could make out a long, pink scar across the top of her left breast. "He did this with a pocketknife. Not even a big one. A tiny little Leatherman with the pliers you can put on a key ring. He sliced me there," she released her collar, then hiked up the blouse to show another, smaller, pink scar on her abdomen, "and stabbed me here before I managed to get the knife out of his hands."

The goddess watched with dawning understanding as Debra continued. "Then he started to choke me." Belldandy remained stock still as an image of the utter betrayal on Keiichi's face came to her as she had done the same. "I could see the back door to the house when he put his hands around my throat," she breathed. "Keiichi would have killed me twenty feet from the home we'd bought together two years before, and I wouldn't have been able to do anything about it."

Belldandy could only watch the woman, unable to reconcile the image of the kind and forgiving man she had come to know with the image of him that Debra portrayed. _Would you have done the same?_ asked Holy Bell. The goddess thought about that for a moment, and decided that she would not. But at the same time, she would no longer begrudge anyone who did. "Thank you," she said. "That… explains a lot. I feel that I must once again apologize for any and all of my actions that may have caused you grief."

Debra snorted and nodded. "I did not come here with honorable intentions," she replied. "So I feel that I must also apologize as I should have backed off when I realized that you and Keiichi were together."

Belldandy smiled. "It seems that we have wronged each other. Thank you for accepting my apology, and I will accept your own."

Debra reached out and offered a hug to the goddess, who gladly leaned in and accepted it. "I am so glad he seems to be back to the way I remember," she said in Belldandy's ear. She released the goddess and sat back in her seat. "Now, I need to take care of the clothes and stuff in the back of this car before I return it to the rental company."

"Right," said Belldandy. Taking the hint, she opened the door and stepped out, closing it behind her. She smiled and waved at Debra as she started the car and put it into reverse.

The woman backed out of the parking space and started to drive off, but stopped next to Belldandy and rolled down her window. "Be good to him," she said with a smile.

Belldandy returned it. "I will," she replied.

Before she rolled up the window, the goddess caught a mischievous glint in the woman's eye. "And if I hear that you killed him again, I _will_ be back to take him away from you. Kicking and screaming if I have to!" With that, she rolled up her window and drove off towards the parking lot exit. Belldandy watched her go.

"If I ever do that again, I will gladly hand him over to you," she said as the car disappeared from sight.

XXX

Pulling out of the hotel, Debra turned her rental south towards Highway 82 before merging onto the larger Interstate 280. She ignored the route that would have led her to the San Francisco Airport and instead headed towards San Mateo. The detective still had one final thing she needed to accomplish before she could leave for home, and the bag of soiled clothes from yesterday's battle still sat in the trunk of her car, resting separate from her smaller bag of luggage she'd brought with her for travel.

She yawned largely, blinking her eyes rapidly as she fell into the swift current of California's five-thirty traffic. By now the sun had peeked over the horizon, and its rays were a bright and painful presence on her left-hand side. The woman ignored it as best she could. The obtrusive rays hurt her already burning eyes. The detective had gotten little sleep last night, as her dreams had been nothing but a replay of the battles she'd been in against those demons. Keiichi dying and not being saved, of the looming darkness and the horrid sensation of being pursued by ( _spiders_ ) something she couldn't see. Of that demon, Mara, and her beastly crew in all their wretchedness not holding to her word and instead slaughtering and eating all of them. Of the spectral puma that had possessed Aiko, first attacking Keiichi and then mauling Debra, and then ( _spiders)_ shadows emerging from the wounds to consume their remains.

It had left her tossing and turning all throughout the night, and at one point Megumi had even roused her to see if she was okay. Debra had awoken almost screaming at that point, for the nightmare she'd been trapped in, though foggy now, had been of the eternal darkness first brought by the 'bat-girl', with the ( _spider)_ monster that had dwelt within it having finally discovered her. The dream had been real, too real, and even now she could hear its chittering, its scuttling, its fangs rubbing against each other as it readied to leap and-

She blinked and shook her head, rubbing her eyes with her free hand. For a moment she'd almost felt like she was dreaming again. "Should've gotten stronger coffee," she mumbled, blinking her eyes rapidly. Her thoughts still felt thick from the poor sleep, and it was difficult to concentrate on the road in front of her. Yet it was far from the first time she'd been on the road while sleep deprived, and it wouldn't be the last either, and so she took a deep breath, sat a little straighter, and forced herself to pay better attention to the road in front of her. It wasn't congested yet, but it would be in an hour or two, and there were already signs of that upcoming traffic starting to spawn as more and more cars appeared on the road.

"Rough night, huh?"

Debra jumped, and shot a quick glance over to the passenger seat, which was empty, then a quick look into the rearview mirror, which also displayed a pair of empty seats. She returned her eyes to the road, and passed the event off as some kind of auditory hallucination. She got those from time to time, when the nights were long or the meetings were overly boring, but nonetheless it unnerved her; auditory hallucinations meant she was hurting for sleep much more than she'd initially thought, and were often a precursor to visual hallucinations as well. Staying on the highway any longer would be dangerous; she had to either get off the road or find some other way to wake herself up.

"But it wasn't a hallucination." The voice came again, and in some ways that made it even worse. Because that meant that it was playing on another subtle fear; one new in origin and which she'd hoped to be rid of during her final goodbyes to the Morisato Clan before hopping on the plane home.

"I'm not hearing this," she declared, and buried the voice and everything associated with it; the masculine tone, the sound of it coming from the passenger seat, the sudden feeling of ( _spiders)_ eyes watching her every action-into the farthest recesses of her mind. "I'm tired is all. It's not because there's anything else in the car with me. I'm just tired. Just. Tired."

"That's a cruel thing to say," the voice continued. "You've seen gods and demons and even spirits, and you choose not to acknowledge one as small as me?" The voice sounded wounded. "I suppose I should have expected that, however. After all, I was the cause of your poor sleep, so perhaps it was natural that you would choose to ignore me."

"There's no one else in the vehicle with me," Debra continued this time in a louder voice, as if hoping to drown out the disembodied voice in the car. Because the more the voice spoke, the more she could pinpoint its location, and it scared her that she could hear the voice _moving_ , that she could see something small and brown, perhaps the size of her hand, moving from the corner of her eye, something she didn't dare look at for fear of what she might see. She focused on the road with fresh intensity.

The voice sighed. "Listen... I'm sorry about this. I really am. I've been creeping through your memories while you've been sleeping and... you've done a lot of good. You helped a Norn out, which is something that deserves rewarding, not... this. I mean, sure, you two had your disagreements, and you jumped to the wrong conclusion about _Na'ashjéii Asdzáá's_ acolyte, but even that could be forgivable, given how you changed your opinion of her after learning more about her. That's an admirable trait. Not many people, even in Asgard, have the humility to do that."

"I don't understand what you're saying," Debra admitted, and then recoiled at her own words, for in speaking them, she had unwittingly acknowledged the voice as real.

"You understand some though, and that's enough," the voice continued. "And I guess really, that's the problem. You understand some of how the gods work. You even understand some of how the demons work, which is even worse. You _cooperated_ with demons, and while I personally understand why you did it- I walked through your mind, after all- it doesn't change the fact that you were _willing_ to work with them."

"I had to," Debra argued. "Belldandy was unconscious and they would have killed Keiichi and me if we didn't cooperate."

"I know," the voice continued, and its point of origin was drifting... coming closer, and she spied one long, hairy, brown leg drift into her peripheral view on the dashboard. The urge to scream overcame her, yet the fear she felt left her paralyzed, and so it remained lodged in her throat. "Please, concentrate on the road. You'll crash."

"Isn't that why you're here though?" the detective whispered tightly. "To tie up loose ends?"

The voice was quiet.

"I'm not a fool. I know you were in my dreams. Pursuing me. Chasing me. _Hunting_ me." Christ, she was trembling now. She could feel her whole body shaking in terror. She didn't want to look at the thing on her dash- the _spider_ on her dash- and know what it was. Some kind of god or spirit or something else come to clean up what had been left behind, like a witness to a crime scene with a target on her head. "I'm going to forget, you know. I'm not stupid. I'm choosing to forget _all_ of this." God, she sounded so pitiful. Like a woman begging for her life in front of some kind of kingpin. "I don't want anything more to do with the divine or the damned, if that's what you're worried about."

"I know." The voice sounded tragic now. "It's not fair, because you're requesting to forget that you ever had any interactions with us, and I acknowledge that it's unfair as well." It even sounded regretful, and its tone was believable, which Debra hated. Because that regretful tone made her want to hope, made her want to pursue, made her want to _beg_ , and she knew that no words would sway the thing speaking to her right now. They were artificial tones; constructs designed to reassure her, to think that there might be a chance to escape this hole she'd dug herself into while all the while there was a gun aimed at the back of her head. "I know," the voice continued. "But you remembering isn't the problem here, unfortunately. It's your _willingness_ to work with those demons who you bartered an agreement with."

"I didn't have a cho-"

"And as I said, I'm aware of that," the voice said, interrupting her. "And it does not matter if you forget, it does not matter if you never see another god or spirit or demon again. What matters is the possibility of a demon being indebted to you. The one you spoke with... your memories insinuate that is the case for the information you provided the demon and your willingness to cooperate. That insinuates a contract for later down the road... a contract that that was never formalized, but will be crafted regardless of whether you remember the demon or not, and will be carried out between you and her or perhaps a demon of similar power. _That_ is the problem at hand. _That_ is what cannot be allowed. And _that_ is why I have been tasked with approaching you. You fall into the medium threat category rising to high, and given that the energies spawned from you by that implied contract would return to Niflheim, you are a problem that needs to be addressed. And for that, I apologize, for all of your efforts in dealing with that demon were in part on the desire to aid a Norn with ties to the Daitenkaicho." The voice paused for a long moment, and the words it spoke next were quiet and spoken not in consideration of Debra. "This is not how we should be treating those who would help us."

"Then don't!" Debra cried, and her words were shrill even to her own ears. "For Christ sake, _don't!_ I wanted to save Aiko! I wanted to make sure Belldandy didn't do something she'd regret! I wanted to make sure the three of us came out of all those fights alone- _don't kill me over a demon!"_

"I'm sorry." The owner of the voice wandered into view upon her dashboard, right in front of her where he was impossible to miss. And oh, how she'd wished he'd stayed hidden. He was huge, a monstrous brown spider with two bulging, red chelicerae that housed a pair of massive, curved fangs. She recognized its species in an instant, the Brazilian Wandering Spider, or the Banana Spider, as it was sometimes called, held a deadly bite and was known for its aggression. She had been called in her younger days as a cop to deal with just such a creature. The one before her now raised the front two pairs of its legs together, giving Debra a healthy view of those wicked fangs, and to her it seemed to grow... to grow on the dash, to grow in the car, to expand to encompass everything before the creature seemed to lunge at her from a place outside of her world-

-And she was screaming, jerking hard on the wheel and-

 _-This is a dream._ She thought to herself. _I must still be asle-_

-An explosion of glass into her face, the blare of a horn in her ear, the metallic crinkle of metal as it was crushed like a can-

-The steering wheel pushing up to meet her face-or was it something pushing _down_ on her to meet the steering wheel?

The world spinning.

Pain. Fire. The smell of gas and metal and blood.

A final thought.

 _I'm not dreaming._

And finally, darkness.

XXX

Keiichi awoke to a strange sense of dread in his gut and a voice following him into the waking world. _"The message will be passed, or you shall suffer for it."_ A rasping female voice whispered. It left Keiichi's hair standing on end, and despite the warmth of the bedroom, he shivered. Unconsciously, his hand went to his pocket, feeling for the item that his conscious mind refused to acknowledge and feeling the flat, rounded edge of it press against his leg. He sighed with a relief he didn't understand, and then picked himself off the bed, searching the bedroom for any sign of Belldandy.

The room was empty, however, though there were signs of her presence. A bundle of strange soiled clothes sat upon a dresser, and the spare change of clothes Debra had bought for Belldandy was missing. Rubbing his eyes, the man rolled out of the bed and investigated further, finding the fan was on in a bathroom that had long since been cleared of steam. He switched the fan off, turned around, and went to recover a pair of fresh socks and his shoes. His body protested any kind of bending, and with no one to see him, Keiichi groaned mightily, his body feeling like one large bruise after the injuries- and abrupt healing that had saved his life- from yesterday.

 _PT is going to be a bitch going home,_ he thought absently, and then winced. He'd never called McGuinness back after trying to reach out to Urd, and the thought that Mac might still be waiting for that phone call left him feeling guilty. And just what was he going to tell his CO when they spoke again? That Urd had died valiantly against a monstrous 'Ultimate Destruction Program'? That they'd battled demons? That he'd almost died- _again_? They were dark thoughts, thoughts Keiichi didn't want to dwell on so early in the morning, and it bothered him that he couldn't think up anything that might placate his boss.

 _Urd always was better at lying,_ some part of him whispered, and for a moment Urd as he'd last seen her- smiling and confident and promising to meet up with him- came to his mind's eye. " _I promise."_ Wasn't that what she'd said? Straight to his face? Had it been sincere, and she'd just been overconfident with Lind? Or had she known that she couldn't beat it and had lied to his face?

It was an infuriating thought; a _painful_ thought, and without thinking the man wheeled and smashed his fist into the wall. "Damn it Urd," he growled, and the fresh pain in his knuckles woke him up a little more. "We could have stayed back. We could have all come out of it together if you hadn't... if I hadn't..." He felt a fresh knot of grief seize in his chest, stealing his breath and making it hard to breathe.

"Please come home," he whispered hoarsely. "Please Urd... you and Lind both. Please come home." He let his fist slip off the plaster of the wall, where small, hairline fractures scattered in a spider web around the area of impact. He rubbed his fist, rubbed his wrist, and sighed mournfully. _Belldandy needs you._ He left this final thought unsaid, unable to work up the courage to speak it out loud and perhaps fearing the ramifications of what might come should he put it into words.

Instead, pulling on his socks and then his shoes, Keiichi grabbed his keys, grabbed his wallet, grabbed his phone, and left the small hotel room with all its ghosts and dead gods.

He found Belldandy downstairs in the lobby, her expression distant and thoughtful from where she sat in a chair. She sat alone and undisturbed, the surrounding couches and tables in the small room having been vacated in favor of check-outs or the sudden rush to the now-open breakfast buffet. The man felt his heart wrench as he looked at her. The fierce woman he'd fought side-by-side with was gone. In place of the Norn sat a child, curled up in a tight ball of discomfort and looking as lost, or perhaps even more so, than after she'd almost killed Keiichi.

 _Course she does, Boyo,_ his consciousness whispered, and it was bitter. Bitter and cold and hurt. _Back then she already knew what she wanted to do. Leave. But now her big sister is gone- that same person who helped rescue her from Aoshima and helped her readjust to a regular society- and all of a sudden the world is a big and scary place, just like it was for Aiko. But you came back eventually. Urd won't._

He walked over to her, and found Belldandy so lost in thought that she did not immediately acknowledge him. "Hey Bell."

The goddess started at his voice, then looked up at him from her seat with a pair of wide, blue eyes. Again he was taken by how young she looked in that moment, how lost she looked, and found himself filled with the immediate need to comfort her. Instead he asked, "How you holding up?"

"Miserably," Belldandy muttered without thought, then seemed to realize what she'd said and scowled. "Stupid unrestricted..." She trailed off with a heavy sigh, then rubbed her eyes with a groan. For a long moment she said nothing, then sucked in a deep breath, released it, and said, "Debra told me what happened. I'm glad Aiko is safe."

"I am too," Keiichi replied. "About Urd-"

"Stop," Belldandy said. "Please just-stop." She paused, then sent him a sidelong glance. "She's- I dreamt of her. Last night. She was... she was alive." The Norn inhaled sharply. "Injured, but alive, and... she... Urd was..." The goddess bit her lip, and her hands curled into a pair of tight fists that slammed the arm of the chair.

"It was just a dream, Bell." Keiichi's voice was gentle. "Don't let it get to you."

"No." She shook her head. "It was not 'just a dream'. Of that I am certain." She bit her lower lip again, as if contemplating the wisdom of speaking further, and did so. "It was more than that, I am certain. I am a Norn, Keiichi. The Norn of the Present, and I was unconscious for a good many hours... what is to say my consciousness did not wander in that time? What is to stop me from proceeding to the place where my sister last stood and witnessing her final moments? What was to stop me from following her?"

"That's quite a leap to make over a dream." Keiichi remained dubious.

Belldandy frowned. "You don't believe me."

"It's not that." Keiichi shook his head, his lips pursed in a tight and thin line. "I want to believe you. I really do." He hesitated. "I want to believe that Urd is alive. But I'm hurting too... and so maybe there's a piece of me that is afraid to hope, afraid to dream, afraid to believe that Urd might be alive only to find out later that she's really gone, and then be hurt all over again." He paused once more, his expression bordering on discomfort. "It's... I don't feel like I'm strong enough to believe that right now, Bell. Maybe tomorrow, when some of the pain has ebbed. Maybe in a month, when I've had time to accept the possibility. But right now?" He shook his head. "Right now it's all too fresh, Bell. After losing Urd and almost losing Aiko, after almost dying _again_ by some kind of supernatural means... I don't think I can be strong like that right now."

Belldandy was silent for a long moment, and with it Keiichi began to fear the worst; perhaps he'd said too much, had spoken too heavily of his feelings or perhaps of his own fragility in a moment of loss. He became afraid then, some small and decrepit piece of him fearing the Norn would laugh, or perhaps even go so far as to mock him after laying his feelings bare to her. The worry made him bristle, made him tense, made him search for some kind of excuse to throw back into Belldandy's face if his latent fears became reality, and was instead surprised when Belldandy stood and stepped towards him. She caught his eyes with hers, and in them Keiichi spied grim empathy before he found himself pulled into a tight hug.

"It's okay," Belldandy murmured. "You don't have to be strong all the time. Just for now, let me be your anchor, for a change."

He stiffened if only for a moment, more surprised by the sudden and unexpected display of affection more than anything else. And then the tension that had settled into his bones like a winter's chill on a branch began to melt away, and Keiichi felt his body relax. With some caution he wrapped his arms around her as well, and closed his eyes, inhaling deeply. Belldandy's scent was a familiar smell, one of strawberries and chai hidden by the more urban perfumes of _Head and Shoulders_ and _Old Spice._ It surprised him with how welcome the hug was; an embrace borne not out of love or passion but of empathy, and some part of him took comfort in the idea that another person might understand his own pain.

They stayed like that for a small eternity wrapped in each other's arms, blind to the passing glances of strangers or familiar faces alike, and for all they knew a generation could have come and gone without either person noticing. For the first time in what seemed like too long, things felt a bit better, a bit less-painful than the disastrous sense of stress and grief and depression that seemed to weigh so heavily on them both. And that perhaps maybe, _maybe,_ with the two of them leaning against each other, they might support the weight borne by the other and stand a little taller, stand a little stronger, and perhaps even stand to see the new dawn a little brighter.

Keiichi pulled away first, and Belldandy released him with some reluctance. Keiichi sent her a wan smile. "What did you see in your dream?" he asked.

"Urd," Belldandy replied, and appeared both delighted and saddened that the man would bring up her dream again so soon. "She was alive but... now, I do not know for how long. She was injured... gravely by-" at once she stopped herself, then shook her head. "I am torn. Some part hopes the dream was real, and that Urd might yet live. The other part... wishes it was just that- a dream- and that Urd passed away without going through- going through what I witnessed."

"It was bad then?"

"Yes."

Keiichi fell silent for a long moment, then offered another hug to Belldandy, which the Norn took without reluctance. "I just hope she's alive and okay, wherever she is," Keiichi mumbled. "I want Mac's instincts to be wrong... and I hope that wherever that silver-haired asshole is, she's laughing over us worrying about her.

"Silver-haired asshole?" Belldandy's words were somewhat muffled, but amused. "Yes... I think I want to believe that as well... if only so that when we should meet again, I might call her by your exact words."

"She'd laugh."

"She would," Belldandy agreed. "And I feel that would be what she would want. For us to remember her as a silver-haired asshole who knew when to laugh at herself." The goddess tilted her head to meet Keiichi's gaze, then leaned in and gave him a light peck on the cheek. "Thank you, Keiichi," she mumbled. "I believe you've pleasantly distracted me from the nightmare that has haunted me in these early morning hours."

"I'm glad," Keiichi replied, feeling a small smile tug at the corner of his lips. "And I..."

At once a strange feeling overcame Keiichi. "I have..."

An alien feeling of disembodiment, one like and yet wholly unlike his supposed 'link up' with Yggdrasil with the Norn sisters long, long ago and far, far away. "….something I..." A foreign feeling of his own consciousness slipping out of the reins as something else- something dark and sinister and _evil_ \- slipped into the driver's seat, "need to..." With the ego that was Keiichi Morisato stuck and imprisoned and watching from a distance. He felt his right hand dig into his pocket, but recognized it was not _Keiichi_ digging in his shorts, it was _(evil)_ something else, "give you..."

He saw Belldandy's eyes widen from some place in the deepest recesses of his mind, and grew dimly aware of his right hand wrapping around something and drawing it out. His immediate thought was to stop it, for surely the object was demonic in nature and would do nothing but bring grief, yet try though he might, his body refused to acknowledge his commands. "What is it, Keiichi?" The Norn's voice sounded distant and broken, like the voice over a static radio or a phone with bad coverage.

 _Don't open your hand, Jank,_ he told himself and knew he was doomed to fail. _Don't do it. Whatever it is, put it back in your pocket, put it back in your pocket, you dope!_ Yet instead his hand drifted out in front of him and offered it to Belldandy as if he was about to open his hand and reveal a ring meant for her hand. He caught a flash of alien, poisonous red flesh across his vision, and for a second feared that someone- whoever it was who'd kicked him out of the seat- was peering out of his head as well, and that frightened Keiichi on a level he couldn't begin to explain. Bad enough with Hagall and her mind tricks, but this madness, this _curse_ , took over his body, gazed through his eyes, and perhaps even heard his thoughts and laughed from somewhere across time and space.

 _That's right Soldier-Boy, that's right Seal-Boy._ A voice, vague and unrecognizable, rose in his head. _Had you been faster, had you not dawdled, you would not find yourself in this predicament._ Something like blonde hair-or perhaps blonde _fur-_ drifted through his mind, and again that flash of red appeared. _But you have wasted my time, and my mood is foul with your talk of_ Zamani _. So now you sit, like the useless sack of flesh you are. Now you wait, now you watch, and now I will do what you could not._

And in that moment Keiichi began to fight. He screamed and thrashed, swore and struggled, yet despite his best efforts, he could not unseat the demon in the pilot's seat. Instead, as the demon had dictated, Keiichi sat, and Keiichi waited, and Keiichi watched as his hand uncurled, as Belldandy's face slackened with first shock, then confusion, and finally disgust and even some worry before she turned her eyes on him. This time, when the demon spoke the words of the holy tongue, he understood what he said, just as the demon knew Belldandy would, for it was of her native tongue. And the words were thus:

"A gift of retribution yet un-finalized, for the sibling of She Who Writhes in Thunderstorms." An ear. It was a human _ear_ , red and stiff and covered in blood and gore. A right ear, small and petite in Keiichi's hand. Perhaps a female ear, a woman's ear, a _demon's_ ear, given as a placeholder for a justice not yet served. "As promised by the Eternal Battle, you shall be compensated for the suffering of you and your kin. This is the _Damkianna's_ promise, from her, to me, through your man and to your ears."

"Let Keiichi go, Demon." The ice in Belldandy's voice was terrible; no longer an unspeakable fury but a deadly and silent icecap, ready to break at a moment's notice.

Keiichi felt the demon draw his lips up in a long and sinister smile. "Then take the _Damkianna's_ gift, sibling of She Who Writhes in Thunderstorms. Take it and smile, knowing that _Gushan_ Hagall yet suffers at the hands of we Wilder."

Belldandy gritted her teeth, the expression on her face murderous and terrifying, especially while directed at Keiichi himself, though he recognized that he personally was not the subject of her anger. Yet she held her temper well, perhaps recognizing the danger Keiichi was in, and instead reached out and wrapped her hand around the ear.

 _No!_ a part of Keiichi screamed, expecting a trap. Yet as Belldandy pocketed the ear and nothing of significance happened, the initial fear began to fade. The worry remained though, even as he sensed the invasive presence fade from his person. The worry for Belldandy's safety as well as his own.

He felt Belldandy grab him by the shoulders, and was relieved when the grip felt real and tangible. "Keiichi, are you all right?" The fear for him was real too.

Keiichi gripped the Norn by the arms and sucked in a deep breath, and the relief spread when he felt the action come naturally and normally and without any sense of a foreign presence. He gulped in the air and nodded, still rattled by the experience. "I'm-I'm okay, I think." There was a tremor in his voice. "Getting real sick and tired of these demons though," he tried to joke, and was rewarded with a wavering smile from Belldandy, who nodded in agreement. "You okay?" he asked. "That-that _thing_ didn't have some kind of curse on it, did it?"

Belldandy shook her head. "No," she admitted. "It would seem the demon remained honest, despite her... sinister method of speaking."

"I am not a god damned telephone," Keiichi muttered.

"I know," Belldandy agreed. "Still, I am glad you're unharmed."

"Yeah..." Keiichi trailed off, looking down at his hand. Small flakes of dried blood covered it. He sucked in a soothing breath, then wiped his hand on his shorts. "Was that from…"

"I believe so."

Keiichi frowned in distaste. "You should get rid of that," he said. "Nothing good can come from it."

Belldandy's hand moved to her pocket, yet she did not remove the item in question. For it was in that moment that Keiichi's phone began to ring, giving the goddess reason to pause.

It was a ring tone Keiichi kept for standard numbers that weren't on his list of contacts. Aiko had Circa Survive because of her love for Indie. Megumi had ZZ Top because of an old joke from their childhood. Keima and Takano had some old _Enka_ song that he grew up listening to. McGuinness had the Beatles because he was old as shit, Jackson had some Lo-fi tune, so on and so forth with the others.

The man pulled out his cell phone, staring at the number and recognizing the area code as Californian after spending so many years growing up in the state. It only confused him further, given the fact that he had a ring tone for all his friends and family in Cali. Suspicion rose up in his chest, suspicion that rose too quickly and came too strongly after the battles he'd fought over the past twenty-four hours. He looked at Belldandy, who watched him in puzzled curiosity, the confusion on her face growing as her eyes darted between the phone and him, perhaps wondering why he wasn't answering it.

His frown deepening, Keiichi slid his finger across the phone's screen, answering the phone and raising it to his ear. "Keiichi Morisato speaking." He fully expected to hear a female voice on the other end. Maybe Urd or Lind, calling to say that they were safe and sound. Perhaps Skuld asking what had happened to Urd and to cuss him out for leaving her sister to fight a monster with only a Valkyrie for back up. Maybe even the voice of that demon who'd possessed him, or the voice of another demon about to pass on some kind of message to him.

And so he was unprepared for the male voice that met his answer. " _Keiichi Morisato?"_ the man on the other end asked. " _This is Officer James Hernandez with the San Francisco Police Department."_ Keiichi stiffened, and he could feel his stomach drop into his bowels as the man on the other end identified himself. A strange and peculiar thought came to him in that moment, and from whence it came he could give no answer.

 _Something happened to Deb._

He didn't know why the thought came to him, nor did he understand the ball of dreadful certainty that planted itself in his chest. "Yes Sir, what can I do for you?" _It could be anything,_ he tried to reason. _It could have been something about Stuart or maybe them touching base to hear the status on Aiko._ Yet the thought circled back around, stronger and with more certainty. _Something happened to Deb._

" _Mr. Morisato, can you confirm with me that you are the husband of Debra Morisato?"_ the officer requested.

 _Something happened to Deb, oh fuck, something happened to Deb, what's going on? What happened? Why isn't she in her room here at the hotel?_ "We split years ago," Keiichi replied. "However we've been in good contact. Officer, did something happen to her?"

" _Mr. Morisato, our records show that you and Debra Morisato are still married and she still has you on the list for her emergency next of kin-"_

"Never mind all that," Keiichi interrupted. "What happened to Deb?" He looked at Belldandy and saw her eyes widen, then saw her turn towards the door leading out into the lobby. She looked concerned.

" _Sir, I'm calling to inform you that Debra Morisato was involved on an accident on Interstate two-eighty."_

 _Oh god, she's dead. She got in a wreck and she's dead, oh fuck, please dear god no-_ "Is she okay?"

There was hesitation on the other line, as if the officer was reluctant to speak further to a man who was no longer married to a crash victim. Yet after a moment the man seemed to come to some kind of conclusion with himself, and so spoke further, " _Sir, she's in critical condition. Eye-witness reports claimed her vehicle swerved into the opposite lane of traffic before colliding with a semi. Medical first responders are doing what they can to keep her stable and are sending her to the San Mateo Medical Center now-"_

"I'm on my way." He hung up before the officer on the other end could get another word in. "Bell, Deb was in an accident," Keiichi said. "I need to ask a real big favor of you. A huge one."

He was surprised when Belldandy nodded. "Yes, what can I do to help?" she asked. "Where is she? I can take us there right now."

"They're taking her to San Mateo Medical Center," Keiichi said, relieved by the Norn's willingness to help her short-term rival. "I... we need to hurry, Bell. It doesn't sound like she's got much time."

"Then let's not waste any more." Belldandy offered her hand, and Keiichi grabbed it.

"Outside," he said, his tone urgent. "Away from anyone who might see us." At Belldandy's nod the two of them ran for the doors, hand-in-hand with a grip like a vice and looking for all the world like a pair of lovers running for their lives- or perhaps the life of another.

Outside, Keiichi pulled Belldandy off in the direction of the rental. "Can you get us there from inside the car?" he asked. "No one will notice us there, and..." And fuck any other consequences. He could worry about that shit later.

"Yes, it will be fine," Belldandy replied. "I just need a moment..."

Keiichi unlocked the vehicle and released Belldandy's hand, slipping inside the driver's seat as Belldandy rushed to the passenger side. The doors slammed shut, and again, Belldandy's hand snaked over to grab his. "Just like this," she said. "Now focus on the hospital. Have you been there before?"

"Once, as a kid." Keiichi replied. "I remember what it looks like."

"Then focus. Keiichi. Your memory will guide me there."

And so Keiichi focused. He focused on the building and its outside design, he focused on its long, expansive parking lot, and he focused on its insides, with its smell of antiseptic and the underlying scent of the sick and dying. He focused, and in his mind he began to hear voices; the slow, low murmur of staff and guests as they spoke to one another. He began to see the white walls, the staff in the medical scrubs, the patients in wheelchairs and crutches and transport beds for surgery and—

Keiichi cracked one eye open.

They were still in the car.

He peeked over at Belldandy and found her eyes closed tight. Her face was scrunched up with concentration, yet even as he watched it began to morph into an expression of strain.

"Belldandy?"

She shushed him.

He closed his eyes and waited for another long moment, yet still did not feel anything like the tingling magic feeling he sometimes felt when the goddess was using her powers.

He opened his eyes again and looked around. They were still in the car, still parked in the same hotel. Nothing had changed. "Bell-"

"Hush Keiichi, I'm concentrating."

"Nothing is happening, Belldandy."

"Don't say that Keiichi." The Norn grimaced, but did not open her eyes. Deep furrows of concentration creased her brow, and Keiichi spied a vein beginning to bulge on her temple.

Keiichi reached for his keys. "Stop, Bell," he said, and thrust the rental's key into the ignition. "Whatever you're trying isn't working and I can't afford to wait any longer."

The engine rumbled to life, and as Keiichi strapped in his seat belt Belldandy ceased her attempt and looked at him.

"Keiichi," she whispered, her eyes haunted and aged. "I can't sense my magic anymore."

"I know," Keiichi muttered, his heart heavy with dread. "And I'm afraid it's going to cost us this time." Putting the car in reverse, the man backed out of his parking space, turned it towards the main road, and prayed that some other god might spare Debra a miracle.

Because the one beside him was fresh out.

* * *

 **A/N:** **Quick note to DaMan, whom I cannot reply directly to because he does not have an account. This goes out to anyone else that may be worried about the pace of updates. Even though Real Life has been something of a bitch to us lately, we remain committed to this story. I fear that if we were to actually falter in this, certain members at the Goddess Relief Office would cross the oceans to hunt us down. I would invite anyone who would potentially want to be part of that posse to join us at Goddess-Project dot net.**


	53. Chapter 53 - Funeral Pyre

Chapter 53: Funeral Pyre

XXX

"I'm sorry Keiichi."

Belldandy saw the pain on his face and drew him into her arms and saw how those three little words alone seemed to destroy him. "Yggdrasil, I'm so sorry." She watched as the shock melted from his face like candlewax beneath a hot flame, and how the heated meaning behind her own words left its mark on him as his face twisted in pain and contorted in denial. She watched his skin, pale first from shock and fear, now pinken with unspent emotion as he stared down at the body on the table, and without thinking slipped her hand into his. His fingers curled around it with a sudden, fierce desperation, and in it she felt all the pain, all the depression, all the defeat that was due to him in this final moment of grief. This was just the edge, she knew. The beginning of a long road of pain and recovery, as she'd seen how much he'd still cared for Debra, even as he'd come to care for her, and shared a similar pain of loss that differed only in flavor from their loss of Urd.

She squeezed his hand back in a wordless display of support, _I am here,_ and looked at the body that had been brought for identification- what little there was left to identify- and felt her own grief at the sight. This was not how it was supposed to go. When she had finally begun to conquer her inner demons surrounding Debra Johansson, when they had finally just begun to put their differences aside, when they'd battled side-by-side as allies and had brought the man they'd loved back from the edge of death itself...

For a moment the body on the table vanished, and in its place lay Urd in her human form, her wounds the grievous injuries suffered upon her brief and terrible return to Asgard. She saw her sister's brow where it had been split open by their grandfather in a blow that should have killed if not for her sister's remarkable resilience. She saw the arrow that protruded from the other brow, one of many injuries inflicted by the Valkyries, and saw her stomach, torn open by magical hounds and seared shut by magical flames, and felt her heart wrench. She closed her eyes and counted to ten, focusing her senses on anything, _anything_ that might take her away from the body on the table and the body in her mind, and found little in the way of escape. The hospital chittered with the muffled voices of those in pain, those who were ill, those who diagnosed, and those who mourned their last moments. The air smelled artificial and sweet, as if they were trying to hide the underlying scent of sickness and death that haunted this place.

A sudden and inexplicable sensation of claustrophobia struck her and her throat locked, making it hard to breathe and difficult to swallow. _This is no place of healing_ , she would later reflect _, this is where the dying come to pass._ A cruel thought, she knew, to label a house of healing such as this place in such a manner, yet one that she could not shake despite her best efforts.

She busied herself observing Keiichi's face instead, watching with a morbid fascination as the man's lips peeled back in a snarl of repressed emotion, his teeth clenched so tight she wondered that they didn't crack. His face seemed to darken even as it lit itself up in a pink cast of suppression, and she fancied that he was holding back a scream. His forehead was shiny in the artificial light of the room, and on his left temple a vein began its slow and valiant climb towards bulging, joining another deep-rooted vein that was already prominent in his neck. An outstanding attempt at self-control, and one Belldandy already recognized as one near failing. At this point, it was close to certain that the only thing holding Keiichi Morisato's emotions back was shock, still laying its numbing blanket of woe around his shoulders.

She sucked in a deep breath, then dug into her pockets with her free hand, remembering too late that this was a new set of clothes and that her magic had abandoned her in this moment. Her hands came up empty of change, and for that she felt another wave of guilt crash into her. Death was a demanding entity, even amongst gods, and for those times when it came to retrieve those who passed there were certain traditions that were expected to be followed.

Yet her pockets were empty of any loose change, and she had nothing but lint with which to pay the way for Debra's safe passage. She looked at the remains before her with fresh regret, and knew that she'd failed even with Death resting before her. _I have not even pennies to pay your fare upon the river Styx,_ she thought. _Forgive me. May the one who collects you be kind and charitable in my failure._

Next to her, Keiichi released a choked sob. She looked at him, watching as tears began to trail down his cheeks and his face twisted into a painful grimace.

Without thought she pulled him into an embrace, and felt his arms wrap around her as another choked sob managed to escape him. She felt her own eyes began to warm and moisten but didn't stop to question it. Now was the time for empathy. Now was the time for the sharing of pain. Now was the time to lessen the burden.

Now was the time the shock broke, and Keiichi Morisato began to grieve.

XXX

It was Thursday night in San Francisco, California, and Keiichi Morisato walked with his shoulders drawn high and his back hunched over, hands shoved deep into the pockets of his jeans as he wandered down streets that once held meaning to him and roads he now only vaguely recalled. He ignored the people he passed, some of whom gave him a wide berth while others shoved past him with blatant disregard for his person. He paid none of them any mind, for his thoughts were as lost as his person, being so consumed by his own black mood that he could have shoved past a demon and never known it or even walked off a cliff at the ends of the earth and never realized it.

Debra was gone.

It was this thought and this thought alone which captured his attention, another new, fresh black mark to add to the ever growing collection of California's attractions: _Tired of your boring old life? Want to feel the exhilarating thrill of death? Then come on down to good ol' SanFran Bay! Home to demons and monsters and death (oh my!)._ And oh, had he gotten his share of all of the above. Plenty of demons, a glimpse of a monster, and death. Death by the gallons. Death every which way he turned.

Debra was gone.

His chest felt tight and constricted, as if some kind of black snake had curled into his rib cage and encircled his lungs, his heart, and his throat. It made it difficult to breathe, difficult to _think_ , because each time that thought circled back his chest would get a little tighter, he'd feel himself choking a little bit more. He felt like he might break down screaming with the next step he might take.

Debra was gone.

It hadn't been anyone's fault. Keiichi had to keep telling himself that. It wasn't anyone's fault. Now that there'd been some time to investigate, to test blood and examine the scene and, well, whatever else investigators did at accidents, evidence had all pointed to it being just that. Sleep deprivation had been the biggest one on Debra's behalf; right now the going theory was that she'd fallen asleep behind the wheel ( _which was stupid,_ the voice of experience claimed _, Deb knew her limits, it was something else, something to do with what she'd experienced with Keiichi and Bell, it had to be, it_ had _to)_ leading to her losing control and veering into the incoming lane of traffic where she was plowed by a semi-truck. One of the huge eighteen-wheelers that had been hauling a loaded trailer cross-country.

They told him it had been fast- Deb's rental was a tiny Sedan that hadn't stood a chance against the semi. It had been damn near steamrolled after the truck had hit it dead-on. They'd told him it had been quick, that the crumpled metal that had once been the engine had smashed into her head before she'd even realized what happened. That by the time first responders had extracted her from the vehicle she'd already been closer to death then life, and that she'd passed away peacefully in the back of the ambulance despite the best efforts of the paramedics on call.

Keiichi wasn't so sure.

Bell had tried all her might to get the two of them to Deb safely. She'd strained and sworn and wept in frustration when she could do nothing, but by that time they'd already been pulling into the San Mateo Medical Facility, and the shock had started to set in for Keiichi. Belldandy had apologized, over and over and over again, and each time he'd met it with calm reassurance. Shock was one hell of a drug, that was for sure, and likewise, he found that even after the shock had passed, he didn't blame her. _Couldn't_ blame her, as how could he? She'd spent her magic dry fighting through one demon after the next, bringing Keiichi back from the brink of death and even saving Aiko from whatever the puma-spirit-god thing was that had possessed her. She'd overexerted herself, something that had never occurred to Keiichi, and though he'd desperately wanted to see Deb-to see her alive, to see her in at least her final moments, to at least let her know he was there…

Well, even the gods could be prone to failure, so it seemed.

But fuck, didn't it hurt like hell when that failure popped up to kick him in the balls.

He'd met the semi-truck's driver at the hospital. The man was being treated for his own injuries, which proved to be minor physically but colossal on an emotional level. The guy had been young. Early twenties, at most, and looked to be in about the same level of shock as Keiichi himself. Keiichi still didn't know how it happened, but somehow, the man had learned that Keiichi was Debra's husband (no 'ex' here, never 'ex' in the good ol' heart of California) and had approached Keiichi calmly at first, but had then opened his mouth and had just… wept. All his composure just… gone. Apologies that never really sank in for Keiichi, even now. Sobbing attempts at explanations from what he'd seen, how Deb had just 'come out of nowhere', and how he'd tried to swerve around her but had been unable to without losing control of his monster of a truck. How he accepted full blame for Deb's death in spite of the uncomfortable attempts at reassurance from the nurse treating his injuries, a few bruises and scrapes and a minor concussion in comparison to the crumpled soda can that had crushed Deb into pulp. Keiichi was not really following it, not really hearing it, not really feeling it sink in as his own thoughts turned to how he was going to tell Deb's father, how he was going to tell _his_ father, and his mother, and oh god, Megs would be _crushed_ and Aiko…

And a nurse had led him away from the truck driver, whose face was now a smudge and whose name he hadn't bothered to remember, and had instead led him down to the morgue. Belldandy, a silent shadow, had followed him, and at some point, he thought he even recalled the goddess holding his hand, which he'd gripped like a vice, and who at some point had gone so far as to hold him when the hospital mortician brought Debra's body out for identification. She'd been unrecognizable as the woman he'd seen the night before, and at some point, the shock that had enveloped him in a hazy fog had broken and he'd lost his composure, disclaiming the crushed body as his ex-wife and accusing the men around them of playing a sick joke on him. He yelled. He screamed. He wept. In that moment of weakness, he even lashed out at Belldandy, if for no other reason than that she was there and he needed someone to blame. Though most of it was foggy now, he could still recall parts of it... moments in time where he'd pleaded with Belldandy for the wish back. Begged her to bring Debra back, to allow Keiichi to take Debra's place, and Belldandy's somber refusals and admission that she could do none of what Keiichi asked of her.

His desperation had led him to anger, and in his pain Keiichi had thrown accusations at her. That Belldandy was somehow responsible for Debra's death. That this had been what the goddess had wanted, or of some such madness of how _convenient_ it was for her magic to fail her when Debra needed it the most. He'd seen the hurt in her eyes but hadn't cared, too lost in his own pain.

Belldandy had weathered through his verbal aggressions like a strong tree through a storm, holding him as he'd sobbed, placing herself between him and the staff, the truck driver, hell, even _Deb_ , with little care for herself. Though Keiichi screamed and howled and roared and sobbed, the goddess remained resilient. Even when he'd expended his anger, his sadness, and was left feeling hollow and miserable, Belldandy had remained, her arms wrapped around his shoulders as she held him close.

Reflecting on it now, Keiichi was grateful for her company. Her presence had been comforting, and against all odds, the Norn hadn't lost her patience with him nor abandoned him, though deep down some part of him knew his words had hurt her.

Later, when the grief had been exhausted and the tears had ceased to come, when he'd called his family to pass on the message and Keima had promised to call Debra's father, Joshua, Keiichi had apologized to Belldandy.

The drama that had followed as they returned to the hotel had been agonizing. Megumi and Takano had been inconsolable. Megumi had lost a sister. Takano had lost a daughter, and of all of them, except for perhaps Keiichi himself, who'd lost one of his closest friends and his former wife on top of that, they'd grieved the worst. The hours following had been near unbearable, and now, with the hotel long gone and the Morisato family back in the house the family had grown up in, Keiichi wandered.

He needed time away from the others. Time to be alone, to reflect on everything that had happened since coming to California and what would come next now that Debra was gone. He'd been afraid the family wouldn't grant him that opportunity, but had been surprised when first Keima, and then Belldandy had stepped up to his defense. " _Take all the time you need."_ Those had been Belldandy's words, and he thought, as he was pulling on his shoes and grabbing his wallet and keys, that Belldandy got it. He looked at her and saw a similar pain, and perhaps even a similar desire to be alone and away from everyone else. She had given him a wan smile and squeezed his hands as she saw him off. " _Take all the time you need, but come back to us."_ Her voice roamed around in his head, both the words the goddess had said and the words she hadn't said and the implication behind those words.

He wasn't planning on doing anything stupid. He'd heard the concern in her voice, and had assured her that he was just going for a walk. And for the most part, that was all he was doing, going for a walk through his old neighborhood. It had grown exponentially in the years he'd been away from home, the streets had grown so unfamiliar that it may as well have been that his parents had relocated since he'd been gone. The old Spanish grocery store Takano and Keima had frequented had been torn down. In Its place was an apartment complex made of brick and mortar, stacked high at five stories. The old elementary school he'd attended in his youth had grown to encompass two of the neighboring blocks, and as he walked past the surrounding wire fence he saw trailers that had been parked to accommodate additional classrooms for students. The old park he and Megumi and Deb used to play softball at was gone too, replaced by a gas station hosting a billboard requesting that people _PROTECT YOUR ENVIRONMENT: RECYCLE_. He stared at the billboard for a long time, engulfed in a feeling of longing and loss before finally rousing himself enough from his thoughts to move on.

At some point, when the sun had long since passed beneath the horizon and the slim and sleek curve of a silver moon peered down at him from beneath a hazy night sky, the surrounding area lost what little tang of nostalgia it had left and fell into the realm of the unfamiliar. It was around here that Keiichi paused and looked around, trying to gather his bearings and coming up empty as he looked up at street signs with obscure names and buildings that looked old, empty, and forgotten in San Francisco's modern rush. Many of the signs that accompanied the buildings were old and dirty or made of broken glass and rusted sheet metal that disguised their names and their wares. _Well look at you, wandering onto the wrong side of the tracks,_ some snide voice whispered in his ear. _Better watch your back, Boyo, wouldn't want to get stabbed now, would we?_

He fancied the idea for a moment of some mugger or druggie or murderer jumping him from the shadows with a pocket knife in hand, demanding his wallet or his life or not even bothering and just straight up attacking, and felt the world grow clearer for a moment in the small spike of adrenaline that popped off. A part of him relished the idea; of rolling into his attacker's guard and grabbing his wrist and breaking it, of bringing his foot down on the figment's knee and destroying his kneecap, sending the imaginary opponent to the ground. Of crushing the would-be aggressor's hand beneath his shoe and kicking him in the mouth and then leaving him as someone else's problem.

And then Keiichi realized where his thoughts were leading him and abandoned them, leaving them to die on the imagined streets of his subconscious as he realized that the likelihood of that happening were slim, and would only increase if he sought them out. _You promised Belldandy you'd come home, remember._ For a second it sounded like Urd, and for a second longer it sounded like Deb. _You promised_ yourself _that you wouldn't go out looking for trouble. Don't add to the pain that has already been had, Keiichi._ He grimaced, and felt ashamed.

 _There is no peace to be found in violence,_ he thought, and for a moment smiled. Those were Takano's words, drilled into his head since Megs and himself had first started Aikido. She'd said something similar when he'd announced his decision to enlist in the Navy.

"Words to live by, if I were to judge."

Keiichi's head snapped up and the man looked around, yet no one addressed him and even less spared him a passing glance. A couple passed him by, arm-in-arm and laughing, and the retreating form of a blonde woman in a suit passed a group of five that looked well on their way to getting plastered. His eyes widened as they followed the blonde, and as she rounded a corner, the SEAL found he recognized her.

"Mother… fucker." The woman who'd knocked Belldandy out.

It was the demon who'd given him Hagall's ear.

He was off and after her before he could put his thoughts into play, tearing through the group of five who yelled and swore at him as he rounded the corner. The woman was still a good ways ahead of him and either ignored him or did not see him, entering one building that was further down the block. He chased after her, his heart in his throat and filled with the sudden urgency to speak with the woman, the demon, to- to- he didn't know what, but he would be damned if he wasn't going to do it. He sprinted down the sidewalk with all his might, encroaching on a pair of men walking the same direction as him who at last second split to allow him to pass. He never caught their faces nor would have remembered them if he had, and instead raced to the storefront he'd seen the woman vanish inside of.

It appeared to be a bar of some sort, a wooden plaque on the shuttered windows reading, _NECTAR OF THE DOGS_ in large, gothic script. The paint was beginning to curl at the edge of the letter 'G', turning it into a 'C' that read DOCS. The door was wooden, and might have been a vibrant, eye-sore green before age and time had left it stripped and faded. There was a sign on the door; another plaque: _Must Be Old As Dirt To Enter_ , it read.

Keiichi saw this all in the span of five seconds before pulling open the door to the bar and coming face-to-face with the largest man Keiichi had ever seen before. The stranger had to have been at least eight feet tall, if Keiichi were to guess, with a hard face chiseled from granite and arms that would have left Mac weeping with envy. The line of his shoulders alone looked too wide to walk through the door without angling himself to slip through, and the man's height alone near-scraped the ceiling of the bar. He wore a pair of jeans that clung to his legs and a bright, eye-sore yellow shirt with the letters _N.O.D_ stenciled across his chest.

The man looked down at Keiichi, unamused.

Keiichi, frankly, wondered if the man could even speak or if his entire face was literally made of stone.

"I'm here for a drink," Keiichi tried.

"Drink somewhere else." The man's voice was like teeth grinding on bone, and the sound left a strange but sharp cramp of fear in Keiichi's gut. "We don't serve your kind here."

"Don't serve my-" Keiichi's mouth fell slack, and he stared flabbergasted at the man, shocked by the casual denial of service. While he was no stranger to racism, having experienced it a handful of times both growing up and in the Navy, never had it been so extreme as to actually deny him entrance to another place before. "What do you mean you don't serve 'my kind'?" he demanded, insulted on a personal level that exceeded the previous fear in his belly in favor of self-righteous anger. "Are you fucking serious? In this-in _this_ day and age?" he snapped, and the man, eight-feet of muscle and granite and terror, blinked as though surprised by this exclamation. "What, is it because I'm Japanese?" he snarled. "You got a thing against me 'cause I'm fucking Asian or something? In fucking _Cali_?!" The man before him twitched, a small, uncomfortable frown worming its way across his face. "The fuck? The owner of this dump some fuckhead ol' piece a' shit geezer running around screaming about Pearl Harbor or something? Or is it something else?" The large man's discomfort appeared to grow. "What exactly do you mean when you utter the fucking phrase 'your kind'? Huh?"

"I believe Wulf is saying you're a bit too young for this establishment." A voice, soft, gentle and masculine, rose up behind him. "I doubt that it has anything to do with any kind of racial context." Keiichi looked back over his shoulder, finding a pair of men who could have been in their early twenties to late seventies at his back. The man who'd spoken stared at Keiichi from behind a pair of copper rimmed glasses. His dark eyes sparkled with amusement, and the man next to him, adorned in a pair of shaded black glasses, appeared to be stifling his laughter. "I will vouch for him, Wulf," the stranger continued. "We shall ensure he causes no trouble."

The bouncer, Wulf, looked at the two men, unconvinced. "Indra don't want trouble," he warned.

"And there won't be," Copper Rims replied. "You have the word of a scholar, and what good is a scholar if not his word to go by?"

Wulf grunted, yet stepped out of the doorway to allow Keiichi and the two men entrance. He and the two men at his back entered, and Keiichi felt the hair along the nape of his neck rise as he passed the threshold. He glanced up at the bouncer one more time as he passed the large man, and thought, _you're not human._

"Oh, I'm human all right," Wulf said, staring down at him with his large, slab-like arms crossed over his chest. "But they don't make humans like they used to. You ain't your ancestors, Kid, and you best remember that with the company you keep."

Keiichi jumped, and turned to face the man more fully, his mouth dropping open yet finding himself rendered mute in his shock. Copper Rims slapped a dark hand onto his shoulder. "Now now, leave Wulf be. You've upset him with your accusations, and can you really blame the poor man? Come and have a drink with us at the bar." The hand was heavy like iron, and though Keiichi would have protested he found himself strangely meek in these unfamiliar surroundings, and instead allowed himself to be guided to the bar of lacquered redwood. The establishment was cozy but not cramped, despite its large bouncer. A bar lined the western-most wall, and was embellished with intricate bronze patterns and designs fashioned after flowers. The Northernmost wall provided a corner for staff to leave the bar as well as bathrooms, along with a long row of booths with plush, worn, black leather seats. A billiards table occupied the center of the room, and towards the south end near the door were a couple of small tables and an old juke box. Billy Joel was singing _'Piano Man'_ from its speakers, and though the box looked antique, the quality was crisp and clear to the point where the singer may as well have been performing live.

The bar seemed to be close to empty at the moment outside of Keiichi, his new friends, and the blonde woman, who sat at a booth in the far corner of the room. Her back was turned to him. The Bouncer, Wulf, took a seat at the table directly across from her. The man's dark eyes followed Keiichi's every move, as if daring the man to approach them, but Copper Rims was having none of it. He escorted Keiichi to the bar and took a seat at one of the black leather stools. Shades, whom Keiichi suspected might be hard of sight, sat on the other side of him. "Have a seat." The man gestured to the unoccupied stool on his right, and with some reluctance, Keiichi took it.

"The usual for the dog and myself," Copper Rims called out. "Mead for the Boy."

"I'll have a beer, actually," Keiichi said without thought. "And I'm not a boy."

"Of course you're not," cackled Copper Rims. "You're a SEAL."

"The beer we serve here is too strong for the likes of you." The bartender was another large and imposing man, with skin that seemed almost to glow like liquid amber in the light of the bar. "Listen to your elders or scram. You working on the bird's charity, and it is unwise to dismiss such a blessing." A pair of large _vajra_ dangled from his ears, bronze and elaborately decorated as his lone bit of jewelry. He turned away, and to Keiichi it almost appeared as if small bolts of lightning were dancing along his back. Keiichi had to look at the man a second time to see if that was indeed the case, yet his second glance showed nothing remarkable, and Keiichi chalked it up to stress.

He looked back to Copper Rims, who was speaking to Shades. "Who are you guys?" he asked.

"Who indeed?" the man asked, and reached into the pocket of his black slacks. "No one of consequence, if that is what concerns you." He withdrew an elaborate card case inscribed with a long and slender white ibis and opened it, withdrawing a card. "My card." He offered it to Keiichi, who took it with no small amount of hesitation before looking down and reading the print.

"Jackal and Ibis Mortuary Service," Keiichi read. A picture of a black jackal chasing a white ibis was printed in the background. "The dead keep kicking and we keep digging."

"You'd be amazed at what a bit of morbid humor does for business." The man explained.

Below the title were a pair of names: Mr. Taliah Ibis and Abd al Rashid Jaq'al. Keiichi looked back at Copper Rims. "Which one are you?"

"Which do you think?" Copper Rims asked.

Keiichi stared at the man in consideration for a long moment, barely noticing the bar keeper slamming a glass mug of golden liquid down in front of him, followed by two more bottles of alcohol of a darker cast down beside the two strangers. He observed the man, dressed like his associate in a black suit, the only difference being his white tie in comparison to the black tie of his friend. The man was tall and lanky, his features not quite Arab or Indian but something closer to African. He wore a proud beak of a nose that bent much like a raptor's beak, and wore high cheekbones that gave him an elegant, if somewhat delicate, look to him. His hair was cut short and close to the scalp, where it curled in thick, tight ringlets.

His companion was of a similar elegance, if made somehow darker for reasons Keiichi could not quite explain. It was almost as if he was bathed in a constant shadow, one somehow made whole and real by the black-painted shades he wore to cover his eyes. His nose wasn't quite as prominent a beak as his friend's, and he appeared less delicate in stature compared to his companion. Still, there was something almost peaceful about his nature, and the man turned to Keiichi, as if sensing his gaze, and smiled. It was a kind smile. A happy smile, like that of a friendly dog looking at him from the far side of his owner.

Despite himself, Keiichi found himself smiling back at the man, cheered by his good nature despite the stranger having yet to say a word to him. The man raised his bottle in toast, then took a long chug of his drink.

Keiichi looked back at the stranger. "Well... If I had to guess, I'd say you were Mr. Ibis and your friend was Mr. Jackal."

"Jaq'al," corrected Copper Rims. "And a good guess. Most people don't like to make assumptions based on what they see." He lifted his own bottle in toast, and Keiichi grabbed his own mug. "A pleasure to meet you. I am Taliah Ibis. My quiet friend is Abd al Rashid Jaq'al. Forgive him his silence, if you will. He prefers to speak to the dead over the living."

"Keiichi Morisato," Keiichi replied in turn, and as he took a sip of his drink wondered why he'd even bothered with the introduction. Mr. Ibis, he was certain, already knew his name. "What is this place?" The mead in his glass was overly sweet, so much to that Keiichi wondered if he was indeed drinking alcohol and not straight honey. Then his face twisted into a grimace as a burning fire crawled its way back up his throat, causing Keiichi to look at his drink appraisingly.

"Just a bar that caters to a specific crowd," Mr. Ibis replied. "Sometimes it is a place of celebration, sometimes it is a place of woes, and sometimes it is a place of business. Always it is neutral ground, however, where those like myself and your blonde friend over there may come for a drink without fear of transgression."

"Just not a place for 'my kind', is that it?" Keiichi looked over his shoulder back towards the woman in question, whose head was bowed as if brooding or reading. At the table across from her, Wulf scowled at him, and then rose up towards the door on the east side of the bar. Keiichi turned back to his companion, and missed the blonde peeking back over at him.

Mr. Jaq'al didn't though. He smiled at her and tipped his drink her way.

The woman, taken aback, raised her own glass before turning away once more.

Mr. Jaq'al sighed dreamily.

"So if this ain't a place for 'my kind', how did I find it to begin with?" Keiichi took another sip of his drink, this time prepared for the returning fire as a new patron moved to the bar, this one an elderly Japanese man who peered over at Keiichi in curiosity before calling for 'Eight-Brew Sake' from the Barkeeper. Had Keiichi not been distracted in his own conversation and drinking already, he might have noted that the request had been in Japanese, and that despite this Indra still managed to deliver the requested sake and plate to the man in question.

"Sometimes when a man wants to lose himself utterly, it is possible for him to touch those lands not meant for him," Mr. Ibis explained. "It is rare, but it does happen. A man wanders and wanders and wanders looking for something he cannot put a name to, and suddenly finds his surroundings strange and alien. A woman walks into a forest and is lost in her thoughts, and walks off the beaten trail to forge her own way and is never seen again. A child is chased by his bullies and wants nothing more than to lose them, and in doing so finds himself lost in turn." The man shrugged. "It used to be more common than it is now, what with smart phones and GPS and Google maps, but... for those who wish it hardest, it may still happen."

"So you're telling me this bar could appear in the middle of the woods like some old witch's hut?" Keiichi asked. "Or that some kid might just wander into a bar asking for directions?"

"Not necessarily," Mr. Ibis replied. "The face changes with its environment to best suit the needs of the occupants, you see. Perhaps not a bar but a bookstore for a youth. Perhaps not a bookstore but a cottage for the woman. Perhaps not a cottage but a bar for the man." He took a sip of his drink. "It wears the face most at home with the world around it and is what is most agreeable to the observer, with only our large and intimidating Beowulf to guard the way."

"Yeah, I bet he scares the piss out of kids," Keiichi grumbled.

"Not necessarily," Mr. Ibis replied cheerfully. "For those who are lost, he helps them on their way. For those who _aren't,"_ and here he looked Keiichi straight in the eye, _"_ he chases them away."

Keiichi looked away without a word.

"Tell me, what had you thought to accomplish by coming here?" Mr. Ibis continued. "You've already had your fill of both demons and gods. Did you believe to find some respite by confronting the woman in the corner? Answers to questions you yourself don't even fully comprehend? Or were you perhaps merely looking for an outlet to blame in the tragedy that has befallen you? Because I can provide you all those answers right now, and I will inform you that confronting that lone woman in the corner will lead to nothing but pain and heartache and possibly even your death. You are not the only one who lost something in these past two days."

"The fuck does that mean?" Keiichi's voice came out a low, quarrelsome growl. Mr. Jaq'al straightened at once, peering over his companion to look at Keiichi in concern. The man realized it was concern for Keiichi _himself_ and much less for his friend. The man shook his head, as if trying to dissuade Keiichi from pursuing any unwise thoughts, and the open concern on the man's face brought to mind Belldandy's own worried face.

Keiichi relented. "Sorry."

Mr. Ibis waved it off, unconcerned. He took another sip of his drink before asking, "Had it ever occurred to you that perhaps that woman over there might be mourning a loss too?"

"She's a demon," Keiichi replied without thought, and missed how the elderly Japanese man two seats down from him shot him a glare.

"Does that make her any less a person?" Mr. Ibis countered, and here Keiichi fell silent, staring at the man in shock. The idea that a demon- any demon, not just the one at his back- might be capable of mourning like a man or a god or a... _person_ had never occurred to him, and was in some ways as fascinating an idea as it was terrible. It was an alien thought that a demon, a creature of malice and malevolence, might hold some level of humility as to actually _grieve_ for their own, seemed befuddling and so far removed from the depths of his imagination that Keiichi couldn't picture it. A hand moved to his watch, and for a moment he remembered Hagall, pale and ashen, as Keiichi and the others had crashed upon her den. Hagall, who had gone from an outstanding and terrifying enemy to a pallid woman who knew her time was borrowed, and was afraid. Hagall who, beneath her disdain, had shown signs of honest, _human_ fear, like that of any other mortal, or perhaps, like that of any other god.

For a long time Keiichi was silent, and again he peered back at the woman behind him. That was all she was, he was beginning to realize; behind the arrogance, behind the power, behind the _demon,_ was nothing but a woman, one who'd placed herself in as far of an out-of-the way corner as possible, like a person who wanted to be left alone after hearing bad news from home.

All of a sudden she seemed very relatable to Keiichi.

He hated that.

"Who did she lose?" The man turned back to Mr. Ibis, who was observing him with calculating black eyes.

"You already know the answer to that," Mr. Ibis replied, and of course he did. Hadn't he heard Debra herself say that the woman had been 'Urd's backup'?

"Christ," Keiichi breathed, and took a long gulp of his drink, which seemed at once bottomless and infinite; if he wanted to, in that moment, he could have drank and drank and drank for days without it ever going empty, and in that instant to Keiichi that seemed like an idea worth pursuing. To drink himself to death with a never-empty mug, which seemed like a wisdom more capable of digestion then what currently occupied his mind: that Urd had befriended a demon- one close enough to mourn her passing- and that she, in her final moments, had called upon that demon's aid against Hagall.

It was the fire in his throat that stopped him from pursuing that goal, and the man slammed his mug on the counter, coughing harshly as the world began to swim around him.

"Indra, could I have some water for my friend here? Thank you." Mr. Ibis's voice seemed both close and far away, fading in and out of range like a wavering siren hailing some kind of on-base attack. The world around Keiichi began to spin dizzyingly, and when Indra- no longer a man but a bronze statue brought to life, muscles rippling across his four arms and his brow alight with a bright halo of power- placed a glass of water in front of him, Keiichi grabbed it and chugged it with heart.

The water was a frigid contrast to the fire brought on by the mead, and Keiichi could feel the water course its way down his throat and into the pit of his stomach, the iciness travelling up the back of his throat and into his head like an ice pick. "Fucking shit!" he swore, and abandoned his glass in favor of gripping the counter's edge, fighting through the brain freeze as two seats down from him, a horse-headed _oni_ watched with placid brown eyes.

On his other side, the ibis watched on with its dark eyes. "Take a moment," it said in Mr. Ibis's voice. "It will do you no good to harm yourself." Beside the Ibis, a large black hound, its white eyes so bright as to be blind, watched him with open concern.

Keiichi closed his eyes as the world slowed its nauseating spin and the pain in his skull began to subside. He only opened them after the pain left him entirely. "Are you well?" Mr. Ibis, not a bird but a man, was watching him, with his friend leaning over the bar to look at him in concern from behind his shades. Keiichi grimaced and looked to his right, and found that the _oni_ had vanished in place of an elderly man as well. He looked over his shoulder back towards the woman, and found that she too remained unchanged, and in fact had been joined by another in the time since he'd last glanced at her.

She was a tall, brown woman, with deep blue eyes that were a shocking contrast against her skin and long black hair held up in a messy bun. She held a stunningly exotic beauty to her, especially in her red dress, though admittedly Keiichi was uncertain if that was her own beauty or his opinion of her magnified by his own inebriation. He felt a strange pang in his heart looking at her. _I bet if Urd was a normal human she'd look a lot like that,_ he thought to himself, and grimaced. Maybe she was mourning too. Maybe something in those slumped shoulders and baggy eyes told a story like his; of love stolen by death (though was it not death sitting with a pair of shades on the other side of a bird?) and mourning and brooding on their abrupt departure.

The world was starting to spin again.

He turned just as the blue-eyed woman looked his way.

Keiichi took another sip of water and closed his eyes, rubbing his brow as he waited for the spell to pass. When he opened them again, the world had reoriented itself, though there seemed to be a notable lag in any of Indra's actions as he passed glasses out to patrons across the bar. "What's in this stuff?" he slurred, and drew his own mug back towards himself, staring into the glass as if it held the answers to the universe itself. Part of him was starting to think it might.

Mr. Ibis didn't answer him, and a brief glance at him explained why. The bird—or the man; he didn't seem capable of settling on one form—was staring in rapt attention at the woman who'd previously joined the blonde in the corner. She was approaching them now, and for a brief instant, a moment so short that Keiichi wasn't convinced it was real, the black hair looked white, the blue eyes looked violet, and the woman vanished as Urd took her place.

"Mister Ibis." The woman's voice was deep and rich. Too deep to be Urd's.

 _That's because Urd's dead, Bucko,_ he thought to himself, and felt his heart wrench. _It's just her ghost chasing you around. Better be careful, or the gods might take vengeance on you for ditching her like a coward._

He grimaced and bowed his head, shading his eyes with a hand that massaged his brows as he hailed the barkeeper with his other. Deb and Urd and Lind. All gone. Straight down the gutter with no hopes of coming back and leaving him to feel their ghosts. Glances out of the corner of an eye of people who shouldn't be there. Voices that would just border on the edge of familiar. Scents that would inevitably send him flying back into the past, lost in memories of what was and what now will never be again, and god _damn_ it there'd be no more Deb to scare the shit out of him at family events anymore and no more Urd giving stupid names to furniture and watching Bell and no more Lind to play as mediator when the shit really, _really_ hit the fan and...

And..

And Indra walked over to him.

"Can I get two bottles of beer, please?"

Indra grunted. "You already have your drink."

"It's not for me."

A rumble like distant thunder rose from the depths of Indra's chest, but Keiichi didn't bother to look up at the barkeeper's expression. He sensed more than saw Indra depart, and when he dropped the hand massaging his brows and looked up he found the large figure of a man popping the top off two beers with two large, calloused thumbs before placing them before Keiichi. Keiichi stared at them, somewhat surprised that the barkeeper had granted his request, before becoming so overwhelmed with gratitude at the simple grace that he felt he might break down weeping right then and there. _Guess the drink is harder than I thought._ He scrubbed stubbornly at his eyes, clamping a tight lid on his emotions before they could get the run around him, and then patted his pockets. There was no pen as he'd hoped, but as if by magic a simple _Bic_ pen rolled across the bar before stopping as it tapped against his glass. The SEAL glanced at Mr. Ibis, yet the man paid him no mind, despite the pen having originated in the man's direction.

 _He knows,_ Keiichi thought. _He gets it. Like Lind got it. Maybe even like Bell got it._ He picked up the pen and almost dropped it with his clumsy grip, then reaffirmed it to ensure he didn't lose it. Grabbing the two napkins that had been placed with the beers, he drew them close, then stared down at them as the two white slips seemed to double and spin before him. He blinked and willed them to be stationary, but doubted they'd follow his will regardless of what he attempted.

The man rubbed a temple, uncertain of what to do now that he had the napkins in front of him. He'd known Urd for ten years, and though he'd been close to her even now it was hard to say he'd _known_ her. Lind less so- the Valkyrie was still in some ways a stranger to him, but her aid had been invaluable whenever the woman had appeared, and... she'd been like him. Military. There was a connection there, no matter how small.

Still... they'd deserved more. Neither of them should have died. Not here, not in California or the States or maybe even on Earth, far away from whatever magical place they called home. Sighing, he grabbed the first napkin and scribbled something down on it, then looked at it with a worried glance and wondered if anyone else would be able to read his drunken scrawl. Hopefully someone would, or else recognize the purpose of the napkin, and the man slid the napkin and the beer off to the empty seat beside him, before repeating the process with the second glass and sliding it over one seat further still. The old man on the corner seat watched him with a solemn gaze. As Keiichi returned to his seat, the man leaned over to peek at what was written on the napkin closest to him, and with a deep frown, the elder reached into his pocket and placed two pennies on first one napkin, then the other.

Keiichi didn't notice.

"Lugal Ninna'gulla," said Mr. Ibis, and to Keiichi it looked almost as if the feathers of the bird raised as if startled. "A pleasure, as always."

"Spare me the charm, Bin Chicken." Lugal, a strange name even to Keiichi's traveled ears, flashed her teeth in a smile that looked closer to a snarl. "I fear I am in no mood for our games this night."

"Understandable." Mr. Ibis remained amiable. "Would you like a seat? My companion seems to have vacated it for the moment." Indeed, Mr. Jaq'al had vanished, though a quick look back to the blonde showed the man easing into the booth previously occupied by Lugal. The blonde in front of him sat rigid and alert, her shoulders stiff, and Mr. Jaq'al smiled.

 _God's speed, Man,_ Keiichi thought, then realized he was projecting such a thought to either a god or a demon (who could really tell in these days?) and laughed uproariously. "God speed. Better than light speed, it's godspeed! Get you from here to Timbuktu to the arms of the girl who's gonna slap you in the blink of an eye!"

Several seats down the old _oni_ man snorted, and Keiichi raised in mug in a salute. The old man raised his small sake glass in turn, returning a silly grin that took centuries off his face, and together the two drank their fill. If Keiichi was aware of the cool regard with which Lugal observed him, he ignored it, or else was too far lost to his own drunkenness to acknowledge it.

Next to Keiichi, Mr. Ibis continued his conversation with Lugal, who made the strange request for salt water and then declined to drink it after Indra delivered the request with a lowered brow. Even Mr. Ibis seemed at a loss over the reasons behind the drink, before his eyes lit up and he dug into the front pocket of his slacks. He withdrew a small notepad, flipped it open, and then skimmed through pages filled with miniscule scrawl with practiced ease before stopping on one particular page. From there, he paused, his eyes speeding through the chicken scratch as his lips formed into an 'o'. He nodded once, now with understanding, closed the book and pocketed it before returning his attention to Lugal. "Forgive me, I have not seen that action in person before."

The woman who'd taken over Mr. Jaq'al's seat shrugged but offered no comment or explanation to her action. "Perhaps it will prove unnecessary after our business here is complete," she said instead. "If nothing else, it will keep your hound away."

"He's not _my_ hound," Mr. Ibis said with some annoyance. "He's my friend, not my pet."

"I never said anything about a pet," Lugal said with some amusement. "Ah, but such jests are unfitting for this mood." She lapsed into silence, staring down into her small glass of saltwater, and then looked over at Mr. Ibis. "Will you speak, Record Keeper?"

"Only if I am certain the terms of our arrangement have been honored," replied Mr. Ibis.

"Oh?" Lugal raised a brow. "Am I to believe that the Great Recorder of all Life is uncertain of an arrangement he himself managed? I thought you knew the actions of everyone and everything, regardless of their affinity or status in life or death."

Mr. Ibis pursed his lips into a tight, light scar across his face. "Be that as it may... even my eyes may be deceived by those of as strong a will as yourself, Lugal."

"Such praise, Record Keeper."

"If that is how you wish to perceive it."

"Hn." Lugal's smile was wan. Her voice dropped. "My associate has in her possession three seals containing the discussed individuals." She said. "I assume that is why your own companion left your company for hers? So that he might retrieve them from her?"

Mr. Ibis grimaced. "He should be, if he has not done so already."

While not intentionally listening in on the conversation next to him, Keiichi's attention was still drawn to the corner booth where the blonde sat. Even through his drunkenness, or maybe because of it, he could tell Mr. Jaq'al's intentions were not one hundred percent honorable. And in spite of her earlier melancholy, the blonde seemed… somewhat receptive. He smirked, but kept his silence. As drunk as he was, he could still tell that drawing attention to them would not fit the current mood.

Lugal breathed deep. "Then you will speak?" There was an edge to her voice. A certain... expectancy to her tone that took out the question and left it as a statement. Not asking, but telling; _you_ will _speak or you_ will _suffer_ , and hot damned if Mr. Ibis didn't look close to keeling over himself in that moment.

The man nodded, perhaps a bit too fast, muttering under his breath, "Three hostages all for a story. People might think you mad, Lugal."

"Madness comes with a long life," Lugal replied. "Enough stalling. I would hear your words before I lose my dwindling patience."

"Please attempt to hold it," Mr. Ibis requested.

Lugal pursed her lips in a tight frown, her eyes narrowing as she stared first at Mr. Ibis, then at Keiichi. Her eyes remained on the SEAL for a long time before looking back at Mr. Ibis. "Speak."

"She has fallen, but is not defeated," Mr. Ibis said. "You have gathered your reports from your pet Wilder and her investigators? From your spies and from your emissaries? There is truth to some of it but not all. Though she was struck down and injured, she yet lives, and has been removed from the land that had inflicted such wounds."

"Go on," Lugal urged. "You say nothing I don't know already. Where is she now? What is her status?"

"Her book has not closed yet," Mr. Ibis continued. "Though this time it was close. That hound's final bite was cruel, but with time and care she will recover. There will be a scar... but then, when has such trauma left it victim unscathed?"

"Where _is_ she though." Lugal leaned in close, her expression deepening more and more into a scowl.

"Someplace you and your emissaries will be hard-pressed to reach," Mr. Ibis revealed. "For its land is as harsh and cruel as your own and its people hostile to those who hail from 'Outside'. They needed to return the White Bear on the Icy Tundra to its home, you see. So that it might pass in peace, for its kind is of the sort that bring curses when their deaths aren't followed by proper ceremony, and the curse born by its spirit is a long and cruel one that would span the test of time." Something had changed in Mr. Ibis. His voice had grown monotone, his eyes were half-lidded, and the pupils within were large and expansive; a pair of miniscule black holes that seemed to absorb the light around them. The man continued speaking, still lost in his trance. "Yet the Writhing Serpent, injured though she is, will not allow the White Bear to pass. No... not her... for there is a debt between the two of them that must be paid." The fingers on the man's right hand began to twitch, as if attempting to grab something- a piece of paper, perhaps, or a pen or pencil.

"Beware the red aurora, little thunder-serpent," Mr. Ibis mumbled, and his voice was a soft coo like that of a bird's. "It is kind but it does not understand. That makes it dangerous. The White Bear walks the road of warriors who've passed, but is now followed by the red aurora of her homeland. It does not understand. It does not understand. It does not understand. I do not understand. I do not understand. _I do not understand-"_ Without warning the man lunged at Lugal, his left hand grabbing the woman by her right wrist as he pulled her close with a strength not normally present in his lithe frame, his right hand still attempting to scrawl words into the bar's countertop. _"_ Vili vowed violent vengeance very vehemently _."_ He mumbled, looking not so much at Lugal as _through_ her. "Vile valley violets varied the Vila's virtue _. Veni vidi vici. Veni vidi vici..."_

The man released her, still muttering and writing with a non-existent pen, and Lugal jerked back, staring at Mr. Ibis with a range of emotions stretching from the confounded to the enraged. Indra took the moment to intervene before things got out of hand. "Snap out of it, you quack." He slammed two meaty hands on the table, and both Mr. Ibis and Keiichi jumped at the noise of the impact. "You keep that up and I'm throwing you and your lot out. There's been enough trouble in town already on _both_ sides of the fence, and I ain't having any of that shit in my bar." He huffed in irritation, and Mr. Ibis blinked owlishly up at him from behind his glasses, the self-induced trance broken.

Keiichi looked at Mr. Ibis, watching the man blink, remove his glasses, and rub his eyes. Later, when Keiichi was back in his parents' home trying to recall what he'd done to himself that had earned him the gross hangover that awaited him, that moment would be one of the few things Keiichi would recall clearly: That of Mr. Ibis rubbing his eyes as if they pained him, and instead seeming almost to rub off some kind of make-up instead, revealing small, white feathers beneath the skin. "Forgive me, Indra," Mr. Ibis murmured. "I let myself go. It will not happen again."

"See that it doesn't." Indra's voice rang with a hollow din, and as the world again began to swim at a nauseating pace Keiichi moaned and buried his face in his arms, feeling more sick than drunk. Perhaps he passed out, or at the very least, fell asleep, for his dreams were strange and surreal. He dreamt of the old man next to him- Mezu, as he introduced himself, and the two shared stories. He, a Navy SEAL currently serving in the American military, and Mezu, whom he learned was actually a resident of _Yomi_ before vacationing in Nippon and joining the country's military after Japan allied with Germany in World Word II _. "Not Niflheim, mind you,"_ the old man had told him. _"We're closer aligned with that mutt in the corner than the demon he's making puppy eyes at."_ He remembered asking what Niflheim was, but couldn't remember what Mezu's answer was. " _Tell me some stories, SEAL. I've grown fond of the American military since my years as a pilot."_ His eyes, watery-brown horse eyes even when guised as a human, had danced with laughter, and at his request, Keiichi spoke. He spoke of the good and he spoke of the bad, of the hot deserts and the humid tropics. Of the Middle East and of Africa and of Europe and of the many, many areas in the Pacific. Sometimes, after a long bout, Old Mezu, as he liked to be called, would let him drink and catch his breath while he shared a story in turn, and Keiichi would listen in avid wonder as his mind took a trip to the past as a _kamikaze_ pilot, or deep into the earth where _Yomi_ dwelt and to the many pedestrians that passed through the gates to the Underworld.

For some reason, those stories brought Keiichi some comfort. The idea that Deb at the very least, might yet exist if not in body than at least in spirit, set his mind at ease.

At some point he thought he'd asked Mr. Ibis about it, only Keiichi kept getting his name wrong; Tot or Thot or Toth kept coming from his mouth whenever he spoke to the man. Mr. Ibis never seemed to mind, however, and his words had been quite kind, though in the end Keiichi was unable to remember the conversations exchanged. He thought it was of the afterlife though, because Keiichi remembered after that conversation feeling a lot less sad and a bit more reassured of Deb's passing.

He remembered trying to ask about Urd though, and being refused by Thoth-no, Mr. Ibis-and instead gaining the attention of Urd's ghost.

She'd been watching him from the other side of Tho-Mr. Ibis, her hair done up in a messy, half-done bun, dressed in a red dress that flowed to the tops of her knees like freshly-spilt blood. Her eyes followed his every action with the intense scrutiny, Keiichi figured, reserved only by those dead souls still in contempt of the living. He knew he spoke with her, though he couldn't remember if she'd kept her silence or spoken back, and at one point he even thought he'd apologized to her. It was, in fact, the last thing he remembered consciously doing that night.

How he'd later gotten home was a mystery to Keiichi. He woke up with a mortuary service card in his hand and a hangover the size of Texas beating on his brain.

"Some ladies dropped you off," Megumi told him later. "You were drunk as a skunk, Kei. Like... black-out drunk. I don't think they took advantage of you though... one of 'em looked like she couldn't stand you and the other was very... professional." She paused, and then as an afterthought said, "I think they were a couple."

Megumi had been the one to retrieve him, having been up early in the morning talking to her husband with the rest of the house asleep. She also, (though this was Keiichi's private thought) had been up to make sure Keiichi came _home_. She gave him a glass of water and some aspirin now, which he accepted with a relief he couldn't display in his current state of pain.

"What's that in your hand?"

 _An ear,_ Keiichi thought, and then looked down at the card he was still holding before offering it to Megumi.

She took it before reading the phrase printed on its surface out loud. Keiichi wished she'd read it silently. "Jackal and Ibis Mortuary Service. The dead keep kicking and we keep digging." She looked up at Keiichi. "Is this what you were doing last night?"

Of course not. He'd swapped stories with one of _Yomi's_ underworld _oni_ guardians and watched an Egyptian death god hit on a demon. "Yes," Keiichi replied. It was an easier story than explaining the Bar at the End of Nowhere.

Megumi frowned before passing the card back to Keiichi. "Shit, Kei... I'd drink too." She sighed, solemn. "At least this saves us some time, now that we've got a mortuary service..." The unspoken question hung in the air.

"I'll speak with Joshua about times and dates," Keiichi answered the question. His mouth still felt dry, and his voice was hoarse. "See what time would be good for him and the rest of Deb's family." He drank the rest of his water and looked back down at the card. The jackal chasing the ibis looked back at him, and in his mind's eye he saw it watching him, waiting to see what he would do. "I'll call later on," he continued, "I'll figure it out."

Megumi stared at him in concern. "We can help too," she reminded. "Deb was family. We all want to see her off properly. Just tell us what you need us to do."

"I will," Keiichi said. But his thoughts were elsewhere, less on Megumi and more on the two men he'd met last night.

 _"Why fear death, why mourn the dead? In that they are gone?" asked Mr. Ibis, staring inquisitively at him from behind his copper lenses. "No matter; death is just a change in state for the soul stored in the vessel as it continues its journey. Would you mourn a man who leaves this country to live in another, where when next you would meet him he may appear to you as a changed and different man? Then would you love him or hate him? And does it matter? For he has returned to you, though many years have passed, or you have returned to him after many long years. Either way, your experiences will have left you both changed, and in the end, you are reunited, is that not true? So why fear death, why mourn the dead? It is not the end. Far from it."_

 _"Far, far from it."_

XXX

"Debra was a wonderful daughter. Kind, tenacious, determined, and with a will like iron. She was a lot like her mother in that regard. I stand before you now to say goodbye to my only daughter, and I hope she may join her mother peacefully in death."

A week had passed since Debra's death.

A lot had happened in that time.

Keiichi had called Joshua, Debra' father, to schedule the funeral service. It had been a draining process for both the Morisato family and the Johansson family. The mortician running the event had been swift with his questions and even faster to acquire the necessary resources for the event. Debra would be buried in a local San Francisco cemetery near her mother on Joshua's request. The service would be a closed casket, there wouldn't be a hearse, and extensive calls were made to inform family, friends, and coworkers from Debra's police force of her passing. Though the Johansson family was small; consisting of Debra's father, an uncle, and a single grandparent, the chapel was still crowded. The police chief from Debra's precinct, as well as ten other officers and detectives had arrived in their uniforms to give their condolences, and Megumi's husband, Mark, had arrived with two other BACA members. The Martinez family closed their small restaurant in order to attend, and Sanchez flew in from Norfolk to not only attend the funeral, but to also pass on Keiichi's summer white service dress uniform for the funeral procession. The entire Morisato family attended, and Belldandy, a stranger in a strange crowd, sat beside Keiichi on the first pew.

The goddess sat in silence, uncomfortable in the formal black dress Aiko had helped her pick out several days before the funeral. She sat between Keiichi on her right, and Aiko on her left, and as Debra's father read his eulogy she tried not to squirm. It felt wrong sitting in the first row. It felt wrong sitting next to Keiichi when Debra's coffin was ten feet away from her. It felt wrong attending the funeral to begin with. In this moment, Belldandy was an intruder; a cuckoo amongst a flock of nesting warblers whose presence had yet gone unnoticed, but who would surely be found out in the long run and chased off in anger and in grief. Here she sat: Debra's replacement, a stranger who had known Debra for the span of three days before her death, and here she sat still next to Debra's ex-husband and sitting amongst the family who had seen Debra as one of their own. And not even in a place of life, either, where Belldandy might have some sense of belonging. This was a place of death, the antithesis to her own representation, a place she dared not touch nor had any purpose to be around.

She didn't want to be in the presence of death when she still mourned her sister.

Better she sit in the back, out of the eyes of those gathered. Better she sit in the back near those doors that led to life and all that was green, as was more fitting her station.

Best yet she sit in the pew and ignore such thoughts, for Keiichi and Aiko both were hurting just as she was, and needed her support.

Still though... as the eulogy ended and those people who wished to speak their piece on Debra's behalf lessened, when people were allowed to stand and rise and eat cake and drink wine and speak of Debra, Belldandy retreated. She gave Keiichi and Aiko and all the Morisato family privacy, and gave herself some respite, heading towards the front of the chapel's nave leading towards the foyer as soon as the Norn thought she could slip away unnoticed. The chapel doors were open to allow airflow on the hot summer day, and it brought with it the smell of grass and evergreens and freshly tilled soil; a scent she welcomed with a relieved breath.

The goddess stood in the foyer, pressed against a corner of the threshold as she closed her eyes and tried not to think of Urd, of home, of the empty room in North Carolina and the ghostly quiet that would accompany it. Her magic was still absent from her person, and though she'd tried and strained herself in the past seven days, Belldandy had been unsuccessful at summoning it. No magic meant no phone, and no phone meant no contact with Skuld; no way to validate the dream she'd had of Urd as reality or merely a bad nightmare.

It hurt. She felt as if she'd lost one of her major senses. As if, in losing her magic, Belldandy had somehow lost a piece of herself. She felt blind but could see, felt deaf but could hear, felt... dead, but... alive. It was a miserable sensation, and when combined with Urd's disappearance and possible demise it left her depressed. Lost. Lethargic.

The goddess sighed, gazing up at the design carved into the threshold with glassy eyes. Until her disappearance, Belldandy had never realized just how much she'd come to rely on Urd after her freedom from Aoshima. If Keiichi had been the sun that had given her a reason to live, then surely it was Urd who'd been the soil that had allowed her to grow; to learn of America and all it peculiarities and how to adapt to live like those who dwelt there. If a life with Keiichi had been what the Norn wanted, then it had been Urd who'd shown her what she'd needed to live it, and now that she was gone...

Now that Urd was gone...

How was she supposed to live with herself?

 _Please stop, Carrie._ Holy Bell was a blessing. Even without her magic, it seemed the angel was still able to feed on the energies of her soul, and though Holy Bell could not manifest, her voice was still a strong anchor that had kept Belldandy from losing control of herself in the painful week since Hagall and Debra's death. _Your brooding won't solve anything. There are gods here, remember? The mortician was one of them, and it may be possible that he can get you in contact with Skuld if you ask him. Find him._

Belldandy grimaced and closed her eyes, recognizing that her angel was right but finding it difficult to summon the energy necessary to move from her post. The soft and solemn murmur of the people in the chapel's heart was enough to lure her into a near-doze, and if not for the ambiguous _slap_ of someone running past her, it was possible Belldandy would have fallen asleep right then and there. As it was, she opened her eyes, and found herself face-to-face with a ghost.

He was young, the ghost, a youth not even in his teens yet or perhaps having just reached them, dressed in a formal black suit that looked large and stuffy on his scrawny frame. The legs of his black slacks bunched up at his feet, where a pair of aged dress shoes were scarred with white scuff marks. His sleeves hung well past the palms of his hands and down to his fingers. The shoulders of the blazer he wore hung well past the top of his shoulders with the blazer's ends falling down to his butt. He stared up at Belldandy from behind a pair of wire-rimmed glasses, the nose piece rolled with duct tape, and all Belldandy could wonder was how Keiichi Morisato had come to stand before her as a child.

"Sorry, Ma'am. Didn't mean to startle you." The ghost spoke, and in that moment, seeing a jaw lined with braces, Belldandy recalled that the boy before her was no ghost but in fact Keiichi's younger brother, Keigo. The boy stared at her with some trepidation, looking like he wanted to say more but lacking the courage to ask her directly.

"Is something the matter?" Belldandy prompted.

The boy hesitated a moment longer before speaking. "You didn't see a dog around here, did you?" he asked. "I saw one when I was going to the bathroom. A huge one, like a Doberman pinscher, but bigger, and all black."

Belldandy stared at the boy with some surprise, startled out of her lethargy by the boy's description. "Why are you looking for a dog during a funeral?" she asked, her curiosity piqued by the description of one of the gods who had put together the small service for Debra.

The boy, Keigo, shrugged. "I wanted to pet it," he said, his tone so obvious as to imply he was insulted she would even wonder why the boy would seek out a dog. "And... I don't like it in there." He jerked his head back into the room filled with people. "It's sad in there. I can't stand it. Isn't that why you're out here too?"

"Yes," Belldandy replied without thought. "Yes, I... I suppose that is why I'm out here." For a long moment the goddess stared at the boy, and the boy stared back, blinking owlishly behind his glasses.

The silence between them grew long and awkward.

"Well..." Keigo began, "I... I gotta go find that dog. Um... have some... cake?" he suggested.

"No thank you," Belldandy replied. "Sugar plays havoc with my sanity."

"Oh." Keigo paused. "Too bad. If it makes you hyper, maybe it'd lighten up everyone in there."

"Maybe." Belldandy paused. "I don't think so though."

"I don't think so either." Keigo's voice dropped to a whisper.

"Good luck finding your dog."

"Thank-you, Ma'am."

The boy ran off, and Belldandy watched him leave before calling back to him, "Keigo!"

The boy jumped, then looked over his shoulders, his eyes wide. "Beware the red eyes of a black dog," Belldandy cautioned. "Or else we may put two people to rest on this day rather than one."

"Bargheist." Keigo called back, and smiled with a mouth full of metal and rubber bands. "Jennifer Thomas warned me about them when I told her I had to go to a funeral. She sits next to me in English. Her mom's a... pagan? Or a wiccan, one of the two. Don't worry, I'll run back here if it comes to that."

Without another word, the boy ran off, racing towards a corner and taking a wide berth around the person coming the opposite direction, where he disappeared out of sight. Belldandy wondered what the boy would do if he actually came across a Bargheist, or, more likely, Anubis, if the deity was wandering around in his more favored four-legged form. She'd heard stories that the god was benevolent despite his fearsome district of death, and entertained the idea that the god might yet appear as a dog before a child; perhaps in the hope of providing a comfort that was absent in the nave of the chapel. An absurd, precious idea perhaps, but one whose image brought a small smile to Belldandy's face; the first in what felt like ages.

The smile was quick to drop from her face when her eyes came to rest on the person Keigo had swerved around however.

"You." The goddess gritted her teeth. "Demon." The word came out in a fit of utter loathing, and Belldandy felt her chest constrict as the blonde woman in the black suit made her way towards her, pausing just long enough to observe the boy who'd raced past her before turning back to Belldandy. "How _dare_ you come here."

The demon, whose name Belldandy still didn't know, observed her with nonchalant red eyes, unfazed by the Norn's vehemence. The goddess recognized her though. It was hard to forget the demon who'd knocked her out in the heat of battle and then had the nerve to possess Keiichi. "I'm here to pay my respects," the woman replied. "I could ask you the same, Norn."

Belldandy bristled, feeling insulted for reasons she couldn't define. "You're lying," she accused. "No demon would bother with a mortal woman. Debra Johansson was nothing to you."

The blonde narrowed her eyes and scowled. "You'd best watch what you say," she said. "Debra Johansson was a boon. I was in her debt, and she was taken from this plane of existence before I could repay her. And after these past several days, Norn... well, I am here off duty, and so I have a bit more freedom with my words so... that _pisses me off."_ The woman sucked in a deep breath. "And I've got a lot of unrequited anger that I would _love_ to burn off. So unless you want to cash a check your body can't handle right now, you'd best shut your mouth, _Lukurra,_ and leave me in peace."

"No." Belldandy walked into the middle of the hallway, blocking the woman from going any further. "I will not simply allow you to walk into a place of mourning when there are so many innocent people about. Do you think me an ignorant fool?"

"Yes." The blonde interrupted her before Belldandy could get another word in. "You're an ignorant fool who forgets she has no magic and no other gods at her back, surrounded instead by blind mortals who know nothing of you or me." The woman's voice dropped, and she took a step towards Belldandy, who flinched but did not step aside, instead stubbornly holding her place in the middle of the hallway. "Are you so foolish as to risk causing a scene just to prevent me from signing a log book and paying my respects?"

"Where is your proof that you will not harm those within?" Belldandy's voice dropped to match the blonde's, and her gaze was challenging. "You are a demon. You are violent by nature. What is to say that if I allowed you to walk in that room, you would not call upon your magic and slaughter everyone in there?" She scowled at the woman. "I have had my fair share of experience with your people, and they have done little to endear themselves to me. You are all nothing but violent savages."

The woman's eyes flashed, and her lips peeled back in a snarl filled with such vicious intent that for a moment Belldandy was certain the demon would strike her down in that moment. From the corner of her eye the goddess watched the demon's right hand curl into a fist, and for a second saw a flash of red miasma engulf it before it was interrupted by the call of a strange bird.

The sound was loud and obnoxious. A great, long _honk_ that made both goddess and demon jump as the two searched for the source. Outside, in plain sight of the church entrance was a large aspen and sitting in its branches was a medium-sized water bird. Its beak was long and elegant, with a slight curve, its plumage white but naked of feathers from the crown to the neck. It stared at the two of them with a pair of eyes as dark as its head, then honked again. First one black canine, then another wandered into view. One of them had red eyes. The other looked less like a dog and more like some kind of black coyote. Maybe even a wolf. Together, the two dogs sat beneath the aspen, beneath the ibis, panting, and giving both women a prominent display of the long row of white teeth that made up their jaws.

The message was clear.

 _Behave._

Unnerved by the sudden audience, Belldandy turned back to the demon, who stood rigid in observance of the creatures outside the chapel doors. She wore a dangerous expression, and one that Belldandy had thought she'd seen before. An expression of steely will attempting to cage a piece of herself that was closer to a rabid beast than a rational being. A look of control, lost and forgotten but for a moment only to come slamming back down like cement block on a trapdoor.

She'd seen that look on Urd before.

With it came memories. Painful ones from a childhood shared with a sister still at war with herself and not always able to defeat the beast that gnawed from within. Memories of fear, memories of anger, memories of relief and even pride in her sister as that control was mastered. When, just as now, that dark and desolate creature settled back in its cage and left behind a person rather than a demon.

The goddess winced at the memory, then tore her eyes away from the woman to look back at the ibis and the hounds. The trio continued to watch them in silence. The bargheist licked its nose anxiously. The jackal ceased panting, and to Belldandy seemed to watch the demon with keen interest. The Norn turned back to the demon, and found her calm and nonchalant once more, the anger that had been so quick to manifest once again under a tight lock and key.

Like Urd. Desperate to prove she was more than just a demon. Desperate to prove she wasn't a _savage_.

Belldandy took a deep breath. _Surely the air is filled with sugar, for I fear I've lost my mind._ "Walk with me."

The woman's head jerked towards Belldandy. "What?"

"Walk with me," Belldandy said. "Walk beside me into the nave," she clarified. "I will escort you inside."

"You just accused me of going on a murderous rampage." The blonde scowled.

"Yes." Belldandy replied without skipping a beat. "However I would also make the attempt at giving you the benefit of the doubt in the hopes that you might prove me wrong." _If for no other reason than out of spite._

The demon's scowl did not fade, but as Belldandy assumed, she nodded, if with some reluctance. "Fine," she muttered.

Belldandy stepped to the side. The blonde walked past. Belldandy fell in step beside her. No one bothered them. No one approached them. The two women, strangers in a land of Midgard's mortals, were ignored, and in that moment, allowed a semblance of peace and privacy that might otherwise have not been afforded to them. The demon signed the guest book in a fancy cursive that reminded Belldandy of Urd, and it was only by that manner that the Norn learned the demon's name.

 _Mara._

Had Urd ever mentioned a Mara in their childhood growing up together? Belldandy thought she might have, for the name tickled a note of familiarity at the back of her memories, yet it was feather light and weightless; so dim as to be unreachable. She watched the blonde move from the guestbook to the closed coffin, where Mara stood at attention near its head. Belldandy moved to stand behind her.

"May the waters of life guide you to your next incarnation." Mara's right hand moved to her mouth, and out of curiosity Belldandy adjusted herself to better view the woman, watching as the demon brought her thumb to the tip of protruding canine and pressing the flesh against the tip. A pinprick of red welled up on her thumb, and without pause and indeed with a strange sort of subtle grace that spoke of ceremony, Mara drew her thumb towards the coffin and pressed it against the small wooden cross stylized into the center of the wood. "May you never thirst, and may your cups be forever filled with the Sweet Water. Let we who dwell in this incarnation drink a glass of the Salt Water in your name, so that you may never know its unending thirst. _Zi Kia Kampa. Zi Anna Kampa._ "

Mara removed her thumb and stepped away from the coffin. The smear of red was so faint it was almost invisible against the wood grain. She looked back at Belldandy. "That's it." She licked her thumb, and Belldandy watched in morbid fascination as the wound ceased to bleed. "Let's go."

"Yes," Belldandy agreed, and as they entered, so too did they leave: unchallenged, unmolested, and ignored.

As the two entered they foyer once more, Belldandy peered at the demon before asking, "Did you know Urd well?"

Mara stopped mid-step but did not respond.

Belldandy grimaced and looked away. "…I see. Forget I spoke-"

"We were friends." The quality of Mara's already harsh voice had worsened, becoming lower, deeper, and coarser than before. "She was fond of you."

Belldandy bit her lip, and any further questions were lost as her throat locked. She opened her mouth as if to speak, yet no sound came forth as instead a wave of fresh, agonizing grief knotted her chest. The goddess swallowed, but it did little for the grief, and so instead she drew a hand to her eyes, covering them as next to her, Mara continued. "She searched to the ends of the Nine Realms for you when you vanished. Looked under every rock, searched the depths of the deepest seas. Crossed the most barren of deserts. She spoke with elves and dwarves and fae and giants. Spirits and monsters and jotun and demons. All for you. She spoke to me. First for information. Next for help. Finally, for vengeance that suited us both. I wanted Hagall in prison. She wanted Hagall to pay. I warned her of the weapon Hagall had acquired and she went anyway. I told her I would join her later, when I had Hagall under seal but..."

Here Mara stopped herself. "I have said too much."

 _Or perhaps not enough._ Belldandy thought.

 _How long has she been fostering this guilt?_ Her thoughts were echoed by Holy Bell. _Do demons even speak in grief to their peers? Or are we just the exception because we are not demons?_

Belldandy didn't have the strength to ask.

Mara turned to face her more fully, and in that moment Belldandy saw what Keiichi saw several days before. And that was how much _pain_ the woman appeared to be in. Though she hid it well in her emotions, she did nothing to hide the physical signs; how her eyes were sunken and irritated and seemed to droop as if in sadness or in exhaustion. The pallid, sickly look to her skin. The blemishes, the bags under her eyes, the hair that appeared limp and without luster. The deep lines that marred the corners of her mouth into an almost permanent frown. It was enough to almost be pitiful.

It was almost something Belldandy could empathize with.

Such a frightening prospect. To empathize with an entity she saw as her enemy.

"Urd wanted Hagall punished," Mara continued. "And in that respect, her final wish was granted. You still have the boon I gave your mortal?"

With some discomfort, Belldandy nodded. "It's in the purse Aiko bought for me," she revealed. "It's still at the pew inside the chapel."

Mara grunted, and she glanced back to the nave. Her eyes flicked to the corners of the foyer, where two hallways branched further around the corners and out of sight, and then to the foyer's threshold leading outside. The small dog pack had departed, but the Ibis still remained in the tree, watching them with the same interest of a pigeon on a balcony. Muttering to herself, Mara drew a vertical line in the air between herself and Belldandy, and for a moment the trail of her finger left behind a bright white after light, like a streak of a sunspot. Belldandy's purse tumbled out of it and into Mara's waiting hand, who glanced at the light blue object before giving it to the Norn.

"Give me the boon," Mara said as Belldandy took back her purse.

"You want it back?" Belldandy asked with some confusion.

Mara didn't respond, instead looking at her expectantly.

Frowning, Belldandy opened her purse and fished out an item bundled in a small, red washcloth. She offered it to the demon, a little relieved to see it off, and Mara took it, unfolded it, and stared down at the ear at the washcloth's center. Blood still coated its surface in a messy crust, and the ear still looked as pink and healthy as they day Mara had torn it off.

Without a second thought, Mara grabbed the ear, tossed it into her mouth, and started chewing. Belldandy recoiled, repulsed, and felt bile at the back of her throat as pops and snaps reached her ear as the demon chewed. _Like a dog with a pig ear,_ Belldandy thought and fought back a dry heave. Yet rather than actually consume the ear, Mara instead brought the washcloth to her mouth and spit the wad of flesh and cartilage back into what had been its home for the past week.

"That's Hagall alright." She bundled the cloth around the chewed up remains and pocketed it, much to Belldandy's disgust. "Good. Then I can honor Urd's final request." Mara took a deep breath, and then crossed the vertical line of light with a matching horizontal line. The blonde then pushed her hand into the crossed center, where it vanished from sight, and then pulled it out with something clutched loosely in her hand. It was small and naked, whatever it was; a rat perhaps, or maybe a mouse, naked of the fur that should have covered its body. Belldandy wasn't certain. As soon as she withdrew it, Mara's second hand came to cover it from sight.

"Under the authority vested in me by _Damkianna_ Hild, The Void Emperor of Niflheim and Conqueror of the Thirteen Ancient Tribes, and under the instruction of _Dumu'damki_ Azag Uru'mir, I present to you this sacrifice." Her hands still cupped around whatever was in her hands, Mara offered her prize to Belldandy. "The Niflheimian justice department, with special guidance under _Dumu'damki_ Azag Uru'mir and the acknowledgement by _Damkianna_ Hild that an unforgiveable crime has been done to _Dumu'mi lugal_ Belldandy Tyrsdotter and the family attributed to her by _Gashan_ Hagall Sha'Temo." The woman looked Belldandy in the eyes. "Give me your hands."

Mutely, Belldandy brought her hands out before her, and Mara continued. "Under the bilateral interests in preserving the peace granted under the _Din'gir-Galla_ Armistice, I present to you the reincarnated soul of Hagall Sha'Temo, no longer of the lofty title of _Gashan_ now of the lowest rank of _Na,_ to you, _Dumu'mi lugal_ Belldandy Tyrsdotter, and offer a formal apology on behalf of _Damkianna_ Hild for the crimes committed against you and your family." With uncharacteristic gentleness, Mara passed the creature in her hands to Belldandy, and then stepped back.

Belldandy stared down at the creature in her palms. "A cat?" A tiny kitten squirmed in her hands, so young as to only be perhaps a few days old, its eyes still sealed shut as a feeble mew came from it. "Is it... is there something wrong with it?" It didn't have any hair. In place of its right ear was a messy stump, the tips of which curled in towards the ear canal.

Her formalities finished, Mara shrugged. "Dunno," she spoke honestly. "The one in charge of the incarnation said that breed specifically didn't have fur. Ugly little shit, if you ask me. Probably the _Damkianna's_ intention."

"What am I to do with this?" Belldandy's eyes remained glued to the kitten. It was male, she saw. Hagall had been reincarnated into a hairless male cat's body. Part of her wanted to laugh. Part of her wanted to scream.

"Whatever you want," Mara replied. "If you want to kill it, kill it. Hagall shall remember only up until her termination point and then be reincarnated into a new body once more. If you wish it kindness, then that is your choice as well, and in turn that is what Hagall shall remember upon her death." The woman paused, letting the words sink in before speaking again. "Reincarnation is a special punishment reserved only for the worst criminals. The memories of her past incarnation are sealed, and her mind has been reduced to that of her current body-a cat. She won't remember anything until her current incarnation is terminated, and from there she will be reborn over and over and over again until her sentence is served. The _Damkianna_ developed it in the hopes that those criminals sentenced that fate would learn something from their incarnations and might mature into a better _Falkin_ upon the return to their original status."

Belldandy didn't reply. In her hands, the kitten squirmed bonelessly, pawing the air for an absent mother, or one that never existed to begin with. "I only ask that, whatever fate you decide for it, you decide it once I am gone. I will not be accused of swaying your judgement one way or the other. Hagall's fate now rests in your hands."

Without another word, the demon turned and walked off, exiting the chapel's foyer and vanishing from sight with nothing but an ibis and a black jackal to witness her departure.

Belldandy didn't notice.

Hagall was in her hands.

Hagall, the demon responsible for her decade of pain and suffering, was in her hands.

Hagall, who had led to the demise of Urd, was in her hands.

Hagall's life was in her hands.

Her fingers began to encircle the kitten in her palms. First the pointer fingers on the end. Followed by the middle fingers. The ring fingers. The pinkies. She could feel the hairless kitten squirm in her grip in distress. She could feel its tiny paws kicking at her fingers, lacking any kind of strength or sharpness. She could feel its flesh, loose and strange without fur, heating her hands like a little flame. Her grip enfolded it, and now she could feel its heartbeat, weak but wild in its ribcage, which felt almost as flimsy as the ear that had been in her pocket or in her purse over the past week. She could feel its breath warm her right pointer finger, could feel its tail twitch weakly against her pinky. The grip tightened still and...

And...

Belldandy loosened her grip on the kitten, opening her hands to stare down at the pitiful blind creature in her hands. "I can't do it," she whispered to herself. "Not like... not like this. Never like this." Her eyes were starting to burn, and she blinked and readjusted her grip, bringing her hands closer to herself. The kitten, too weak to even stand yet, continued to writhe listlessly in her hands. "I'm sorry Urd... I'm so sorry but... not like this. I can't-I won't avenge you like this. I'm sorry." She stroked the kitten's head with a thumb, as if to comfort it, and watched as its head turned upwards toward her at her touch.

A kitten. A blind and deaf kitten still too young to even know what it was and with no memories of its past crimes.

And this was Hagall.

And this was the Daimakaicho's gift to her.

 _What a cruel woman the Daimakaicho must be,_ Belldandy thought. _No wonder she is their leader._

"Is that a kitten?" A new voice, one still so fresh as to be called new but becoming more and more familiar rose from the foyer's threshold, and Belldandy turned to find Keigo Morisato staring at her with cautious curiosity. His shoes were covered in soil. There were brown, earthy stains on the knees of his pants.

For a long moment Belldandy stared at the boy, until Keigo began to squirm under her gaze. "It is," she said at last, and her voice was soft. She turned to face the boy and extended her arms towards him, allowing the young teen a better look. His curiosity getting the better of him, the youth approached, looking down at the kitten with unblemished interest.

"It's a sphynx kitten!" he cried, and then looked up at Belldandy with large brown eyes. "Where'd you find it? These things are supposed to be really expensive!"

"It was given to me," Belldandy replied, before deciding to change the subject. "Did you find your black dog?"

"Yeah," Keigo replied. "He was a nice dog. I guess the mortician owns him. He let me play fetch with his dog in the graveyard." The boy smiled up at Belldandy, and there was a light flush to his cheeks. "It was neat."

"Neat," Belldandy replied.

"Are you going to keep it?" Keigo asked.

"Keep what?"

"The kitten," Keigo replied. "You look like you don't like it. Is it because it looks like an alien? I'll buy it from you if you want. I've got like... sixty dollars back home saved up from chores for a new videogame coming out in September, but I'll give it all to you for the kitten instead."

Startled by the strange proposal, Belldandy stared down at the boy in silence. "What of your parents?"

"Ruberto Jimenez from science always says, 'It's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission," Keigo replied with a smirk.

"I would need to think on it first," Belldandy replied, and then looked back down at the kitten. "I'm... not quite certain I want to give it up yet."

"Oh," Keigo wilted. "Well... if you decide you want to give it up, tell Kei I'm interested."

"I'll keep that in mind." But really, her decision had already been made. "Do you know if Keiichi or Aiko have experience caring for kittens here in Mid-America?"

"You'd have to ask them," Keigo replied.

"I see." Belldandy replied. "I think I will..."

The goddess straightened and turned back towards the chapel's nave, a new intent in mind for the small creature gifted to her during a funeral by a woman who was as much a stranger on Midgard as she herself.

XXX

And off in a faraway land, deep within the heart of a deep and black forest, Lind Tanarak-Nanuk Kajistiaat opened her eyes and awoke to a world not her own under a sky painted by a blood-red aurora.

"Where am I?"

* * *

 _Comments of a Madwoman: Long days and pleasant nights, Deb._


	54. Chapter 54 - Green Trail

l

 **Green Trail**

" _If you awaken from this illusion and you understand that black implies white, self implies other, life implies death (or shall I say death implies life?), you can feel yourself – not as a stranger in the world, not as something here unprobational, not as something that has arrived here by fluke - but you can begin to feel your own existence as absolutely fundamental."_

 _-The Dream of Life, Alan Watts_

" _What a lonesome road you walk."_

 _-Unknown_

-54-

After the funeral, Debra's father Joseph held a reception dinner in his home for what little family he had left along with their closest friends, to which the Morisatos were invited. At first Keiichi didn't want to go. Considering what had happened between him and his ex-wife, he had been feeling somewhat awkward around the Johanssons, especially her father. But any awkwardness that he might have been feeling was quickly removed when Joseph approached him before the funeral began and embraced him. At first, Keiichi had tensed up, but relaxed after a moment when the intent became clear. No words were spoken between the men, but there was an understanding shared between them that everything was going to be ok.

Keiichi found Joseph lingering inside of Debra's old room sometime just before dinner looking at some of the old knick-knacks that had never been removed. They both took the opportunity to sit down on Debra's old bed and talk. Debra's father admitted that he had 'strong feelings' after hearing what had happened, but it had actually been Debra who had talked to him and explained everything, insisting that he not blame Keiichi for the events that led up to their split. Joseph at first resisted the notion, but his mind was changed when Debra had reminded him of his own experience.

"You remember I was in the 82nd Airborne, right?"

Keiichi blinked and nodded. There was airborne memorabilia all over Joseph's 'man cave', so it was hard not to notice.

"Well, she reminded me about what happened to me after Panama," he said somberly. Keiichi knew that he meant the US invasion of Panama in 1990. It was a subject that Joseph rarely talked about. There were plenty of stories about Operation Desert Storm/Desert Shield and the exploits of the 82nd. But when the prior operation was brought up, the man clammed up, which was odd because the operation had been completed with few casualties and little fanfare. He took a shuddering breath. "My brigade's objective was to take the main airport in Panama City."

Joseph let out a nervous chuckle. "Let me tell you, it was something of a clusterfuck. Some of us, including my squad, were dropped into what amounted to a swamp. Now, being a green beret, that shit didn't faze me much. But you know, looking back now, the planners in Military Intelligence obviously didn't know shit. There wasn't supposed to be that much resistance either."

Keiichi nodded, remembering from his training a discussion on what had happened to the SEAL teams that had assaulted Patilla Field during the same invasion. Someone had gotten the idea to use the SEALs in the same manner as an Army or Marine unit and tasked them to take and hold the air field. In spite of accomplishing their objective, the result had been disastrous, with four of the special ops men killed and many others wounded. It was always presented as an example of soldiers being asked to do something they were not trained for before the discussion went to knowing your team's abilities.

"When we approached the airport, we came under fire," Joseph said as he continued. "My squad and I immediately took cover. You obviously know what it's like, how things seem to slow down when people are shooting at you. Well, I watched as my best friend in the whole world, Bill, stumbled and fell to the ground as we were running to get behind a wall." The man paused for a moment to wipe his eyes. "I-I grabbed him by his pack and drug him the three feet left to get behind cover. As soon as we got there, I figured he would get back up and all, and we would keep going, so I peeked out to see where the fire was coming from. I saw that the other squads with us were engaging them, so I turned back to see Bill was still laying on the ground."

Joseph's eyes watered, and a single tear slid down his face. "When I turned him over…." He paused to take a deep breath. Keiichi almost wanted him to stop, but there was something cathartic to the confession he was being given, so he did not act. After a moment, Joseph rallied. "When I turned him over, I saw that half his face was missing." The man pursed his lips, then chuckled morosely before he continued. "It was a fluke shot. You know how much body armor we used to wear. Well, the bullet hit Bill in his right eye, one of the only spots that was not covered. It turned him off like flipping a light switch."

The Navy SEAL listened in rapt attention. Joseph had never told a story so intimate before. Usually it was in much more generic terms, something he had grown familiar with when sharing some of the stories he was allowed to with Aiko and Megumi. He watched as Debra's father seemed to age by a decade as he told the story. "But as traumatic as losing the man you graduated with, went to boot camp and airborne training with was, nothing prepared me for what happened when I got home. You see, back then, they didn't really know what PTSD was or any of the other acronyms they have for the mind fucks that happen to soldiers. They just sent you to counseling, if that was what you could call it." Joseph turned and placed a hand on Keiichi's shoulder. "What finally got through to me was Debra reminding me of some of my flashbacks. They weren't near as bad as yours, mostly just seeing Bill in a sort of 'Night of the Living Dead' thing. But she reminded me how real those things were."

With that, Joseph turned directly towards Keiichi and took the SEAL's hands into his own. "Son, I'm still calling you that in spite of everything that's happened, I don't envy you for what you went through, but I understand. I don't hold any ill will towards you for what happened. There is no water over the dam or bridge or wherever the fuck it goes because there was none there to begin with. I still love you and your sisters, even that scrawny brother of yours." The older man pulled Keiichi into a hug. "You will always be welcome in this home."

They sat there and held each other for what seemed to Keiichi like an eternity. There was a soft knock at the door, causing the two men to jump apart. They both looked to the doorway to see Belldandy peeking in. She looked almost embarrassed to have interrupted them. "Um... Takano sent me to let you know that dinner is almost ready."

Joseph shot up off the bed as if he had been bitten. "Right," he said as he needlessly straightened his shirt. Keiichi could not help but smile as the man tried to cover up the moment the two had by coughing into his hand, then clearing his throat. "I-I'll go wash up then." He moved to the door, and Belldandy stepped to the side to allow him to pass.

"Hey," Keiichi yelled as soon as the older man made it to the threshold. Joseph turned and looked at the Navy SEAL inquisitively. A wry smile formed on the younger man's face. "Your secret's safe with us."

Joseph grunted and nodded, then disappeared into the hall. Belldandy stepped into the room as soon as he exited and looked at Keiichi inquisitively. "Are you ready to eat?"

Keiichi stared at the goddess for a moment, squinting as if trying to see something in the distance. After a moment, he hesitantly pointed to Bell. "Um, you got something on your shoulder."

Sitting on the goddess's shoulder was a small humanoid creature. Its skin was a pale, purplish color. It had green tufts of feathers on its knees, below which were brownish orange legs and claws that resembled a bird's. Tucked behind it were a pair of green, feathered wings. Wild, green hair and a pair of moth-like antennae adorned a head that also sported pointed ears and red colored eyes. As soon as Keiichi said something, the creature, which had been previously swaying happily back and forth as it sat on Belldandy's shoulder, immediately took flight, darting directly at Keiichi.

It stopped just above him and cocked its head to the side. "Is you one who can see us?" it asked as it sniffed the air. It flitted from one side of the SEAL to another and it looked over him. "It not usual for one so old to see us."

"Gee, thanks," groused Keiichi as he watched the small creature look him over inquisitively. It had no clothes on, yet despite that, he could not tell what gender the thing was. It did have long hair, but he had given up long ago trying figure out one's gender based solely on such flimsy evidence after watching Bravo approach a "woman" who turned out to be anything but just because he/she 'looked good from behind'.

"Amethyst, please try not to be rude," chastised Belldandy, causing the small creature to back off. "Keiichi probably has developed some sensitivity to fae creatures like yourself after all that he has been through. It will probably fade in time."

"Ah, too bad," pouted Amethyst. "We looked forward to playing!"

"Um, excuse me, Bell, but... what is that?" asked Keiichi finally as the small creature turned its attention to the room. It started to fly slowly past the same shelf that Joseph has been looking over earlier. It looked like it was also reminiscing.

Belldandy sat down beside him. "That is a faery, a type of wandering wind spirit," she replied. "Apparently she knew Debra when she was young."

"Good friends, we were!" exclaimed Amethyst as she flitted back and began hovering in front of the couple. "Great fun we had when she could see, though her dad never believed in us."

"Dad never…?" started Keiichi but trailed off.

"It would seem that when Debra was young, she could see Amethyst. They were playmates until Joseph convinced her that faeries and their kind are not actually real," replied Belldandy.

"Old people cannot see us," added the faery. "Only a special few can, but they usually get sick and die early."

 _That's morbid_ , thought Keiichi as Belldandy leaned in towards him.

"To her, anyone who cannot perceive her kind are old."

"Ah," said Keiichi. "So… you live here?"

"Yes! We made a pact with the Golden Girl to stay for as long as she liked!" replied Amethyst gleefully, but her expression grew sad as she continued. "But then she forgot about us and didn't release us so we had to stay." She brightened up as she continued. "She became friends with the boy and girl from another land. But we didn't mind. We still got to play, see watch!" The faery zipped around the room for a moment, then dove at the floor, disappearing into it. After a moment, a strange creaking noise arose from the floor, along with what Keiichi assumed was giggling.

The man's eyes went wide in recognition. All at once he was ten years old again and sitting on Debra's bed with a blanket over his head. The blonde girl was sitting next to him with a comic book and a flashlight. She was always more into those than Barbie, My Little Pony, or anything else marketed towards girls. She and Megumi were two peas in a pod when it came to tom-boyishness. The floor began to creak for no apparent reason. Debra's eyes went wide as she put her finger to her lips. "Quiet!"

When the faery reappeared, Keiichi stared at her in fascination. "That was you?"

"What?" asked Belldandy and Amethyst in unison.

"Something Debra told me when we were little! _It lives in the groans of the wood and the creaks of the hinges_ ," he replied. A shocked look appeared on the face of the faery. "That's what she told Megumi and me when we would stay the night!"

Amethyst dove down at Keiichi and stopped just in front of him. She took a deep breath, then let it out. "We thought you smelled familiar," she said, and then floated back away from him. A smirk formed on her face. "We had much fun scaring you and the Golden Girl." She crossed her arms across her chest for emphasis. "Serves her right for not releasing us."

"Wouldn't whatever bound you here be gone if the human died?" asked Keiichi solemnly.

The faery sniffed and turned away from him. "We know the Golden Girl has gone beyond the veil," she replied gruffly.

"Well...?"

"Well, we likes it here," announced the faery with a shrug as if anyone should have known this. "The Dad is good man and needs to be watched over." With that, Amethyst silently floated off, disappearing though the door.

Keiichi harrumphed and shrugged. "I think there is more to it than that," he said with a smile.

"More to what?" inquired Belldandy next to him.

"Nevermind," replied Keiichi, waving the comment off. "So, she just came out of the woodwork?"

"Yes, she said that she was drawn to me," said Belldandy as she stood up.

Keiichi cocked his head to the side. "Does that mean that your powers are coming back?" he asked hopefully. There had still been no trace of any magic coming from the goddess, and it was beginning to worry him more as time passed. She had been putting up a brave face so far, but he wondered how long it would last. He had seen multiple instances, subtle as they were, where she seemed to become frustrated over doing something by hand that in the past she had used a little magic to handle. Now she was little better than a human, albeit still quite a bit stronger and more spiritually 'aware' than what would be the norm.

Belldandy shook her head sadly. "No, she came to me out of curiosity. You see, normally, Earth-bound spirits like Fae do not interact with deities," she said. "We only seek each other out of necessity, or as in this case, curiosity. She was extremely curious and a little worried for me that I seemed to have no powers."

Keiichi stood up next to the goddess as her demeanor saddened for just a moment. A chink in the armor that she had up in full force since Debra's death. He startled her when he took her hand. "Hey, everything's going to be fine," he said and pulled her into an embrace. Belldandy fell into it easily. They stood there and did not let go for several minutes. Neither made any sounds other than what might have been a few shuddering sobs from the goddess.

XXX

Dinner that evening was a somber, yet upbeat affair. The Morisatos actually outnumbered the Johanssons by a wide margin as Debra only had one aunt and cousin who attended. Takano had made quite of few of her special dishes, along with a couple she knew Debra had liked. Joseph was very grateful for the assistance. The conversation was light and jovial, with a number of funny anecdotes about Debra, and in many cases, Keiichi and Megumi when they were young, were told to much fanfare.

In spite of all this, the highlight of Keiichi's afternoon actually was Amethyst. The little faery flew around Joseph and fussed over him constantly even though the dark-haired man knew Debra's father could not perceive her presence. Several times, she alighted on his shoulder and sat there playing with the tufts of hair around his ear. He never noticed it, and Keiichi assumed it was because she could not actually make physical contact with him. She was just going through the motions. Still, it was clear that the small creature had developed some affection for him, as she never really left his side.

As the evening wore on; however, Keiichi started to get restless. It wasn't the conversation or the company. It was the memories. Reminders of Debra were everywhere. There was a softball trophy still sitting on the mantle from a tournament that Debra (and Takano) had insisted that he attend to cheer her on. There were also a number of pictures on the wall, including one that showed himself, Debra, and Megumi sitting on the front porch of Joseph's home eating bomb pops they had just bought from the ice cream man. On another wall was a picture of Debra in her Norfolk Police Department dress uniform next to Keiichi in his dinner dress blues when they had attended one of the Navy Balls. He could not remember if they were married or just dating at the time, or even why Debra had insisted on wearing her uniform rather than a formal gown, which was more customary for woman going that event.

On second thought, he knew exactly why she wore that uniform, tom-boy that she had been all her life.

But it wasn't just that. At one point, Aiko had entered the room, and when Keiichi noticed her, he had seen Lind in her place. It was only for a brief moment, and when he did a double take, the vision vanished. When he noticed his sister looking back at him with an inquisitive stare, he waved it off, but the damage had been done.

But the worst one for him was later. It was extremely subtle, but powerful at the same time. Keima had left the house and returned. It wasn't that act that triggered anything specific, it was what he had with him; one of his good bottles of Sake. Keiichi saw it, and nearly fell into the gaping hole in his life that Urd had left with her death. He realized then that as devastating Debra's death was to him, Urd's might be more so. Though it had taken time, Keiichi had moved on from his relationship with Deb. In a sense, he'd gotten over her once already, but he had never been allocated that opportunity with Urd. Over the years, his relationship with Urd had arguably been closer than his relationship with Debra, even when they were married. There were things that he had either done with or told the silver-haired goddess that he would never have with his ex-wife. Things like sparring. Things like drinking outside on base in the 'Deid while listing to the evening call to prayer. Things like when she would mysteriously show up in some seedy bar that had cheap booze he had ended up in where he would listen to her bitch about her lack of progress or lack of cooperation in her search for Belldandy.

And the worst part about it was that he could not mourn for her. No, he and Belldandy needed to keep up the pretense that Urd had merely left the group, and it was killing him. Not that anyone had seemed to notice, and he had wondered on more than one occasion if there was some sort of magic involved. Magic like the System Force that had kept Peorth in the house with that blasted wish she'd kept ragging him about. Magic like what had led him to meet Urd. Regardless, everything came crashing down when he saw that Sake bottle. He started catching hints of silver hair here, bronze skin there. It reminded him of some of the precursors to the flashbacks he started having after Afghanistan. And that was all he needed right now. That had been a dark time in his life, and he was damned if he was going to fall back into it.

Belldandy was the only one who saw him nearly bolt from the room. Through the kitchen and out the back door and across the back deck. He passed a dilapidated swing set that he, Debra, and Megumi had played on when they were young. Joseph had at one time promised to restore it so that his grandkids could play on it as well. And sitting in the swing, lazily rocking back and forth, was Urd. Keiichi dug the heels of his hands into his eye sockets as he tried to rub the image away before he bolted past it.

The back yard sloped gently down to the edge of a creek that marked the border between Joseph's house and the residence behind it. There were no fences here, like in other neighborhoods, which allowed all of the children unfettered access to everyone's back yards. It was dark out, it being almost ten in the evening, so all of the kids should have been inside. Keiichi stopped at the edge of the creek and stared morosely into the trickling water. This was not a good spot to get away from his memories either, but at least Urd was not haunting him here, yet.

A lone tear streaked down his cheek as began to sob. "Oh Urd, I'm so sorry," he said as he knelt down next to the creek. A few more sobs wracked his body as he fought what might have been a losing battle against breaking down completely. "I should have made Belldandy go back." He fell forward onto his knees and punched the ground hard enough that his knuckles welled up in pain. He didn't care, though. "I should have made her go back."

"Yes, you should have."

The dark-haired man did not react to the voice of his girlfriend as she knelt beside him. She placed a hand on his back, yet he did not register it. Instead, he rocked back and sat in the grass. It was a little longer than normal, Joseph was pretty fastidious when it came to the care of his lawn. That, of course, had fallen pretty low on the priority list with the unfolding of recent events. "I already miss her so much," Keiichi said. Belldandy held her silence. He turned to her and saw that she was now seated on the ground next to him. "As much as this is hurting me, I can't imagine what you are going through."

"It's... been hard..." she started then paused before continuing. "To watch everyone mourn Debra and not be able to do the same for my own sister, it's been hard." She sucked in a deep breath before slowly letting it out. "But at the same time, I keep going back to what I saw in my vision."

"Dream Bell, it was a dream."

"That may be so," admitted the powerless goddess. "Certainly, I cannot see that I could be able to have such visions in the state that I am now." She sighed again and looked up to the sky. "But it seemed so real. I cannot help but think that my father is struggling to save her even now."

Keiichi pursed his lips, but said nothing. He suddenly felt a pang of pity for the woman. But he was not going to contradict her. If there was anything he had learned from his psychologists when he was being treated for his PTSD it was to let her deal with it on her own rather than to force the issue. That would only drive a wedge between then that could very well be irreparable, like what had happened between him and Debra. He still recalled some of the vivid dreams he had of them as a couple, sharing a meal, a laugh, or even a bed, only to wake up and find the space next to him empty. He sucked in a breath as more images of the deceased came unbidden to him, drawing Belldandy's attention.

"What's wrong?"

"Too many memories here," he said as he shook his head. He debated about whether to tell the goddess about it before deciding he should. "I feel like I'm on the verge of a flashback," he said. "All these memories of Debra, and with what happened to Urd, I... keep seeing her everywhere." The man stood abruptly, then looked down at his companion. "I need to get out of here. I feel like I could seriously lose it if I don't."

Belldandy got up off the ground and patted herself off. "Then tomorrow we will head home," she said.

"No!" yelled Keiichi abruptly, startling the goddess. He took a breath and reined himself in. "No, there are all kinds of memories there as well. I... I need to get away from everything."

Belldandy gave him a sympathetic eye. "What do you suggest?"

After a moment of thought, Keiichi snapped his fingers. "A road trip. Mac gave me two weeks emergency leave, and we are only on the fifth day. We could drive back. Yellowstone is on the way, that... that's honestly something that Debra and I never discussed doing."

"So, you want to avoid anything that might bring up memories Debra... or Urd?"

Keiichi shifted nervously, recognizing the grenade his girlfriend had unknowingly pulled the pin on. "I just need to get away from here," he said quickly, trying to deflect the incoming explosive.

He succeeded. "Then it is settled, we shall leave tomorrow," replied the goddess. "Now, if you will excuse me, I need to go take care of the kitten." She turned and sauntered off back towards the house, leaving Keiichi to breathe a sigh of relief. He hoped that Bell would come to terms with what happened to Urd soon because he could only evade so many grenades thrown his way before one of them finally blew up in his lap.

XXX

The snow bank he landed in was soft, powdery, and frigid. A fresh snowfall, it had not yet compacted into something solid, and as soon as he hit it- as soon as Tyr touched ground on it, weighted down with a dying Valkyrie and a fading daughter- it enveloped him. Before he had time to react or even realize what was happening, the snow had parted to devour the Daitenkaicho and his companions utterly. He gasped as the cold assaulted his injured hand, and the air that prickled his lungs was sharp, cold, and cruel.

The man grimaced, struggling to move within the snow bank, and peered around as he attempted to gain his bearings. The Valkyrie, Lind, lay almost on top of him, and some part of Tyr noted that she looked less asleep and ever closer to a corpse. Urd was no better where she lay in a collapsed heap of limbs and tail, the Tendee's breath rapid and sporadic. High above their heads, a blue sky so bright it was painful peered down at them; a blue eye encompassed by the white edges of the snow bank.

Tyr moved his right arm behind him in an effort to prop himself up. The limb sank down to his elbow as soon as he rested his weight against it. The man's lips peeled back in a snarl and gingerly, he brought his right arm out of the hole. Snow clung to the length of his sleeve and covered the metal band that protected his stump. Even though the metal was lined with a soft cotton sleeve, it was still almost painfully cold. The Daitenkaicho then looked at his left hand with open dismay. The hand was a lost cause; bone and torn tendon peeked at him from the deep ruptures inflicted from grabbing Urd's injured horn. Two thirds of his pinky was gone and his thumb dangled in a broken stump. The ring finger remained attached only by a flap of skin. His middle finger and pointer finger were both unresponsive, hinting at possible tendon damage. He could see come of the bones of his hand clearly through the top of his palm, and everything was coated in blood. It throbbed with an intensity so great that Tyr could feel it through the ghost of his left where either hand, real or lost, sent bright bolts of pain to his brain.

 _Need to get out of here,_ he thought to himself, looking at the surrounding walls of snow _. Losing a hand will be the least of your worries at this rate._ Frowning, the man braced himself before resting the injured limb in the snow, grateful of its light consistency even as he hated it for burying him. There wasn't much change in the pain, but its loose grip made it easy to cover the hand without damaging it further. Resting his weight on his left arm, he leaned over to cover the left hand in as much snow as possible, burying it in the cold and allowing the snow to work its magic. When the pain departed in favor of numbness, Tyr uncovered his hand and began to move, pushing the Valkyrie off him as he got his feet beneath him. Stabilized, he tried to stand and failed as his feet once more plunged into the loosely-packed snow. The man swore. It'd been centuries since he'd been in snowfall so deep. After taking up the mantle of Daitenkaicho, he'd moved south to Asgard's capital region near the Halls of Valhalla, where snowfall was still a thing, but never in so much depth as his original home. This was a severe change from Asgard's coldest temperatures, and this in what was supposed to be summer.

Glancing one last time at his injured hand, Tyr sighed, resigning himself to the fact that his hand would only be further damaged in this latest trial. Taking a deep breath, the man plunged into the wall around him and began to swim, doggedly ignoring the burning on his face, his arms, and every other area of exposed skin victimized by the frigid cold in the desperate need to escape the icy prison.

His teeth were chattering by the time he reached the surface, and his face, neck, and arms felt like they were on fire. If felt as if he'd been punched in the gut with the resulting pain, and the air he sucked in was no better, still as cruel and icy and dry as before. He could no longer feel his hand, which was a small blessing, though somewhere in his swim the ring finger had torn off and been lost. Perhaps, if the snow ever melted in this icy hellhole, he'd find it still frozen and preserved. More likely a wolverine would find it and eat it instead, and so Tyr considered it a loss unworthy of mourning.

Instead he looked around, dismayed to find nothing but a long landscape of white dunes unscarred by trees or animal trails. Urd, the Valkyrie, and Tyr had landed in the worst place possible; an icy desert of such desolation that not even the local animals bothered with it.

 _A fine mess you've gotten yourself into now._ Ansuz's voice was scolding in his ear. _You better get the children out of here. They won't last long in their current state._ There came a pause before Ansuz spoke again, as if his wife had paused to gather her thoughts while treading snow right beside Tyr. _Does Urd's blood remain hot while she is a serpent?_ Ansuz queried. _Or does it cool like the creature she fashions herself after?_

A fine question to consider, and one that re-emphasized the need to get the women out of the snow bank and into some kind of shelter, at the very least. If Urd became cold-blooded in her Tendee form, then she might have even less time than Lind. _I'll need to melt a trail if I want to dig them out,_ Tyr thought, and that was its own problem in and of itself. He'd need to use his magic to free the others, which required energy; energy that might be quick to run dry without prior knowledge of a road or a trail that might lead him to the Valkyrie's people. The _Inua_ were supposed to be a migratory people, following caribou herds or seal and whale pods depending on the tribe, and Tyr's knowledge of Lind's tribe, the _Saavittuk_ , was almost non-existent. And he'd already spent so much energy just getting to Chugach. The instantaneous teleportation without the use of a Gate was draining, even as Daitenkaicho. Adding to that his own injuries...

 _Listen to you, bleating like a sheep,_ he berated himself. _Your eldest is dying and you make excuses? Urd needs you now more than ever. Now is not the time to balk. This is but another challenge to conquer._ Now was not the time to act irrationally either though, and charging off without a plan was a fool's gambit that he'd seen first-hand leave more people dead than alive.

 _Then use the Sight,_ a piece of him whispered. _Use the tools you were born with, Dundr. Find the direction that is most likely to lead to success and set out._

By Odin's beard, he hated using the Sight though.

If ever there was a chance to slip into madness...

Urd, wounded and dying, appeared in his mind's eye, and Tyr winced. To risk madness or his daughter. By the Elder Gods, as if he'd choose anything else. _Just a_ _moment,_ he thought to himself. _I need just a moment. Just enough to point us in the right direction._ Any more could be disastrous. Could leave him caught in the tides of his own subconscious, fighting to stay afloat as a riptide of Possibility fought to drown him. _Don't keep me,_ Tyr requested as he closed his eyes, feeling himself sink into himself as he stood perched in the snow. _I'm vulnerable right now. If you keep me too long I'll die and so will the girls. Only the bare minimum. Just enough to keep us all alive._

 _...And the white bear towered before him, flanked by all the creatures of the sea. It stared down at him, wearing the hide of a man draped around its shoulders like a berserker with a grizzly's pelt, its black eyes hungry as it barred the way to Chugach._ I'll eat you. _Its eyes screamed. One bite, two bites, three if I want to savor you, and then I'll eat your_ Nimiàiaq. _I'll grow fat on your meat for the winter snow, and as I dream I shall hunt your spirit forever._

 _A woman, adorned in a parka of so many furs the Daitenkaicho could not make out her face, came to stand by the great white bear. Whereas the bear was massive, the woman was tiny; she barely reached the arc of the bear's massive paws. "Come this way,_ Qallunaat." _He could hear the ocean when the voice spoke. The ocean and new ice cracking over water._ " _Bring our cub,"_ the voice continued, " _bring your snake." The hooded figure seemed to be growing, or else the bear was shrinking. "Bring yourself, and the elders shall decide your fate. But you will live. Come this way, though our people hold no love for your kind. Come this way outsider,_ Qallunaat, _and live." The figure was growing larger. Not just in height now but in width as well. "Live." The figure seemed to swell, the belt around its waist and the buttons sewn into the hem of its parka straining against its mass. "Live!" The parka exploded, and from the depths of the furs and hides came all manner of ocean beasts; seals of all types and large, tusked walruses. Orcas and fin whales, humpback whales and blue whales, narwhals and sea otters, octopi, squid, and cuttlefish of all types, more fish than he could name, and even the great and terrible gurry shark._

 _The beasts came at him in a living wave, their cries drowning out the bear and overwhelming his senses as they engulfed him, knocking him down into the snow once more._

The snow.

Tyr was cold and shaking and chattering in the snow. Worse, he thought he might be starting to feel warm. _Get up, get up, get UP!_ His mind screamed, yet to his horror the Daitenkaicho found his body unresponsive. The cold had wrapped around him with such a tight constriction that everything hurt, everything burned with pain, and in that moment a twinge of fear raced down his spine. _Move damn you! Your life depends on it. Move or you'll die!_ His magic flared in reaction to his fear, and the fire that erupted from his wounded hand came with an agony that left stars dancing in his eyes. For a moment the man worried he might black out right then and there, and then his gaze cleared.

The snow around him began to melt in the heat produced by his flames, and with a grimace Tyr shifted the magic to his stump, freeing his injury from further exposure. _Great, now you'll be wet as well._ He thought to himself, before dismissing the thought. He could worry about that issue another time. Part of him was too busy savoring the warmth brought by his magic, though it was quickly burning through his reserves.

In his vision, the white bear and the sea woman had originated from the east, and with few other options available Tyr decided it was a good enough direction to start in. The snow melted easily at his magic's call, and taking a moment Tyr allowed himself to be engulfed in his own flames, if only to warm his own body enough to move. Wherever the woman and her bear were, he hoped it wasn't too far; exposure was going to be a real problem for all of them, not just Tyr himself. While the feathers helped, Urd's form was not suited for such deadly cold, and though the Valkyrie was still adorned in her weatherproof uniform, her own injuries left her vulnerable.

Burning energy that was only going to become more precious the longer he was outside, Tyr melted a trail to the women. The snow around him refroze as soon as his flames let it rest, and in such a manner created a sheet of ice that prevented the manmade walls from collapsing on top of him. For a time at least, he'd be okay to recover the ladies, but the ice sheet was thin; it'd crack on the way back up out of the snow, especially with Urd's larger form, but...

He'd deal with it when it came time. One step at a time. Put out one fire at a time.

Urd had grown conscious in the time since Tyr had clambered to the surface. She'd moved a great deal, Tyr saw, and in some areas the snow was streaked with her blood. She'd been clever though, injured as she was, using her own mass to compress the immediate area around her into a platform that could hold if not her weight, then at least Lind's. He could see areas where the Tendee had rolled on the ground, areas where the snow still crusted her body and where pockets of red were left in her wake. At some point she'd managed to pry the dead hound off her left flank, and the corpse now lay half-buried in the snow, leaving in its wake a trail of fresh blood from an injury that had only recently clotted. Now Urd lay on her left side, resting the injury in the snow around her as she watched Tyr with feverish, glowing eyes. She rested, curled tightly around the Valkyrie as if hoping to preserve the woman for just a moment more or else to surround herself with the only thing of warmth in the cold death-trap Tyr had dropped the lot of them in.

Something in the sight of it invoked a strange sense of sadness in Tyr. It almost appeared as though the Tendee had given up in despair. As if the creature had resigned herself to her fate, awaiting her death right alongside the Valkyrie and was content to make this place her crypt, despite Tyr's proximity to her.

The image made Tyr's heart sink.

The man sucked in a long breath. "Come on, Urd. Let's get out of here."

The Tendee raised her head, stared at Tyr a moment, and then lowered it once more, uninterested in Tyr's proclamation. The Daitenkaicho stared at Urd, a painful mixture of hurt, anger, and fear compounding in his chest. "Urd... come on, we need to go." He approached the Tendee, whose persona had changed from a once great and fear-inspiring beast to a withdrawn and almost doleful creature. "I know you're hurt, I know you're tired, but we can't stop here." Tyr's metal hand still sat punctured on one of Urd's fangs, where both it and the fang dangled like a snaggletooth from Urd's maw. It looked less like a metal hand at this point and more like the remains of some long-dead animal. Urd's broken horns pulsed with a neon-violet light that burned the eye when Tyr looked directly at it. He shifted his gaze back to the Tendee's own eyes, as bright and extravagant a violet as the light seeping from the injury on her crown. "We have to leave here, or we'll die." He knelt beside the Tendee and felt a spike of icy cold shoot into his knee. Had he been a lesser man, he would have screamed. Instead, Tyr ignored it in favor of resting the stump of his right hand against the side of Urd's head. This close, he could see the damage done to her left eye ridge, where a clean slice from a Valkyrie's sword had almost taken her eye. An ugly wound, one open to infection and would leave a scar without proper care.

At this point, Tyr would be grateful if scars were all Urd came away with.

Urd leaned her head into Tyr's touch and heaved a sigh that rocked her entire body, but otherwise made no effort to rise. _I don't want to do this anymore, Pabba._ The voice he heard was not that of the woman before him now but the younger voice of the past. _I'm tired. Of all of it. There is pain everywhere I turn and I find no relief. I just want it to stop._ Yggdrasil's roots, how often had he received such similar calls in Urd's younger years? As a child, as a young adult? As a girl on the cusp of womanhood? _I don't know how much more of this I can take, Pabba._ In his mind's eye he saw her: young, angry and defeated, frustrated tears slipping down her face as she stared up at Tyr.

The image vanished, and in its place the serpentine Tendee rested. "Bear with it a little longer, Urd." It was uncertain if the words were directed towards the Tendee before him or the voice at childhood's end. "This is just another challenge on life's road. One that's seen fit to challenge us both, it would seem." The man stroked the Tendee's cheek with his arm. "But it will be a challenge you won't walk alone. I will walk with you until we conquer what the fates have thrown at us, and together we will grow stronger from its passing. Just as we always have."

Urd huffed, then moved her head away from Tyr, where it came to rest near the fallen Valkyrie. Tyr still could not fathom how the Tendee had managed to move the Valkyrie so close to her, nor how even now, the woman still seemed to be alive; her breath still came, though it was short and rasping, her chest still rose, though it was short and quick, and he could see the fog leave her mouth in quick, sudden bursts. "Are you feeding her your energy?" Tyr asked. "Urd, that's dangerous. You're in no condition to be donating your own energy to her."

The Tendee stared up at him with one eye, but otherwise made no move to voice a defense. Instead, Urd curled a little more firmly around the Valkyrie, bringing her shoulder- and the vicious blades erupting from them- to angle at Tyr. The Daitenkaicho recognized the posture at once. _Stop me if you dare,_ that action proclaimed. _My spines will bite deep, and in the end I will not have moved while you will have been left bleeding._

"Damn it, Girl." Tyr pursed his lips, but did not attempt to move the Valkyrie. Not yet. "We're in the middle of a snowbank, and I can see no signs of trails or life in any direction. We can't afford to waste energy like this. Not when neither you nor I are outfitted against the cold."

Urd snorted, unconvinced. Her tail slapped against the flattened snow in one single, hard motion. Tyr recognized that too. _I don't care._

"You stubborn ass," Tyr grumbled. "Does this Valkyrie mean that much to you?" he snapped. "That you would waste your own energy keeping her from knocking on Death's door when she already stands at his doorstep?"

Urd sent him a flat look. An impressive feat given her serpentine nature.

Tyr scowled, then took a long, deep breath. "You're prolonging her suffering," he tried again. "Do you realize that?" Urd jerked back, and Tyr watched as five long, curled, raptor-like talons flexed anxiously. "Urd... your friend is dying." The Tendee flinched. "And we're in a dangerous situation where we're ill-equipped for the current environment and need to conserve our energy. You need to stop."

His words were met with hostility on Urd's part, who bared her fangs and hissed. Tyr observed the act in silence, more aware of the cold settling into his bones than any threat borne by his daughter. The serpent curled a little more securely around the fallen woman, like a snake protecting her clutch. Though the Tendee didn't speak, a concerning fact in and of itself given how all Tendee retained their capacity for language alongside higher thought, the message was clear: Urd refused to abandon the fallen Valkyrie who had been assigned to her over the past eight years.

"You must care a great deal for this woman, to be wasting your own precious energy on her," Tyr murmured. Urd ceased to hiss, but still neglected to speak. "Who is she to you?"

Urd said nothing.

"Yet you will not abandon her."

Urd's gaze remained steadfast.

"And how would you propose we move her?" Tyr challenged. "I have a half a hand out of two and no protection, and my dear, you're covered in enough spines and horns to turn your Valkyrie into a shish kebob. I have no snowshoes and your current aspect is not designed for an arctic environment. I need to melt the snow to form a trail for us, which means I cannot carry her, and there are no trees in sight that might hold branches that can carry her."

Urd nudged him with her nose.

"You would have _me_ change?" Tyr guessed. "To fall into one of my own Tendee aspects?" He smiled, though it came out a painful grimace. It was taking an act of all his will just to keep his teeth from chattering. His whole body was starting to quiver like mad, and the pain from his wounded hand was starting to flare up again. "Clever girl. I would love to, but that means is beyond me right now. I spent too much of my own reserves just getting us out of Asgard. Had I not been Daitenkaicho and gifted with additional power, I might not have even succeeded in that, and my energy is low; I am unable to shift, or at least shift successfully, and my own injuries would be magnified upon changing."

The Tendee made a distressing noise, and Tyr's smile became sympathetic. "Will you give me my gauntlet back?" the man asked. Urd's response was instant, tilting her head to an angle and offering the snaggletooth fang with its pierced gauntlet up to her father. The item was wedged up to the base of the fang, and looked uncomfortable for Urd. Tyr reached for it, only for the Tendee to rise without warning, maw parting as a long and drawn out hiss sent the Daitenkaicho jerking back.

The Tendee turned, its attention moving past Tyr and along the icy trail he'd crafted with his magic. With great effort, Urd rose to her feet, favoring her left hind leg as her eyes took on a muddy red hue. Alert now, Tyr could make out the sound of something- someone- crunching their way through the ice towards them. "Urd, stop!" the Daitenkaicho snapped, all too aware of how easy it would be for his daughter to fall back into her Destruction-Aspect once more. Urd's head jerked towards him, still hissing, still riled and ready and waiting, waiting, _waiting_ to strike, like the ambush predator she had modeled herself after.

The steps grew louder, the owner closer, and beneath the sodden glow of Urd's eyes Tyr could see the pupils dilating, shrinking into thin, black, vertical lines that only increased her daunting appearance. "Urd, no." Tyr's voice came out in a soft, soothing murmur, and without fear for himself- what had he to fear from his daughter?- he placed himself between Urd and the encroaching visitor. "Urd, I'm asking you, please calm down." The man reached out with his ruined left hand, resting it on the base of the Tendee's nose. The limb throbbed in tune with his heart in such close proximity to the creature's horns. He caught his daughter's eyes- long slits of glowing rage, strange and alien and filled with suppressed violence- and held them. "Hold your temper, Shimmy," he cooed. "Please, hold your temper. If not for me then for your friend, all right?" The rage in Urd's eyes did not falter. "We need help, Shimmy. _I_ need help, especially if I'm to save both you and your friend, understand?"

This close, Tyr could feel Urd's breath heat his clothing; a warm sensation that steamed the air around him, and which left in its wake the painful, dangerous reminder of the cold. "I will take care of this, okay? I will see what is approaching, and I will protect us- all of us- if it is a threat. Will you trust me?" He stroked the Tendee's muzzle with his arm, his gaze sincere. "I won't let anything happen to you or your friend. All I ask is that you keep calm while I see to this."

A rumble emerged in Urd's throat, as if his daughter was contemplating his offer, and then to Tyr's relief she sat down, content- if only for the moment- to allow Tyr to take the reins.

"Thank you," Tyr murmured, and kissed the scales along the base of Urd's maw. The scales felt cold. _Not for much longer, I pray,_ Tyr thought, and turned to face the stranger who was just starting to make itself visible. _No, not long at all._

The stranger was short, barely reaching up to Tyr's chest. It stood on two legs like a human and was adorned in a fur parka like a human, and even wore a travel pack like a human. However Tyr, after his vision of the bear in the man-skin and the woman made of sea life, refrained from any sort of assumptions. The parka was large and thick, made up of multiple hides from beasts with long hair, beasts with short hair, and beasts with waterproof coats. It wore the hood of its parka up and drawn low, blocking Tyr's view of the face within. Its mittens were large and fingerless, covered in fur like that of its parka. Its boots were large and black and strapped to a pair of hand-made snowshoes, where snow clung like mud on a rainy day.

The stranger stopped when it came across Tyr, and the parka's hood rose by a smidgen as the person observed Tyr or Urd, the Daitenkaicho could not say. It stopped its short trek and beheld them both in silence.

"Do you speak Asgardian?" Tyr asked, and then asked the question again in Jotunn, Asgard's neighboring world that crafted the border territory of Chugach.

The stranger said nothing, nor made any indication of understanding Tyr's question.

A corner of Tyr's lips twitched downward, but otherwise the Daitenkaicho made no indication of his unease. "I would request assistance, if you can offer it," he continued, once more translating the words into Jotunn. "My companions and I need help. We have no furs and we are injured." He held up his left hand for effect, and watched as the stranger flinched back, as if horrified by the grotesque injury. The Daitenkaicho took it as a positive sign. Momentarily forgetting his missing right hand, he gestured to his left, the right arm circling around it as he mimed the action of bandaging his hand. If anything, this proved to be a poor choice of action, for the stranger took a step back as if in shock.

It made Tyr pause, staring at the stranger with consideration before looking back down at his stump. Cursing to himself, he held up both his arms. "Help?" he asked again and wondered if the stranger might take pity on him or be so horrified as to strike him down.

Fortune was merciful in that moment, for the stranger reached into a leather pack on its hip and withdrew a wrapped pouch. It opened it, then held the materials within it for Tyr to observe. It appeared to be a first-aid kit of some kind. Tyr gestured to himself, and the stranger nodded before dropping its pack into the snow and rifling through it. It came up with a cloak that might have been made of caribou hide, if Tyr were to guess. The medical kit in one hand and the cloak in another, the stranger offered the items to the man, who received them with a gracious and appreciative smile.

It was difficult to juggle the gifts in just his arms alone, and in the end Tyr gave up and dropped the kit into the snow, wrapping himself in the cloak before looking to his hand. The cloak proved to be gloriously warm, and with great relief Tyr began to work. The stranger watched him work, but did not offer any immediate aid, instead tilting its head to one side as it observed Urd. " _Nimigiak?"_ it spoke, and its voice was masculine and rough. Tyr paused to observe the stranger, the tip of a bandage clamped in his teeth.

"Nrntgah?" he repeated, staring at the stranger in confusion, then to Urd, then back to the man.

The stranger nodded, then patted his chest. " _Nimigiak?"_ it repeated. " _Uvaij a?"_ Tyr stared at the man in bemusement and incomprehension. Even with the translation spell provided by his magic, he could not understand the man, who spoke in a dialect so uncommon that it was not found within the registry. The stranger seemed aware of the lack of understanding, and repeated the gesture. " _Nimigiak._ " He once more pointed to Urd, naming her with that strange word he'd heard in his vision. " _Uvaij a?"_ He gestured back and forth between himself and Urd, yet Tyr could not garnish the full meaning of the stranger's intended meaning.

The stranger sighed, as if expecting this language barrier. _"Tuvaak,"_ he said, and gestured once more to himself. He pointed at Tyr. " _Tuvaak?"_ He mimed a thrusting gesture, as if armed with a spear, and then tugged on the hood of his parka. " _Tuvaak,"_ he repeated. _Hunter._ Again he pointed to Urd. " _Nimigiak,"_ he said. " _Nimigiak-liak tuvaak?"_ He pointed to Tyr as he spoke, then once more mimed the stabbing gesture, this time towards Urd. Tyr had a sinking suspicion he understood the meaning, ' _are you hunting Nimigiak?"_ And again, he gestured to himself, " _Uvaij a?"_

 _"_ No..." Tyr let the edge of the bandage fall from his mouth. "No, I'm not- she's not- no, I apologize. She is not prey or a trophy. I cannot give her up."

The man seemed to understand the gist of his words despite the language barrier. He pointed to the first-aid kit, the cloak, and what came next was a slur of words so fast that Tyr couldn't keep track. Yet the man remained steadfast. "My answer remains the same. I will not give Nimi-ak up despite the gifts. I can offer you something else if you want- a reward for your help, after I've recovered, perhaps a weapon for your aid, but not Urd. Not- not Nimi..gak."

The stranger folded his arms across his chest in displeasure, and a deep, rough growl like a wolverine rose beneath the hooded parka. Tyr wondered if the stranger would grow violent, as some might when their aid is mistaken for charity rather than trade, and angled himself to one side in preparation for any kind of attack. Instead, still grumbling in his native tongue, the stranger's hood turned first one way, then the next, as if searching for another item that might be of interest. His attention fell on the Valkyrie.

 _"Nanuk?"_ he asked, and pointed to the Valkyrie for effect. _"Nanuk-liak tuvaak?"_ he asked once more. " _Nanuk uvaij a?"_

Tyr considered the man in silence. Chugach was a land he admittedly knew very little of. He'd never held much of an interest in the borderlands nor the people who'd come to inhabit it, even with some of the more extreme individuals who made life in the borderlands difficult for his people. He knew that most of the natives were higher-level spirits, and that, much like the Valkyrie who was here with him now, a handful of those spirits had sought citizenship through the Stand at Arms program that offered Asgardian citizenship in exchange for military service. But that was, even in the kindest sense of the word, the limit of his knowledge. His vision had guided him and told him to look east, and the ones who he'd seen were spirits of the non-human sort. The person before the Daitenkaicho now, Tyr suspected, was of the non-human sort, though there was little outside of intuition to assert that claim. He didn't know the people of this region. He didn't know their culture, their values, or indeed if they were one united people or a scattering of warring tribes. He didn't know what this spirit wanted with the Valkyrie, nor if it would lead to further insult if the spirit's request wasn't granted.

Was this a person who knew the Chugach Valkyrie?

Would he bring her to her family?

Could he put her to rest when she finally passed?

It was a tempting scenario; to hand off the near-dead woman in exchange for aid for himself and his daughter, and then be out of the area once Urd recovered enough for them both to leave. He glanced back at Urd, and at once abandoned the idea. Urd appeared to be on her last leg of control; her body was tense, the spines along her back bristled, the feathers ruffled, and her long, serpentine neck curled up in a striking 'S'. One wrong move, one wrong _word_ , would be enough to send her over the edge, lashing out at the spirit before it ever had time to retrieve the Valkyrie.

Tyr chose his next words carefully. "Are you kin?" he enquired, both in Asgardian and in Jotunn. He gestured to himself and Urd. "Like we are kin?" It was a stretch to see if the spirit would understand; Urd's current aspect did not exactly scream 'relation'. He paused and thought a moment when the stranger remained motionless. "... _agitka?"_ He tried another Jotunn word he'd learned for family, one he'd picked up from an Asgardian ambassador who'd been filling out a report about the Jotunn's border region.

The spirit seemed to recognize something in the word, as his hood tilted to one side. For a brief moment Tyr thought he saw a thick mane of black, curly hair. " _aIj aukaagaitka?"_ he asked, and then pointed first at Tyr, then at Urd.

With some hesitation, Tyr nodded, and then threw the word back at the spirit in a bad mimicry. "Alj aka...gait ka?" He gestured to the Valkyrie and to the stranger.

The stranger snorted, then shook his head. " _Tuvaak,_ " he repeated once more.

 _So you would hunt a Valkyrie near death already?_ Tyr wondered, _or would you be providing her a merciful death?_ Either option didn't sit well with the god. "Then no, I can't give the Valkyrie- _Nanuk-"_ The word felt strange on his tongue, _"_ to you either." His vision had been clear for once, and Tyr was not of the opinion to ignore the advice given to him. "I cannot offer either of the women as compensation for your aid." He frowned when the man again growled at him in frustration, then looked back at Urd and her friend. The man's eyes lit up as they landed on the dead dog. It'd be a stretch, but...

With some effort, he clambered over to Urd, who was quick to move her body in front of him, guarding his back as he retrieved the hound corpse. "Urd, keep calm a little longer," he breathed, and reached up with his right arm to touch her. The Tendee leaned into his arm, as if seeking reassurance. "I'll get us through this. Just hold your patience with me- and with him- a little longer." He bent and retrieved the corpse, which was cold and stiff in his arms then turned back to the spirit. The _tuvaak_.

The stranger stared at him with what Tyr hoped was interest, and again the man's head tilted to one side in consideration. " _Amaguk?"_ he asked, and Tyr, with no idea of what the word meant, nodded. Passing Urd once more, he approached the stranger, then laid the hound's body out in the snow for the hunter to observe. The hound was even uglier in death then in life; its body had swelled with the poison Urd had injected it with, and the saliva that had frozen in its mouth was a frothy red. Its eyes bulged in their sockets, and the snow clung to its wiry coat in large and heavy clumps.

The spirit kneeled down and ran a mitten through the coat, cooing in awe. It didn't occur to Tyr until later that the spirit had probably never seen a curly-haired dog before. He muttered once more in his regional tongue, then examined the paws with their long nails before pulling back its jaws to examine the teeth within. The hound's tongue rolled out, as black as its fur. The spirit grabbed the tongue and prodded it, then abandoned the organ in favor of further examination. He found the bite marks from where Urd had struck it, prodded the area like it had the tongue, and then finished the examination before nodding.

Tyr was careful to hide his relief. "I will give you all of it-not just the hide or the claws or the fangs but _all_ of it, if you help me travel east." He gestured to himself, Urd, and the Valkyrie, and then pointed east. "I'm trying to return the Val- _Nanuk_ -home. But I am ill equipped."

The man knew he was asking for a lot, even more for the _tuvaak_ to understand him, but at this point he'd rather ask for too much than too little. At length, the spirit nodded. He pointed at Tyr, then pointed east, then pointed to himself and pointed east, before finally pointing to the hound and then himself. Tyr nodded. The spirit nodded, gathered the dog corpse onto his back, turned, and set off, loping along in his snowshoes. He stopped and looked back over his shoulder at Tyr, as if waiting for the man to act.

Tyr, cold, exhausted, and relieved, shoved the medical supplies back into the first aid kit and looked back at Urd. "Looks like we're heading East," he said. "Help me get your friend onto my back."

XXX

The announcement of their abrupt departure caused quite a stir the next morning, with Keiichi springing it on everyone at breakfast. Megumi and Aiko at least seemed to understand. Keigo was disappointed, but he figured it had more to do with the fact that Belldandy had decided to take the kitten with her instead of leaving it with him to take care of. Keima had denied Keigo's inquiry about it anyway, and had pointedly made sure to steer a clear path around it whenever Belldandy had it out.

When Takano inquired about where they were going, Keiichi would only say that he and Belldandy were heading east. This caused his mother to complain about how that answer was as vague as he could get considering they were about as far west they could get in the United States without getting their feet wet. Keima also made his objection clear, stating that there was a bike he needed help fixing. Keiichi doubted that it was any more than a ploy to get him to stay a little longer. In the end, though, they begrudgingly agreed, and even assisted in Keiichi and Belldandy's departure. When the dark-haired man had mentioned the need to stop and get a tent and some sleeping bags, Keima disappeared and returned a few minutes later with the required items in tow. As they were finishing up with the loading of the rental Keiichi had acquired for the trip, Takano shoved a lunch pail full of various onigiri in it, for which he was grateful.

It wasn't until just after noon that they were on the road. As they put distance between his home and the memories it elicited, there was one argument that he was unable to avoid.

From her place in the passenger seat, Belldandy jumped as what had started as a squeaking noise turned into a full-blown cry. She reached into a pouch that Takano had lent her and pulled out a wrinkled and grey squirming mass. "Keiichi, can we stop at the next station so that I can feed the kitten?" asked Belldandy.

Keiichi looked at the pitiful thing as its cries increased in protest to Belldandy's handling, as gentle as she was. When the goddess had initially presented the thing to him the day before and explained its origin, he had been overcome with an almost uncontrollable urge to simply drop it into a pail of water and let it drown. He had absolutely no desire to be involved with Hagal or whatever punishment had been deemed fit to be bestowed upon her. But Belldandy had been insistent that this it was her decision to keep it, and that it posed no threat to him as demon's spirit would only remember whatever treatment was given it after it perished.

As the kitten squirmed in Belldandy's hand, its appearance brought to mind a creature that he had seen once before in a documentary. "God that thing looks like a naked mole rat," he quipped. "You should name it Rufus."

Belldandy looked at him and pouted. "He is not ugly," she cooed at the kitten as she brought it up and rubbed its head against her cheek, eliciting more crying from it. "And Rufus is not a good name for him."

The baby talk was killing him. Since their initial discussion, Belldandy was going all in caring for the small creature, waking up every two hours or so to feed and take care of any other needs that it might have. He had watching on a couple of occasions as she had used a warm rag to wipe its bottom after it had finished its bottle and shuddered at the memory of the cloth turning a sickly yellowish brown from the animal's excrement.

"That thing didn't just get hit by an ugly stick, it was beaten within an inch of its life!" he quipped.

The goddess looked at him pointedly and held the kitten protectively to her. "He is not ugly!"

Keiichi shook his head. "Bell, that thing looks like a used teabag."

He didn't get the reaction he was expecting from that comment. Instead of getting angrier as he had expected, Belldandy perked up surprisingly. "Teabag," she repeated as she looked back to the kitten.

The Navy SEAL let out a chuckle. "Yeah, instead of the real thing, I could just throw that kitten at anyone that I killed!"

The goddess seemed to be oblivious to that last comment as she brought the kitten up to her face. "Teabag," she repeated. "What an interesting name."

The amusement on Keiichi's face swiftly faded into obtuse horror as Belldandy gave serious consideration to the name. "Belldandy, no, we are not naming a sphinx 'teabag'. They'll fucking call Animal Control on us for abusing its resemblance to a ball sack."

Belldandy looked him straight in the eyes.

"Belldandy _yes_."

It took Keiichi fifteen minutes to explain to her why it was a bad name to give to a cat, in spite of its looks.

XXX

As Keiichi, Belldandy, and 'Teabag' neared the Nevada border on Interstate 80, Joseph sighed as he looked around his living room. His target; the TV remote. He glanced at the coffee table, then back to the couch next to it. After rifling around the cushions for a few moments, he switched to his recliner and did the same. Frustrated at his inability to find the device, he happened to glance back to the coffee table.

There was the remote.

Without much thought, he reached down and grabbed it, then turned and flopped down into his recliner. "Thank you, Amethyst," he said with a smile as he pointed the remote at the television and pushed the power button.

* * *

 **A/N: Finally! Work for both of us has been stupid crazy for the past couple of weeks. Personally, I want to meet the person who scheduled a major IT cut over at my company for Easter weekend in a back alley. That's how stupid its been. It over now, though, so hopefully we can get to updating more.**

* * *

 _Comments of a Madwoman: And so it beings anew..._


	55. Chapter 55 - Green Trail

-55-

It was hard to judge how long they traveled. Despite the heavy snow, the land was still in the heat of its summer where the days ran long and at times endlessly. Tyr saw at least two nights in that time, though his mind and body told him they'd been trekking for much longer. He remembered the endless days of his homeland before taking the mantle of Daitenkaicho; long days where the sun would dip towards the horizon but never quite vanish, instead skating the horizon's edge before climbing back into the sky once more. In his younger years he'd always relished those days, where light was forthcoming and productivity was at its highest, where he could spend what felt like days training and working and then coming home to spend time with his family while light was still present, bouncing a babe on one knee while he bickered and quarreled and teased and joked with Ansuz. To coming home to the thundering rush of hounds-not his father's stock but of a gentler breed-and a toddler eager to greet him at the door. Of scooping up a laughing, screaming little girl amidst barking dogs larger than her and enveloping her in a warm embrace as his face was peppered with kisses.

Now no longer.

Tyr's gaze drifted to the large Tendee that lumbered beside him, and then hefted the woman on his back a little, readjusting the Valkyrie's position. Urd had never been excited to greet him like Belldandy had. She'd always been quiet. Solemn. Shy like only a child who'd been thrust into an alien environment could be shy. Reluctant in a manner by which expressing any kind of excitement at his arrival overstepped some unknown taboo. It had taken years, decades, _centuries_ for her to break past her reservations, but upon conquering them had displayed a capacity for love on level with Belldandy-when the moment was right.

 _When the moment is right,_ Tyr thought. _I wonder if such a moment is what has compelled you to continue as you are now._ The Tendee's condition had not improved in the long trek from their initial impact point. Her head hung low. Her movements were slow and lethargic. She walked with a limp that had only worsened as the days had moved on, and Tyr, despite the time he'd taken to treat the injury on her left flank, held the real fear that his daughter was dancing with the prospect of a permanently lame leg the longer they went.

The _tuvaak_ had been generous. Kind even. He'd taken them back to a wooden sled that rested upon bone bladed skis, and there he'd produced like magic a pair of snowshoes for Tyr. The sled was laden down with supplies; spears with stone heads, spears with bone heads, bolas tied with tendon-twine and a worn bow with fletched arrows. Tools made of bones, fur rolls made of seal skins. Lanterns filled with whale blubber. Water bladders filled with water so cold that Tyr wondered how the liquid didn't freeze in his mouth. And food. Lean caribou and fat seal, rich in protein and calories and perhaps the only thing allowing Tyr to continue as he was now.

The _tuvaak_ had allowed Tyr to take his fill of food and water, and had even donated several of his furs-no doubt intended for border trade-to not only Tyr but Urd as well. Though it had taken a great deal of effort and the hunter's aid, they'd managed to dress several of the furs along Urd's back and neck, and had even fashioned 'boots' to help protect the Tendee's paws from frostbite out of spare seal hide. It had cost Tyr his metal hand, which had been retrieved from Urd only to be passed to the resident spirit, when the object had gained the _tuvaak's_ attention.

A minor loss. Tyr had overcome the loss of his right hand before he'd even met Hild, and he'd learned to live without it long ago. It was more of an inconvenience at this point; the prosthetic, fueled by his magic to simulate the actions of a real hand, had been damaged beyond use after Urd had punctured it. The internal runes used to channel the energy were destroyed, turning the metal hand from a once useful tool to a stiff and lifeless hunk of cold metal. Again though, it had given him access to the _tuvaak's_ supplies, and though he and Urd (and the Valkyrie, can't forget _her_ ) were still in rough shape, they were doing better than before.

They would need to find civilization soon though. The first-aid kit had only gone so far and would not help the more severe injuries Urd suffered from, nor ease the pain the Valkyrie was in or allow even Tyr's own hand a chance at healing. They needed proper shelter, proper medical aid, some place where Urd could rest and let her wounds mend and allow her to slip out of that Tendee form. Though he was loath to admit it, Tyr's worry for his daughter was growing.

Urd wasn't eating.

Though the _tuvaak_ was generous with his meats and offered more than a fair share of caribou, seal, and even fish for Tyr and Urd, the Tendee took not a scrap of food. Instead, when they all stopped to rest and break bread, Urd would do little but curl up around Tyr and the Valkyrie, chewing on a small bit of snow before falling into a sleep so deep that there were moments where Tyr feared the Tendee might not awaken again. So far, each time his fears had been laid to rest but... there was a piece of him that noticed every time they packed camp, it took longer and longer for Urd to awaken.

Tyr chose not to entertain the thoughts behind why that might be. It was already hard enough to fight the growing sense of urgency that was creeping up on him as more time passed. The gnawing _need_ that chewed at his gut to find civilization; a city, a town, a village, even a scattering of buildings that would allow his daughter a chance to recover. A chance to tend to her injuries, to stich her wounds properly and without fear of them ripping open again, unlike the messy stitches Tyr had attempted on her flank that had torn open not even an hour after they'd been applied. Of allowing her the opportunity to rest for as long as she wished in a place warm and protected from the elements. Some place where Urd could recover before she fell asleep and did not wake up again.

Some place where he could pass off the thrice-cursed Valkyrie on his back that Urd was wasting her energy on before his daughter fell comatose.

Before him, the _tuvaak_ raised a fist towards the sky, a gesture Tyr had been quick to learn meant 'stop'. Both he and Urd came to a halt, and Tyr squinted out against the horizon, trying to figure out what had alerted the _tuvaak_. The man scanned their surroundings. The hills of unblemished snow were long gone now, though the snow was just as deep and dangerous as before. In its place trees had sprung forth, long and lonesome pines at first, before swiftly growing into a forest of quiet evergreens packed dense and tight. Now they were navigating through the forest via a long trail of white snow. The trees here had been stripped away, creating a path through the forest spanning ten feet in width from bank to bank. The trail was too clean to have been a simple animal trail, and was perhaps the first, if only, sign of civilization so far out in Chugach.

Now it appeared as though something was approaching them from further up the road. A black speck at first, growing in size as light reflected off something metallic. It was moving at a fast pace down the road towards the group, and at its approach the _tuvaak_ grew restless. He shifted his weight from foot-to-foot, and the noise that came from his throat was low and guttural. The spirit looked back over his shoulder at Tyr, who awaited the spirit's secular guidance with a resounding calm. The spirit muttered to himself in his native tongue, then gestured for Tyr to wait before bounding off into the surrounding tree line with a subtle grace that left Tyr envious.

Tyr watched the spirit vanish, conflicted now as he turned his gaze back to the abandoned sled that held the _tuvaak's_ supplies and then back to Urd, who stood observing the approaching object in silence. Tyr wondered how good his daughter's eyes were in that form. Could she make out what he couldn't? The Daitenkaicho looked once more back to the object. Whatever it was appeared to be comprised entirely of metal, or a material that mimicked it, and the sunlight reflecting off it created a glare that hurt to stare at for too long.

The man raised his bandaged hand to shield his eyes, though it did little against the glare. "Is that a... truck?" he asked aloud, baffled by what appeared to be a large, silver truck approaching them. The vehicle slowed as it grew nearer, and with it more details came into play. The vehicle was indeed a truck; a Chevy pickup with an old and rusted horse trailer attached to the back. Tyr could see areas on the truck where the silver paint had been worn away by rough roads of gravel and salt, leaving the metal beneath exposed to rust and wear. It was an ugly creature, one that looked to have seen many a mile on roads both paved and not, and a part of Tyr wondered how the massive vehicle managed to stay on the snowy trail without either sinking through or sliding off the road.

The truck slowed to a stop at close to twenty feet in front of Tyr, and a man stuck his head out of the window. Music poured from inside the vehicle, singing above the engine from a pair of old and worn speakers. "You the Wonderbread with _anikatiga_?" He spoke with a hint of a French accent.

"Am I the _what_?" Tyr asked, staring at the man in complete and utter astonishment. He looked back at Urd, as if to ensure the Tendee was still with him, and then to the Valkyrie on his back, finding himself with the sudden need to assure himself that Tyr had not, in fact, wandered into another dimension where people addressed each other as bread.

Unfortunately, he had not.

"Well you sure ain't a Sourdough. Not dressed like that you're not." The man continued, then gave a long and low whistle. "Jeez-us Man, how'd you survive so long like that? You wearing a bathrobe and a fur coat!"

"I would hope I'm not any kind of bread," Tyr muttered. "I'm trying to get to Chugach," he said in a louder voice. "Or at least a village where I can get some proper clothes."

"Yeah, you the Wonderbread alright." The stranger sighed. "Fuck a duck I hate it when _Aga_ is right. Your _Nimiaiaq's_ gonna make the whole trailer smell like snake. Bad for the horses." The man pulled his head back in the window, and above the engine Tyr caught the vehicle's speakers sing out, _And so I'm having a wonderful time but I'd rather be whistling in the dark._ For a moment Tyr thought he heard another voice-not the stranger but someone younger-singing along with it before the slam of the truck's door destroyed his concentration.

The truck still running, the newcomer approached Tyr, dressed in what Tyr considered an absurdly light jacket unsuitable for the snow around him. While not exactly short, the man was by no means tall, settling on an average five foot seven that left him dwarfed next to Tyr. His hair was short and black beneath is beanie, and as the man's brown eyes met Tyr's, the first thought that came to the Daitenkaicho's mind was, _this is a soft man._ His face was kind of pale, his eyes placid as they roamed from Tyr to the Valkyrie on his back and then to Urd, observing them all with a poor attempt at stoicism that left him easy to read.

The man looked uncomfortable, standing before the Daitenkaicho and his Tendee daughter.

"You alone?" he asked. Hs gaze lingered almost suspiciously on the _tuvaak's_ sled.

Tyr pursed his lips. "I was guided by another," he admitted. "He assisted my daughter and I in reaching this point."

"That so?" The man shoved his hands in the pockets of his jacket, the discomfort never quite leaving his face. "Who was he? A man? A spirit? What'd he look like?"

"He claimed he was a _tuvaak,_ " Tyr replied. "I was led to believe that was a hunter of some sort, is that correct?"

"Yeah, you ain't wrong Bud," the man said. "But anything can be a hunter up here. The bears, the seals, the men, the spirits..." He pursed his lips, and this time looked out into the treeline. Tyr thought he could see the _tuvaak_ hiding within the shadows. The stranger looked back to Tyr. "What'd he _look_ like though? If he was a man, was he a strange man? If he was a spirit, do you know what spirit he resembled?"

"Does it matter?" Tyr asked, a slender black brow raised in question.

"Yes," the man said without pause. "You a wonderbread-a _qallunaat_ -sorry, a foreigner-so I ain't expecting you to understand, but there's rules we gotta follow up here. If you were aided, and that debt ain't repaid proper-like, then we gonna get cursed, and _p_ _ardon mon anglais Monsieur,_ but _fuck that."_

Tyr was silent, looking back into the forest and then back to the stranger. "Am I to understand that you'll take my company and I to Chugach?"

"Per the Elders' instructions, yeah," the man replied. " _Aga_ was specific. You and your crew outfitted and taken back home. Dunno what business you got up there, 'specially with Big Little Sister half-dead on your back anyways, but that's why _they_ the Elders and I'm just a horse breeder."

Tyr's eyes widened. "You're related to the Valkyrie?"

"Who, Tanarak? Yeah, sure." The man shrugged, apparently unconcerned with the unconscious woman on Tyr's back. "But I got all my incarnation to worry 'bout her. Curses span into generations and the souls misfortunate enough to be reincarnated within them, so I'd prefer we address that now before your helper gets impatient with us."

Uncomfortable with the man's attitude, Tyr gave a quick explanation of the stranger, providing as many details as he could and watching as the stranger's face went from stark interest into white shock. "Is something wrong?" Tyr asked as he finished.

"You got the luck a some powerful spirits on your end, Wonderbread," the stranger replied. "You been hanging with a _tornit_ of all things." He rubbed his gloved hands anxiously, then wiped them on his pants in a gesture Tyr recognized was born from habit. "Okay... so that's why Nanuq wanted the horses... okay, fine, I get it. Bejeebus, I get it." The man sucked in a long breath. "Kay Bud, this gonna suck, but anything the _tornit_ gave you...give it back. Put it all back on the sled. Furs, snowshoes, weapons, whatever. Those ain't for you anymore'n they're for me." He scowled at the blank look Tyr gave him. "They ain't fit for man or Inua or, or _god_ if that's what you wanna be called. They meant for the _tornit_ , and the _tornit_ lead hard lives. He letting you borrow his things, but since he passing you off to me, you need to give them back and I need to give him payment for you."

"Payment for _me_?" Tyr demanded, even as he danced in attempt at removing the snowshoes with his feet. His right foot scraped the heel of his left, stomping down on the leather strip keeping his boot in place. One foot free, he began on the next. "Why would he-" The stranger didn't hear him. He was already trotting off through the snow back to his truck, where a pair of young children-both no more than five-stuck their heads out the passenger side window.

" _Akkaga!"_ The little boy shouted, "When we getting poutine?!"

'Akkaga' spun on his feet. "Pilip, you and Kshitija help the Wonderbread get the furs off him and _Nimiaiaq_. Have him load your auntie up in the back a' the truck. No lip!"

The boy flinched at the older man's tone, then shared a look with his sister. Both children vanished into the truck, the window rolled up, and then both of them, they were twins, Tyr noted, threw the doors open and leapt out of the truck, where the little girl slammed it shut behind her. With a speed and exuberance that spoke of youth, they raced to meet Tyr. A few feet away the boy stopped to crane his head back to stare up at Tyr and Urd. He pointed with a hand stuffed inside a blue glove. "They might be _giants!"_

 _"Boy," t_ he little girl spoke in a deep voice.

The children erupted in a fit of giggles over some joke only they were privy to, and then the two of them knelt to help Tyr out of his snowshoes. With both off, the girl grabbed them and raced off to return them to sled. The boy took Tyr's fur coat and folded it with a level of reverence that was borderline religious and almost spooky to watch from a child so young. Tyr missed the warmth the cloak brought, but did his best to ignore it as he turned his attention to Urd. Here, both children stopped, their eyes wide and uncertain as Tyr approached the Tendee.

" _Nimiaiaq!"_ Urd started at the stranger's voice, and the spines along her back bristled in alarm, causing both children to retreat. "You let the young'uns help you out a' those coats, you hear? Otherwise you spending the trip North in the pickup's bed where it's cold instead a' the horse trailer where it's warm, yeah?" The stranger was guiding a large, heavy-bodied workhorse towards them. Its brown body was wrapped warmly in a coat that Tyr almost envied, and when its eyes fell on Urd's serpentine form it let loose a scream.

Urd flinched back, head stooped low, made anxious by the distress in the horse's cry. The stranger cursed, his focus returning to the horse, and once more filled by a sudden and reckless sense of urgency Tyr acted, not so much pulling the coats off the Tendee as ripping them off as he juggled the Valkyrie on his back, and almost tripping over the small boy who came to collect them. The girl, just as reckless or perhaps just as brave as her twin, slipped off first one 'boot', then another from Urd's paws, and through such combined efforts both Tyr and Urd were relieved of their borrowed possessions.

" _Akkaga!"_ This was the little girl screaming this time, and Tyr was not at once made aware she was speaking to _him_. "This way, _Akkaga!"_ She waved the Daitenkaicho over to the truck, and as both Tyr and Urd moved to follow, both twins stopped and raised their hands. _"No!"_ Both children cried.

" _Nimiaiaq,_ you come with me!" The boy yelled. "You won't fit in the truck." He ran around the truck, taking a long detour around the nameless man and the horse. "You scaring the horse! We gotta hide you so he calms down."

Urd appeared to have other ideas, however, and was instead following after Tyr. The man paused as the girl opened the back of the truck. "Urd, follow the boy. I'll join you once your friend is inside, I promise you."

A distressing noise came from Urd's throat, and the Tendee didn't move, her tail whipping anxiously behind her and only fueling the horse's apprehension. Her body lowered and curled up upon itself, the Tendee slunk backwards, and Tyr once more saw the telltale sign of red bleed into her gaze. The man swore vocally, almost missing the truck's back door opening. Without thought- without _care_ even- he threw the Valkyrie onto the blanketed seats within, then raced back towards Urd at such a speed he wasn't certain if his feet ever touched the ground.

"Urd, Urd! Shimmey, calm down! Calm down for me, _please!"_ He reached the nervous Tendee just as the last bit of violet vanished beneath the ruddy red hue, and recognized he was probably going to be in a lot more pain by the time he calmed his eldest down again. The Tendee shrieked, and the cry was of such an intensity that it left Tyr's ears ringing. White-violet electricity danced in her maw, and though Tyr couldn't hear he saw the twins retreating in terror, screaming. _Damn it Girl! Not here! Not now!_

He reached her before the Tendee had a chance to put her lightning to work, leaping for his daughter without thought to the consequences and wrapping his arms around her neck. He felt spines bite painfully into his arms, but was rewarded for his reckless act as the god's combined weight and momentum dragged his daughter into the snow. Urd squirmed beneath him, yet her struggles were weak; too much of her own willful neglect had robbed the Tendee of her strength, and even the lightning fizzled and died before it could leave her jaw.

Eventually she stopped struggling, and Tyr loosened his grip, staring down at his daughter wearily. White foam frothed at the tips of her mouth, already starting to freeze, and her eyes, though bright, were unfocused, the red within them once more beginning to fade away. She was panting wildly, and Tyr watched as small, fast clouds formed around her snout. _This is bad, Tyr,_ his own voice warned him, _at this rate, she won't last another night._

 _I know,_ Tyr told that piece of him. _Yggdrasil, I know, I_ know!Picking himself up, the man towered over the Tendee, feeling for the first time since childhood very small and very powerless. Could Chugach care for his daughter, if they made it back there in time? If Urd hadn't just burned their bridges with the Truck Driver and his twin children? Was Chugach even capable of administering the aid Urd would need to recover? Did Urd even _want_ to recover? Or was she happy to fade away into the night like her Valkyrie friend, following her companion into Yggdrasil-knows what afterlife?

The ringing in his ears began to fade, and it was only then that Tyr realized he had been joined. He looked over his shoulder, finding the Truck Driver standing a few feet off. "Come on," he said. "I'll help you get your _Nimiaiaq_ into the horse trailer, if you like." His two children stood on either side of him, each grasping tightly to one of his hands as they peered over at the fallen Tendee with cautious curiosity.

"Your horse?" Tyr asked.

"It's fine," the man replied. "He's got some blinders on right now so he don't panic, and, well...he's a gift for your friend, anyhow..." The man pursed his lips, a deep, regretful look passing over his face. "They ain't got much use for horses. They're more of a... delicacy, if you catch my meaning."

 _"Nimigiak-livak tuvaak?_ " _t_ he _tuvaak's_ voice whispered in Tyr's ear.

"I...catch your meaning," Tyr replied. "Thank you for your aid."

"Yeah..." the man muttered. "Don't thank me yet. _Aga_ and the Elders still gonna take a pound a flesh from you, and you may still be cursing my name."

"What is your name?" Tyr asked.

"Aaja," the man introduced himself. "Aaja Tuttukpak-Kajistiaat. The young'uns are my younger brother's, Pilip," he raised the boy's hand, "and Kshitija." He raised the girl's hand.

"A pleasure to meet you," Tyr replied. "I am Daitenkaicho Tyr Odinson." He turned to his daughter, then stooped, and with some effort, scooped his daughter up onto his back, as much of her as he could gather, at least. "The big one here is my eldest, Urd. I apologize for her behavior. The journey has been... difficult, for her."

"Disastrous, you mean," Aaja muttered. "You still want I should help?" The sentence was scrambled enough that it took Tyr a moment to understand what he was asking.

The man shook his head. "I have her," he replied. "Your trailer doesn't have any more horses, does it?"

Aaja shook his head, leading the way to the trailer. "I had some forewarning. Not much but... some. One horse. Edit the back trailer so there ain't no horse stalls. Grab a portable heater and line the floor with fresh evergreen branches to help cut the cold." They approached the trailer, and Aaja opened the back door. A blast of welcome warm air struck Tyr's face, and though the inside steel walls smelled very much of horse, it was as Aaja had described it. "Come on, let's bring your girl up front next to the heater." He allowed Tyr to drag Urd inside, and with both children following Aaja closed the door behind him. "Go ahead and lay her down, the branches are springy and will help cushion her against the steel floor, and I've got plenty of horse blankets we can wrap her up in-and you, if you don't mind horse-'till we get back across the border and get something better suited for the both of you."

"Does that mean we're still getting poutine?" Pilip spoke up, daring the silence as Tyr carefully laid his daughter out on the floor.

"Depends," Aaja replied. "Hey Wonder-sorry, Tyr, you and your girl like poutine?"

"You'll have to forgive me when I say I don't know what that is," Tyr replied. His eyes had gone back to the wound on Urd's left side. The one that had nearly torn open a hole in the Tendee's stomach. It looked red and swollen, the tips around the edge of the wound yellow with a growing sign of infection.

"You've never had _poutine_ before?!" the little girl, Kshitija, spoke in disbelief. "How have you _lived_?!"

"Quite well up until this point." Tyr muttered under his breath. In a louder voice he asked, "Do you have any medical supplies?"

"Yeah, we got one in the truck and one here in the trailer," Aaja replied. "We'll stop and by grab some food for you both in Dawson City before crossing the border back into Alaska and making the jump to Chugach. Hate to say it, Bud, but your girl looks like she ain't had nothing to eat in a month of Sundays."

 _You're not far from the truth,_ Tyr thought, and wondered if Urd would even bother with 'poutine' or if she'd just turn her nose up to it like all the other food items that'd been offered to her. Yggdrasil's roots, at this rate he'd try damn near anything short of shoving food down Urd's throat to force her to eat. "Thank you."

Aaja waved him off, instead heading towards the trailer doors and withdrawing a tin container held against the door in a mesh pocket. A large red cross adorned the front, and as he returned to pass it off to Tyr, one of the children spoke once more. "Can we stay here in the trailer with Auntie _Nimiaiaq_?" Kshitija asked.

Aaja raised a black eyebrow. "I'd say it's up to Mr. Odinson," he said. "You don't want to stay with Auntie Tanarak?"

Pilip shook his head. He hesitated for a brief moment, his eyes sliding back to Urd before looking between Aaja and Tyr. "...Auntie Tanarak told us."

Both Tyr and Aaja stared at the twins, Aaja in the midst of handing over the medical box to Tyr, both with their arms outstretched and frozen in this new and unexpected announcement.

Together both men spoke aloud, each verbalizing their disbelief.

"Your Auntie Tanarak?" Aaja asked.

"The half-dead Valkyrie?" Tyr asked.

"When? _"_ they voiced together, followed by, _"How?!"_

"On the ride down here," Pilip said.

"Auntie came to us when we were sleeping," Kshitija joined in. "She said that her fate is out of our hands,"

"And that Auntie Urd needs us more," Pilip picked up. "Auntie Tanarak said we need to be the healing presence..."

"That will help anchor her soul to this land," said Kshitija. "That way it'll be harder for her to lose herself,"

"When she goes after Auntie Tanarak," finished Pilip.

Together the twins stared up at Tyr and Aaja. "So can we please stay here in the trailer? We promise we'll behave!"

Tyr glanced at Aaja, at a loss of how to proceed. While he knew of premonitions in dreams and astral projections amongst entities attempting to commune with others, Tyr also recognized that it was a very _specific_ type of magic, and not one so easily inherent in all people. The twins' explanation implied that not only were they capable of receiving such premonitions in dreams-and at such a young age- Yggdrasil they were only _five_ \- but that the half-dead Valkyrie, the burden he'd been forced to carry on his back, had the strength of will to send her spirit out to these two young children and pass on her _own_ premonition of things to come. "Is this a magic in your people?" He asked.

"It can be..." Aaja pursed his lips, and Tyr was alarmed to see that Aaja was in a similar state of bewilderment. This was not a common thing, then, and certainly unexpected on the part of the local family relations. The horse breeder looked at Tyr with caution. "Would you mind if they stayed back here with your daughter?"

Tyr hesitated, and then looked back down at the Tendee in question. Urd's breathing had calmed, and her eyes (by the Ancients he'd never been so glad to see that her daughter's Tendee aspect had eyelids despite its serpentine nature) were shut. The Daitenkaicho didn't like that he couldn't tell if his daughter was listening, asleep, or in just too much pain to care either way. "I will stay back here as well," the god said after a moment. "And I have no issues with the additional company, if you find it appropriate as well, Aaja." A double meaning; Tyr had no intention of leaving his daughter alone in the horse trailer during transport, and if by chance _something_ happened, he would be there to protect the children, as necessary.

Aaja nodded in cautious agreement, and though he smiled Tyr could see in his eyes that he very much did _not_ want his niece and nephew staying in the back of a trailer with a stranger and his giant snake-monster daughter. The fact that Aaja chose not to voice his displeasure lent credence to his own beliefs in the explanation provided by the twins. "We'll stop for extra poutine on the way then, yeah? Get you guys one of the walkie-talkies so we can keep talking." The man fought back a scowl, which twisted his face into something Tyr wasn't quite sure he wanted to recognize. "It's a long trek home. Good five or six hours or so, given traffic."

"It's fine," Tyr announced. "After the journey to meet you, mere hours are a walk in the park."

"I sure hope so," Aaja breathed.

Aaja left them soon after that, returning only with a pair of backpacks-one light blue, the other black, both with cartoonish images of a masked man Pilip informed Tyr was 'Captain America' on the back, and a large, blocky device Aaja explained was a 'walkie-talkie'. He handed the device over to Kshitija, who promised to teach Tyr how to use the device, and then Aaja was off, the steel doors closing shut and leaving Tyr and the children-both his and not his-in cozy peace. The twins were a blessing in disguise; eager and sincere in their desire to help, assisting Tyr with opening the medical tin and aiding not only Tyr's injuries, but cleaning Urd's injuries as well.

At some point the walkie-talkie chirped, startling Tyr, and a static-voice that was only vaguely recognized as Aaja's came over the radio warning them that they'd be on the move soon. Tyr passed on his own message saying they were ready with aid from Pilip, and then took a final look outside one of the small windows that lined the trailer's side, rubbing off the fog that had built up from the heat and peering outside to look at the _tuvaak's_ sled. The horse, bridled, was tied to it, and stood dolefully as it awaited its fate amongst the returned pelts and equipment loaned to Tyr by the tornit.

Tyr could see no sign of the _tuvaak_ anywhere.

The trailer lurched into motion, and Tyr sat down, pressing the stump of his right hand against Urd as if to reassure her of his presence.

"All will be well," Kshitija said, and Tyr looked over at the two twins, who sat huddled together amongst their Captain America backpacks and their walkie-talkies, watching him with wide, glacier-blue eyes. For a moment they didn't look five. Instead, Tyr thought he caught a glance of the adults they might one day become; a pair of calm and gentle sooth-sayers, beloved by both their home tribe and the surrounding tribes, and whose love was all-encompassing and infinite.

Tyr smiled, and felt that perhaps it was a little relieved. _They're just a pair of puppies right now,_ Tyr thought. _One day they'll grow into a pair of gentle giants, but for now they are puppies, eager to learn and eager to please._

The Daitenkaicho made himself comfortable against his daughter's belly and was unsurprised when a pair of small, fluffy puppies came to curl up beside him.

The trailer was warm and he was exhausted, much like his daughter.

The threat of danger was gone, for the moment at least.

 _I'm just resting my eyes for a while,_ Tyr told himself as he closed his eyes. _Just for a moment, and..._

And Tyr, surrounded by his daughter and a pair of _grinning_ puppies curled up on either side of him, slept.

Above a truck and a horse trailer heading north, a red aurora borealis began to shimmer and dance.

XXX

A crack of thunder accompanied by the blinding flash of the lightning that created it caused Keiichi to bolt awake. For a moment, he was back in the Afghan desert wondering where the high ground was. Desert rain squalls may usually be brief, but they can sometimes bring devastation in their wake. The ground, so parched in the desert sun, does not absorb fast and heavy rains as quickly as one might think. What doesn't get sucked in by the thirsty earth flows downhill, fast. He had witnessed it first-hand early during his SEAL training.

In the third eight-week segment of BUDs, the teams start learning land warfare. As part of their training, they traveled to Camp 29 Palms, which is just southwest of the Mojave Desert. They were there to observe one of the established SEAL teams as they worked with the Marines on base during a Combined Arms Exercise. In support of this operation, the Navy's Fleet Hospitals set up a scaled down version of the 500-bed tent hospital that each was responsible for during wartime in order to bring their reserve detachments in for training.

The hospital was set up at the bottom of a hill that also had numerous Quonset huts along with the admin buildings, small Marine Corps Exchange, and of course, a bar.

When the rain hit, the hospital was, of course, inundated with water, sometimes several inches deep. They very nearly had to shut down the small hospital and transfer the few patients they had to the main base hospital. Fortunately, some quick actions not only on the part of the reservists, but from Keiichi's class had saved the day. It was a lesson that he never forgot, and which had possibly saved his life a couple of times in the field.

It took Keiichi a few seconds to realize he was not in Afghanistan or 29 Palms. He was in Yellowstone National Forest, in a tent with Belldandy. They had arrived the day before after stopping for some supplies in a small town. They had reviewed the camping options on the way up to the park, and decided that a back country trek would be best since it was still just past Memorial Day weekend, and there still may be a number of people camping in main campsites in the park. Keiichi had called ahead after doing a little research while Belldandy was away tending to the kitten and made the proper reservations.

The hike in was rather enjoyable. The website had warned him that the trail they had chosen was not being maintained and that parts of it had been grown over with vegetation, so when they had stopped for supplies before they arrived, he had bought the parts and fashioned a makeshift pace counter set to go along with Keima's compass so that he could track how far they had gone. Sure, he could have used his phone and the GPS on it, but what was the fun of that? When they arrived and checked in with the Rangers, they had warned him about the trail as well. He just smiled and waved as the couple set off.

On the way to their camp site, Keiichi had been pleasantly surprised at how adept Belldandy was at hiking. She had quickly picked up a good walking stick on their way and at no point did she slow him down, except when the kitten needed tending to, of course. When he asked about it, she reminded him that she came from a hunting family, and that sometimes the good trophies are way off the beaten path. She did not elaborate more on that, and Keiichi let to go in case it was a reminder to the goddess that she had lost her powers.

The campsite they arrived at was surrounded by pine trees. Keiichi set up their tent while Belldandy got started on making their dinner, which was some prepackaged, dehydrated meal. "Just add water", it said. Belldandy wasn't too enthused with the prospects and had bought a few extra items to go with it. Later, Keiichi would wonder why he had been surprised that Belldandy's cooking, even in the middle of nowhere, was still top notch.

That evening they both sat next to each other on a log at the edge of the forest. The stars were shining brightly, the arms of the Milky Way easily discernable without the haze caused by the lights of civilization. They said nothing, just sat shoulder to shoulder staring up at the naked sky. The only worrying aspect was when they had decided to head to bed. The almond haired goddess paused for one last look before she mentioned that she would need to bring Urd here when she returns. It twisted a knot in his gut, but that voice in his head told him to keep quiet, to let her figure it out on her own. Denial, the first stage of grief, could actually last a while. He made a note to himself to ask the psychologist when he got back.

Another crack of thunder brought Keiichi back to the present. He was lying on his back on a ground pad that Keima had provided along with the tent, sleeping bags, and backpacks. It had certainly saved him from having to purchase the items, although they did invest in a small, portable camp stove rather than lug his father's old two burner kerosene stove on the six mile trek. He turned to Belldandy as a flash of lightning illuminated the entire tent. The goddess was still sound asleep, undisturbed by what was going on around her. Clutched closer to her breast was the kitten (he refused to call it Teabag), also similarly oblivious to the storm that was brewing above them.

The tent was staked down quite securely, so when the rumble caused by the wind wall that the storm was pushing in front of it approached, he remained unconcerned but alert. In truth, the lightning was more worrying to him than anything else, as the timing between the flash and the rumble was steadily decreasing. When the wall of wind did hit, though, the timing still indicated that the lightning was occurring at least a mile away, or a mile above them, so he calmed down after that.

The rain and the wind came suddenly, shaking the tent violently as it was buffeted by the storm. Keiichi glanced back to Belldandy, who remained fast asleep, and idly wondered if it was her divinity that allowed her to sleep through such a racket, or if she was truly experienced in sleeping through such a horrendous storm.

As he hunkered down to wait out the storm, he felt something hit his head. He turned to it, just in time to get a drop of water in his eye. "Son of a bitch," he mumbled quietly as he looked up to the ceiling of the tent. There, he could see drops of water forming in multiple locations, all on his side. In fact, several drops had already fallen down on various parts of his sleeping bag.

Thinking quickly, Keiichi reached up and put his finger on the point where the drips were occurring, then traced his finger down the side of the tent away from him. The bead of water obediently followed, and in spite of the wind pushing the walls of the tent around and the lighting continually illuminating the inside, he was able to successfully redirect all of the leaks he found to different locations. He sat there for a moment watching for any new formations, but as another flash lit up his surroundings, he saw no more.

What he did see, though, was the outline of something outside the tent. One flash, and it was just a vague outline. Another flash, and it became more distinct, a large, hulking form that immediately brought one word to his mind.

 _BEAR!_

Keiichi quickly turned and reached to his pillow to grab his Colt that was safely ensconced there. As soon as he turned back to where he saw the form, though, it was gone. However, there was plenty of rustling around the tent, so he felt like it was still there. What little food he and Bell had brought was safely stowed away in a 'bear bag' about twenty feet up in the air on a branch that appeared to have been cleared for just this purpose. He sat there for a few minutes, listening to the rustling. One thing that he could not understand was why it seemed to be coming from directly above them. Even if the bear had decided to climb the tree the food was in, it was about thirty yards away. No reason to go up a tree above them, and certainly not in the middle of a storm like this.

As he sat there primed to act if the animal attempted to breach the tent, the volume of rain hitting the tent started to taper off. Along with it, the intensity of the lightning flashes subsided even though the time between the flashes and the thunder did not slacken. The rustling above them also stopped. Keiichi waited a good fifteen minutes before he was satisfied that the danger was gone, then finally laid back down. After a few minutes more, he was asleep.

And the storm continued to rage around them.

XXX

 _Drifting._

 _Drifting..._

 _Drifting in water...the ocean churned and sighed, and she was..._

 _She was..._

 _Sinking..._

 _Life. She was alive. Somehow, by some means, she was still alive._

 _"You seem quite certain of this, little child." A voice spoke to her, coming from everywhere at once. She thought she opened her eyes but saw only darkness, and then decided that she didn't need her eyes. She was alive. That was enough for now._

 _"Why is that?" The voice around her spoke once more, and she found a small comfort in it. It was a soothing voice. An all-encompassing voice, one whose breath and sighs brought a gentle and soothing melody to her mind. Like the sea. Like life. For water was life; where there was water, there was life, and if_ she _was in water, then she must be alive. She thought this with the same simple, devout belief that the sky was blue like the ocean, that she was the eldest of three and thus the Secret Keeper, that birds flew and fish swam and that birds swam and fish flew, and that like those two contradicting creatures she was the fish in the air and the bird in the sea, the deer that ate meat and the cat that ate grass. For her there was no question of what the water could have meant. Water meant life for her mother's people, landlocked as they were. And so where there was water, there was life. If_ she _was in water, she was alive._

 _"An interesting belief." She thought she heard the voice laugh but wasn't certain. "One to share with Tanarak when you meet again. Her views would differ greatly from yours."_

 _Tanarak..._

 _That name..._

 _She...knew... T.a.n.a.r.a.k..._

 _Lind._

Lind.

 _She opened her eyes, yet the darkness still encompassed her. Lind. Where was Lind? Where was_ she _for that matter?_

 _"You already answered that question, little child. You're in the water."_

 _She searched for the voice but found nothing that could be the owner. Yet this was magic, she was certain; strange magic, alien magic,_ wild _magic, and its rules were unfamiliar to her. It had a familiar taste though. Urd recognized that she was not in her body._

 _"You were guided by my grandchildren, do you remember?"_

 _Grandchildren... children? Had she... seen...two children? No, no, there'd been dogs, not children! More horrible hounds, yipping and snarling and showing their teeth as they'd tried to herd her away from her father, and then-_

 _And then..._

 _She writhed, the pain of the injuries of her physical form sending phantom bolts of agony through her astral form. Gods, she wasn't living, she was_ dying _! This wasn't life, this was death! Black death, deep and penetrating, a blanket of deterioration that was smothering her, pulling her down and away from the physical shell she'd slipped out of._

 _A terrified mewl came from her mouth, and as her jaws parted she felt the inky blackness surge into her, thick and slick, a living tar that clung to her lips, her tongue, her teeth, and then slid down her throat. She felt it fill her lungs, felt it grow harder to breathe..._

 _Release. Air. Light. She was submerged underwater, but the sensation of suffocation, of drowning was no longer. She looked around her and saw nothing but the infinite depths of the ocean, and was reminded of her childhood with its stories of Tehome. She looked down and saw darkness, looked up and saw light in a cast of luminescent blue._

 _"To think, Tanarak would have such a dramatic friend. So_ you _are Urd then? Don't answer me." An image came to her mind then, that of a woman, small and ancient, her face wrinkled with age, her hair long and white. She floated in front of her dressed in a parka of thick fur, but she appeared not at all affected by the water around her. "You really are_ Nimiaiaq _then, aren't you?"_

 _She opened her mouth to respond, and was immediately silenced, "Hold your tongue."_

 _She stared at the ancient sea-woman in confusion. The old woman said, "You going after my daughter, are you not? Tanarak? Whom you call Lind?"_

 _She nodded with some caution, and the woman nodded with her. "Good. You understand. I would almost think you were aware of the trial already laid out before you."_

 _She tilted her head at an angle in consideration, and then inclined her head in agreement. Yes, she was aware, though how she'd obtained the knowledge was a mystery to her. Trials always came with those who went after the dead, or the dying, as was Lind's case, but why that trial meant her silence was a mystery to her._

 _"It is because you are in the boundaries between life and death." The woman explained. "A realm I myself know very well. When I was your age, I went hunting with my father. We quarreled, though I can no longer remember why. Fear I think, or anger over my spouse being a-goodness, did he believe it was a dog or a bird? In a rage he threw me from his kayak. When I tried to climb back on, he chopped off my fingers and I sunk into the water, where I drowned. I became the sea and the underworld's guardian together because of that, and my children were born from my fingers-the walrus, the whale, the seal, and others... but that is another story. As I sank drowning I crossed the border between life and death, and hung there for a while. That is where you are now, Child. And like myself, this realm has passed on to you the secrets of the dead and dying."_

 _"You are incomplete." The woman continued, "Not living but not dead. Your people have a term for it, as I recall. Not your father's people. Your mother's. 'Dead but dreaming', do you know it?"_

 _She did. She knew it very well, and the term brought with it a level of fear. That was an old term, an ancient term, used to refer to the Ancient One whose body had laid the foundation for the multi-dimension. 'dead but dreaming'. A state of being alive even in death. Only those of immense power were supposed to fall into it, for they were the Ancient Ones; incapable of life or death for they existed during a time where such concepts did not yet exist. That_ she _, a child born beneath such concepts, might be bound by similar rules was a thought almost too terrifying to contemplate._

 _"Don't be like that. You can stop it at any point." The woman said, "Turn around and leave this borderland and recover as your father wants you to, if this frightens you. But know that Tanarak would remain as she is now, crossing this same boundary into death and leaving us all. She cannot turn back without help, and her path is strange and alien to me; I cannot reach her as I am now." The woman observed her with bright brown eyes. Hopeful eyes, she realized._

 _"Will you leave her?"_

 _Of course not. Lind had saved her life. Lind had become one of her closest friends. She wasn't about to lose that after everything that had happened between the two of them._

 _"Good." The woman smiled, and perhaps there was some relief in her smile as well. "Then know that you are in the Boundaries, and as such you are 'incomplete'. Neither one or the other, and therefore with no Voice of the Living or Voice of the Dead. This is part of your trial, an Oath of Silence, as dictated by powers much greater than me. You understand them, yes? From the time of your near-death and the time of Tanarak's near-death, you have been under oath. You must not speak a word, must not reach out to commune, and instead must only seek and search and hope." The old woman paused then, and in her face agitation and tempered fear danced in a duet. "I can change it a bit." She said, "I can give you one Voice, given that you are seeking_ my _daughter. But you must choose what that voice is."_

 _"You can have the Voice of Life, and reassure your father and your kin that all is well. Commune with them and let them know what trial stands before you. Or...you can have the Voice of Death. You can commune with the spirits you'll meet, and perhaps even those Underworld Gods like me who guide those souls to rest. They may have details on Tanarak's whereabout..." The woman paused there, unable to continue, and it was through such lack of speech that the depth of her fear was made truly evident. The smile on her face wavered, and the woman whispered, "I can't sense her, you know. The Yakone is right above her head and I can't sense her at all. She's already been stolen from me."_

 _The Green Trail._

 _"What is the Green Trail, Child?"_

 _The path that fallen warriors walk. Her step-mother had told tales of it in her youth. There were three trails: The Blue Trail, walked in times of peace. The Red Trail, walked in times of war. The Green Trail, walked by those warriors-Valkyries and others-who'd fallen in combat._

 _"And you believe her there?"_

 _They had fought a monster together. An ultimate destruction program that would have killed a planet if Lind and herself hadn't taken it out. They'd been in...jur...reeddaaaaaAAAAHHHHH._

 _"Child?"_

 _And she didn't know where she was. Her body was alive and screaming in pain, so much_ PAIN. _Her body thrashed and seized and-where was she? Where was the angel eater, the beast she'd fought beside Lind? Where was it? Where? Why was she in so. Much._ Pain _?!_

 _"Chi-"_

 _She thought she saw a person and lunged, certain it was the source of her distress. It'd been a human before. A human and then it'd turned into a monster, and then a... human again? One who'd sought to kill her soul! She was certain! A human shape, one that smelled of_ death, _one that smelled of_ battle _, one of_ hounds _, one that brought despair in its wake, and she would kill it, she would kill it, she would kill it to protect herself and-_

 _"rd!"_

 _And she stopped._ Pabba. _Her_ Pabba _was calling. She thought she could smell him in the darkness, near the shape that reminded her so much of her injuries and which even now sent her keening in pain. Yet she knew that scent, that scent of ash trees and steel. It was a soothing scent, one that eased her pain as if by magic. With it, her rage began to fade as well, and in its wake she was left shaking and afraid. She looked around but didn't see her_ Pabba _anywhere. She almost made the mistake of calling out to him before remembering herself, and what emerged instead was a sad and lonely chirp._

 _The woman appeared before her again, and in her eyes was a great pity. "You have been wounded deeply, haven't you?" She thought she felt something touch her face, a hand maybe, but wasn't certain. She leaned into it all the same and was a little more certain of its tangibility. "And here I am, asking you to risk further injury-death even-by seeking out my daughter." There was anger in the old woman's voice, anger directed towards the old woman herself. "What a selfish old hag I must seem to you. I did not realize the depths of your own injuries. Your very soul is hurting, isn't it?" She thought she felt something stroking her head and sighed heavily. "I should not have come to you for this task. Even with a daughter at risk... death and reincarnation, even if it is not amongst our tribe, is a small loss when compared to a scarred soul."_

 _"I shall speak with the others when you arrive." The woman decided. "You and your father will rest and recover until you have the strength to leave again, and I will find another person to make the journey after Tanarak._

 _She grew alert at once, alarmed when she felt the tangible presence begin to fade. No, no, NO!_ _She couldn't just abandon Lind like that, no!_

 _In her mind the woman was starting to turn, to vanish, only to pause at the last moment. The old woman looked back, and perhaps what she saw was not a deity called 'Urd'. Perhaps it was not even the serpent_ 'Nimiaiaq _'. Perhaps instead what she saw was something else, something a little less god-like and a little more demon-like, or, given the circumstances, perhaps even a great deal more Ancient, for the woman paused and stared for what felt like an eternity._

 _The Voice of the Dead. Let her speak to the dead and to Nidhogg, Yggdrasil, and all the Ancient Ones the consequences of her actions. She'd find Lind and drag that damn Valkyrie back kicking and screaming if that's what was necessary._

 _The old woman pursed her lips, her expression unreadable. "You are still determined to go after her even with such injuries. You care a great deal for Tanarak, don't you?" She smiled a tiny little smile. "...Don't answer that." The woman sucked in a long breath. Bubbles in the water flew into her mouth. "Then for your perseverance...for your desire to save my daughter...and my own weakness in letting you go, allow me to give you two gifts. One you know already, the Voice of the Dead. The other... may keep your soul from deteriorating further, if you would allow it."_

 _And as fate would have it, Urd would._

XXX

Belldandy awoke to the sound of a crying, squirming kitten. She blinked her eyes, and after some adjustment, could tell it was still early. The sun was just starting to illuminate the inside of the tent with its morning rays. She looked down and smiled at the small creature. Even in the few days she had it, she could tell it was putting on weight, which was a good thing. She did have one bottle handy, so she slipped out of her sleeping bag and pulled on a pair of sweat pants. She gathered up her cardigan and what she needed and reached for the tent's zipper before glancing over to Keiichi. The dark-haired man was still sound asleep in his sleeping bag.

She frowned when she saw that the Colt was out, noting that his hand was resting next to it, and wondered idly why he would have gotten it out. A cry from Teabag (she was determined to make that its name) brought her attention back to what she needed to do, so she slowly pulled the zipper to open the tent. She stood and shivered slightly after closing the tent back up. It was a chilly morning for sure. She took her squirming charge and placed him in the pocket of her cardigan that she had purchased for just this purpose. Inside was a rabbit fur lined pouch that would keep the kitten warm.

Teabag's protests indicated he did not want to be in the pouch, he wanted to be fed. Immediately. "Yes, yes, I will get you taken care of," she said, trying to console the small animal. It didn't work.

The goddess took a small pan and added some water to it before placing the bottle she had prepared in it. She then lit the small camp stove and sat the pan on top of it to warm the water, and the bottle inside. As she waited, she glanced around and immediately noted that there was a canopy of cedar branches above their tent. She furrowed her brow for a moment as she could not recall if that was there before when Keiichi set up the tent or not but decided it must have been. She had not paid much attention since she was doing the cooking and did not go into the tent until well after it had gotten dark.

She shrugged and decided to ask Keiichi about it later.

When the bottle was sufficiently warm, she sat down in one of the light chairs they had brought and went about the task of feeding Teabag. He was a good eater, so after only a few moments, not only was the bottle nearly empty, but the kitten's belly had taken on the distinct pear shape associated with a full tummy. She set the bottle aside and went about rubbing its bottom with a wet towel to stimulate it to go to the bathroom. When that was completed, she placed the kitten back into his pouch in her pocket, where he curled up and went to sleep.

This gave the goddess a moment to look out and enjoy the scenery. When she exited the tent, the sun was barely peeking over the horizon, now it was just completely above it. When she looked around, she realized that it had rained the previous night. The smell of the clean forest put her mind at ease and she settled in to relax.

Except she couldn't.

Bolting up out of the chair, Belldandy realized she had forgotten something. It had been difficult, but she was determined to continue the singing that Nebo had prescribed for her. Even though she could not call out Holy Bell, the angel could still sing from within. In fact, the past couple of days, she had sung quietly to herself with the angel joining her in her heart. To her, it was necessary to do that since she did not feel like she had the privacy she had when she was at home. Now, out in the middle of nowhere, she was determined to sing out loud. "For Urd," she said to herself, and began to trudge into the forest.

The trail coming in and out of the campsite was fairly well developed, so it wasn't like she was just going to wander around aimlessly in the woods until she found a place and get lost in the process. In fact, they had passed a location she felt would be good the evening before. It overlooked a cliff that was about twenty feet high. She hoped that the acoustics of the area might allow her to get a good echo and make is seem almost as if she were singing a duet.

Where she stood on the precipice overlooking the small valley below, the sun was at her back. With the sun at her back, It cast a long shadow across the chasm to the other side. The light was just starting to travel down the cliffs on the opposite side some hundred and fifty meters away. She frowned just a bit as she noted a thin mist could be seen nestled along with the evergreens at the bottom. That would hinder the effect she was looking for as the higher humidity would dampen the sound of her voice somewhat. It didn't matter, because she was going to sing her loudest, so that Urd could hear, and hopefully come.

She knew that Keiichi thought Urd was dead. He might not have made peace with it yet, but the certainty in his voice when they spoke about it last had been unmistakable. In truth, Belldandy had thought the same, until the vision. Keiichi would argue otherwise. _It was not a dream,_ she told herself as she scrunched up her face and balled her hands into tight fists. _It was too vivid, too specific for it to have been anything other than the Sight!_

 _"But how did Skuld know you were there?"_

That came from Holy Bell, and Belldandy briefly wondered whose side her angel was on. But she was right, that was an unprecedented event. In all the incidents where she had used her Sight, or it had overcome her, she had never been able to interact with anyone in her visions, and they certainly had never interacted with her. However, Skuld was the strongest of the three when it came to use of the Sight, rivaling even their father in that regard. _It's not outside the realm of possibilities that Skuld is strong enough with the Sight that she could become aware of another user observing her,_ Belldandy replied.

 _"That's a bit of a stretch,"_ her angel reminded her.

"It's not outside the realm of possibilities!" exclaimed Belldandy out loud. When Holy Bell offered no further retort, the goddess looked around again at the scenery around her. "I know she's alive," she said quietly. "Now let us do what we came here to do."

The goddess cleared her throat, then burst out with a series of notes to test the acoustics of the area. As she expected, the echo coming back was quick and high enough to make it sound, at least to her, like two people were actually singing. That was the effect she wanted because in spite of their frequent fights over the matter, she missed the duets with Urd. As she started singing, she held a small hope that if she put her entire heart and soul into it, that Urd might hear.

 _It-suo me rron Risi pahl ste_

 _Menn tom rrom Fresty vome_

 _Tse snoff_

The first part of the song was meant to be a duet, and once again, Belldandy was pleased that the echoes coming back to her gave the impression that two people were singing. She and Urd had sung this once before, and it was beautiful with their voices intertwined. This wasn't perfect, by any means, but it still gave her comfort. She turned her head slightly to the left.

 _Suyaf ta_

 _Safian fe churi_

 _Kiyat-la_

 _To terus tsetnia_

 _Ainen bi_

 _Twu elun Mafto_

 _I fi yun ni rronta sity_

As she sang the first solo portion of the song, all manner of lifeforms around her, from the elk in the woods across the chasm to the caterpillar on a tree behind her, stopped to take in what they were hearing. A grizzly bear down in the valley, fat from the morning's foraging, sat on his hind quarters and looked up the face of the cliff. It could see the goddess above it, and with the sun at her back, it almost looked to the animal as if an angelic creature was behind her, singing along.

Belldandy turned her head back to the right as the second solo portion began.

 _Frres vome risi_

 _Risi mo tsom_

 _Risi men som rrome_

 _I kendio ston_

 _Dhis tomen so_

 _Musweede davi saza_

Once again, the sound reverberated off the valley walls and returned to Belldandy to be her partner in the duet. As the next solo started, she again turned her head and shifted into a lower key.

 _Yazwi toreo_

 _Fizi se hela_

 _Yageto rze i magite_

 _Metwi de elessa_

 _Dei_

 _O midi saqwale e_

 _Span matle qireto e_

 _Onn matle seqwale e_

 _Ize_

This part was for Urd and Urd alone, meant to be sung in a lower key that was more comfortable for the silver haired goddess. Fortunately, Belldandy had enough range in her voice to be able to sing this part as well, albeit not nearly as competently as her sister could. She again shifted her head to finish the song.

 _Secle e_

As she held the final note for an extended time, she hoped against hope that Urd had heard her song and would respond. When she finally let up, though, there was nothing other than the vague movement of the animals as they returned to their daily lives. She let her shoulders sag. _Perhaps tomorrow,_ she thought to herself.

Then, the unmistakable sound of footsteps approaching. They were not coming from up the trail towards their campsite, so it could not be Keiichi coming to check on her. It was also not coming from down the trail, so it was not another hiker. No, they were coming from directly behind her, from inside the forest. They were approaching, and they were heavy. The only person it could be, Belldandy decided, was Urd. In her excitement, she turned to greet her sister.

"Oh my!" she exclaimed as a huge shadow covered her, blotting out the sun.

"Your singing is beautiful!"


	56. Chapter 56 - Green Trail

-56-

 _He came to with a moan, his body alight and screaming with pain. Darkness surrounded him, save for a ring of light somewhere high above his head, and some part of him remembered the mine he'd stepped on in the world above. He'd been on a battlefield, he could remember that, leading a charge against the coalition force of demons and jotun who'd allied to invade a piece of Asgard. They were being led. A demon had done the impossible and united the scattered and war-like demon tribes across Niflheim and even gone a step further in acquiring allies in one of Asgard's oldest enemies. Some new demon... a woman... his father had named her 'battle', though Tyr himself had yet to spot her on the field. He'd... he'd been..._

 _Yggdrasil, everything hurt so much..._

 _He tried to move, to sit up, and instead paid for it with a sharp blast of unfathomable pain. A scream-more a wheeze than a scream-crawled out of his throat before he could stop it, and the strength fled his arms as he collapsed back to the floor once more._

My legs. _He thought._ I don't have my legs anymore. _He tried to look down at himself, but his surroundings were too dark to allow him to see the nose on his face, let alone the rest of his body. It scared him. The man barely had the strength to sit up, and could he feel his legs? Or was that instead just the phantom pain of where his legs had been?_

 _The man squeezed his eyes shut. He could feel sweat running down his face, though whether that was perspiration from fear, pain, or the trapped heat underground was a guess best left to Yggdrasil. The man sucked in a deep and wild breath, and it sounded frantic to Tyr's ears. Scared._ Dying. _He gritted his teeth, his eyes screwed shut against the overwhelming pain, and in the distance, far off above his head, heard the sounds of battle as his brothers and sisters fought against their enemies._ Come on Tyr, _he told himself._ You need to get out of here or you'll die down here. _He ignored the voice of doubt whispering sweet futilities in his ears._ You're already dead. _That voice whispered._ You just haven't realized it.

You won't know until you get some light in here. _Reason won out, and sucking in a deep breath, the man gathered his energy into his palm, igniting it with his mind. Fire exploded in a tight and controlled burst in his hand, and in the sudden light, Tyr saw several things: He saw his legs, whole but severely damaged. He saw the cave he was in, and the roots that lined the cave's innards and prevented the tunnel from collapsing._

 _And he saw the demon's eyes flashing a nocturnal green in the low illumination of his fire._

 _His concentration broke, and the fire went out, leaving him blind and in the dark once more. It'd been fast; a glimpse, yet the image had burned itself into his eyes. A demon, eyes half shut to hide the afterglow of its eyes, crawling towards him from amidst the fallen earth and sand._ Get a light, Fool! _His mind screamed at his inaction, and though his body protested the act a greater burst of flame emerged from his hand. The demon hadn't moved from its spot, and in fact recoiled this time, its lips curled back in a snarl as it looked away from the sudden and blinding light. It was a woman, he saw, her silver hair matted and dirty with soil, her dark skin smudged with earth. Her uniform was like those of the other demons, made of black leather from some kind of native beast and decorated with the claws and fangs of large predators. Bleached-white plant fiber had been laced through the collar, and the edges of the plant fiber had been dyed red with blood-not the demon's but the blood of gods. The rumors were wild that it came from the demons eating the Aesir, though Tyr had never seen the action personally. This one, he saw, was of some kind of high rank; years of watching the enemy had clued Tyr into their ranks, and the claws-like strange_ magatama _almost, identified the woman as some sort of officer. The fingers interwoven between those claws-trophies of past kills-distinguished her as powerful. Only demons who killed high-ranking generals wore the fingers of gods threaded among the claws. Normally it was one, on occasion two._

 _This one had at least twenty._

Well, _the a pessimistic voice whispered in his head,_ if you weren't dead now you will be soon. She'll tear your liver out and have it with a fine wine here under the earth, and no Valkyries will be coming to guide you back to Valhalla.

 _Another one, this one he was afraid to listen to, whispered,_ It's Her. The Demon Lord. The Daimakaicho.

 _Yet that was impossible. The Daimakaicho sat high up in her castle, watching the actions of her armies with her Jotun generals, directing her people under the guidance and experience of the Muspelheim Jotun who excelled in violence and lived for warfare. This had to be an assassin, or perhaps some kind of valor thief. Certainly not the Daimakaicho herself. He'd already be dead if that was the case._

 _Except..._

 _The demon looked like she was injured._

 _It had taken him a moment to realize it. The woman hadn't been crawling towards him. She'd been resting; lying on the ground, much as he had, her injuries not as apparent in the light which even now she shied away from. But he could see it now that his eyes were adjusting. The demon was like him, injured, though her injuries were not limited to the legs as his were. Instead he spotted dark patches along her back, areas that could have been stains from past battles if not for the stained red earth beneath her or the muddy soil that clung to her uniform._

 _Ah._

 _So they were both condemned to a slow death then._

 _A shame. Of all the ways to die, it'd be through succumbing to his injuries with a demon who hadn't been responsible for them dying right next to him. What a depressing death. No dignity, no valor, no glory..._

 _Just...pain, misery, and inevitable death. Possibly through starvation. More likely through dehydration, if neither of them fell to their injuries first. Tyr's eyes darted to the fingers around the woman's neck, then to the red plant fiber. Well...maybe_ she _wouldn't die of starvation._

 _He looked back up at the hole he'd fallen through and winced. No, there was no way anyone would discover him here. Not from his side at least._

 _He looked back at the woman and caught her glowering at him. She hissed at him, then spat something out in her vile demon tongue._

 _Not for her either, Tyr suspected. A noise came from somewhere in the dark, strange and uninviting, like the crackle of a fire combined with hollow screech of dragging metal. Somewhere in the dark yet close enough to be on top of him, yet the light revealed nothing. He looked back at the demon, who watched him with a sneer, and then down at himself._

 _His left hand holding the flame erupted in pain, and it was so intense that he screamed. But why? His hand had been fine a moment ago. And now, Yggdrasil, he watched as the top of his hand split open, watched as his thumb snapped and broke, watched as his ring finger fell and rotted off and-_

A static chirp from a radio woke Tyr from his rest. The man cracked one eye open, for a moment uncertain where he was or how he'd gotten there. _Was I captured?_ The metal walls of the horse trailer certainly reminded him of a demon's cell, and by Yggdrasil, his body certainly hurt in a way that he would have attributed to a battle against a legion of demons. His body felt stiff and cold, and his hand throbbed painfully, pulsing alongside new aches and pains that engulfed his arms. The cloth that covered them was torn, the edges stained red with blood, and that not-quite-awake side of him wondered what demon he'd wrestled with that had left him so horribly shredded.

A voice piped up from the walkie-talkie that was at his side. _"'Ey Odinson, we're coming into Dawson City."_ Aaja's voice was strange and alien over the radio. " _You still up for some poutine?"_ Tyr stared at the black box, his mind still playing catch-up as he rubbed his eyes with his bandaged hand. He shifted his gaze, wincing as the trailer jostled and rattled over a rough patch of terrain. Next to him one of the twins-Pilip-roused against him, yawning mightily as the boy sat up. The youth grabbed the radio while Tyr continued to stare at it. Pressing down on one of the comm buttons, the child held up the radio for Tyr to speak.

Tyr sent the kid a small, grateful smile. "I would not object to food." He said, then looked at the boy. Pilip released the hold-to-talk button.

The line chirped again. _"Okay, sounds good. We're gonna make a quick pit stop and then we'll go and get some food."_

"A pit stop?" Tyr looked at Pilip with a furrowed brow. They boy shrugged but offered no comment. Aaja said nothing else, and awake now, Tyr turned his attention back to his daughter. Urd remained asleep, allowing the man time to re-examine her injuries. What he saw made him uneasy. The bite wound on Urd's stomach had worsened while he'd slept. The flesh surrounding the injury was swollen and inflamed with infection, and the pus that had started to gather was a sickly yellow. Red streaks were starting to appear against the surrounding hide, and though the infected area was small now, the possibility that it might spread further scared him. A look at the bite wound on Urd's left flank showed much the same.

The other injuries at least were uninfected; the arrow puncture on Urd's left brow had hardened into a black scab, and there was no sign of swelling in the flesh around it. The larger wound from Gungnir's strike looked deep, but similar to the arrow wound showed no signs of infection. The cut in her right haunch was shallow, but long, and though there was no infection here the wound had worsened over their travels with the _tuuvak._

When the examination was complete, Tyr leaned back on his haunches and sighed. _Infected injuries, refusal to eat, elemental exposure...at this point it's a miracle she's lasted this long,_ he thought, and felt a heated spike of anger curl in his gut. Here sat Tyr, the Daitenkaicho, Lord of the Gods, hand-picked as the Almighty Himself and the feller of opponents great and small. And what could he do for his daughter? _Nothing._

 _Would that I was a healer rather than a warrior..._ A strange thought. All his life he'd found pride in his craft as a soldier, a warrior, a champion of the gods and a man with few equals. He could defend himself, defend his family, and bring honor and greatness to his family name through trials of combat and of strength. Yet here, in the presence of his injured daughter it all seemed so...useless. He had never had any interest in the healing arts, never held the practice with any kind of personal value to himself. Healers were for children, civilians, and the weak and dying. Not for warriors such as himself. Yet if he could suddenly trade it all...Sacrifice his knowledge, his skill, his prowess at killing for the lone opportunity to _heal,_ if only for a _moment_ so that his daughter might recover...

 _And to think I once thought there was no value in Urd's desire to become a Tic, while here I am centuries later wishing_ I _was one._ Tyr shook his head at his own frivolous thoughts. He didn't like the depression that came with those thoughts.

The trailer came to a slow stop, and Pilip sprang up, walking to one of the small windows and jumping to see what was outside. The window stood at twice the boy's height, and after watching him a moment, Tyr stood to join him, placing his thoughts to the side for a moment. "Need a boost?" Tyr asked.

They boy looked over his shoulder at the man in silence. Tyr watched the boy's eyes dart down to his bandaged left hand, then back to Tyr himself. "...It's okay." The boy said. " _Akkaga_ said we were in Dawson City. I've been through here enough times to know what it looks like." He hesitated a moment longer, and then moved out of the way of the window. "...but this is new for you, right? You should look outside! It's, um..." The boy scowled. "The buildings are different. _Akkaga_ likes to say they're a, a, 'snapshot in time'."

"Is that so?" Tyr raised a dark eyebrow, charmed by the little boy's kindness. He humored the boy, squinting outside the window, and frowned. Though the glass was dirty, the god was still able to make out some of their surroundings and was surprised by the sudden and distinct lack of snow in the area. "This is..."

"We're in Canada." Pilip supplied. "It's... different from where we picked you up. Um... Kishi can explain it better."

"Kishi?" Tyr looked down at the boy.

"My sister." Pilip said, "It's her nickname."

"Ah." Tyr looked back out the window. The 'City' was small, the buildings painted in bright and cheery reds and greens, blues and pinks. Wooden signs hung from roof shingles with business names carved out and painted in... reds, in yellows, in blacks painted on white painted boards. The buildings stood tall and blockish at two stories, some holding a balcony lined with a white-painted banister that occasionally boasted flags, blankets, or streamers. Cars and trucks were parked alongside the main road the horse trailer traversed, and on occasion a vehicle passed them going the opposite direction. At one point, a large truck passed them. A boy's face peered up at Tyr from the back window and smiled, and when Tyr blinked the boy was replaced with a large, wolf-like dog. He watched the vehicle vanish out of view before the trailer lurched back into motion.

Tyr almost lost his balance. Pilip grabbed his right arm and steadied him. "Did you see the Yukon River?" The boy asked.

"Just the hills in the background." Tyr replied. "No snow." Nothing but an ocean of dark evergreens populating the hillside in a manner that was so similar to home it hurt.

"No." Pilip agreed. "It's summertime, so the snow won't come here for a little while. It's why the town is so empty. Nobody really wants to come to Dawson City unless it's during dogsledding season. I know. My papa and my mama both compete in the race. We come down here to cheer them on every year."

Kshitija awoke soon after that. The little girl sat curled up near Urd's chest, humming softly and apparently unconcerned with her close proximity to the Tendee aspect that was Tyr's daughter. The little girl was digging around in her backpack, where she pulled out first a small thermos and then a rectangular case. The girl looked up at Tyr as she unscrewed the top of her thermos. "Would you like some tea?" She asked.

"You have tea?" Holding his arms out for balance, Tyr carefully walked back to his daughter's resting form, then took a careful seat beside Urd's head. As if sensing him, Urd shifted in her sleep, pressing her head against Tyr's leg. Avoiding the horns that had ruined his left hand, Tyr rested the stump of his right against the Tendee's muzzle and felt Urd sigh deeply.

Pilip took a seat next to his sister, eyeing the long talons at the end of Urd's paws with awe. "Yeah..." He said, "Mama won't let us have coffee or chocolate, so _Akkaga_ has to give us either soup or tea if we want something warm for the long travel."

"What kind of tea is it?" Tyr asked.

"Jasmine." Kshitija replied. "We have an auntie who lives down in the Lower Forty-Eight. She sends us tea as gifts." The girl poured a cup of clear liquid, the steam still rising from the cup, and then offered it to Tyr, forgetting the state of his hands.

Tyr accepted it all the same, ignoring the guilty look the girl passed him as he reached to take it with his bandaged hand. His fingers hurt trying to grip it. He ignored it and instead steadied the small cup with his right arm. "What is the 'Lower Forty-Eight'?" He asked, stopping the girl before she could make a fuss over her own carelessness.

"It's the lower forty-eight States." Pilip replied. "Alaska and Hawaii are the other two. Auntie lives in Seattle. She's part of the Army." There was some pride in his voice. "She's a Colonel."

"We've only seen her a couple of times." Kshitija continued, "She's always traveling. Mama said she goes down to The Desert a lot."

"Is that so?" Tyr asked, "What does she do?"

At this the twins shrugged. "Army Stuff." They said together. "She's like Captain America, but _real_."

Tyr hummed in soft agreement, then maneuvered the thermos cup to his lips. After several days of half-frozen water and tough, hard jerky meat, the tea was a welcome warmth. Jasmine. It reminded him of Belldandy. _At least that's one daughter I no longer need to worry about._ He thought.

It was another ten minutes before the trailer came to a complete stop. The twins perked up in interest, and the radio squawked once more, signaling Aaja's announcement. _"Hey Odinson, hang tight and bundle up. I'm coming to open up the trailer. I gotta friend with me."_

The twins tensed at the word 'friend', and before Tyr could react Kshitija had lurched forward and grabbed the radio. " _Akkaja,_ it's not Doctor Hafez, is it?!" She exclaimed, and Pilip scooted closer to her. Both of them looked upset. _"Akkaja,_ you said we were getting _poutine!_ Not a _shot!_ "

Tyr stared at the two children in bewilderment. At his side Urd stirred, awoken by the loud protest of the children. The radio chirped again, and Aaja's voice came across the other end, " _I didn't lie to you. We are getting poutine. Right after you two get your booster shots and we get Odinson's daughter looked at."_

The twins' loud and vocal cry of _"Nooo!"_ was enough to cause Urd to raise her head, looking at them both in something as close to a glare as Tyr suspected she'd ever get in her current form.

"Easy, Urd." Tyr murmured. Urd's long neck curled around him as if seeking assurance.

The children kept complaining. "I don't want to get a _shot_!" Pilip cried. "It's gonna hurt! We're gonna get sick and then we won't be able to play anymore!"

"I don't want to go into Doctor Hafez's clinic!" Kshitija looked close to tears. "It smells funny and I don't like it!"

Tyr, for his part, could only thank Yggdrasil his youngest was past this stage in her life. "Hey now, hold on a minute!" He raised his voice just enough to gain the children's attention, and found two pairs of watery blue eyes staring up at him. "You need to be brave, okay?" He told them, his mind racing. A doctor? Wasn't that a TIC? They were going to see a doctor _here_? "My girl is hurt and sick too, and she's probably going to be getting a lot more shots than either of you. Are you going to scare her and cry when this doctor comes? Or are you going to be brave and fearless like..." He paused and thought for a moment, "Like your auntie in Seattle?"

"Auntie doesn't have to get shots." Pilip muttered, looking away with a scowl.

"I can almost guarantee you she does." Tyr replied, thinking back to his own days in the Aesir military. "Probably more than one at a time too." His own personal record had been five one day, all in the same arm. Not the worst thing he'd ever experienced, but also not something he ever wished to repeat. "Can you be brave like your auntie?" He continued, "Can you be brave for Urd?"

That seemed to grab their attention. "...For _Nimiaiaq_?" Kshitija asked, and Tyr nodded. He ignored the look Urd was giving him, which if he was reading right was along the lines of unamused exasperation.

The twins looked at each other, then craned their heads up to look at Urd. Pilip scrubbed at his eyes. Kshitija grabbed her brother's hand. Both appeared to steel themselves. "We-we can do that." Pilip said, and then in a softer voice whispered, "I _guess_..."

"Thank you." Tyr replied, and turned to look at the trailer door as the lock disengaged. With a metallic screech it pulled open, and Tyr heard Aaja's voice addressing another.

"...et ready, Haf. This ain't no horse."

"Wonderful." Another man spoke up, his voice light and musical and with an accent that Tyr couldn't quite place. "What have you brought to me this time? A bear? A wolverine? How about the upset moose mother you brought to me last winter with its calf that had a broken leg?"

"I didn't know she'd destroy your car, Haf."

"Your people _eat_ those things! Why would you bring it to my clinic?" Tyr saw Aaja smiling nervously as he pulled open the doors to the trailer. He saw another man, dressed in a light sweater, blue jeans, and black rubber boots glaring at Aaja, and then the man turned to look into the trailer.

Tyr's eyes met the good Doctor Hafez ab-Rafal, the lone veterinarian of Dawson City and realized two things: The first, that the man he stared at was indeed that-a man, as mortal as the sun was old-and the second, that whatever Doctor Hafez saw in the trailer was not Tyr and Urd as Aaja saw them.

The words died in the doctor's throat. His jaw fell slack. His eyes widened. A weak and pitiful noise came from his throat as the man's skin, a complexion much like Urd's human form, paled. _"A_ _llah yarhamuni."_ The man wheezed, and to Tyr the words sounded like, _"God take mercy on me."_

And then the man screamed, " _Ifrit!"_ wrestled the metal door from Aaja's grip, and slammed the trailer door shut.

Those inside the trailer winced at the screech. Pilip shared a look with his sister, then stared at Tyr. "I thought _you_ were a god."

Tyr looked back at the child. "I thought I was too," he said in all honesty.

Kshitija bounced on her butt, the only person present smiling. "Does this mean we don't get a shot?" she asked excitedly.

Outside, Tyr could hear quite clearly the rising voice of the mortal. " _Aaja, you ass! You-you shoe!_ Ya gazma yibn ig-gazma! _You make an appointment to give your puppies their anti-rabies shots and instead you bring me an_ Ifritjinn _and its familiar! What is_ wrong _with you?!"_

In the silence that followed, Tyr thought he heard Aaja's response. " _A lot._ "

Urd huffed. To Tyr it was probably the closest thing to laughter he'd heard from Urd since her shift to Tendee.

Tyr offered the thermos cup back to Kshitija, who took it with a cheerful smile, still under the impression that she no longer had to get a shot. The god climbed to his feet, leaning against Urd to keep his balance. He then proceeded towards the trailer's door. As the man grew closer he caught more bits of dialogue from the two men outside. " _I should beat you with the sole of my boot!"_ Doctor Hafez was working diligently to keep his voice quiet despite his anger. Tyr respected the man for that. It was by no means an easy feat to keep one's voice from raising in public when upset with another person.

 _"Hafez, they need help-"_ Aaja began.

 _"_ You _need help for aiding_ Ifrit! _"_ Hafez interrupted. " _Has no one ever told you the dangers of_ IfritJinn _? They will steal your soul!"_

 _"Hafez..."_ Aaja sounded exasperated. " _They aren't genies."_

" _This I know, you Son of a Boot! They are Ifrit! Ifrit are worse than genies-much worse!"_

 _"Please Hafez, they need help."_ Aaja insisted. _"Look, I wouldn't have come to you if I didn't believe you could help them."_

Tyr observed the handle to the trailer's door, then pressed his right stump down on it and pushed it open. The door sailed open with another long screech, and Daitenkaicho Tyr Odinson stared down at the good doctor Hafez ab-Rafal and said, "My daughter is dying. Please help us."

XXX

Rat-a-tat-tat-tat.

Rat-a-tat-tat-tat.

Rat-a-tat-tat-tat.

Keiichi's eyes opened groggily to the sound of a woodpecker banging away at the trees above him. He noted the time when he glanced at his watch, then looked around and frowned as it seemed like it was darker than maybe it should be at almost eight o'clock in the morning. He yawned and stretched his arms, then smacked his lips a couple of times to try to alleviate the dryness in his mouth that had settled in. He looked over to where Belldandy had been lying and felt a split second of panic when he realized that she was not there. That subsided almost instantly when he recalled that she had woken him momentarily to let him know she was going to go out and sing.

That had been nearly two hours ago.

He had stayed awake after she left, figuring she would not go too far in the unfamiliar woods. He was rewarded for his patience when he heard her singing not too far off. For a moment, it almost seemed as if Urd were singing as well, but he had immediately pushed down that thought. _No need for false hopes,_ he said to himself. It apparently had not been long after she started that he had fallen back to sleep.

Figuring she was probably sitting on the ground outside, Keiichi first stowed his Colt before slipping out of his sleeping bag. He rummaged around in his pack for some clean clothes, dressed himself, then zipped open the tent flap and crawled out. As he stood, he looked around.

No Belldandy.

Frowning to himself, he bent down and zipped up the tent. When he stood up again, he was confronted with the second oddity of the day, the first being Bell's absence. An intricate network of tree boughs and branches had been somehow woven together over the tent. It was dense enough that he could not even see through it when he inspected it from the underside. The top was still quite wet from the rain the previous night. "So that's why it stopped last night," he said to himself out loud.

Indeed, he had been too tired to notice last night, but the storm had continued on long after the rain had stopped pelting the tent. He had chalked it up to it being a small rain squall in a lightning storm. But that was not the case. He could see all around him the evidence that there had been more. A lot more. Many of the trees, especially those in the direction he assumed the storm came from had multiple broken branches, some as large as his arm. He quickly trotted off in the direction of where he had stashed their food in a tree to keep it away from bears, only to find the branch he had secured it to on the ground along with their bag. Fortunately, it did not look like any animals had found it.

He picked up the sack and threw it over his shoulder and trudged the forty yards or so back to their camp. As he approached, he contemplated what he had to do to track down Belldandy when he found said goddess standing next to the tent. "Oh, hey, where have you been?" he asked as he trotted up to her.

"Well," she said as she pursed her lips nervously. "I have been speaking to someone I met on the trail."

"Oh really? Whooo..."

They say that whether they be baseball strikes, poison ivy leaves, or celebrity deaths, things come in threes. Keiichi's eyes drifted skyward as the third odd thing that morning approached him. It was almost as if it had materialized out of the branches and foliage behind his girlfriend. One moment, dense impenetrable forest. The next, a reddish-brown bipedal creature almost ten feet tall was there, walking toward him on monstrously huge feet.

Keiichi's eyes went wide as his face paled. He fell down onto his back and started to crab walk away from it as fast as he could. "Ho-holy shit, you mean those things are real?!"

The Sasquatch stepped to Belldandy's left and stopped. It stood there for a moment regarding Keiichi, then fell back, landing on its rump. The impact shook the ground around it. It reached out its arms and turned it hands up in a placating gesture. "Whoa there! It's all right! Didn't mean to scare ya!" it said in English.

The dark-haired man's mouth simply fell open in shock. He tore his gaze away from the creature for a moment to look at Belldandy. She only looked back with worried eyes. "Y-You mean that fucking thing can talk?!"

"Hey hey, now, no need to be break'in out the naughty words," the Sasquatch chided him.

Belldandy was less forgiving. "Keiichi, have some manners!" she scolded.

Not finding any help from her, he looked back to the beast. It almost reminded him of that huge guy that he took down when he was first transported to Japan to rescue Belldandy. Square shaped face with a huge unibrow. Barrel shaped chest with cannon arms, and monstrous legs.

Only bigger.

It turned to Belldandy and shook its head, an action that seemed to take considerable effort considering its size and lack of a neck due to how much musculature it had. "Nope nope, no worries there Miss Belldandy. I get's that all the time!" It then turned to look back to Keiichi, who just stared back, dumbfounded. "So to answer your question; yes, we are real, although not in a way you would expect. And to answer your next question, this is not a mushroom induced hallucination."

Keiichi frowned as he started to get up. Belldandy quickly stepped forward and offered a hand. "I didn't eat any mushrooms," he said as she hauled him to his feet.

"And good for you on that! Crazy things they is," said the creature as it gestured to Keiichi. "Gets your mind going all weird-o-wonk-a-donk. Like this one time, this _heyoka_ tricked me into eatin'…."

As the creature spoke, the story became more and more unintelligible. Keiichi turned to the goddess. "Um, Belldandy?"

Without having to say any more, Belldandy could tell that he was in search of an explanation. "He's a tree spirit, they watch over the forests."

Some recognition came to Keiichi's face. "Do they protect them like the Ents from Lord of the Rings?"

"Uhh..." Belldandy thought for a moment as the Sasquatch continued.

"…and the stars went WHOOOSH, and the ground came up and…"

"I have not seen this, Lord of the Rings," replied Belldandy quietly as the monologue continued. "But if they lived and communed with the forests, then yes."

"So he protects it as well?" asked Keiichi.

"Maybe not as actively as you might think," replied the almond haired goddess. "Unlike most terrestrial spirits, tree spirits' lives are finite. They are born and die just like mortals. However, unlike most mortals, when they die, they are immediately reincarnated with their previous knowledge intact. I am told that the process can be very painful to endure, so they tend to be very reclusive and…" She glanced over at the Sasquatch.

"…that was some strong gas com'in outah my butt that day. Then there was…"

As it continued, Belldandy searched for the right word. "Eccentric," she said finally.

"You mean batshit crazy?" replied Keiichi with a smile.

Belldandy frowned at Keiichi but could not disagree. "Umm, you could say that?" The goddess conceded. She then turned back to the Sasquatch. "Umm, sir?"

"…needless to say, he's not mah friend anymore." The creature blinked as if coming out of a trance, then looked down at Belldandy. "Oh, sorry, yes?"

"What was it that you said we should call you?" She asked.

"Well..." The creature paused to think for a moment. "You can call me George."

"George?" Replied Keiichi with a frown. "That's a pretty... common name. I thought you would have a name that was a little more… exotic?"

George smiled, a big toothy grin that showed his huge, yellowing teeth. "Oh, I gots one of those too!"

Keiichi mulled that over for a moment before he asked, "Lemme guess, I cannot pronounce it?"

"No, no, you could pronounce it," replied the huge creature. He then shrugged his shoulders in a way that almost seemed human. "I just prefer George!"

Keiichi opened his mouth to say something, but then thought better of it for fear of starting George off on another monologue. This caused an awkward silence to settle on the trio that wore on a lot longer than Keiichi would have liked. As he looked to George, the creature seemed to be looking back expectantly, but about what, the dark-haired man could not fathom. As the seconds wore on, though, George's gaze became unfocused, as if he were looking off into some netherworld that neither Keiichi or Belldandy were privy to. As this happened, his entire body seemed to cloak itself.

 _Maybe cloak is not the right word_ , thought Keiichi. It wasn't that George was becoming invisible, it was more that the hair on his body began to change. Instead of brown, matted fur, it morphed into the shape of leaves or took on the consistency of the bark on trees. In some cases, the colors changed in such a way as to almost be invisible. It took Keiichi a moment to realize it wasn't that, more that it was taking on the same hues of what was behind it since some of the colors and even the shape resembled that of Keima's tent. After a few moments, the effect was so pronounced that the Sasquatch was almost invisible.

 _Like a chameleon,_ Keiichi thought. _Or a cuttlefish. No wonder no one has seen one up close._

Belldandy was the one who put an end to it. "George?"

All at once, the Sasquatch's coloration returned to the brownish-red color it was before. His attention immediately snapped to Belldandy. "Oh, sorry, that kind-a just happens," he said sheepishly. "I actually has to think about how I look, otherwise I go all Predator on ya."

"I think Keiichi understands," replied the goddess with a smile. "I believe you had something to ask him about?"

"Right, right!" George scooted a little closer to Keiichi. He cupped his hand and whispered. "I sometimes have issues talking to humans, you know, because of those Bigfoot Hunter shows where the guys run out into the woods and make all these obnoxious sounds like they think that's what I sound like and all." He chuckled and smiled. "You know, there was this one time I messed with them by-"

"George!" Belldandy snapped.

The Sasquatch blinked and diverted its attention to the goddess. "Yes?"

"Focus."

"Right," George replied and looked back to Keiichi. "So as I was saying," it said louder this time, "that I have this issue that I need help with."

Keiichi frowned. "You need help from me?"

"Well, normally the goddess would be able to do it all, but since she's without her powers and all, and she did vouch for you that you were good people and..."

 _Chalk up my first entry in the Big Book of Weird Norn Shit, Volume 2,_ Keiichi thought to himself as George rambled on. "What do you need help with?"

"Oh, you'll help! Good deal!" Exclaimed George happily as he shifted and started to get up. "It's a great day for human-sasquatch relations," he continued as he reached his feet. From where he was standing, Keiichi again marveled at the Sasquatch's size as he towered over the man. George reached down and gently patted Keiichi on his head, his hand engulfing the dark haired man's entire scalp. "Right, let's get going then, chop chop!"

Keiichi frantically looked at Belldandy, then back to George. "Wait, we need to break camp!"

"Oh, don't worry about that," replied George as he started to walk towards the tree line. "Thom and Geri will watch over things. You should be back before sundown."

It took a moment for Keiichi to realize George was talking about two of the trees that they had happened to camp under. He also realized something very important that the Sasquatch had neglected to tell him. "WAIT! You didn't say what you needed help with?" In spite of the fact George was still relatively close, Keiichi felt the need to raise his voice partially due to frustration at getting drafted into this, as well as the fact he already was having trouble keeping track of George. The creature's camouflage went active immediately upon reaching the trees. Keiichi could only just barely make out his outline as he walked, and that was only because he knew the Sasquatch was there.

And he got no answer to his question.

Quickly, he looked to Belldandy. "Can you see him any better than I can?"

"Yes," replied the goddess. "I can see him clearly in spite of the fact I have no powers."

"Great, go on and I will catch up," he said as he trotted to the tent. "I need to get a few things."

"Ok," replied the goddess as she followed George into the undergrowth as Keiichi unzipped the tent and started rummaging through it for the items he needed.

XXX

Hafez ab-Rafal had seen a lot in his life. He'd lived under the rule of the Haqqani Network until he was thirteen, when one of the Haqqani brothers had been taken out by foreign soldiers near the Afghani-Pakistani border. He'd seen his father, uncles, and cousins load trucks with fertilizer and had fallen asleep to the sound of gunshots rattling off in the far distance. He'd seen women disappear, men disappear, and whole families extinguished by improvised explosive devices left unmarked in the road frequented by the United States military, and had sat and listened with his brothers and sisters as the local Imam filled their ears with hate towards the 'Western Devils' who desecrated their land.

Yet he'd seen more than just the violence.

Hafez ab-Rafal, though he would never speak it to anyone, even his own children, and seen _jinn_. At the well in which his childhood self would go and draw water, he had seen one at the bottom, swimming along like a fish with scales that cast rainbows against the stone walls. It had looked at him-five at the time-with eyes like a cat before smiling at him with teeth like a wolf's and dipping beneath the surface. When he'd run back to his father to pass on the news, he had scared everyone in the village, and the well had been sealed for the protection of everyone involved. The _Imam_ was brought forth to cast the creature out, and when later a group of foreign military came-these ones British instead of the typical American-the well was uncovered once more.

The soldiers had gotten sick on the well water, and when they returned with more men to investigate, they found a dead dog in the well. Only Hafez had not seen a dead dog, no, not he. What Hafez had seen on that day was the dead _jinn_ , its body bloated and rotting, its ribs exposed, its tongue, almost serpentine in nature, black and swollen in its head. The soldiers said it must have fallen in there and drowned, then contaminated the water when it began to decompose.

But Hafez knew the truth.

The _jinn,_ trapped beneath the wood and stone and attacked by the spirit of the _Imam,_ had died. And with its death, so too had the good water gone bad.

Hafez learned a hard lesson that day. One that haunted him from his childhood onward, roaming his dreamscape with such persistence that no amount of prayer seemed capable of vanquishing it. The boy of that time feared he was cursed; cursed for speaking of the _jinn's_ home and cursed by its death, where the creature, of the Second Race and a force of nature itself, had died because of his poor choices.

That was just the start.

He'd begun to see more _jinn_ after that: on the wind as a sandstorm began to kick up, their appearance like that of great Rocs merged with men. In the billowing smoke following another explosion somewhere along the roads near the village, the big, black plumes forming faces that sneered down at him before vanishing. In the winter's snow, where he would follow his father into the mountains and see eyes peering at him when the world was still and silent.

Even, on the rare occasion, riding on the large Humvees of foreign soldiers heading to their local Eff-oh-be's.

And as the Haqqani Network recruited more and more of the village's men, as the _Imam_ grew more and more radicalized, as the explosions grew ever closer to his village and fewer and fewer people returned to their homes, Hafez learned silence. He learned to keep his head down, and to not draw the eye of his peers as he grew.

When he was fifteen the violence became too much, and his father took him and his mother and his sisters and fled the country, seeking shelter first in Pakistan before migrating to Canada as refugees.

For the teenage Hafez, it came as a relief, for surely such a strange and foreign place as Canada had no _jinn_ which could haunt him.

May he be granted Allah's mercy, how wrong he was.

Canada, as it turned out, had its own brand of _jinn;_ great beasts which resembled wolf and man, gigantic rocs which blew in storms, terrifying badgers made of the earth itself, moose whose antlers held the stars, seals who removed their skin and became like men, and most terrifying of all the bears who walked like men, dragging their meals off to dens on two legs instead of four. It terrified him, knowing he was surrounded by so many beasts, and for many, many years afterwards he lived in constant fear that his secret-that he could see the Second Race-would be discovered.

It was not until, through much caution and twice as much discretion, he broached the subject to a kind _Mullah_ who'd fled Libya during the Arab Spring. A _Mullah_ with a very...different outlook on life, and one who perhaps even held a similar sensitivity to Hafez himself. It was from the _Mullah_ that the possibility arose that he was not cursed, but rather gifted; granted a rare and unique ability by _Allah_ Himself to see those _jinn_ who controlled the natural world, and to put his gift to use by aiding the invisible Second Race.

He became a veterinarian after much trial and error, and opened a small clinic in Dawson City where he could practice his craft. He never forgot the _jinn_ that had died in his well, and so it should have been no surprise to him that his first patient was a spirit in a similar body: a _jinn_ adorned in the coat of a sled dog, a husky who, from what his adopted family claimed, had been found in the aftermath of a storm, and had been with them ever since.

The _jinn_ had been grateful, and surprisingly tolerant of Hafez's poking and prodding when the man explained his intent. It was perhaps the first time in since the _jinn_ in the well that Hafez found peace. And as his business grew... as he obtained more clients, so too did he learn more about the native _jinn_. He even befriended one, a tundra _jinn_ with a love of horses who became a frequent visitor and who oftentimes brought him spirits in need of aid.

Yet this...

He'd never handled an _Ifrit jinn_ before.

Before him, the eyes of the _Ifrit_ flared and danced, twin torches of flames cast from within the depths of the _jinn's_ skull. "Please," The _Ifrit's_ voice was deep and foreboding, and more frightening still, it spoke Pashtun, the native language of his home village. "She needs help." Horns sprouted from the _Ifrit's_ head, his coal-black flesh broken by veins of seething red power. "Anything you can do will be repaid. I promise you, you will be rewarded." Black plumes of smoke poured from the orifices of the spirit's face: the mouth, the nose, the ears and the eyes. The _djin_ stepped forward.

Hafez stumbled backwards, and almost fell to the wet and muddy ground beneath him. He was caught by the tundra _jinn_ whom he'd befriended years earlier, a creature with a brown hide and a caribou's head. "'Ey, easy Hafez. _Abn'Awdyn's_ a good guy. His girl's hurting pretty bad."

 _Abn_ '? 'Son of'? There was an _Ifrit_ even greater than the one before him _now?!_ If anything, the _jinn's_ name awoke only further anxiety, and as the spirit raised its hands Hafez feared he might scream. One of its hands was a broken, crystalline shard, its tip ending in a vicious spike that looked more than capable of skewering Hafez, the moose _jinn_ Aaja, and the trailer's steel walls with little effort. There were signs of similar crystallization on the spirit's other hand.

The _Ifrit_ paused midstep, as though sensing the vet's distress. To Hafez, this was of little surprise; the _Ifrit_ were of the most powerful of _jinn_ and were renowned for their magical prowess. That the entity could sense his emotions made him dangerous, for the _Ifrit_ was, like many other _jinn_ , a Trickster above all else, and would go out of its way to look and act in a particular fashion if it meant getting what it wanted.

"Aaja," Hafez's voice was a whisper. "You have been spirited away by the _Ifrit."_ What had the entity promised Aaja that would have the caribou-man bring the _Ifrit_ to the vet's clinic? The man's eyes drifted past the terrible figment, coming to rest on the _jinn_ behind it. Though its body was large, the aura that housed it was weak when compared to the _Ifrit_. It was serpentine in nature, its body long and somehow soft, as if the creature was not solid and whole but something else entirely. To the vet, it brought to mind the strange phenomenon of virga, where rain evaporated before hitting the ground, or fog dissipating beneath the rising sun. Its eyes danced like lightning, and bolts of white electricity formed a mane of wild hair down the length of its long neck. Some kind of storm _jinn_ then. A storm serpent-another new spirit Hafez had never encountered before.

It looked ill.

No... 'ill' was a bad choice in wording. 'Lessened' was better; it was as if the creature was some how not as tangible as Aaja, or the _Ifrit_ , or the puppies next to it or even Hafez himself. It seemed almost as though the creature was fading in a very literal sense before the man's eyes, as if the strange virga-like consistency of its being was consuming more and more of its form, until there would be nothing left of the creature.

The man remembered the _jinn_ in the well and felt a wave of old guilt and shame crash down upon his shoulders. He glanced back at the _Ifrit_ , who observed him in silence. "You say it is your daughter?" He asked slowly. The fiery entity nodded. An _Ifrit_ that could produce children? That saw in the creation of this familiar, this...lesser _jinn,_ as one of its own? A preposterous thought if ever there was one, but by Allah's grace here was one before him now.

"She was attacked." The _Ifrit_ continued. "My own power was unable to protect her, and I hold little knowledge of the healing arts. She needs help. I fear her condition is worsening."

"C'mon Hafez." Aaja placed a hand on his shoulder. It was covered in short, tan hair. "I wouldn't have brought 'em to you if I thought they'd hurt you, and I know you got some crazy healing touch. You'd be doing a good thing." Hafez looked back at the creature, meeting his friend's watery brown eyes.

 _Was it not Allah Himself who created the three races?_ He thought to himself, _The Angels first out of light, and then the second race, of smokeless fire, the jinn? Were we not created last and were all three of our races not designed to serve Allah?_

The man looked back to the serpentine jinn. It rested calmly on its stomach, observing its audience with a gaze like vicious lightning yet with an almost peaceful composition. _Did not Allah create you to soothe the wounds of the Second Race?_ He thought. "What is your name?" He asked it.

"Her name is _Al Khabir_." The _Ifrit_ rumbled.

"Her name is _what_?" Hafez jumped, startled to hear one of the Nintey-nine names of Allah emplaced on the form of a djinn. _Al_ _Khabir_. The All-Aware.

"I said her name is Urd." The _Ifrit_ repeated. "And I am-"

 _'_ Tyr' was what the name Hafez heard with his ears, however his mind translated it into _Al Fattaah._ Another familiar Name. The Ultimate Judge. The Giver of Victories.

The Opener of Portals.

Hafez smiled nervously, growing more and more uncomfortable the longer he stayed in the presence of the _jinn_. It was sacrilegious to use the names of _Allah_ as a personal title, and a trait he would associate with those non-Muslim _jinn_ who were so often labeled as 'devils'. Not like Aaja, who was ignorant of the Qur'an, but of those who know the word of Allah and chose instead to ignore it. The _Ifrit_ were often associated with such devils, though on a rare occasion they could be seen as good.

This one though...

"Tell me, do you know the voice of Allah, Abn'Awdyn _?_ " Hafez asked, and decided to base his decision on the _Ifrit's_ answer. If Abn'Awdyn-Hafez was uncomfortable with the name Tyr after its association to one of the Ninty-Nine Names of Allah-answered honestly, and was a good Muslim _jinn,_ then he would help. Yet if there was any hint of dishonesty, any sign that Hafez was being tricked...

"I know the voice of Allah." Abn'Awdyn said. He sounded cautious, a strange emotion to hear from such a terrible being, and what was worse was the strange echo in its voice, as if again Hafez was hearing two words at the same time. "I know ( _the Daitenkaicho's)_ Allah's voice very well. I have always been close to it, and taken the words of ( _the Daitenkaicho)_ Allah very seriously."

Hafez stared at the _Ifrit_ for a long, long time, uncertain of what to believe and incapable of making sense of the secondary words he was hearing. He missed completely when the storm _jinn_ climbed to its feet and crept forward, followed on either side by a puppy that barely came up to the man's calves. Its talons, long and silver, tapped against the steel floor of the trailer, and Hafez yelped when the _jinn_ appeared next to the _Ifrit,_ pressing against the entity with a curious care as it observed the man with white-violet eyes.

This close, the wounds upon its body, before unnoticed in the vet's fear of the _Ifrit_ , were laid bare in front of Hafez. Here he saw the smoldering wound on the brow, the split temple, the infected injury along her stomach, the infected bite on the left flank, and the slice, as though cut by a knife, along the right haunch. It stared at him, stared _down_ at him, an intimidating, battle-scarred monstrosity that could end his life if it wanted to.

Then it did something Hafez had never seen a _jinn_ , in all his life, do before. It presented to him a paw-a _hand_ -the claws splayed open, the palm facing up, and bowed its head. It was a strange gesture, holding an air of such intelligent design that Hafez shivered. He stepped back, disturbed by the action, and was stopped by Aaja, who remained at his back. The _Ifrit_ stepped forward, and rested its broken hand gently against the _djinn's_ shoulder. The creature's expression was kind, and something in its face was reminiscent of Hafez's own father, of Hafez himself, whenever he interacted with his own children.

"Urd is asking for your hand." The _Ifrit_ clarified. "And we are both asking for peace. Aaja has brought us here in peace, and by your leave we would keep that peace, for we have escaped violence born of tragedy to fulfill a promise made to one of Aaja's kin." Hafez stared at the palm. The _Ifrit_ continued. "Urd was attacked while she was fleeing, and I am now watching my eldest daughter waste away before my very eyes because I am incapable of healing the injuries she sustained. If Aaja, whose own sister is dying in his truck, believes this is a detour worthy of pursuing, then I _beseech_ you: please help my daughter."

The words struck a chord in Hafez, a prior refugee who'd fled his own country due to violence and mayhem. The man pursed his lips, and with caution brought his hand up to the open paw. The talons alone were larger than his longest fingers, and his hand looked small and childlike against the _jinn's_. The creature's paw then curled around his, engulfing it utterly with a gentleness that Hafez would have thought impossible five minutes ago.

And then he Saw.

He Saw the Abomination in all its wretchedness, and was afraid. He heard the words of the Devil and learned its name was Hagall, and Saw the Abomination it left without care in his homeland. He Saw the Abomination in all its wretchedness, and Saw the great battle conducted by _Jinn_ and Angel together. He Saw the First Race and the Second Race battle together against the mighty enemy for the sake of the Third Race of Man, despite the Abomination feeding on the First Race, despite the Abomination's procreation within the Second Race. He Saw their victory. He Saw their defeat.

He Saw the Madness that followed them both to the world of _jinn,_ and the tragedy that befell the _jinn_ even as its-as _her-_ father tried to intervene.

Hafez was released with a parting thought-not so much a thought as an image, a series of emotions, scared and desperate and above all in pain. _Please..._ And the image was not of Urd _Al_ _Khabir_ Herself but of the Unspoken, _Al Mani_ , the Withholder, the Shielder, the Defender, whose name was of the Tundra and who Aaja was bringing home for her Rites of Funeral.

So it was he understood.

"I will help." Hafez said, and behind him he was unaware of Aaja's smile. "Bring your daughter to my clinic, Abn'Awdyn, in a form that does not draw the eye."

"Thank you."

Hafez stepped to the side, and the _Ifrit_ hopped out of the trailer, no longer a blazing force of nature but a tall, pale man with long black hair. His outfit looked ill-suited to Canada's weather, or even for the outdoors to begin with, yet the sun brought warmth and the day was remarkably fair for that summer season. Disguised as a man, Hafez saw that the _Ifrit_ had in fact lost a hand, though the wound was old and scarred over, his more recent injuries appearing as the bandages over what would have been a whole left hand, if not for the gap at the missing finger. Yet if the _Ifrit_ was in any pain, he hid it well, ignoring it as instead he turned back to the trailer, holding his arms out in front of him as he gestured to the remaining _jinn_ within. Aaja's puppies leapt out of the trailer without prompting, their yips playful and young as they raced to their owner's side.

Last came Urd _Al_ _Khabir._ She appeared as a snake, a large, black python with iridescent scales. Rainbows traveled up and down her hide from where the sun struck her, creating a stunning effect that took Hafez's breath away. _Allah smiles on me today._ Hafez thought, watching as Abn'Awdyn stepped forward with his arms still open, where the great serpent coiled up his arms. The snake was large, and of a species Hafez had even cared for at one point in his career-a white-lipped python, though Urd's form, well over ten feet in length, was much larger then the smaller four-foot long python a young man had brought in one day.

The serpent was gorgeous, but Hafez was all too aware of the open wounds that marred her beauty. The scales were faded and the injuries along the head and body held broken sores that made all too notable. Even so, the storm _jinn_ settled easily along her father's shoulders, and appeared comfortable and relaxed to Hafez-a good sign, given the amount of pain she must have been in.

With snake in hand, the _Ifrit_ followed Aaja towards the clinic, and for a moment Hafez watched them go, marveling at the strangeness of his life and wondering why it was Allah deemed _him_ fit to aid the Second Race.

Then Hafez turned and walked towards the truck, ignoring his clinic, and his new clients, altogether.

He needed to see The Unspoken One.

If what he'd Seen had been any indication then... he could help. While he'd never brought back someone so close to death-especially not a _jinn_ of all things-he still had the capability. He had a sterile surgery room. He had the technology, tools, and medication necessary to heal her.

The man approached the bed of the truck, walking towards the rear passenger seat.

He wasn't about to just let an innocent die. He wasn't a doctor, true, but that did not make him any less a healer.

A whimper made him stop three feet from the rear passenger door.

The man paused and looked behind him. The puppies had followed him towards the truck rather than Aaja. They were cute things. Little puppies closer in resemblance to large fluffy black-and-white clouds then actual dogs. One of them whimpered. The other barked with such demand that it bounced on its feet.

"What is it little ones?" He asked them. "Are you guarding the truck?"

Two whimpers now, and for a moment Hafez mistook the puppies for children. Human children, a pair of twins, and as the man's eyes widened he heard their voices, still young but filled with terror. " _Nanuk."_

 _"Nanuk?"_ He'd heard that word before. Aaja would drop it on occasion when they spoke, or one of the Natives that would bring him their dogs for shots. ' _Nanuk'._ Polar Bear.

And then he could hear it behind him. Its breath was deep and heavy. Its breath was hot and moist. It smelled of meat and fish and the sea, and as Hafez watched a shadow, large and expansive, devoured his own on the summer ground. He saw the puppies give one last yip of defiance, and then, their courage expended, watched them run off towards the clinic.

 _It will rip my head off when I turn._ Hafez thought. _Allah grant me mercy, is this how You wish me to die?_ Allah had given Hafez much in his life. A home. A caring family. A refuge from the violence that devoured his homeland. A loving wife and two wonderful sons, both of which promised a bright future with high grades and their good behavior. Though he had experienced much suffering in his life, the vet had still managed to find meaning and charity in his actions, and was a good Muslim who followed the laws of the Qu'ran without question.

If it was Allah's will that he die to _Nanuk_ , then so be it.

The vet turned, and came face to face with his second _Ifrit_ of the day.

It was massive, even when compared against Abn'Awdyn, towering over Hafez at well over ten feet. Its hide was transparent, almost blue, like a clean, unsoiled glacier that had yet to be contaminated with the pollutants of the world. It stood upright like a man, dressed in a light caribou parka. It held a spear in one paw, and a bola made of tendon and stone lay wrapped around the belt at its waist. Its eyes were coal black, its body immense.

It wore the skin of a man.

Hafez sucked in a sharp breath.

So too did _Nanuk_. " _Leave!"_ It roared, and without a second though, Hafez turned and ran, forgetting about The Unspoken One in the car, forgetting about his own efforts to aid her, and instead fleeing for the safety of the clinic.

The spirit watched him go, its lips peeled back in a vicious snarl. Its haunting gaze did not leave the retreating figure of the man until he had run into his clinic, and then it turned to regard the lone, forgotten passenger in the rear seat. Its head was larger than the window. Its breath steamed the glass. _"Soon..."_ And as the _Yakone_ began its dance within the heavens in broad daylight, the spirit was gone.

* * *

 _Comments of a Madwoman: Perception is reality._


	57. Chapter 57 - Green Trail

l

-57-

Her world spun as her father carried her from the horse trailer. The vivid shapes and sounds that had once come so easily to her had faded and smeared into a hazy tapestry of near-shapes, blotchy colors, and muffled sounds masked by a sharp ringing in her ears. At some point in the long journey, her fatigue had gotten the better of her, and it now took effort and concentration just to focus her eyes or translate the noises into words.

An effort no longer worth pursuing.

She could smell her father though, and she latched onto that familiarity with the desperation of the drowning. She knew her father was carrying her but found it harder and harder to _remember_ that. It was growing harder to distinguish between ' _Pabba_ ' and _'stranger'_ as more time passed, and though she was loath to admit it, it would not be long before she became unable to recognize her father at all.

Yet his smell...

While her father had been more often than not absent throughout her life, his scent had stayed with her since she'd first met him. A strong and strange scent from a time she scarcely remembered, when the world was still large and terrifying and she a stranger to it all. A smell that followed her home with foreign clothes after her first trips to Asgard. A smell that clung to gifts sent to her as she grew. An aroma, comforting and secure, that filled her stepmother's house when the inevitable decision was made to stay in Asgard as a goddess.

Smell was tied to memory, and Falkin in particular had a strong nose to help recognize their kin when they no longer wore a familiar form. She supposed that in a way, what with her heritage, she was much the same, for as she lay in his arms her father's smell overwhelmed everything else: the stranger who smelled of ice and deer, the trailer which smelled of horse, the wretched _hounds_ that...were they not the ones who had chased her? And oh, by Yggdrasil, it hurt to think, hurt to _remember,_ but...

She was just so _tired._

Her father was here though... ash trees and steel. That comforting scent, that soothing scent... She would be okay if her _Pabba_ was here. _Pabba_ could chase away the hounds. _Pabba_ could...

Muffled voices. A change in the air's temperature. A female's voice, distant and muffled. The rank odor of... animals. Cats. Rodents. Dogs which made her restless (her father's touch soothed her). Reptiles. Horses. Even a wolf or a coyote. Other animals she'd never smelled before. New humans. The dull murmur of other voices. The sensation of her lying down on something cold and hard. Bright lights blinding her. A pinch. Something squeezing her mouth open-hands?-from where the back of her jaw connected with her skull. Something long and tubular in her mouth and she was...

 _Fading..._

 _Falling..._

 _Falling up._

 _A red sea danced above her head, shimmering and dancing with distant stars and clustered galaxies, the enigmatic tide rising and falling with the sun and the moon. Far to the east she saw a white bear sit and watch her, its gaze two consuming black holes and it looked down-up?-at her. It watched her in silence, the only witness to her departure, and then she struck the red sea with a splash. With it came an abhorrent sense of disintegration, as if the spiritual vessel that struck the red sea had shattered on impact and had been absorbed by the dancing waves. She thought she screamed-some part of her, not her physical self but her spirit-yet found that impossible. The red sea took everything, devouring her spirit utterly and leaving not even the ego in its wake. Any sense of self was lost. Memories of what she once was were discarded, and as they were devoured a parting thought came:_ This is reincarnation.

 _There was no sense of time. Decades passed in the span of seconds. A minute turned into a millennium. The universe met its end and was reborn again in an instant. The veins of the universe. The Eye of Creation. The Eternal Spark. The Chaotic Flame. The Infinite Abyss._

 _An eternity passed in the blink of an eye, and the she surfaced once more, where she sucked in her first breath of the new world. Her right wrist-she had that now-burned with symbols unlike yet similar to the Elder Futhark of her grandfather, and the magic within, ancient and wild, called her fractured ego back to her. She coughed and sputtered, her lungs burning as she swam to the shore, where blue soil was covered with red grass. She climbed out of the pond, tried to rise, and then fell once more, overbalanced by the wings on her back and the change in her center of gravity. White tattoos against black skin-had she always had wings? Her hair was long and parted in two distinct shades, each reflecting the patterns on her skin. White on black._

 _That wasn't right though. Wasn't it supposed to be black on white?_

 _It was hard to recall. She looked back at the pool and shuddered, the feathers on her back, wet and heavy with red water, rustling uneasy. It was hard to recall anything after her venture through the red sea._

 _The Hidden Truth. Was that what this form was? It was a familiar one-the colors, the wings, the tattoos...she thought she even had a name for it-_ Gudan- _yet the name left a bad taste in her mouth, so she left it unspoken._

 _She ruffled her wings, shedding the water gathered in the feathers and watching with newborn curiosity as pearls of red glittered and danced like raindrops. With care, she climbed to her feet, wavered unsteadily, and then found her balance before observing her new surroundings. A forest of trees-their trunks many shades of blue, their foliage as red as the sea at her back, surrounded her. An orange sky with black-violet clouds towered above the tree line, with a lone trail, light blue and well-trodden, stretched before her._

 _A perception of wrongness danced in her head. She looked into the red water and saw her reflection, where a human-like face with dark skin stared back at her._ Everything is wrong, _she thought._ Everything is inverted.

 _Ah, but such was the way of the_ Yakone. _The inversion of life and death: Rebirth. Reincarnation. Where the chaotic flame burned darkest and where all truths were laid bare before those who would hide from them._

 _The_ Yakone _though. Not the Green Trail but the_ Yakone _. And she needed...Tanarak? Or was it Lind? No, no, Lind_ was _Tanarak. They had spoken and Lind had sworn on her true name, just as she had. And now she was in the_ Yakone _and Lind-Tanarak wasn't, and...how was she to get to the Green Trail in this land of reincarnation?_

 _She looked down at her right hand, examining the tattoos that ran up the length of her forearm. They were different from the white-on-black (black-on-white?) markings that covered her form. They were an off-white, a shade slightly darker than that of her own skin. The tattoos were small but prominent, a series of horizontal lines and diagonal crosses stacked on top of each other. She rubbed the tattoo with her left hand, still adjusting to the new markings. A gift. From Li-Tanarak's mother. Like her own potions, a medicine to cure an ailment, but different because...because..._

 _"Because we are born of many souls." She murmured. Yes, that had been how the old woman had explained it, hadn't she? That they were born of many pieces of many souls, stitched together to become a new soul? A strange concept, one she'd never heard before. "She said I'd been wounded too deeply." That her own trauma had loosened whatever kept these souls within her, and needed to be rebound to keep them from leaving her and preventing what was left from descending into madness._

 _The tattoos felt warm. Their temperature differed from her body, as if whatever wild magic had been used in production of the tattoos had been woven into her skin as well, as if it'd literally been stitched into her flesh. Her hand fell away. How a bunch of lines and diagonal crosses were supposed to keep her sane was beyond her. This was foreign magic-had they been runes of the Elder Futhark-the diagonal crosses_ 'Gebo' _or_ 'Kenaz _' or even_ 'Othala' _, the horizontal lines_ 'Isa' _, the patterns more interwoven into a structured bindrune, she might have understood their meaning-but never on her own skin, where it could not be washed off after the sought-after affect was achieved. Never in such a huge and lengthy design._

 _It made her uncomfortable. She didn't like foreign magic holding such a permanent place on her body._

 _She looked back to the path and found she was no longer alone. A bear watched her from the trail's path. It was a massive, peculiar beast; the long claws on its forepaws marked it as a brown bear, yet its coat was a misty blue. It wore a bone mask over its face, the markings holding an eerie resemblance to a human. The creature watched her in silence and then turned with a chuff and headed up the trail, pausing only at a bend in the trail to peer back at her._

 _With few options left to her, she followed after it._

 _The trees grew tall and densely packed as she trekked down the trail, their branches interweaving as if to blot out the sun as she went deeper into the forest. She heard creatures rustling in the bushes and on occasion a shadowy form bounding deeper into the brush, yet at no point could she distinguish what the creatures were. Some stood on two legs though, and others stood unimaginably tall on what she assumed was four. Ahead of her, the bear lumbered on at a slow and almost leisurely pace, pausing on occasion to look back at her and check that she was still following. Though the_ Yakone _granted her a voice, she found herself unwilling to speak, as if by breaking the silence fostered between the bear, the forest, and herself, she would be breaking some kind of ceremony._

 _A mist began to spread as they went farther. Small and unnoticeable at first, crawling at her bare feet like a low fog, it gradually thickened and spread upward. At first, she thought that it was emanating from the ghost bear in front of her, only to discover too late that the creature was in fact leading her into the mist, where the edges of its form were growing harder and harder to define. A lump settled in her throat, and she began to walk faster, fearful that she might lose the guide along the trail as the mist grew heavier. Yet even as she increased her pace, the bear seemed to maintain its distance, and when she felt compelled to break into a run the creature vanished from the trail altogether._

 _Her throat locked in fear, and she came to an abrupt stop, looking around her and finding that the mist had consumed her entirely, devouring the trail, the bushes, and even the long trees with their interwoven branches. Everything had been consumed by the mist._

 _She wanted to scream in her frustration, in her fear, but suppressed the urge, instead spreading her wings out as far as they could go, searching for the trees that had once loomed so close to her person. As she half-expected, the wings bumped nothing, and it was through such means that she learned that once again, she'd been transported to another world._

 _"_ You are the one _Aga_ sent?" _A voice, deep and rough and intimidating, echoed throughout the mist._ "A _qallunaat?_ The very offspring of the nation which does not acknowledge the _Inua_?" _Something whistled towards her from her left, and she dove to the ground, narrowly avoiding the_ bola _as it soared over her wings. The weapon vanished back into the mist, and on high alert now, she clambered back to her feet. "_ You're worse than the soldier, and you're the one _Aga_ sent to help The Runt? What was Sedna thinking?"

 _A form began to appear in the mist, this one more human in form, more masculine in nature. It was the bear from before, dressed now in the skin of a man, its mask transformed into an ivory brown bear. He wore a light, blue parka, the edges trimmed with mist, a quiver on his back, grizzly claws dangling in a long necklace and a grizzly's pelt, near matching in color to the parka, draped over his face. "Aga_ Sedna is growing senile in her old age if she's relying on someone like you to bring The Runt into the _Yakone_." _The bear-man growled. "_ I suppose I should have expected that. She always thought you _qallunaat_ could be buttered up with talk." _The bear man snorted. "_ No matter. I have fought your people, _Qallunaat_ , and I know you only respect battle." _He fell into a fighting stance, and a spear, the pole made of black wood, the spearhead made of ivory, appeared in his hand. "_ So we shall battle. And you will show me why _Aga_ Sedna chose _you_ to intrude on this sacred land, or I shall splinter you and scatter your soul for the birds!"

XXX

As the sun moved higher in the sky, Bell adjusted her bag and decided it was a good thing that she was wearing long pants. Their trek had taken them decidedly off trail and through all manner of thorns, thistles, and stickers. Her legs would certainly have taken a beating if they had been exposed. In addition, the terrain had steadily gotten rougher as they progressed to wherever it was they were going. It was now considerably rockier than where they had been camping.

In front of her, George continued to move along at a brisk pace, talking the entire time. The subject had varied along with the terrain. Now he was complaining about some jerky company owing him royalties for appearances in their commercials. Apparently, they had decided that since he did not exist, they did not have to pay him.

Keiichi, for the most part, quietly followed behind. His silence, though, was unnerving her a little. A couple of times during the trip, she had tried to strike up a conversation with him, but he had either rebuffed her or ignored her completely as he marched along behind, leaving her to stew on the reasons why. She felt that maybe they had put some of the issues that had cropped up since Debra's death to bed the previous day when they had hiked in to their campsite, but now it seemed that was not the case.

Was it because of some of the things he had said to her after it happened? She had accepted that they had been said in the heat of the moment. Many hurtful things can slip out when emotions are running high. He had apologized for what he had said, but now she wondered if he had come to believe some of them? If he did, then maybe he was rethinking the status of their relationship? She knew it was on rocky ground as it was. Maybe he had reached that tipping point where he felt it was time to end it. That prospect scared the goddess so much that she did not realize that George had stopped, causing her to run right into him and get a face full of smelly fur.

Belldandy gagged and sputtered while trying to dislodge the hair that had ended up in her mouth, George turned and gave her an apologetic look. "Sorry 'bout that," he said as he tried to assist the goddess, who shooed him away since he was making matters worse.

Keiichi came up and looked past George and Bell and whistled. In front of them was a rocky cliff that was about thirty or so feet tall. It stretched in either direction for as far as anyone could see. "Looks like we have an issue," he quipped as he crossed his arms across his chest.

George stepped away from Belldandy and nodded as he looked back. "We're kind'a at an impasse as this here cliff is in the way." He turned and looked either way, then started stomping off in one direction, following the cliff face. "Stay here so that I can find a way around." A moment later, he disappeared around the corner.

Belldandy was still trying to fish hair from between her teeth when this happened, so she had no opportunity to protest or otherwise make a different suggestion. As she looked at the cliff face, she noted that there were plenty of nooks and crannies where someone could get a foot or a hand hold. It was also not straight up, angling into the last somewhat which would mean that if someone lost their grip, they would not immediately plummet to the ground. All in all, it should not be too difficult to climb. Unfortunately, George was already gone.

"You ok?"

The goddess jumped slightly as Keiichi came up beside her. "Um, yeah," she said as she looked away, embarrassed at the state she was in.

The dark-haired man chuckled as he reached up and plucked a dark brown hair off of Belldandy's shoulder. "This reminds me of something that happened when I first joined Team 12," he said as he reached up and snagged another hair. "You haven't ever met Morrison. He was our Chief before he retired and Piper was promoted. The man could double as a sasquatch. He was so hairy..."

There was an awkward silence that followed. Belldandy got the distinct impression that Keiichi was waiting for her to say something, but for the life of her she could not figure out what it was. Finally, he coughed and shook his head. "Sorry about that, bad joke," he said with a sheepish smile. "Anyway, his back was almost completely covered in hair. In fact, I think his whole body was like that. Think Mac with a beard and dark brown hair and that will get you close."

The goddess shook her head as an image of Lt. Commander McGuinness came to her as Keiichi had described him. It might have been the environment, but her imagination included him smiling wide as he rode a large, hoofed animal with horns branching out of the top of its head like a tree. She shook her head and giggled.

"Yeah, you get it now," said Keiichi with a smile. "Anyway, we were in Iraq and had a little downtime, so we thought we would throw a football around. Some of the Iraqi regulars got curious because they never saw a football before. Anyway, after about fifteen minutes, we had some semblance of a football game going. In order to differentiate the teams, one side, which happened to be Giblets' side, took their shirts off."

When Belldandy frowned in confusion, Keiichi quickly added, "Giblets was Morrison's callsign." She nodded in understanding and he continued. "Anyway, we get this game started. Giblets is on one side with me, and Angel, Tank, and Piper are on the other with a bunch of locals to even out the teams. I know you know next to nothing about football, so I will just tell you that the basics of the game are to get the guy with the ball onto the ground. So, I hand it off to Giblets and he starts running, shrugging off a couple of Iraqis as he goes. Angel comes up from behind and tried to tackle him by jumping on Giblets' back!"

Belldandy frowned. While she did not seem to have any reference for this game they were playing, she did understand how to take down significantly larger opponents. "That doesn't make much sense. If Morrison is as big as McGuiness, then Sanchez should have gone for his legs."

"I know, right?" laughed Keiichi. "So here goes Giblets down the field and Angel is holding on for dear life as he is being dragged down the field on what amounted to a bucking bronco. And all this time, his face is buried in Giblet's back!"

It took a moment after Keiichi paused for the implication to set it. "Noooo!" exclaimed Belldandy as she smiled and covered her mouth in glee.

"Yes," replied Keiichi. "Angel was picking Giblet's back hair out of his teeth for a good two hours after that!"

Keiichi let out a good belly laugh as Belldandy smiled and shook her head. "That had to have been awful," she said after the dark-haired man calmed down for a moment.

"Oh yeah," replied Keiichi. "Angel tried to swear us to secrecy, but we weren't having it."

"That poor man," said the goddess as she shook her head.

The pair's attention was drawn to the path as they heard a stomping sound. After a moment, George appeared. He looked somewhat frustrated as he came close. However, he did not stop, instead, heading down the path alongside the cliff in the opposite direction he originally traveled. "Don't mind me," he said as he passed, "just checking the other side."

Belldandy looked around and found a flat boulder, which she stepped over to and sat upon. Keiichi followed suit, taking the spot next to her. When he did not say anything, it left Belldandy wondering once again about the rift that seemed to have developed between them. She had thought that his earlier story was an indicator that it was something in her imagination, but now her insecurities were getting the better of her again. Sure, he sat down next to her, that was something. But the fact he was silent was again bothering her.

"Um, Keiichi?"

Keiichi cocked his head in the goddess's direction. "Yeah Bell?"

"I-I want to let you know that... well, if you are still angry and all that I... I won't... uh... won't... I mean, I will leave when we get back."

Keiichi looked at her and frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Well..." _Yggdrasil this is hard!_ she thought to herself. But she needed to say something, whether it was favorable or not, she needed to know where she stood. "I know that there have been… well, issues since we arrived in California. That on top of what happened a couple weeks before." She sucked in a deep breath. "I just... I just feel like you may be ready to end our relationship.

Keiichi turned so that he fully faced the goddess. "What brought this on?"

"Well, you have been pretty quiet today." The words were coming out easier now. Once she got started, they started to flow. "I have been trying to engage you all day, but you were almost silent when I did. Here it is past noon and your story about Sanchez and Morrison was the most you have spoken to me since we left."

The dark haired-man leaned back and whistled. "Wow, umm, yeah, I'm sorry Bell, I didn't know it was bothering you so much." He reached back and scratched his head, a sign Belldandy understood as discomfort or nervousness.

"No, no, no! It's..." She paused and took a different track. "You don't need to apologize," she said as she looked away from him. "I have a lot I still need to atone for, and, well, while I would be sad, I would accept if you decided to end our relationship." There it was. As Keiichi might say, all her cards were on the table now. She actually felt pretty good having gotten that off her chest as truthfully, it had been bothering her for a long while.

She grew confused once more when Keiichi snorted and shook his head. "Bell, listen," he began. As he spoke, he pulled what the goddess had learned was called paracord from his pocket. On it were a number of brightly colored beads; a smaller set of nine on one side, and a larger set of five on the other. "I have been quiet because I have been concentrating on something else." He took what he had pulled out and showed it to her. "You see this string with all the beads on it?"

"Yes, I remember when you purchased them." Belldandy also remembered when he strung it together but had not asked its purpose.

"What I put together here is called a pace counter," said Keiichi. "We use these all the time, especially when we are out in the field and we need to get somewhere without our electronics." He took the string and held it up for the goddess to see. "Each of the smaller ones is one hundred meters, and each of the larger ones is one kilometer. I know approximately how many steps I take to reach one hundred meters. As we hiked, I was counting my steps and each time I reach that count, I move one of these smaller beads to the other side of the string." Keiichi demonstrated the action of moving the beads. "When I reach ten, I put these back and move one of the larger ones down." Again, a small demonstration of the gadget, and Belldandy understood. "Based on this, I can tell that so far, today, we have traveled six kilometers."

The device was genius as far as she was concerned. Typically, Valkyries and other soldier types in Asgard used their magic to determine how far one or a group had traveled. It required very low levels of power, so there was no need to worry about detection. "So... you have not been talking because you have been counting your steps in order to keep track of how far we have gone?" asked the goddess.

"Yes."

A feeling of relief filled her body, and the goddess leaned forward and hugged Keiichi tightly. "Thank you."

"For what?" asked the stunned mortal.

There was no response. Belldandy just sat there for a moment and enjoyed Keiichi's closeness for a moment. Keiichi tentatively placed his arms around her, and she sighed in contentment.

"Am I interrupting anything?"

Keiichi and Belldandy separated at the interruption and found George watching from the base of the cliff. Belldandy continued to smile while Keiichi scratched at the back of his head as he tried to look anywhere but at the Sasquatch. "Did you find anything?" asked the goddess.

George bobbed his head from side to side as if contemplating what he was going to say. "I have good news and bad news," he said after a moment. "The good news is that we are almost there." He smiled, and the goddess noted that it seemed almost apologetic.

"And the bad news?" asked Keiichi as he regained his composure.

"Well, you see," replied George tentatively. "We're going to have to climb this here cliff to get there."

Keiichi snorted as he stood up from the boulder he and Belldandy were on. "Well, ok then."

"Ok?" asked George as he furrowed his unibrow in confusion. "This is of no concern to you? I thought you would be all like; 'No friggen way that we can climb this!' And I was gonne be like; 'Well, you gotta to get to where we is going!' And then you would be like-"

"George!" exclaimed Belldandy as she rose to her feet as well. The Sasquatch blinked, stopped, and stared at the Goddess. "This should not be a problem," she proclaimed. Beside her, Keiichi nodded in agreement.

There was an awkward silence as George stared back at the couple in confusion. He then straightened up and clapped his hands together. "Right then, let's get to it, shall we?" He moved to the cliff face, reached up, and with his massive hands he found a handhold and braced himself to start the climb. "I'll go first and help you up from the top." The huge creature scaled the wall with ease.

Both Belldandy and Keiichi stared up at George as he turned and looked down. "Come on then, chop chop! Can't leave this as a cliffhanger, can we?"

As the Sasquatch sniggered at his own joke, both Belldandy and Keiichi groaned. "I'll go first," the goddess announced.

"I'll be right behind you," replied the SEAL.

Belldandy reached down and grabbed a handful of dirt and rubbed it into her hands. She then stepped up to the cliff, located a good handhold, and grabbed onto it. She did the same with her other hand, and then found a crevice to stick her foot in. Before long, she was on her way, one hand or foot at a time. In spite of George's bad jokes, she felt light. Her chat with Keiichi had done wonders to put her mind at ease, his silence a result of his concentrating on mapping their path so that they could get back rather than any anger he felt towards her. As she neared the top, George got down on the ground and reached over the edge to pull her up. She reached to grab him.

And missed.

For a moment, she felt like she was suspended in the air. Then she began to slide back down the rock face. Desperately, she grabbed for any hand hold she could find, but could find purchase nowhere. She was about to scream when she landed on something. Or maybe a better description was that she had sat on something. She realized she was still halfway up the cliff and quickly found a good place to wedge her hand in to keep herself from falling any further. She turned and looked down just in time to see Keiichi, who had started his own way up and was just below her now, take the hand he had used to arrest her fall and grab onto his own handhold.

 _Did he just...?_

"Are you all right?" asked Keiichi, interupting her thought.

"Um, yeah," she replied, quickly turning away to hide her embarrassment.

The rest of the climb was uneventful. When Belldandy neared the top, she made sure she was a little bit closer before she reached for George's paw, and ensured her grip was firm before she let the enormous creature pull her the rest of the way up. Afterward, she stepped back and took her bag off as she watched the Sasquatch pull Keiichi up. _How embarrassing, Grandfather would be so disappointed._ She knew the slip was her fault. If she had remembered what Odin had taught her, she would not have made such a mistake. The dark-haired man dusted himself off and then made eye contact with the goddess, who immediately looked away, a slight crimson glow forming on her face. _Still, maybe not all bad?_

To his credit, Keiichi did not comment on the incident or Belldandy's reaction. Instead he pulled out Keima's compass and opened it. "George, are we still heading in the same direction from here?" he asked as he walked closer into the treeline.

"Yeah, that's the way," replied the Sasquatch as he started to stand up.

Belldandy looked back at Keiichi as he started to take a bearing measurement just in time to notice some slight movement on the ground in front of him. "Keiichi!"

 _"Look out, ya idjut!"_

Instantly, the goddess was in motion. Knowing that Keiichi would never be able to understand the language being spoken, she closed the gap between her and the SEAL in a flash. She grabbed him by the collar before he could react to her call and jerked him off his feet. In mid-air, she pulled him to her, and then pushed him to the ground away from the danger that had gone unseen to him. He landed with a thud on his stomach with the goddess on top.

Just inches from here he was about to step, a large, dark colored snake with light brown patches on its back rose from the leaf litter and looked down at the pair. _"Sstupid humanss, never lookssing where they are walkssing."_ It looked like it would slither off, but when it met Belldandy's eyes, it changed course and came closer. Underneath her, Keiichi stared at the snake, but remained still, much to her relief. Looking down its length, she noted that the tip of its tail appeared to be broken.

 _"What'ss thiss? A godessss with not powerss?"_ It said as it approached striking distance, which was still several feet away due to the serpent's length. Belldandy began to shift on top of Keiichi in order to shield him better, causing the snake to stop. _"Oh, how darlingss. The goddessss protectss the humanss."_ It opened its mouth and stretched its inch-long fangs. When it closed, the goddess almost caught a hint of a smile as it focused on Keiichi's exposed arm and cocked its head to the side. _"Maybess I should bitess him and putss him out of hiss missseriess. Goddessssessss can be ssso much- HEY! WAIT!"_

A gigantic paw reached down and grabbed the snake by the neck, just below its head leaving no room for it to turn and bite. Above Belldandy and Keiichi, George lifted the snake up and raised it up so that he could look it in the eyes. "Belinda Crotalus Viridis, you leave them alone!"

 _"I wass jusst trying to havess a little fun!"_ croaked the snake. _"I wassn't really going to bitess! Honesst!"_

"Somehow I doubt that," replied the Sasquatch. He then tossed Belinda away and into the underbrush where she slithered away with nothing hurt other than her pride. George turned and regarded the couple, who were still on the ground below him, both looking up with dumbfounded expressions. The creature shrugged. "Don't mind her, she got caught by a bunch of religious nuts when she was young. They brought her back and all, but they hurt her tail to where she cannot grow her rattle no more." George turned and started to walk off before turning again and regarding the couple. "I know you two are an item and all, but could you at least keep it in your pants until we are done here. OK? OK."

It took the couple a second to realize what he said. When it finally dawned on them, Belldandy scrambled off Keiichi while he rolled away from the goddess. They ended up a couple of feet from each other. A moment later, Keiichi started to laugh, and Belldandy followed suit. "That was... awkward," said Keiichi and he got to his feet.

"Yes it was," replied the goddess as she also stood.

"I, kind of got the impression that snake was going to bite one of us. That's weird because I was told they usually run away from humans," inquired Keiichi as he started gathering his things.

Belldandy looked around and located the bag she had been carrying and opened it. Inside, the kitten was still asleep despite the commotion that had been occurring around him. "She noticed my lack of powers," said Belldandy as she carefully closed the bag. "It... made her curious."

Keiichi furrowed his brows in confusion. "How do you know that?"

"I... can understand snakes," replied the goddess after a moment's hesitation. "Living with Urd, you kind of have to."

The confusion on Keiichi's face only deepened. Belldandy was about to explain, but was interrupted before she could. "Come on people!" yelled George from somewhere down the trail. "More Walky! Less Kissy!"

"I'll explain later," said Belldandy with a smile.

Keiichi nodded and started down the path George had used, but then stopped and surprised Belldandy by grabbing her hand and squeezing it. "Thanks," he said. "Looks like we're even."

The dark-haired man released her hand and started to walk away, leaving the goddess stunned and with steadily reddening cheeks. It took her a moment to regain her composure. "Yes, today we are even," she said as she started after him.

"But I still have a long way to go overall."

XXX

 _It'd felt like he'd been stuck down there for days now. He'd slept a lot-passed out more likely-and his sense of time's passage was askew. With no sundial or equipment to display the time, he had only the ring of light above his head to judge the sun's passing. Sometimes when he awoke it remained a bright silver outline. Other times its light was dimmed. Sometimes it was nonexistent._

 _He'd stopped worrying about the demon after the first three times he'd passed out. Each time, he'd awoken, still alive and whole, with no sign of the demon having approached him while he was unconscious. Sometimes, when he cast his magic to check on his own condition he would spy her asleep as well, her face pallid and dotted with sweat in what he assumed was a fever. Sometimes a bleary violet eye would open and glare at him, and she would mutter and turn her back to him. Other times she snarled at him, rising to her feet only to collapse once more. It was apparent that she was in a worse state than he, and for that, he was grateful; had it been the opposite way around, his life would have very likely already been over._

 _Now, with great effort, he reached into one of his cargo pockets, withdrawing one of the magicked storage capsules that contained his water rations. The battlefield above had been a hot and scorching desert after the Aesir had pushed back the initial waves of demons, but though they'd been victorious, it come with a price, given the sudden and harsh change of the battlefield's climate. The Aesir were Northerners through and through, and though a couple of them had visited areas like Muspelheim, none of their training had prepared them for battle in such a miserably hot climate. Water capsules were handed out by the dozens to prevent soldiers from passing out in the heat, and Tyr found himself thankful that the cave he'd fallen into was so cool by comparison._

 _Still though...he'd gone through six of his own dozen before stepping on the mine. He needed to regulate what remained. His throat was dry though, and he hadn't drunk anything since the initial fall so...he punched down on the device, puncturing the tiny capsule and breaking the magical seal that compressed the water sack. The magic leaked out of the capsule in a long_ hiss _, and at once he heard his 'friend' stir at the noise. A water bladder remained where once the capsule was, big enough and heavy enough that he needed to hold it with two hands. Unscrewing the rubber top, he brought the bladder to his lips and drank deeply, savoring the clear taste the water brought with it._

 _The demon was watching him when he finished. Her eyes glowed in the darkness, and it was the first time she'd openly stared at him without thought to hide the glow. He returned the look with equal curiosity as he screwed back on the rubber head, and then asked, "Do you have water?"_

 _The woman grunted._

 _The man frowned, then hoisted the water bladder up for her to see. "Water." He said the word slowly, then pointed at the demon. "Do you have any?"_

 _Another grunt, and with a sigh, the man lowered the bladder and called his personal magic back into existence. As had become ritual, the demon hissed as the light struck her eyes. The tone of it had changed though. Less of a 'I consider this an affront to my personal existence' as it was originally and more of a 'your light annoys me' tone. Tyr couldn't really blame her. After spending so much time in the dark, the fire in his hands was starting to hurt_ his _eyes as well._

 _When the demon looked back at him he repeated the initial gesture, pointing to the bladder, saying 'water', and then gesturing to her. Again, the woman grunted, but this time she supplied it with gestures, something he'd missed in his blindness without the light. The woman pointed to the bladder in his hand, and then gestured to herself._

" _You don't have any then?"_

 _The woman stared at him._

 _Tyr sighed. Well, there went one water reserve. Demons didn't share. With a grunt of his own, he lobbed the bladder over to the demon, who flinched, then grabbed it and drew it close. She unscrewed the top, sniffed it, and then sent a sidelong look at Tyr._ What is this _? The look seemed to ask, before the woman took a small and cautious sip. Her eyes widened, and the demon made an exclamation in her native tongue. She pulled the bladder from her lips, looked at it, then looked at Tyr. "_ A'dug?!" _She cried, and hoisted the bladder above her head. "_ A'dug?" _She tapped the bladder with two fingers, then said another long sentence in Falken._

 _Tyr nodded. "Water." He repeated. "Water..._ A'doog?"

 _The demon stared at him and nodded. "_ A'dug," _She repeated. "Wha-tar." She muttered beneath her breath, a scowl spreading across her lips as she stared down at the bladder, then back to Tyr. This time she first hefted the bag, then gestured to herself, "_ Ge _Wha-tar?"_

 _Tyr nodded, taken aback by the unexpected display of exhilaration. "It's yours." He said, "Ah...Falk-en A'doog?"_

"Falkin A'dug." _The demon repeated, staring down as if mystified by the water bladder. Perhaps she was. Aesir military intelligence and Vanir scholars hypothesized the reasons behind the Falkin invasion of Asgard had been for resources like streams and lakes due to how little water was in Niflheim itself. An irony: The Land of Mists, with few if any open water sources from which to form the mists._

"Ge Falkin, _" She gestured to herself, then pursed her lips. "_ Ge _...Wha-tar."_

 _Tyr stared. "What?"_

 _The woman paused, seeing his confusion before scowling. "_ Ge Falkin _." She repeated, slower this time before gesturing to Tyr. "_ Za Din'gir." _The man recognized the Falken word for Aesir. Again she gestured to herself. "_ Ge _Wha-tar." She repeated, and this time gesturing to Tyr began, "_ Za-"

" _My name is Tyr." He interrupted the woman, and paid for it as the demon recoiled, snarling. The man flinched back, uncertain what offense he'd committed, and snarling in her native tongue the demon raised two fingers to her lips, falling silent as she patted the tips. The glare she cast him was strong enough to peel paint. "_ Na na na na _na!_ " _She rattled, shaking her head next and moving her hands to her ears. Another glower, and this time once more the demon repeated the odd phrase, "_ Ge _Wha-tar." A gesture to herself. "_ Za _A'dug." This time she pointed to Tyr directly, scrutinizing the man to see if he understood._

 _Tyr wasn't certain he did. "My name isn't water though." He said, and watched the demon's lips peel back in irritation. Her eyes flashed a heated red, different from the nocturnal green so often reflected by the light of his magic and more reminiscent of the demons the warrior faced on the battlefield above. Yet even as Tyr flinched away from the diabolical sight, the glow faded, and the woman sighed, her head thunking to the ground in such exaggerated weariness that Tyr felt a small smidgen of guilt. She muttered something, sending a half-lidded glare his way that seemed to question his intelligence, and with a moan began again. "Wha'tar." She thumbed toward herself. "_ A'dug _." She pointed to Tyr._

 _The man frowned. "No, not '_ A'doog _'." He said. "Ty-" The woman clamped her hands over her ears, glaring at him miserably. Tyr stopped._

"A'dug." _The demon repeated._

" _..._ A'doog _." Tyr repeated, this time gesturing to himself. The demon nodded. "_ A'doog _. Me. You're-we're using fake names now?" He stared at her perplexed before realization struck him. "Wait, to protect each other?" He asked, "You want us to work together but want us to use fake names to protect each other's identity?"_

 _The woman grunted._

 _Tyr stared. It was an ingenious idea, when he thought about it. Two injured enemy combatants with little hope of surviving on their own pairing up to help each other-if Tyr was correct in his assumption-and using false names-that of 'water', as the first item shared between them, to protect the identity of the other for when...if...they made it back to their separate sides. A presumptuous idea, to be sure, yet there was a spark cold intelligence in that woman's violet eyes, and Tyr found himself believing his own assumption in spite of the fact that there was little else to go by. "So... you scratch my back, I scratch yours?" He ventured, pointing between the two of them and, as an afterthought, adding, "Water?"_

 _The demon smiled in delight, an action that lit up the entirety of her face in a way that was almost warm. Excited Falken flew from her lips, and still chatting amiably, she reached towards a leather bag Tyr hadn't noticed before and opened it, withdrawing something dark and vaguely tubular in shape. The woman held it up towards Tyr's light for him to see, and found it was a root of some sort in Water's hands. His gaze captured, the woman brought the root to her lips, took a bite, chewed, and swallowed. "_ Harub _." She said, then offered it to him._

 _Tyr, his own curiosity getting the better of him, nodded, and watched in disbelief as the demon tossed the root in his direction. It landed less then a foot away from him, and Tyr looked between it and the woman in shock. "For me?" He asked, doubt thick in his voice. "You-a demon-you're giving this to me?!"_

 _In response, the woman mimed biting. "_ Harub. _" She repeated._

"Hair-ub." _Tyr sounded out, and earned another delighted smile from the demon. "Root." The man said in turn, and as he dragged himself towards the root, he heard the woman reply._

" _Ru'ut."_

" _Good enough for the military." Tyr grunted, and then his left hand wrapped around the root. He drew it close and felt his hand start to burn, and paused, wondering if it was having an allergic reaction to the unknown root. The burning spread down his forearm, and the warrior hissed, dropping the root as he clutched his hand._

" _Wha-tar?" He thought he heard the woman call in offering. "Wha'tar? Za Wha'tar Wonderbread?"_

"Wonderbread, you okay? You need some water?" He felt a light pat on his shoulder, "Tyr? Odinson?" Hey, C'mon Boss, come back to me."

Tyr's eyes fluttered, and then the man grimaced as the voice in his memory grew masculine. "Wha'tar?" He slurred.

A female voice rose in the background "Do you want me to call a paramedic?" She sounded distant and indistinct. "Your friend doesn't look too good Mister. His hand is bleeding pretty badly."

"It's okay, it's just a small scrape." Aaja-that's who the voice belonged to, Aaja, called back to the woman. "He's okay, really, just had a bit too much exposure to the elements is all. You know how the tourists are this time a' year. They overestimate their abilities. He'll be fine once he gets some water in him.

"Are you sure?" The woman sounded unconvinced.

"Yep!" The man called, and in a lower voice to Tyr said, "C'mon Bud, lets get you up. You fainted in the middle of Hafez's waiting room."

"I did no such thing." Tyr tried to argue, "I just closed my eyes a moment." A pair of hands slipped under his arms. A moment later, and Tyr's world exploded into stars as he was lifted and then set down on a chair. When had he ended up on the floor? The pain in his left hand had grown to the point of excruciating, and it was all Tyr could do not to scream. He sucked in a sharp breath instead, biting down against the pain, and earned a worried look from Aaja.

"Me thinks you should let Hafez look at that hand a' yours." The man confessed. "He can fix it right, I think. Human forms ain't too different from animal forms, you know? And in the end humans are just another type a' animal." As if by magic, a plastic water bottle appeared in Aaja's hand, and unscrewing the cap the man offered it to Tyr. Tyr reached for it with his left hand, and Aaja jerked the bottle back. "Nah Bud, you ain't fooling me. Put your hand down."

With a grunt, Tyr complied with the Spirit's instructions. Aaja raised the water bottle to Tyr's lips, then tilted it back. The water wasted clear and cool, and Tyr drank deeply, somewhat surprised by how thirsty he was. After a moment, Aaja pulled the water back. "You drinking too fast Bud." He said, "You gotta slow down. You'll get yourself sick like that, given the shape you're in."

"I'm fine." Tyr said, and his voice was harsh enough to make both Aaja and himself wince.

"You sure don't sound like it." Aaja retorted, and then, after a moment said, "You're in shock, Odinson."

"Nonsense." Tyr dismissed the comment as if it were a bothersome fly. "I don't have time to be in shock."

"This coming from the man who passed out in a vet's clinic." Aaja sent him a flat look. Tyr held his silence. "Look, I know you're worried 'bout your girl, but you need help too. How long you been traveling with a busted hand? How long you been out in the elements? I've been watching you closely, and I hate to say it, but you got a shake, man. You're trembling like a wet cub in the snow, and you haven't had yourself checked out at all."

Tyr frowned. "While I appreciate your concern, I'd rather you saved it for your sister." He growled. "I'll worry about myself when I'm certain Urd is stable. Until then, I'll be fine."

Aaja took a seat beside him and leaned back into the plastic backing. "By the Great Sea, you're a stubborn mule." He muttered. "I've worked with donkeys that are more agreeable than you."

"I prefer the idea of having one's priorities sorted." Tyr retorted, sucking in a long breath and releasing it slowly. "Urd is my top priority right now, and once I know she's okay, I'll look into my own wounds."

"You won't be helping her or anybody if you don't look after yourself too, you know." Aaja sent him a sidelong glance.

Tyr returned it with a glare of his own. "I believe," He said slowly, "That _you_ should be prioritizing your sister's well-being rather than my own."

Aaja looked at him with a start, then gave the god a pensive frown. "And there you go talking about stuff you don't understand again." He retorted.

"Then explain it to me." Tyr replied, "I admit that my understanding of your people and your culture is limited. So educate me. _Make_ me understand, so that if nothing else I can stop wondering why a man like you would leave his sister in the back seat of his truck while he lets a stranger and his daughter receive treatment from a man touched with the Healing Spark."

Aaja scowled then, and it was a dark and angry look that Tyr had never seen worn by the man before. Just for a moment, the soft, friendly man who'd met Tyr in the middle of a snowbank with his daughter and a dying Valkyrie was gone, replaced by a perfect stranger that made Tyr's hackles rise. "And just why should I bother with a man like you? " He asked. "You introduced yourself to me as Daitenkaicho Tyr. _Daitenkaicho_. Ruler of Gods. Ruler of _Asgard_ , the very land that has for centuries suppressed our people, where we are treated as deviants and rebels in border skirmishes rather than what we are: The Native people just trying to live out our lives in the borderlands you _and_ Jotenheim refuse to acknowledge as separate territory." He hawked and almost spat, then seemed to remember his surroundings and thought better of it. "If you do not listen to us as one voice crying out for recognition, what hope would you have of listening to us as individual voices speaking on our culture and our traditions?" The man's watery eyes held a depth of hardness to them. "What hope would you have of realizing that I am not worried about my sister because I am not trying to _save_ her? When you already hold the misconception that my sister, who has given her life to you foreigners, needs to be cared for, needs to be nursed back to health in a broken shell of a body that has a fucking _hole_ the size of my fist in it?"

The Spirit scowled, and there was something painful in the act that made Tyr look away. "You are a people who glorify death and battle and conquest. Who believe the best death granted is the one found on a battlefield rather surrounded by your tribe where they can see your soul off to the next incarnation. Now you question why I spend no time caring for my sister, who taught me how to skin a seal and how to survive a blizzard while alone on the Tundra? Well then listen closely, _Daitenkaicho_. Keep your ears open and your mouth shut, and I will tell you."

The man gritted his teeth, and a moment of painful emotion overwhelmed his face. "Tanarak is dead, Odinson."

A sensation like ice punched him in the gut, and Tyr felt the color drain from his face. "She's _what_?"

"She was already dead by the time I met you." Aaja's voice had fallen into a quiet whisper. "And so now I am taking my elder sister home to be buried with the proper funeral rites, so that her soul may be free to reincarnate and join us again.

"How…?" Tyr's swallowed. His mouth felt suddenly too dry.

"How did she die or how did you not realize she had already departed?" Aaja demanded, and his voice was loud enough to cause the secretary behind the desk-the same one who'd voiced her concerns over Tyr, to look over at the two of them in concern. The spirit winced reflexively and lowered his voice. "You already know how Tanarak died: the hole in her chest, the exposure, the lack of proper medical care…roll some dice, pick a number, no matter what you choose the results are the same. And as for how _you_ didn't realize it…" Here the man paused, taking a long breath before continuing. "You were both in too much shock to realize it. At least, that's what I want to believe."

Tyr drew in a slow, calming breath. "I made a promise to her." He whispered. "I asked her where she wanted to die. I was trying to bring her back to you." He grimaced. "Yggdrasil, when Urd finds out… she fought so hard to keep Lind… to keep _Tanarak_ alive. This will-" He stopped himself, then turned to look at Aaja. "Forgive me, Aaja. Had I been a more capable man, perhaps I would have been able to keep her alive."

"Don't apologize." Aaja replied, looking at Tyr with an expression which alluded the god. "And…perhaps I was too harsh with you. You personally brought one of Chugach's children back to the homeland at great risk not only to yourself but to your daughter as well." He sighed, and looked away. "Your actions were sincere, though you no doubt knew nothing behind the intent of the action."

"I asked her where she wanted to die." Tyr whispered. "When I met her, she was already in death's shadow."

"And she said Chugach."

"Yes."

Aaja nodded, unsurprised. "Then know that you completed her dying wish. She didn't pass in Canada. I've wrapped her to keep her warm and safe, and when we return to Chugach the rest of our tribe will gather her and send her off. The _Yakone_ is waiting to bear her away, and with her passing you will speak with _Aja_ Sedna and the other Elders."

Tyr nodded, flexing the fingers that remained in his left hand. It hurt, but the pain kept him grounded, kept his mind from floating off in the wake of this new information.

Finally, he asked, "May I tell you a secret?"

Aaja furrowed his brows in confusion. "If you wish."

"I do." Tyr replied. "Especially after you—now that Tanarak has passed." He fell silent for a moment, staring out across the linoleum tiles that made up the clinic's floors. Tiny floral patterns had been painted onto the individual tiles, which were now faded with age and scraped away in some areas from the abuse of clawed paws or cloven hooves reluctant to visit the vet. "I have the Sight." Tyr confessed. "It is an ability that allows me to see a great many things. Futures that may be realized or may never be realized. Events which could happen today or in a thousand years or never at all."

"One time, as I was going about my business, the Sight enveloped me without any warning in a rift tide of possibility, and when I say that, I need you to understand that the images I saw were not of one possible future, not two possible futures, or three, or five, or ten or even twenty. When the rift tide enveloped me that day, I saw _billions_ of possible futures, and it terrified me, Aaja. The consequences of seeing _ten_ at a time is enough to make an untrained god mad, and here this rift tide came to me without my summoning and with no preparation on my part. I feared drowning in the depths, unable to return to my own mind and sanity. But I feared greater the future possibilities which so attempted to drown me, for in each and every one, two characters remained constant to me: a serpent of thunder and lightning and a bear of an icy tundra."

"In every vision that struck me, the serpent and the bear met. In every version, they battled. In every image, they warred with a rage so deep that it rattled the foundation of Midgard. Sometimes, the serpent came out victorious, the bear dead from the poison in its fangs. Other times, the bear came out as victor, the serpent torn to pieces at its feet. More often then not though, there was no victor, for when they dueled the serpent would bite the bear and poison it, and the bear would tear it to shreds before the poison succeeded in killing it." Tyr glanced at his companion, unsurprised to find Aaja listening with close intent, his face grave and thoughtful.

"When it finally released me, I realized the Sight had deemed it fit to warn me about a future that was impossible to prevent, for in all of those close kept possibilities not once did the Tundra Bear not meet the Storm serpent. Not once did your sister not meet my daughter, and become rivals. Enemies even. And so I took it upon myself to watch for it, to search for anyone who interacted with my daughter and might fit the description of the Tundra Bear I began to worry over." He snorted. "Yet in my efforts at foresight, I neglected to think of Valkyries. Valkyries, of whom close to half are made up of foreign gods and spirits searching for Asgardian citizenship. Valkyries, who as a means of tricking our Niflheimian enemies came up with the strategy of sharing names, so that at any time there might be five 'Linds' or twenty 'Rotas' or sixteen 'Skulds', the last of which my youngest daughter shares, a name bestowed by luck and out of honor for a Valkyrie who once sacrificed her life for me when I still served. I neglected to see the Tundra Bear who had been assigned to monitor my daughter's attempts at defying her younger sister's non-contact order, for at the time I had suspected my middle coerced by demons but was unable to prove it. I had need back then of a Valkyrie who would not be taken from her standard duties to watch my little storm serpent because it was my belief that, if anyone would find a way to Belldandy, it was Urd. I had spoken to Lind's… Tanarak's leadership, and had learned that she was still recovering from a trauma that left her unfit for deployments or traditional Valkyrie duties."

"Yet in my own foolishness… in my own concern over Belldandy, in my own confidence in the capability of this lone Valkyrie, I took it all at face value. I did no further research, and indeed, _indeed_ , to a certain extent, dehumanized the entire situation in my mind, as would any general setting about his pawns to conquer a kingdom and knowing that some would be sacrificed for the greater good. My concern was saved for my middle daughter and seeing to her freedom, while in the process arranging for the discovery of what I feared most: demon influence that had led to the imprisonment of one of my own children."

Tyr sighed, glaring down at the tile with heated blue eyes. "In my own idiocy, I arranged the very meeting I had previously fought so hard to prevent."

Aaja remained silent for a long time, his expression aa careful neutral as he digested the god's words. Finally he said, "Tanarak and your daughter were not enemies, though."

"No," Tyr agreed, "They are…were not." Another moment of thoughtful silence was shared between the two, and then Tyr sighed, looking down at his bandaged left hand and the stump of his right in disdain. Licking his lips, he continued.

"In all the visions I saw of Urd and Tanarak's meeting…every millions of billions of visions…the serpent killing the bear, the bear killing the serpent, them both falling to each other… in all of my time in that rift tide of madness, for I assure you, seeing your own daughter die time and time again in so many ways will drive any father insane… in all those instances, there were but four times in which the outcome was different. _Four_ times in billions: One where the two never met. One where they met but held no exchanges. One where they quarreled but became neither rivals nor enemies. And one lone, lone vision where they found not hatred in their differences but camaraderie instead."

"One vision out of billions, Aaja. Never in my life would I have thought that the odds would so…perfectly go against the design of fate. One instant, one chance, and what it led to was the defeat of an Ultimate Destruction Program that would have destroyed Midgard. Would have destroyed Canada, and this very clinic that even now is treating my daughter, whom I fear still suffers from the wounds of not only that battle, but the one that awaited her upon her return to Asgard."

"And so I want you to know, Aaja, that while I may not have listened to the One Voice of your people before…while past Daitenkaichos may have suppressed your people and denied your claim to a land you have held for so long, that out of respect for this strange and dare I say miraculous friendship born between my daughter and your sister, I am willing to listen."

Aaja was silent for a long moment, his face scrunched up in a scowl as he considered Tyr's words. Tyr's gaze never left the young man's face, though he could hear Hafez's voice drawing near as the mortal approached them. He watched Aaja's brow furrow, his gaze long and distant before coming to an abrupt focus as Hafez approached. A part of Tyr, the Father, not the Diplomat, was desperate to turn and see the mortal, impatient to learn his daughter's status.

Yet Tyr was nothing if not disciplined, and though Hafez approached he made no rush to interrupt to two otherworldly entities, and so Tyr maintained his attention on Aaja. He watched as the spirit furrowed his brow, pursed his lips, scrunched his nose before finally closing his eye with a resigned sigh. "You say you will listen?" The man asked, "Then prove it to me. Hafez, who I see as a close and dear personal friend to me, stands beside you. Let him look at your hand."

It was only now that Tyr acknowledged the mortal who'd come to wait patiently beside him, moved just enough behind and away from Try so as to give the god and spirit a bit of privacy without interrupting them. The look on the poor man's face was both surprised and objective, and before Tyr had the chance to voice his mind Hafez already began protesting, "No… no no _no!"_ The man cried. "I am not a doctor, I am a vet! I cannot treat such injuries!"

"You are a doctor of animals." Aaja replied, "And more importantly, a doctor of spirits. You can treat Odinson."

Tyr ignored him. "How is Urd?"

The man grimaced, sending a glare to Aaja before looking back at Tyr. "I have disinfected her wounds and stitched them up." He said, "There is a bad infection in two of the wounds-the bites-and so I have put her on antibiotics to clear it up." He hesitated a moment, looked at Aaja, and then back at Tyr. "I have used antibiotics on _jinn_ before and have never had any issues. It is my hope that this time will be no different."

"Hafez can apply medicines from this physical plane and apply them to the spiritual plane." Aaja explained.

"I do not know how I do it." Hafez said.

"He doesn't know how he does it." Aaja echoed.

"Continue." Tyr said.

"I did some additional examinations on her as well and have found that she is worryingly malnourished." Hafez continued, "I fear it may be the reason the infection from the bites took so easily. What has her diet been?"

"Snow." Tyr replied with a shrug cast more in anger rather than indifference. "I was unable to get her to eat any of the food offered to us on our journey."

"And what kind of food was this, if I may pry?"

Tyr pursed his lips. "Jerky mostly." He said. "Seal, caribou-" He looked over at Aaja, "Sorry," Aaja waved him off, "cooked fish, deer, moose…"

"And these were whole animals?"

"No. They were mostly strips of meat. A roasted salmon, on one occasion."

Hafez hummed under his breath, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "Nothing whole though." He stated.

"Nothing whole." Tyr agreed. "Except the fish, which Urd on principle refuses to eat. Fish are not a part of her diet."

"Yes, yes, it is only the rare snake that feasts on fish." Hafez agreed, "And have you considered this aspect? That she is…that she may have diet constraints like that of a snake, as her appearance is one of a serpent?"

"Diet constraints." Tyr stared at Hafez as if he'd grown another head.

Hafez raised his hands. "I mean no offense, Abn'Awdyn," He said, "I will be the first to admit to you that my knowledge in all of this is rudimentary, at best."

Tyr didn't hear him. "Diet constraints." Something about that term sent out a spark of recognition deep within his brain. "Diet constraints." Urd was not allowed to have fish due to her connection to Niflheim. Yet there was more. Due to…Yggdrasil, what had it been. Some past event, something that had led her and Skuld to-

All at once the man grimaced. "Ah." He said. "I remember now. Urd stopped eating meat three years ago."

"Stopped eating…" Hafez stared at Tyr in open disbelief. Even Aaja was staring at him in confusion. "She is a serpent though." The mortal continued. "Why would she…"

"She would not elaborate." Tyr replied. "Not her or her youngest sister, Skuld, either. It was as if one day they awakened repulsed by the thought of meat."

"And there was no explanation." Hafez prompted, "Nothing to explain… she was not bitten by say, a tick, or had fallen sick from bad meat or…anything?"

Here Tyr paused, looking at Hafez with fresh consideration. "She had fallen ill." He said. "Gravely ill; the last time I saw a person so ill they were on their death bed. She recovered eventually, but afterwards…she would not touch any meat." The god pursed his lips. "She and Skuld both…" He trailed off, turning the thought over and over in his mind. Skuld had shown none of the same symptoms as Urd throughout the time Urd had been ill, and then, one day they had both announced that-

"Will she eat anything else? Eggs at least?" Hafez pressed.

"Eggs." He abandoned his trail of thought, and then looked at Hafez in surprise. "Yes, Urd will eat eggs. It has always been a favored food of hers."

Hafez pursed his lips. "So she once ate meat but not will not… when she is stronger, I recommend providing her eggs as a meal. I have a drip attached to her right now to replace the nutrients and calories she lacks, but if you will allow me an observation, I do not believe you wish your child to stay here overnight."

"You would be correct." Said Tyr.

"I can stop at the grocery here in town and pick up a half-dozen eggs." Aaja spoke up. "There's one a five minute walk from here. I can go and grab some while you give the pups their shots or," He directed an imploring glare at both Tyr and Hafez, "while you take a look at Odinson's hand."

"You will not let up on this, will you, Son of a Boot?" Hafez asked.

"You heal Spirits." Aaja replied, "or Djinn, if that's your term. Odinson here is just as much one as I am or the girl you worked on or the pups you still need to give shots to." Hafez sighed, and Aaja looked at Tyr, "Your girl is stable now, right?" He said. "You heard it from the good doctor here yourself-all cleaned up, stitched up, and wrapped up. She's safe now, got some antibiotics in her, and ought to be on the road to recovery now. You don't have any excuses now, so how about showing Hafez the damage to your hand?"

Tyr and Hafez glowered at Aaja for a long moment. The man, apparently immune to glares from both mortals and gods, did nothing outside of smile. It was Hafez who gave in first. "If you would, please come with me, Abn'Awdyn." He said, "I will show you your child, and then I will look at your hand." Under his breath, more to himself rather than Tyr, the veterinarian muttered, "He will need stitches if he lost a finger… I do not have any painkillers suitable for a man… would it be wise to give a _jinn_ disguised as a man painkillers designed for animals?" The man began to walk towards the back of the clinic, still muttering to himself. Tyr, with a final glance at Aaja, looked down at his left hand, stood, and followed after the vet.

The next hour would be a painful one for the Daitenkaicho.


End file.
